Contents
 A dice strategy game

Version 2.5  June 1994

Overview	What this program is all about.

Playing Yacht-Z	How to play the game.

Strategy	Tips on winning.

Registration	How to register this program with the author.

Registration Form	See and print the registration form.

History	How Yacht-Z has grown over the years.

Other Products	View a list of other products available.


Overview

Yacht-Z is a version of the classic dice game.  Now, in addition to triple scoring, single scoring is added for quicker, simpler games.  Due to popular request, up to four players can now play at one time.  A three dimensional look has been given to all windows and dialogs.

The basic premise of the game is to roll five dice up to three times to achieve the highest score using the standard scoring grid.  The specifics of scoring will be explained in the text that follows.  If you are familiar with the classic game, then you already know how to play.


Playing
Playing Yacht-Z

When you open Yacht-Z, you will be prompted to start a game.  If you choose yes, two windows will be shown.  They are the Dice window and a Scorecard. At this point a game is ready to be played.  Many aspects of the game play can be setup from the Options menu.  The selections available are described as follows:

Show Hints: toggle the hints display (described below).

Single Yacht-Z: toggle the game type between single and triple mode.  In triple mode, there are three columns to place scores into.  The example below describes this type of game.  Single mode has only one column of scores.

Hide Other Cards: If this item is checked, only the current scorecard will be displayed.  The others will be hidden until they become current.

No. of Players: choosing this selection will bring up a dialog box allowing the user to set the number of players (1-4) that will be playing.

Change Luck: This menu item is provided for those times when things just don't seem to be going your way.  If you register and ask, I will tell you how it works (however, it may be just a placebo!).

Some of the selections in the Options menu can be accessed while a game is being played.  The No. of Players and Single Yacht-Z items are grayed out since they would change the format of any game in progress.

Open the File menu and select New Game.  The game windows are opened and drawn.  These windows are:

Dice: The five dice are shown and controlled here.  To roll them press the Begin button.  Dice will roll when their 'backs' are shown (as is the case before the first roll) or when one or more dice are selected.  After the third roll, the Begin button indicates Done.  Below the control button are the scores for all players.  This is helpful when any of the scorecards are obscured by others.

Scorecard: All scoring is done here.  Scoring is described in the following section.

Example Game

Probably the best way to describe how to play Yacht-Z is to provide a walk-thru.  Once all three windows are showing, press the Begin button in the Dice window.  If the dice tumble too slowly for you, open the File menu and select the Show Roll item.  This will cause the dice to rapidly update.  Open this menu again and assure that the Show Hints item is checked.  When a menu item is checked, it means that the function referred to is enabled.  If there is no check shown, the function is disabled.

The condition of the Scorecard after a roll depends on the values on the dice.  Since we turned on Show Hints, the scorecard will show in black the items which will yield points if selected.  All others will be disabled (shown in gray).  You may place a score in any item, but if the combination of the dice does not match, you will receive zero points in that box.  If Show Hints is not enabled, all scoring categories will be shown in black throughout the game.

However, since this was the first roll, there is no reason to select a scoring category quite yet.  You may select on any roll, but after the third roll you MUST select a scoring category (even if it is invalid).

To initiate a roll after the first roll, select which dice will be rolled again by clicking on them with the mouse pointer and pressing the Begin button.  If you make a mistake selecting a die, it can be corrected by clicking on it once again, which results in turning the selection off.  Try this by clicking twice on a die.

When you have selected a scoring category, the dice faces are replaced by the diceback design and the Undo! menu item becomes enabled for the first time.  This allows you to take back the scoring placement just made.  If you press it, the score is removed and the dice faces are restored.  You are now in the same position as before the scoring selection was made.  If you have another roll left you can highlight dice and roll again, or place the score in a different category.

When playing triple Yacht-Z, the scoring buttons are arranged in three columns.  This is the essence of the triple scoring method.  The total of the left most column is multiplied by one, the second column is multiplied by two and the third column is multiplied by three.  The totals of all three columns is combined to make up the Grand Total, which is your final score.  In single Yacht-Z, there is no score multiplying done, and there are fewer buttons to press, which results in a quicker game.

