Copyright: 1994 by Donald J. Norton


Cribbage for Windows Help Contents

The Contents lists Help Topics available for Cribbage for Windows.

To learn how to use Help, press F1 or choose How to Use Help from the Help menu.

History

How To Play

Rules

Score History

Customizing Sound Effects

Contacting the Author/Registering


Score History

Individual players can maintain a personalized score database.  This is done by selecting Player Name from  the Options menu and entering your name.  When games are won or lost, the information is stored for each individual player.  These statistics can be displayed by selecting Statistics from the Options menu.  They can also be re-initialized from here.  Changing the Computer Name has no affect on the scoring data.  There is no provision built in to prevent the changing of the player name after a game begins, but cheating doesn't really become us, now does it?


Contacting the author
Contacting the Author(s) / Registering

Cribbage was written by Don Norton using Visual Basic V3.0 and QCard.dll V2.0.  The QCard run-time library is included in the distribution.  The author can be contacted via the internet at donn@sequent.com.

QCard.dll was written by Stephen Murphy.  This dll provides all the graphics functions for the playing cards as well as manipulation and information functionality about the cards.

Registering Cribbage for Windows doesn't cost anything (although it doesn't get you much either).  However, I enjoy getting feedback from the user community, so drop me a line via the internet and make my day.  Complain about some missing feature or praise my work - either way I'll appreciate it.  If you're really ambitious, send me a postcard of your city to:

Don Norton

16831 NW Patrick Ln

Portland, OR  97229-1883


The History of Cribbage
History of Cribbage

Cribbage is believed to have been invented and christened by the English poet, Sir John Suckling, who lived 1609-1642.  Some of it's features were taken from an older game, Noddy, of which there is little known.  Early colonists brought Cribbage to America, where it flourishes to this day.  It is played with a regular 52-card deck by two, three, or four players, two being the usual number.


Customizing Sound Effects

The sound effects in the game can easily be changed by replacing the .wav files in the working directory of the game files.  You can record you own sound files and replace all or just the ones you want.  The files should be self-explanatory from the filename, but if you aren't sure, open the .wav files with the sound recorder or media player utility that cames with Windows 3.1.


Wave files are recorded sound files playable by the Windows multimedia subsystem.


How to play Cribbage
How To Play

The mechanics of playing Cribbage for Windows are outlined below.

Starting a new game:

Select New from the Game menu or press F2.

Cutting for the deal:

Click the mouse on the deck of cards to cut for the deal.

Shuffling/Dealing:

Click the mouse on the deck of cards to shuffle and deal a new hand.

Discarding to the Crib:

Click the mouse on the cards in you hand that you wish to discard to the crib.

Retrieving cards from the Crib:

Until you confirm your discards, you can change you discard by clicking the mouse on the crib.  The top crib card will be returned to your hand.  Another click will bring back the next card.  Then you can discard different cards if you wish.

Confirming the discard:

Click the mouse anywhere on the playing field (except the Crib).  The computer will then discard and the starter will be turned up.

Playing the cards:

Play each card by clicking on the card.  Once a card has been played, it can't be taken back into the hand.

Scoring the hands:

After the last card is played, the cards are returned to their respective hands and scored in appropriate order.


The rules of Cribbage
Rules

Players

Cards

The Deal

The Crib

The Starter

The Cribbage Board

The Play

Scoring in Play

Showing

Winning


Players
Players:

Two (one of which will be the computer).


The Cards
Cards:

A regular pack of 52.  The cards rank King (high) to Ace (low).  The suits play little part in the game; the cards are used primarily as numbers.  Each face card has a value of 10, with each other card having face value.  Face cards and tens are called "tenth" cards.


Dealing
The Deal:

Each player receives six cards, dealt one at a time.


The Crib
The Crib:

From his hand, each player selects two cards, and the four cards are placed down near the dealer.  They form the crib, an extra hand that belongs to the dealer.  Cards are discarded from the player's hand by clicking the mouse on the card to be discarded.  The card is then moved to the crib.  If you change your mind and want to pull a card back from the crib, you can click on the crib or select Undo from the Game menu.

After discarding to the crib, the player confirms this with another click of the mouse (anywhere).  The computer will discard to the crib and the starter card will be turned up.


