            Dicey, A Dice Game of Skill and Luck
                         Version 2.0
                         User Manual
                        June 9, 2001
                              
Dicey is a game played by one to six persons. Rolling the dice,
each person tries to score in thirteen different categories. The
object of the game is to achieve the highest score. The computer
program will keep track of the scores, rolls, whose turn it is,
etc, on a game board on the screen.
                              
                        How to Start
The program maintains two kinds of data files:
1) A Name File, containing the names of all Dicey players
2) A Score File for each player.

When the program starts, it first checks for a Name File. If it
does not find one, it will display a dialogue box, asking you to
add players to the Name File. Every player must have a unique
name (or nickname), from one to 10 positions long. Do not use
special characters in the name, but spaces are allowed.

If you would like a picture to display when it is your turn, you
may wish at this time to copy some jpeg pictures (using Windows
Explorer, for example) to the program's current directory

The program will now ask you who is going to play this game. Pick
from one to six players from the Name File (using the menu at the
top of the screen). If you wish to play more than one game of the
six available, you may add your own name more than once.

When you are done picking the names of the players, the computer
will automatically roll the dice for the first player. If a jpeg
file that matches the name of the player is found in the current
directory, it will display during the player's turn.

                         How to Play
These instructions refer to categories on the game board
(following this topic). During the player's turn, he looks at his
dice, and based on the values that are showing, tries to decide
which game board category to shoot for. During his turn, he can
"pick up" (by clicking) any or all of the dice, and toss them
again (by hitting the "Roll Dice" button). The player can pick up
and toss the dice one more time. At this time, he must decide
which category to score.

The player's turn then ends. The dice automatically roll for the
next player.

Instead of clicking on the dice, the player can press the 1, 2,
3, 4, or 5 keys, respectively. The ENTER key will simulate
pressing the "Roll Dice" button. This makes the game less mouse-
intensive. Scoring, however, must be done with the mouse.

At the end of the game, a stat board will appear. It will display
some really neat information, such as your average before this
game, your average after this game, your high and low score, et
cetera. If you scored over average, the computer will greet you
with applause. Conversely, if you scored under average, the
computer will console you with an "awww".

                       The Game Board
Menu Options are discussed below.

Only the first six characters of the player name are displayed.
The board is tight; that's all there is room for unless I made
the character font smaller.

The doubler button is used to double the value of any one score.
It can be used only once per game, so use it wisely!

The scoring categories are listed below.
Category    Combination needed       Category Score
Name
Aces        Aces                     Total of all dice that
                                     show a "one"
Twos        Twos                     Total of all dice that
                                     show a "two"
Threes      Threes                   Total of all dice that
                                     show a "three"
Fours       Fours                    Total of all dice that
                                     show a "four"
Fives       Fives                    Total of all dice that
                                     show a "five"
Sixes       Sixes                    Total of all dice that
                                     show a "six"
Three of a  At least three of the    Total of all dice
Kind        same value
Four of a   Four of the five of the  Total of all dice
Kind        same value
Full House  Three of a kind and a    1-1/2 times the total of
            pair                     the dice
Flush       All dice are the same    25. If it is also a
            color                    straight, an extra 40 will
                                     score.
Straight    one-two-three-four-five  40. If it is also a flush,
            or                       an extra 25 will score.
            two-three-four-five-six
Dicey       All five dice show the   50 points, plus 100 for
            same value               all subsequent Diceys
                                     scored in other
                                     categories.
Dumper      Anything                 Total of all dice. The
                                     player can score in this
                                     category three times.

                        Menu Options
Game|New- This option will start a new game. All current games
          will be aborted. All personal scoreboards will be
          updated.

Game|Exit-     This option will end the game. All current games
          will be aborted. All personal scoreboards will be
          updated.

Players|Add to PlayerFile
          This option will allow you to add new players to the
          master Dicey players file. All people who play this
          game must be in the players file.

Players|Pick for Play
          This optiuon will let you tell Dicey who (from the
          master players file) will be playing this game of
          Dicey.

Sounds    You have the option of turning sound effects on and off
          (See Sound Effcets below).Turning sounds off will speed
          up the game, but it will make the game less fun to
          play.

Help|Help This option will display this file.

Help|About     This option will tell you about Dicey.

                          Pictures
The program will display a picture of the player when it is his
turn, if there is a jpeg picture in the current directory whose
name matches that of the player, e.g. Jane.JPG.

                        Sound Effects
Sound effects are played at certain times during the play of the
game. You may replace any pf the sound files with your own, but
you must name them the same as the original. For example, if you
are not happy with the "Bummer" sound, simply copy one of your
own wave (.WAV) files to the current directory as "bummer.wav".
If you hear a bell, the chances are that one of the sound files
is missing, misspelled, or corrupted.

Make sure you keep the original sound files in a safe place, in
case you ever want to restore it.

The sound files are listed below.
Filename Sound effect         When it plays
AWWW     Awwwww               Under average
BIGCHEER Cheering             Score a straight
BUMMER   "Bummer"             Score a zero
CLAP     Applause             Over average
DOH      "Doh!"               Tried to score a box that was
                              already scored
DOUBLED  "Your score was      The doubler feature was used
         doubled"
DUMMY    "Dummy"              Scored Dicey, but did NOT mark it
                              as such
NICEG    "Nice going!"        When an extra 25 is scored in the
                              upper bonus
OOH      "Oooooooh"           More than 20 in Dumper
ROLLDICE Dice rolling         Rolling the dice
TYFPD    "Thank you for       End of game: "Thank you for
         playing Dicey"       playing Dicey"
YES      "Yes!"               Scored Dicey, and marked it as
                              such
YFTUYD   "You forgot to use   At the end of the game, if the
         your doubler"        player did not use his doubler at
                              all during the game
YOUMISS  "You missed your     Missed the upper bonus
         bonus"

                      Player Name File
The Player Name File (PLAYERNM.DAT) is a file containing the
names of the Dicey players that you added at the beginning of one
of the games. For your convenience, it was written as a simple
text file.

                         Scores File
The Scores File (playername.DAT) is used to calculate averages,
and all of the other statistics that appear on the stat board.
Again, for your convenience, it was written as a text file. This
way, you can easily (using your favorite text editor) merge the
scores from games played in two different locations.

                  End of Dicey User Manual
