___ King's Casino Solitaire Evaluator __________________________

This program is a suite of seventeen different Window's solitaire card
games. What you have is an evaluation copy, which I am distributing on 
CompuServe and other BBSs, the first three games are fully functional; 
the rest (marked with a ~) will deal but will only play for a limited 
number of moves. No other features have been disabled. You are free to 
use this evaluator program for ever and ever without charge. 

But, if you would like a copy of the fully-enabled version, send me a 
cheque for $16.50. See the topic Registration, etc. on the Shift-F1 
(Help/How To) menu. I think you'll find it easy and painless. (CompuServe 
users can register by GOing SWREG and using the Registration I.D. 3173.)

Release 1.1 is an update providing two new games: the old standby, 
Klondike; and a nasty new title, Queen's Quadrille. Two card backs 
have been changed to more medieval patterns and a few minor bugs have 
been stomped (see below). If you are upgrading on top of release 1.0, 
your old KCSol.ini file, containing your stats and preferences will
be overwritten. (Because of the insertion of the new games, the odds 
and statistics for games from Klondike on would be incorrect if the
version 1.0 .ini file were used with the version 1.1 program.)

King's Casino Solitaire requires VGA or higher resolution and a mouse 
or other pointing device to run: this release does not provide keyboard 
support. VBRun300.dll also required.


___ Installation ____________________________________________
King's Casino Solitaire installation is a simple three step process. By
un-Zipping the archive into some temporary directory, you've performed
step one. Step two: copy all files into the directory in which you
wish to keep this program, creating its own directory if you desire.
Step three: drag KCSol_e.exe from File Manager into the Windows group of
your choice in Program Manager (or your other favourite Windows Shell). 
(Alternatively, you can run King's Casino by selecting File/Run from 
the menu in Program Manager or File Manager and typing in the path to 
KCSol_e.exe and its name.)

King's Casino Solitaire does not modify your Win.ini, your System.ini, 
your AutoExec.bat or your Config.sys.


___ Files Supplied __________________________________________
The following files should be in the KCSol1 archive:

   	     - Files best kept in a games directory -
- KCSol_e.exe		the program itself
- QCardX.dll		playing cards library 
- KCSol.ini		configuration file updated by program
- KCSol.bmp		a bitmap image used when you win a game
- KCReadMe.txt		this file (not necessary to run program)
- KC_Order.txt		order form (not necessary to run program)
- KCSWins.zip		an archive of winnable games (see below) 
- Feedback.txt		questionnaire and comments form (not needed)

  - Files you may already have in your Windows System directory -
- MSAFinx.dll		and potentially used by other Windows programs
- CmDialog.vbx				ditto
- CommDlg.dll				ditto
- Ver.dll				ditto

[Note for advanced users: You may delete any of the second group of 
files if you have the same file with the same or later date in your 
Windows System directory (usually C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM). If any of the 
second group are dated later than a file with the same name in your 
Windows System directory, you may want to move it to your Windows 
System directory, replacing the copy residing there.]

While you also need the file VBRun300.dll in your Windows System 
directory in order to run this program, it's big and most everybody 
already has it, so I haven't added it to the archive. If you don't have 
it, you can download it from almost any BBS, and use it with hundreds 
of other nifty Windows shareware programs also on your favourite BBS.


___ To Un-install ____________________________________________
To remove King's Casino Solitaire from your system simply delete the 
files listed above. If you added an icon for King's Casino Solitaire 
to some other group, highlight the icon by clicking once on it (then 
again if necessary to get rid of the pop-up menu) then press Delete.

[Advanced users: be wary of deleting any files in the second group if 
you moved them to your Windows System directory, since they are files 
which other programs may also be using.]


___ Getting Started ___________________________________________
King's Casino Solitaire uses standard Window's main menu commands and
should require no effort to use or understand for anyone familiar
with other Windows programs. Each of the many solitaire card games 
you can start from Games on the main menu has instructions you can 
access from the Help/Game Rules menu or by pressing F1 when the game 
is on screen. All other features are documented from Help/How To or 
by pressing Shift-F1. 

If your only previous exposure to solitaire games has been with the 
one which comes with Windows, I advise spending a few minutes with the 
Solitaire Concepts and Getting Started topics under Help/How To. 