The Scorecard is divided into four sections:  The top section comprises the matched value scoring.  If you have two fours showing on the dice and select a button on the Fours row, you would score eight (8) points on that button.  Only the dice matching the rows type are totaled in the first section.  The second section is the total area for the Upper section.  The total of each column is shown in the Total row.  If this value is 63 or greater, a bonus of 35 points is awarded and shown on the Bonus row.  The last row of the second section shows the Upper section total and is made up of the Total and Bonus rows.

The lower section begins with a portion showing scoring categories based on special sequences or combinations using different scoring methods:

Three of a Kind: If 3 or more of the dice match, the total of all dice is entered.

Four of a Kind: If 4 or more of the dice match, the total of all dice is entered.

Full House: If 3 of one face and 2 of another are shown on the dice, then 25 points is awarded.

Small Straight: If 4 consecutive values ( i.e. 1,2,3,4 ) are shown then, 30 points is awarded.

Large Straight: If 5 consecutive values ( i.e. 1,2,3,4,5 ) are shown then, 40 points is awarded.

Yacht-Z: If all dice are of the same value, 50 points is entered into the selected button.  If you are fortunate enough to get more than three Yacht-Z's, additional five-of-a-kind combinations will be recorded in the Yacht-Z Bonus category (worth 100 points), starting in the leftmost column.  You must place the score into a valid category to receive this bonus (i.e. Four of a Kind).  Note that this only occurs when playing triple Yacht-Z.

Chance: The total of all dice is entered.  This is useful if the values of the dice are high, but are not applicable on any other button.  Some versions of the game require you to a play if possible and only use the Chance button as a last resort.  Yacht-Z does not impose this restriction ( where's the fun in that? ).  The Chance button can be used at any time.

The fourth section of the Scorecard is where your total score is computed.  The exact layout of this section is determined by the type of game you are playing.  If you are playing Single Yacht-Z, then only two totals are shown here: the Lower Section Total and the Combined Total, which is your final score.  For a Triple Yacht-Z game, there are additional portions of this section.  The Lower Section Total is added to the Yacht-Z Bonus to give you a Combined Total.  Then this total is multiplied by the column it is located in to yield a Grand Total, which is your final score.  This sounds more complex than it is.  Try playing and you'll see how it works.

Game play continues until all playable buttons have a score in them.  At this point the 'Game Over' dialog will appear.  If a Combined Total (Grand Total in triple scoring) is among the ten highest, that player will be prompted for their name.  This will be placed in the High Score list with the date and score, in it's appropriate position.  To play again, select New Game from the File menu.

Notice that it is possible to save a game in progress by selecting the Save Game item from the File menu.  Any game which is saved can be restored at a later time by selecting the Load Game item from this same menu.

High Scores: The ten best single and triple scores are kept on disk along with the player's name and the date the game was played.  These scores are shown in the drop down menu labeled High Scores.


Strategy

There are as many strategies to playing Yacht-Z as there are players.  Every one in the beta-test of Yacht-Z developed their own methods to reaching the highest score possible.  All were correct.  There are, however, several indisputable guidelines to follow:

-  When in doubt, always go for a Yacht-Z!

- Fill in the third column with your best scores first.

- Use combinations in Upper section first to get Upper Bonus.


Registration

Yacht-Z  is Copyright 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994 by Bob Dolan, All rights reserved.

Yacht-Z is distributed as shareware.  This means that if you regularly use the product and benefit from it, you should register with the author (address below).  The software you now have is not crippled in any way.  This indicates a basic trust of the shareware concept by myself and other shareware authors who provide useful products with the hope of some type of return for their efforts.

Please print the registration form and fill in the requested information.

You may contact me electronically in the following ways:

GEnie: DOLAN

Compuserve: 71075,3256

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A big THANK YOU! to all of you who have taken the time to register Yacht-Z with me.  You now own this version as well and all future versions of Yacht-Z.  I appreciate your letters very much.

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Distribution

If you distribute Yacht-Z   to friends, associates, or to a computer bulletin board system (BBS),  you may only distribute the compressed file including the copyright and disclaimer.

