+----------------------------------+ | WELCOME TO BLACKJACK! | | = YOUR KEY TO WINNING PLAY = | +----------------------------------+ Please be sure that you received all of the files listed in PACKING.LST. If any files are missing, or if you encounter problems with your diskette PLEASE CONTACT THE COMPANY WHERE YOU OBTAINED THE DISKETTE. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ If this does not resolve the problem send notification stating where you obtained BlackJack! to: Glencoe Computing Donald L. Granger 2025 Wakefield Lake Glencoe, MO 63038-1210 If you received this program on a CD-ROM you must first copy all of the files to your hard disk. INSTALLATION ~~~~~~~~~~~~ The installation procedure for BlackJack! is quite simple. You will need about 360K of available disk space on the hard drive on which you plan to install BlackJack! BlackJack! can be run directly from diskettes, but hard disk is better. BlackJack! will not run directly from CD-ROM. means press the Enter key First create a directory on your hard disk example: MD BJ Next switch to that directory example: CD \BJ Copy the files from the diskette example: COPY A:*.* (substitute your source drive's letter for A: as needed) YOU'RE READY TO GO To run the program simply type BJ from the DOS prompt. (remember to make sure you are in the BJ directory first) To print the documentation type PRINTBJ at the DOS prompt. I hope you enjoy the program. COMPATIBILITY NOTES - Hardware BlackJack! requires EGA, VGA or Hercules Compatible graphics. BlackJack! will not work with CGA video. BlackJack! runs from either floppy or hard disks. - Windows 3.x BlackJack! should run without problems as a DOS application under Windows 3.x. It has been tested on 386 & 486 systems where the only side effect has been slower operation. The following files are provided for Windows support: BJ_386.PIF - For use with Windows 386 enhanced mode BJ_STD.PIF - For use with Windows standard mode BJ.ICO - An icon for BlackJack! The PIF files assume that BlackJack! is installed on the C: drive and is located in a directory named BJ. You can use PIF EDIT (supplied with Windows) to modify the path in the PIF files as needed. - VGA systems using VGA monochrome monitors. If you experience an error regarding the graphics hardware on startup, try running the DOS command MODE CO80 prior to loading BlackJack!. - Peculiar operation when numbers are involved, or system lock-up. Some computers errantly indicate the presence of an 80x87 math coprocessor, others, particularly some '386 systems with 80287 math coprocessors, cause errors. If you experience system lock-up or peculiar results when numbers are involved try issuing the follow command from the DOS prompt. SET 87=N It is important that no spaces be included in "87=N". The included batch file BJ87.BAT will automate the above fix. In place of invoking BlackJack! with the BJ command just use BJ87. When you exit BlackJack! the 87 variable will be cleared from the enviornment. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Change history & new features: New features & changes in V-2.31 True Count base: Most systems determine the true count by dividing the running count by either the number of full or half decks remaining to be played, with full being the most common. BlackJack now provides for both methods. The setting is made from Edit User Count System in the SETUP menu. [F]ull / [H]alf TC Decks Press [F] for full deck systems, [H] for half deck systems. If you are not sure, use full decks. Some confusion can arise from this. For example, a full deck count system may still suggest dividing by fractional decks as in 2 1/2. A half deck count system would divide by 5 in this case (5 half decks remaining). You cannot interchange the two! Be sure you know what your system is based on. Some examples of half deck systems are Uston Advanced Point Count and the Revere Advanced Point Count. Regardless of the system used, BlackJack! calculates the true count to 1/4 deck accuracy. Don't confuse accuracy with count system basis. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Well, not exactly a new feature, but thanks to the help of Rocky Rosa BlackJack! now very accuratly shows the play advantage. This number, expressed as a percentage, indicates the rate of return you can expect from your level of play. For example, if the advantage is +1.35% you can expect to win $1.35 for every $100 wagered. Play advantage is very helpful when evaluating new strategy or betting systems. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - New features & changes in V-2.40 Full support of the Red-7 counting system Red-7 Changes to BlackJack! Setup Menu: Active Count System Toggles among User, +/- & Red-7 When Red 7 is active "Use True Count" is deactivated and the Red 7 strategy changes are made to the currently active strategy table. The Count Based Wager table When used with Red-7 count the "Card Count" value is relative to the pivot point. For example, the wager you want placed when the count is equal to the pivot point use 0 for the card count. Basic Strategy Drill & Casino Play When Red-7 is active the true count is replaced by the count value relative to the pivot point. Examples of the display: Pivot +1, Pivot -3. Please see the user manual for full details of Red-7 and its implementation in BlackJack!. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Depth of Deal: Casino Definition - Edit Casinos Controls the reshuffle point - how deep into the deck or shoe the deal goes. Can be set to Deep, Medium, Shallow, Random or End. Reshuffle Point Examples: 1 Player, 4 Deck Shoe 2 Player, 2 Deck Shoe Cards left at shuffle Cards left at shuffle RANDOM 10 - 100 RANDOM 15 - 50 SHALLOW 84 - 100 SHALLOW 42 - 50 MEDIUM 48 - 84 MEDIUM 24 - 42 DEEP 10 - 24 DEEP 15 - 24 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - New features & changes in V-2.41 One Handed Play: You can now use the numeric keypad for just about all of BlackJack!'s play options. With [NumLock] ON the following keys behave as specified: [1] = Hit [2] = Double [3] = Split [4] = Yes [5] = No [6] = Surrender [Enter] = Stand or enter as needed. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Revised Progressive Wagering: BlackJack! now supports winning, losing, or a combination of both styles of progressions. The additional choices are controled with a new menu. From the set up menu press [7] or [P] for the Edit Progressive Wagering menu. ÚÄÄÄÄEdit Progressive WagersÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³ ³ ³ 1 - Winning ³ ³ 2 - Losing ³ ³ 3 - Progression Type [Both] ³ ³ ³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ Selections 1 & 2 work as described in the user manual, you enter the wager you want to make for each level of the winning or losing progression. Selection 3 toggles among the available progression types... Winning, Losing, or a combination (both). Here's how it works. When Progression Type is set to either WIN or LOSS the progression acts as usual. The Opening Bet is used as long as you are not on a streak of the selected type, as soon as a streak begins the progressive wagers follow the table. When the streak ends your bet returns to the Opening Bet amount. When Progression Type is set to BOTH, both tables are active. Since you will always be either on a winning or losing streak the Opening Bet amount is only used for the first wager of the session. Any other time the streak length will be at least 1. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Streak Lengths Displayed In Status Box: The status box now displays the current streak length for each player. The position of the numbers corresponds to the player's table position. For example: Streak Length -2 1 4 means that player #1 has a streak of 4 wins, player #2 has a streak of 1 win and player #3 has a streak of 2 losses. Basic Strategy: To correct a conflict, the basic strategy for 5-5 will always be treated as a "hard" 10 rather than using the pair entry in the strategy table. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - New features & changes in V-2.50 Statistics All statistics are presented as both numeric counts and percentages where appropriate. +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | DO NOT MIX ANY FILES FROM PREVIOUS VERSIONS ! ! | +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+ |*** To print this file type COPY README.ME PRN at the DOS prompt. ***| +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+