Copyright: Copyright Martin G Davidson 1994


 Contents

Stop the Bus is a card game which combines luck and skill. You are pitted against three computer players who are determined to win. Your job is to stop them.

You need a mouse to play Stop the Bus.

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

Overviews

About Stop the Bus

Shareware

Legal information

Program history

The game

Rules of the game

Scoring

Location of controls

How to...

Play the game

Set game options

Cheat


About Stop the Bus

The author

Stop the Bus is a card game which I originally wrote last summer term when I was in second year. Since then it has been debugged a bit and has now been dragged out again as a "release" from revison for Finals. I am presently working on a version of Estimation Whist and there are one or two other things started but not finished. If you want more information you can write to me at:

Martin Davidson

Hertford College

OXFORD

OX1 3BW

United Kingdom

or you contact me via the internet:

u91mgd@uk.ac.oxford.ecs  OR

u91mgd@ecs.ox.ac.uk

All of these addresses will be good until at least July 1995 when I graduate. After that who knows???

The following four files make up the archive STOPBUS.ZIP:

 STOPBUS.EXE

 STOPBUS.HLP

 STOPBUS.TXT

 CTL3D.DLL

About this help file

This help file is for version 1.11 of the Stop the Bus program  (STOPBUS.EXE) which was released on the 9th of May 1994. If the version of Stop the Bus that you are using is not version 1.1 then the information in this help file may be incorrect.

To check the version of the Stop the Bus program select HELP|ABOUT from the main menu.

Credits

Testers:	Ross, Eric, Matthew and Heather. I am thankful to all of you for providing constructive criticism (i.e. pointing out silly mistakes).

Solitaire:	For an idea for an icon. (and London Transport as well.)

Also see

Contents

Shareware

Legal information

Program history


Shareware

Shareware

If you like this program and use it regularily then please send £5 (UK Sterling) or $10 (US dollars, cash only) to:

Martin Davidson

Hertford College

OXFORD

OX1 3BW

United Kingdom

NOTE: Please do not send cheques drawn on a non UK bank.

This is because it costs more than $10 to cash them! Thanks.

Also see

Contents

About Stop the Bus

Shareware

Legal information

Program history


Legal information

Copyright

Stop the Bus is copyright © Martin G Davidson 1994. All rights reserved.

Disclaimer of Warranty

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE IS WITH YOU. THE AUTHOR ASSUMES NO LIABILITY FOR DAMAGES, DIRECT OR CONSEQUENTIAL, WHICH MAY RESULT FROM THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE.

Also see

Contents

About Stop the Bus

Shareware

Program history


Program history

Version 1.0 of the Stop the Bus program was written in Turbo Pascal for Windows during the first half of 1993 and released on the 12th of June 1993.

Version 1.01 changed the handling of a score of 31. Previously only the player with the lowest score lost a life: under the modified scoring scheme all players except the one with a score of 31 lost a life. This version was released on the 22nd of June 1993.

Version 1.02 corrected a minor bug related to the saving of the stack cheat window. The program was also modified to potentially use Borland's custom controls although they were not used in this release. It was released on the 20th August 1993.

Version 1.1 modified the menu bar and introduced an options dialog to replace the old menu selections. It also used Microsoft's 3D custom control library, CTL3D to draw all the dialog and message boxes. This version was released on the 1st of May 1994.

Version 1.11, this version, includes CTL3D within the ZIP file and slightly improves the screen display. It was released on the 9th of May 1994.

Also see

Contents

About Stop the Bus

Shareware

Legal information


Rules of the game

Rules

You intially start with three lives per player.

On each turn you may either:

•	Swap one of your three cards with the face up card on the deck.

•	Take the next card from the deck. You may then either swap it with one of the three cards in your hand, or return it, face up, to the deck.

Control then passes to the next player.

If at any time your score is 31, you are deemed to have Stopped the bus. The game stops at that point and all other players lose a life. If any player now has no lives left then that player is eliminated from the game.

