A-Mayes-ing Palm Card GamesAug 27 '01 Write an essay on this topic.
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The Bottom Line David Mayes provides very faithful very easy to play free Palm implementations of three classic card games: Cribbage, Hearts, and Mille Bournes.
Most of my favorite card games are solitaire games, games where I pit my skill against the luck of the draw and see who comes out victorious. However, every so often it's nice to play a game against an opponent, to pit my skill against that of another. Given the sorry state of my social life, I usually end up pitting my skill against a computerized opponent, generally one on my Palm. I play several different card games against my Palm. Three of my favorites are written by David Mayes and are free: Cribbage, Hearts, and Rally 1000. All three are Palm implementations of popular card games (Rally is a Mille Bournes clone). All three are a lot of fun. Cribbage I'm almost embarassed to admit that I'd never played cribbage before I installed David Mayes' game on my Palm. I learned to play this popular and difficult game by losing to my Palm. Cribbage is a deceptively difficult game of card matching. You and the computer take turns as dealer. Each player gets 6 cards, two of which must be given to the dealer hand. The players take turns placing cards into the draw area, obtaining bonuses for playing groupings of consecutive cards, cards totalling 15, and other selections of cards. After each hand the cards you played are totalled up to come up with the score for that turn. The dealer also gets points for the dealer hand. Score is kept with pegs moved up and down a rack of holes. This rack sits on the right side of the screen. The game isn't snazzy by any stretch of the imagination but it is constructed with a well thought out interface. If you like cribbage or are just looking for a difficult card game, I recommend giving Cribbage a try. Hearts Hearts is a game I learned in college, a game I associate with bragging and taunting and all of those other amusing group rites one must participate in to fully experience college life. Given that, Hearts against Palm opponents is a silent somber affair. It's still fun, but a different experience entirely from playing with real cards and real people. If you are unfamiliar with the game of Hearts, it is usually played with four players (although you can play with less or more as long as you have an even number). Each player is dealt 13 cards and asked to pass three of them to an opponent. The player with the two of clubs starts play and the others follow, required to play clubs if they have them. If they don't have any clubs they may play any card in their hand. The player who plays the highest in-suit card wins the hand and starts the next with any card he holds. Again the other players must follow suit if possible but are free to play any card if they cannot. Play continues for 13 rounds until no one holds any more cards. Points are awarded for taking hearts, the Queen of Spades (Black Lady), and in some variations the Jack of Diamonds. Your goal is to acquire as few points as possible. Each heart is worth one point, the Queen of Spades is worth 13 points, and (when enabled) the Jack of Diamonds is worth -10 points. If you are stuck with a lot of point cards, you can try to Shoot the Moon, or collect all point cards. If successful you don't get any points and each opponent gets 26. This implementation of Hearts plays accurately, following all of the rules. It has a very simplistic but very easy to follow interface. Most importantly, even without the posturing of a live game, it's fun. Rally 1000 Rally is by far the most polished Mayes game and my personal favorite. Based on the French card game Mille Bournes, Rally is an auto race between you and your opponent. The outcome of the race is determined by cards that let you go (green light), make your opponent stop (red light, out of gas, automobile accident, flat tire, etc.), fix hazards (can of gas, spare tire, automobile repairs, etc.), and move you between 25 and 200 miles. Each player must draw then play one card each turn. You can only move if you have a green light. If your opponent plays a hazard card on you, you must first fix it then play a green light before moving again. By default the race goes to 700 miles but can be extended to 1000 by the player who first gets to 700. There are a few more cards and a few more rules, but for the most part the game proceeds as outlined above. Unlike Cribbage and Hearts, Mayes has improved the look and feel of Rally 1000 over time. It now has an animated race status bar where cars representing you and the Palm opponent move along a straight course until they reach 700 or 1000 miles and cross the finish line. At that time, a flag waves signifying the end of the race. Rally 1000 is also the only Mayes game with color support. Even with this more sophisticated interface, Mayes was able to retain an easy to understand and use interface. As a matter of fact, as Rally has added more advanced visual elements the interface has actually gotten less complicated. I am really impressed by the job Mayes did in improving this game over time. Summing Up David Mayes does an exceptional job bringing three traditional card games to the Palm. His interfaces are all clean, albeit somewhat simple and his games very faithful to the original rules of the games he ports. To top it off, they are free. I recommend downloading Cribbage, Hearts, and Rally 1000 for your gaming enjoyment. They can be found at his website http://davemayes.hypermart.net/.  |
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