The Starter Card
The Starter Card:

After the crib is laid away, the non-dealer cuts the rest of the deck, and the dealer turns up the top card of the lower portion.  This card is called the starter.  If it is a jack, the dealer pegs (scores) 2 points.


The Cribbage Board
The Cribbage Board:

Scores accrue so rapidly that a special scoring device is used, a Cribbage board.  The board is an oblong panel having four rows of 30 holes each, plus some extra game holes at one end.  In traditional cribbage games, each player has two pegs, which are used to mark scores by jumping the rear peg ahead of the front peg the appropriate number of points.  We'll be using just one peg in the computerized version.  The pegs are marched away from the head of the board (the end with the game holes) along an outer row of holes, then back along the inner row.  The game is played twice around the rows for a total of 121 points.


The Play
The Play:

In playing his cards, each player retains possession of them, merely exposing them face up in a pile in front of himself.  Click the mouse on the desired card to play it.

The nondealer begins by playing any card.  The dealer then plays a card and the sum of the cards is accumulated.  Play continues alternately, the new total being shown after each play, until the player in turn is unable to play without carrying the total over thirty-one (31).  The other player then pegs a point for a go; then the player who called the go leads again for a new series of plays.  The count begins again at zero, and again the total must not exceed thirty-one.

After a go is reached, the other must play additional cards if he can do so without exceeding thirty-one.  Thus, the same player may play two or three times in succession.  For making exactly thirty-one, the player pegs 2; for a go at less than 31, he pegs 1.  Playing the last card of all (of the eight cards in play) counts 1 for last card, or 2 if it makes thirty-one.


Scoring the hand
Scoring in Play:

Other points may be scored in play besides the go's.  These are as follows:

Fifteen:	For playing a card that makes the count fifteen, peg two.

Pairs:	For playing a card of the same rank as that just played, peg two.  (Pairing goes by rank, e.g., a king with a king, not with a queen, even though both have a point value of 10.)  For playing the third card of the same rank consecutively, peg six, and for playing the fourth, peg twelve.

Runs:	For playing a card that is in sequence of rank with two or more played just previously, peg the number of cards in the run (sequence).  For example, if the cards played are 4, 6, 5, the last player (who played the 5) pegs 3 for the run of three cards.  If these were the first cards to be played in a series, the count would total 15, and he would peg 2 more.  To score a run, the cards need not be played in sequential order, so long as no foreign cards intervene.  For example, if the cards played are 4, K, 6, 5, there is no run.  A run may not span a series (if a go is called or 31 is reached in the middle of a run, no points are scored).


Showing the hand
Showing:

By showing, a player counts and scores the points in his hand.  The hands are counted in strict order: the non-dealer's hand, the dealers's hand, and then the crib.  The starter card is treated as a fifth card belonging to each of the three hands.  The combinations that score are as follows:

Fifteen:	For each combination of cards that total fifteen, score two.  "Combination" here is meant in the strict sense.  Thus a hand (with starter) of 9, 8, 7, 7, 6 has three combinations of fifteen: 9 and 6, 8 with one 7, and 8 with the other 7.  A hand of J, 5, 5, 5, 5 has no less than eight combinations of fifteen:  four of J and 5, four of three 5's.  (This hand, when the J also scores his nobs, makes 29, the largest possible score.)

Pairs:	For a pair, score two; for three of a kind (called pair royal or "proil"), score six; for four of a kind (double pair royal), score twelve.

Runs:	For each combination that makes a run of three or more, peg the number of cards in the run.  In the hand 9, 8, 7, 7, 6 there are 8 points for two runs of four, using the 7's in turn.

Flush:	For four cards in hand (excluding the starter) of the same suit, score 4, or 5 if the starter is also the same suit.  For crib and starter all of the same suit, score 5.  (There is no score for a four-card flush in the crib.)

His Nobs	For a jack in hand, of the same suit as the starter, score one.  The jack scored when the starter is drawn is called his heels.

Each hand is displayed in the listbox with the number of points it contains.


Winning the game
Winning:

When a player pegs into the game hole that gives him 121 points, he wins the game, and nothing more is scored by the other player.  If the loser has not passed the top corner (the 90-point mark), he is lurched or skunked and loses a double game.  If the loser has not passed the halfway mark, he loses a triple game.