You may also stick if you consider your score to be high enough. If you decide to do so, you must not swap any cards or take the next card from the deck. Play continues until the player immediately preceeding you. At the end of that player's go, the game stops and scores are calculated. As before the player with the lowest score loses a life. Likewise if this player now has no lives left then the palyer is eliminated from the game.

The winner is the player who still has at least one life remaining after all the other players have been eliminated.

Note:

If the lowest score is shared by several players, then they all lose a live.

If this happens and results in a situation where every player has no lives left, then the result of the game is considered a draw.

Implementation

This implementation automatically prevents any player breaking the rules. For example it is not possible to stick after you have swapped a card with the deck. However if you have not turned over the next card on the deck you can swap the cards back and then stick. It is not possible to do this once you have turned over the next card on the deck.

Also see

Contents

Scoring

Location of controls


Scoring

Cards are scored in the following way:

•	Ace = 11 points

•	King, Queen, Jack, 10 = 10 points

•	Any other card = points equal to its value

It is only possible to add cards of the same suit together when calculating your score. The aim of the game is to get as high a score as possible, with the maximum possible being 31.

Also see

Contents

Rules of the game

Location of controls


Location of controls

Stop the Bus has four game areas as shown in the picture below. Click on any part of the window for more information:

Also see

Contents

Rules of the game

Scoring


Title

This is the main window title.


Menu bar

This is the main window menu bar.


Main deck of cards

This is the main deck of cards. Click on the card back to turn over the next card. It will then be shown overturned in the pile of cards.


Your hand of cards

This is your hand of three cards. Click on any card to swap it with the card which is face up on the main deck of cards.


Player information

Information regarding the number of remaining lives and whose turn it is to play is shown here.


Game control buttons

The four buttons displayed here are used to control the game. The fourbuttons have the following fucntions:

Stick	is used to stick.

Deal	starts a new game.

OK    	is used to pass control to the next player.

Exit	exits the program.


Playing the game

This version

In this version of Stop the Bus you are pitted against three computer players, who play to a reasonable standard, and fairly quickly as well.

General

•	To play (or restart) the game, either press the Deal button or choose GAME|DEAL.

•	To swap a card with the stack, click on then card you want to swap.

•	To get the next card from the deck, click on the deck.

•	To stick, press the Stick button. If it is disabled then you cannot stick at that point.

•	If you are happy with your cards press the OK button. The next player to play will then take over.

Note:

If you lose all your lives before the computer players do, then they will continue playing, until either someone wins or the game is drawn.

Also see

Contents

Play the game

Set game options

Cheat


Setting game options

The options dialog can be displayed by selecting GAME|OPTIONS... from the main menu.

The dialog shows various information: click on any part of the window below for more information.

Also see

Contents

Play the game

Cheat


Cheat options

The four buttons displayed here are used to control the game and have the following functions:

Card window	displays a window containing the other three players' cards.

Stack window	displays a window containing the next four cards in the stack.

Score window	displays a window containing all four players' scores.


Save on exit

Select this check box to save all user selectable options and main window position when you close Stop the Bus. The next time you run Stop the Bus all these options will be automatically restored.


Cheating

Ways to cheat

There are three ways to cheat when playing Stop the Bus. With all three options enabled it is possible to see the cards of your opponents, the next four cards in the deck and your current scores. To select an option choose GAME|OPTIONS... from the main menu. The options dialog will be displayed. To choose a cheat option simply select the check box corresponding to the required option. The following illustrations depict the three different cheat windows available.

Cards cheat window

Stack cheat window

Scores cheat window

Also see

Contents

Play the game

Set game options


OK button

Click on this button to close this dialog and update any changes you have made.


Cancel button

Click on this button to close this dialog and ignore any changes you have made.


Help button

Click on this button to display context sensitive help related to this dialog.