whatsnew.doc:

What's new for Hearts 2.0?  The list below is complete as of version 2.0, 
though the actual version that you may have may have more or different 
capabilities.  

New Options
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You can now make your own players.  Hearts can use a program that you 
write to play against instead of one of the 'internal' players that you 
usually play against.  You player has all the capabilities of the 
'internal' players which includes making your own comments on screen 
just like them.  The complete format for inter-application communication 
(via simple DDE) is documented, but to save you time, you can get 
pre-written code in C/C++ (and perhaps Visual BASIC by some time later 
in 1993+; please inquire, I intend to make the VB code as soon as possible) 
from me.  It may even be included right now with the present version of 
Hearts that you have.  At the very least, detailed pseudocode and format 
will be included with all releases of Hearts2.X.  

You can now view a complete record of the present or previous game.  

You can see a bar graph of your and other player's performance 'ratings'; 
each is a sum of the results of each player's performance over all his 
previous games.  You can reset your rating and start from scratch if you 
wish

You can now add your own card back designs.  This works with all bitmaps 
in all color depths of your monitor, but of course will work much better 
if you are in 256 color mode or higher.  You simply put a 71x96 bitmap(s) 
in the same directory as Hearts and it will make a menu-item for each of 
them.  

You can add your own comments, just like the ones the players rattle off 
as the game progresses.  A menu-item allows you to edit your comments 
(via notepad.exe); you can make general comments for all players to use, 
or comments that just players with a given name use.  All comments can be 
immediately called with a hot-key sequence: ctrl-A through ctrl-z plays 
each comment you added respectively.  

This option may or may not yet be in Hearts when you get it: Sound support.  
Hearts will offer a sound playing option whereby the players talk (an 
sound-ready systems only, of course).  You will be able to add you own 
sounds that are either general in nature or are triggered by events (such 
as getting the Queen of Spades).  


Smaller Changes
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The 'player finder' allows you to click the mouse on a player box on top 
to highlight any player you want.  

You can now change opponents at any time during play.  See the menu for 
this option.  

Hearts comes with a .HLP file now like a good Windows program should.  

Play errors are now reported by the players themselves instead of a 
dialog-box like before.

New rule option allows leads to progress clockwise instead of by the 
2 of Clubs.

Scorecard remembers his position on the screen.

All known bugs from previous versions are fixed (on the downside, 
version 2.0 might introduce its own slew of bugs, as is common with 
new releases).

Registered owners can now get 101 blonde jokes and 101 lawyer jokes 
with their registration.

There is a new fast-startup option, whereby the user can (with the /f 
command-line parameter) start the game immediately with the same players 
as last time.  

Players are better in a number of ways, they should be tougher opponents.  
Some of the old players from version 1.2 should also be present in 2.X.  

You can now change the background color scheme to whatever you want.

You can also use the Left mouse button to play instead of the right.
Note that the shift or control keys reverse the left/right mouse button effects
if they are held down.

Risqué card back designs are available free with registration; please 
specify what kind you want (i.e. male of female).  In addition, if you 
send pictures of whatever type you wish, I can make them into card bitmaps 
for you.  Because this takes some time to do, I unfortunately must 
charge 5$ each for making card backs from pictures/drawings.  

The all-new newsletter is available and ready.  

Other options will definitely be added with time

Notably absent from 2.0 is a play undo option.  This may find its way 
into the next release.  These things take time and I have been spending 
all of it trying to get the other options done.