___ Accessibility ____________________________________________
This program is, unfortunately, inaccessible to anyone with visual
impairment. You will find a speech-friendly solitaire suite and
much more in the archive VIP611.zip available in the Disabilities
forum on CompuServe, BlinkLink, PC-Ohio, CRS and many other fine 
BBSs.

I have no experience in programming for motor disabilities. I 
believe everything in this program is accessible via single mouse
clicks and very occasional mouse drags. Don't forget that you can

  - single click on any card for a default action

  - use the space bar to deal cards 

  - use the right mouse button to pop up the Games menu. 

If you can think of any changes to improve this program's 
accessibility, please let me know. 

Anyone with a disability and limited financial resources may acquire 
the fully functional version of King's Casino for the reduced price 
of $3.50 by including a photocopy of any legal document confirming
the disability.

--------------------------------------------------------------
Note: the following topics are purely optional. The information
from here on is not needed to get up and running with this program.
--------------------------------------------------------------


___ What to do with KCSWins.Zip ______________________________
Exchanging winning and/or unusual games with other players is one 
of the more important functions of Games/Save and Games/Load menu
options. Inside the main download .zip file is a second .zip, KCSWins. 
This contains one game each of the games in King's Casino (except 
Try Again, which I haven't won yet!). Each of these games is winnable.

If you are interested, create a sub-directory within the directory
in which you are keeping King's Casino, called Wins or Games or
some such. Unzip KCSWins into this directory. Now start King's 
Casino, then choose Load Game from the Games menu. Change the
directory box to point to the sub-directory in which you unzipped
KCSWins. Double-click on any of the games shown in the files box.

The game you've now loaded can be played to a win by a correct
choice of moves at every turn. This does NOT mean you will win
the game the first time you play it, since there are so many
decision points in any solitaire game for which there is more than 
one equally logical move. Sometimes playing a known winning game 
can be even more frustrating than playing an unknown game. 

The first registered user who sends me a winnable game of Try Again
will have his/her registration fee refunded. Save the game one or
two moves before the winning move and e-mail it to me at the mail
address at the end of this file. I'll include that Try Again file
in future KCSWins.zip.


___ Changing the Winner's Graphic ____________________________
While I'm very proud of the crown I Paintbrushed for the Winner's
dialog box, you may have other ideas. The crown is stored in the
file KCSol.bmp which must stay in the same directory as the exe-
cutable (KCSol_e.exe). If you wish to reward yourself with another 
image instead, simply:

- rename KCSol.bmp to something else, for example, KCCrown.bmp

- copy any other .bmp file of roughly square dimensions to the
  same directory as the executable

- rename the new .bmp to KCSol.bmp 

(The Winner's dialog box sizes any bitmap named KCSol.bmp to the
dimensions 320 wide by 320 high in pixels, stretching and compres-
sing as necessary.)


___ Version Information _______________________________________
Version 1.10 contains two new games as well as a few minor bug fixes 
and changes. 

- John D. Cain gets the credit/blame for pleading the case for in-
  cluding good ol' Klondike. 

- I changed two card backs to medieval period patterns. (The curving
  lines pattern is Celtic.)

- The worst bug in release 1.0: exiting the program via the Exit
  choice on the Games menu fails to update your stats and preferences
  to the .ini file. Fixed in 1.1, but embarassing none the less.
  Stephen Murphy caught this one.

- Nearly as bad, if you didn't have the MS Serif and Sans Serif fonts
  in your System directory, Try again and Double or Naught would crash
  the program. Credit to Isabelle Parsons.

- Ze'ev Ionis gets credit for discovering what happened when you drag
  cards and right click.

- The Winner's dialog box picture displayer is no longer 1 pixel off 
  in size.

- The Statistics dialog box text no longer overflows its frame when
  viewed with certain high resolution, large font display drivers.

- Loading a game from file now deducts the correct number of dollars
  from the player's account.

- Several Double or Naught platitudes have been reworded for greater 
  clarity. (Please send me additional witty/upbeat platitudes to add
  to the current stock.)

- CompuServe SWREG information has been added to the Registration, 
  etc. help text.

Happy computing,

Dale Cotton
CompuServe 73632,703
(Internet 73632.703@Compuserve.com)