Disclaimer

The Copyright Owner hereby disclaims all warranties relating to this software, whether express or implied, including without limitation any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. The Copyright Owner will not be liable for any special, incidental, consequential, indirect or similar damages due to loss of data or any other reason, even if The Copyright owner or an agent of The Copyright Owner has been advised of the possibility of such damages.  In no event shall The Copyright Owner's liability for any damages ever exceed the price paid for the license to use the software, regardless of the form of the claim. The person using the software bears all risk as to the quality and performance of the software.


History
Update History

Version 2.5 -- June 1994

Fixed another reported bug regarding an error in handling Yacht-Z bonus scoring.  The Borland 3D look is replaced with the Microsoft CTL3D look which is smaller and better, I think.  Window size and position is saved, as is the position of the dice window and all scorecards.  The program now prompts to start a new game when the program is first run now.  Previously, it would just start a game and this was confusing to some players.  Scorecard focus is now handled better.  Players cards that are not active have all text in them grayed out.  The scorecards are now smaller,  the buttons are bigger, and overall the design is improved.

Version 2.22 -- September 1993

Fixed a reported bug regarding an error in handling Yacht-Z bonus scoring.  A zero was being placed in the last column and all further bonuses were not scored. (This is really quite an impressive user catch.  I've never had more than 2 Yacht-Z's in one game and needed to use a special gadget to cheat the game in order to re-create the bug!)

Version 2.21 -- June 1993

Fixed a reported bug where the last player to play was always shown as the winner in the playing card caption.  This was noticeable only in multi-player games.

Version 2.20 -- May 1993

When the program starts, a new game is ready to play immediately.

P.O. Box is added to my address.

Version 2.10 -- March 20, 1993

Fix bug that did not allow Yacht-Z Bonus to be awarded (a rare event!)

Added online Help system, which you are now reading. Removed WRI file.

Version 2.00 -- October 31, 1992

Added multi-player capability.

Added Single scoring capability.

Added Hide Other Cards menu item.

Added Change Luck selection.

Removed Show Roll feature.

Removed Set Names dialog.  Names are taken after games.

Implemented COMMDLG.DLL for Load/Save game dialogs.

Implemented Borland BWCC.DLL for custom controls in dialogs.

Version 1.30 -- October 31, 1991

Added Load Game and Save game menu items to File Menu.  Some code optimization.

Version 1.20 - 1.28 -- Unreleased versions

Version 1.10 -- June 4, 1991

Moved High Score handling into a new menu item.  Eliminated the High Score window.  This made the main window requirements smaller, so its width has been reduced to 60% of the screen.  Hopefully any high score handling bugs are gone with this release.

Undo handling is now complete.  All scores are updated at Undo time rather then when the score handler gets around to it.  Undo handling is much more reliable.

The dice selection handling has been improved.  They were a bit sticky, and are now less annoying to use.

The pushbutton in the Dice window is now instructional.  It shows the current turn, as well as Begin and Done at the appropriate times.

There has been some interest in a 2 player version of Yacht-Z.  If this gets substantial, I will add that capability.  The only problem is that it takes up a lot of the screen.

Version 1.01 -- December 14, 1990

Ooops! A late bug report concerning High score handling caused this fix.  In addition child windows are not closeable using the F4 key now.  This caused some other obscure problems, which are now avoided.


Regform
Registration Form

To print this registration form, open the File menu and select Print Topic.

Please register me as a satisfied user of Yacht-Z (ver 2.5):

Mail to:

Bob Dolan

P.O. Box 16514

Rochester, New York 14616-0514

Please register me as a satisfied user of Yacht-Z  (ver 2.5):

Please enclose $15 in US funds.  Make checks or money orders out to Bob Dolan.

Your registration entitles you to receive a disk containing the latest version of  Yacht-Z.  In addition, this disk will include evaluation copies of all of my other products.  These will be the latest versions available, including programs that were not available when this was written.  The disk will be a 1.4Mb  3.5 inch floppy unless you request otherwise.  All files will be in ZIP 2.0 format unless you request otherwise.

For orders from outside of the U.S., please add $3 to cover additional postage.

Name:_____________________________________________________

Address:___________________________________________________

City:______________________State:_______Zip:__________________

Phone(optional):_____________________________________________

GEnie/CompuServe/Internet mail address:__________________________

Where did you get this program (include address or phone number if

possible)?__________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________

Comments:_________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________


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