Oh Craps! Many people who play craps regularly swear that you can win with the right system. A statistician will obviously tell you otherwise. In any case, the game offers a wide variety of bets, combination bets, and betting sequences. You will undoubtedly find the possiblities challenging and thought provoking. American casino rules are observed in this video version, so if you are practicing for your next Vegas trip, it will come in handy. Using the Program The first thing you must do is place a bet. The chips are located in the lower right portion of the screen. Their values are $1 for white, $5 for red, $25 for green, $100 for black, and $500 for magenta. To grab a one, point the mouse at the desired one and hold the left button down while you drag the chip to the chosen location. Releasing the button will drop it in place. Moving an already placed bet is much the same, point at the chip which is to be moved, hold the left button down while it is being dragged, and let the button go to drop the chip in place. To cancel a bet, simply point to it and click the right mouse button. There is table limit of $32,000. This is a result of programming limitations rather than any attempt at a realistic table limit. Remember, all casinos have a table limit and if you want to maximize the realism, observe a table limit. It may be confusing when chips of one color are placed on those of another color since you will only see the last color dropped. If you need to find out how much in total you placed on a spot, point the mouse at that spot and press Ctrl-V. An alert will come up with the amount that is there. Your current bet is displayed while you bet, and your total bankroll is displayed during the game. If you run low, you can press Ctrl-B for an increase to $10000. Once you have made your wagers, you roll by either pressing Ctrl-S or clicking the left mouse button on the pair of dice in the lower right corner. After the dice roll, winning bets that are valid on the next roll are paid and losing bets are removed. Winning bets, wherever possible, remain on the board so that you can play them repeatedly. Pressing Ctrl-R will show you the last 40 results. If you are using a system this will come in handy. A reminder of these keypresses can be seen by pressing HELP. UNDO will give some program information. Playing Craps Craps is a complicated game and the following are cursory explanations of the bets. Consult a betting reference manual if you need more information. A point is the total of the two dice which results in either 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, or 10. If the point is repeated prior to a 7 beng rolled, the point is made and a PASS LINE wager wins. If a 7 is rolled the PASS LINE loses. Any number other than the point or 7 don't affect the wager on the PASS LINE or DON'T PASS LINE. Those numbers rolled do affect the outcome of other wagers. The COME OUT ROLL is the first roll for a permissible wager to be placed prior to establishing a COME OUT POINT. A wager placed on the PASS LINE prior to the COME OUT ROLL wins if a 7 or 11 rolls and loses if a 2, 3, or 12 rolls. If any other number rolls, it becomes the point, and in order to win the wager the dice must repeat that number before a 7 is rolled. If a 7 is rolled, the wager loses. If the point is rolled, the wager is paid even money. These bets can't be removed or changed once a point is established. A wager placed on the DON'T PASS LINE prior to the COME OUT ROLL is the oppostite of a wager on the PASS LINE. The wager loses on the COME OUT ROLL if a 7 or 11 is rolled, and wins if a 2 or 3 is rolled (12 voids the bet). If any other number is rolled, if becomes the point and in order to win the wager, which is paid even money, the dice must roll a 7 before the point is repeated. If the point is rolled prior to a 7, the wager loses. DON'T PASS LINE wagers can't be placed or increased after a point is established, may may be removed. A wager may be placed on the COME any time after the PASS LINE point is established on the COME OUT ROLL. The rules are the same as those for PASS LINE bets. After the COME POINT is established, the COME bet is moved to the corresponding box with the point number. A DON'T COME wager is the opposite of a COME bet and can be placed any time after a PASS LINE POINT has been established. These bets follow the same rules as the DON'T PASS bets, and after the COME point is set, the DON'T COME bets are moved to the corresponding box with the point number (below any COME bets). An additional ODDS wager can be made to the PASS LINE and COME bets. In casinos, you can take ODDS on DON'T PASS and DON'T come bets, but not in this game. Field bets are one-roll bets. If a 2 or 12 is rolled the bet is paid two to one. If a 3, 4, 9, 10, or 11 is rolled the bet is paid one to one. All other rolls cause the bet to lose. Hardways are bets on 4, 6, 8, or 10. If these numbers are rolled with pairs the bet wins, and if they are rolled any other way (easyway) the bet loses. Anytime a seven is rolled, these bets lose. Any seven is a one-roll wager that wins if 7 is rolled and loses if any other number comes up. Any craps is a one-roll wager that wins if a 2, 3, or 12 is rolled. Any other roll causes the bet to lose. The Program Code The program was written in Laser C. The table image was drawn using VDI calls with a some bit images blitted to the screen. The dice images were drawn with DEGAS Elite and cut using a specially written utility. Animating the dice was done using vro_cpyfm(). It was a four step operation; restoring the previously saved area (except for the first), saving the next area, masking the screen, and ORing the image to the screen. To avoid flicker in the animation, the screen was double buffered. All sounds used the Dosound call, and were created with a special editor utility specially developed for making sounds. I hope that you enjoy the program, and even better, I hope you break the bank!