Copyright: Copyright ® 2002-2005 MeggieSoft Games


Introduction
Piquet

Welcome to Piquet by MeggieSoft Games.

This Introduction section contains the following topics:

MeggieSoft Games Software License

Other MeggieSoft Games

Following the Introduction section, the remaining sections are organized as follows:

How to Play Piquet

Understanding the Interface

Menus & Preferences

Online Play

Online Update

Useful Things To Know

Miscellaneous Topics

For latest versions, information, and news, please visit our website at www.meggiesoftgames.com

For problem reports and other support requests, please send an email to support@meggiesoftgames.com

(Connection to the website and email are available as menu selections under the Help menu.)


MeggieSoft Games Software License

"THE SOFTWARE"

This license agreement applies to all MeggieSoft Games software products and documentation that are marked "Copyright (C) MeggieSoft Games".

THE SOFTWARE includes:

Canasta by MeggieSoft Games (all versions)

Cribbage by MeggieSoft Games (all versions)

Euchre & Écarté by MeggieSoft Games (all versions)

German Whist by MeggieSoft Games (all versions)

Gin Rummy by MeggieSoft Games (all versions)

Pinochle & Bezique by MeggieSoft Games (all versions)

Piquet by MeggieSoft Games (all versions)

Rummy 500 by MeggieSoft Games (all versions)

LICENSE AGREEMENT

You should carefully read the following terms and conditions before using this software.  If you do not agree to the terms in the following license and disclaimer of warranty, you should delete all copies of the software that are currently in your possession.

The "Shareware Versions" are versions of THE SOFTWARE that  are operated without a valid registration code. These include all accompanying files and documentation.

You are hereby licensed to use any Shareware Versions of THE SOFTWARE for a 30 day evaluation period.

You may make as many copies of THE SOFTWARE as you wish.  You may give exact copies to anyone, and redistribute the complete and  unmodified software via electronic means, including uploading to electronic bulletin boards, as long as all accompanying files are included intact and unmodified.

You are specifically prohibited from charging a fee, or requesting donations, for any such copies, however made, with the exception of a  reasonable fee associated only the expense of duplication and distribution.

You are permitted to redistribute exact copies of the original Shareware Versions and accompanying documentation, in its unmodified form, in packages with other products, provided that all accompanying files are included intact and unmodified.  Distributors are requested to ensure that the most recent version is distributed by consulting the MeggieSoft Games Internet Web Site home page at: http://www.meggiesoftgames.com

YOU ARE PROHIBITED FROM REVERSE ENGINEERING, DECOMPILING, OR DISASSEMBLING THE SOFTWARE.

Any copying or redistribution of the software that is not in accordance with the policies stated in this license agreement is a violation of United States and International copyright law.  Any copying or redistribution of the software that does not include all accompanying files intact and  unmodified is a violation of United States and International copyright law.

Unregistered use of the Shareware Versions after the 30-day evaluation period, plus a 15-day grace period, is a violation of United States and International copyright law.

EVALUATION AND REGISTRATION

This is not free software.  This license allows you to evaluate THE SOFTWARE in its shareware (unregistered) form, without charge for a period of 30 days.  If you wish to use THE SOFTWARE after the 30-day evaluation period, plus a 15-day grace period, a registration fee is required.

Registration of THE SOFTWARE permits unlimited usage of THE SOFTWARE by the registered party on any computer of which that person is the primary user.

If THE SOFTWARE registered to a person is installed on more than one computer of which that person is the primary user, simultaneous operation of THE SOFTWARE on more than one computer is not permitted.

YOU MAY NOT DISTRIBUTE, OR MAKE PUBLICLY KNOWN, ANY PERSONAL REGISTRATION INFORMATION PROVIDED TO YOU BY ANY PARTY.

COPYRIGHT

The software and documentation are owned by the author, MeggieSoft Games, and are protected by United States and International copyright laws and international treaty provisions.  Therefore, you agree to treat the software like any other copyrighted material, except that you may make and

distribute exact copies of the Shareware Versions of the software as specifically provided in this license agreement.

DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY

This software and all accompanying files are provided "as is" and without warranties of any kind, whether expressed or implied.  The author disclaims all implied warranties, including without limitation, any implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose or use, or against infringement.  The user must assume the entire risk arising out of use of or distribution of the software, including all accompanying files and documentation.  In no event shall the author or seller be liable for any damages whatsoever (including, without limitation, consequential or incidental damages, damages for loss of business profits, business interruption, loss of business information or other pecuniary loss) arising out of the use of or inability to use the software or documentation, even if the author has been advised of the possibility of such damages.  Any liability of the author and seller will be limited exclusively to product replacement or refund of purchase price.


Other MeggieSoft Games

MeggieSoft Games is committed to the development of quality two-handed card games for the Microsoft Windows environment.  We currently offer eight games: Rummy 500 (first released in 1994), Gin Rummy (1995), Pinochle & Bezique (1996), Piquet (2003), German Whist (2003), Euchre & Écarté (2003), Canasta (2004), and Cribbage (2005).

All of the MeggieSoft Games use the same basic Graphical User Interface (GUI) .  Thus the display and the use of the mouse is similar in all eight games.

For latest versions, news, etc., visit us on the Worldwide Web at: www.meggiesoftgames.com


Canasta

Canasta adheres to the rules of  "Classic Canasta" as documented in Hoyle's Rules Of Games, and other sources.  A set of dealing, rule, and scoring preferences corresponding to the rules of "Modern American Canasta" are provided for those who prefer the Modern American variation, or who wish to enhance the Classic Canasta rules..

The Canasta deck of cards is comprised of 108 cards, being two normal 52-card decks plus four Jokers.

Fifteen cards are dealt to each player.  The remaining cards are placed face down by the mat as the stock.  The top card is turned face up on the mat to begin the discard pile.  If the top card is a red three, another card is turned over on top of it (repeatedly, if necessary).

If either player has been dealt any red threes, these are placed on the mat and replaced from the stock (repeatedly, if necessary).  These red threes, and any others subsequently placed on the mat, will count towards a bonus at the end of the round.  They do not however form a meld.

Play starts with the non-dealer taking the first turn.  Each player starts their turn by taking either the top two cards from the stock, or all of the cards from the discard pile.  There are limitations on when you may take the discard pile, as described below.  You continue your turn by playing melds to the mat, if you are able to and wish to.  A meld is a number of cards or the same rank (e.g., three Tens) and may include a limited number of wild cards (Jokers or Twos).  You conclude your turn by discarding one of the cards in your hand, unless you have melded them all.

A round ends when: (i) a player has discarded or melded their last card or (ii) there are no cards in the stock and the player whose turn it is elects not to take from the discard pile.  Cards remaining in hand are deducted from the round score, and other bonuses and penalties earned are applied.

The game ends when a player reaches 5000 points (8500 points for Modern American Canasta).


Cribbage

Sir John Suckling, a British poet and knight, invented the card game of cribbage about 1635, reportedly as an evolution from an earlier game named Noddy.  Cribbage has survived, with no major changes, as one of the most popular games in the English-speaking world.

The more modern Six Card Cribbage has now almost entirely replaced the original Five Card Cribbage game in the USA.  However the five card version does still survive in parts of Britain, where it is one of the few games allowed by law to be played in a public house for small stakes.

Cribbage by MeggieSoft Games is the traditional game for two players, and supports the original Five Card game in addition to the later Six and Seven Card derivations.

Cribbage is a game of  cunning in which the two players must balance a number of different objectives and remain alert in recognizing scoring combinations.  It is a game where experience counts - together with some luck.

The deck is the standard fifty-two cards deck, being the Ace through King of each suit (i.e., Ace is low).

Depending upon the game variation, five, six or seven cards are dealt to each player.  The remaining cards cut and the exposed card is placed face up on top of the stock, which is placed to the side of the playing mat.  The upturned stock card is termed the "Start".   If this is a Jack, the dealer scores two points ("for his heels").   In the Five Card game, non-dealer always scores three points from the deal as compensation for the dealer having the first crib scoring advantage.

There are three phases to a round of Cribbage: the Discard, the Play, and the Show.

Discard

After the deal, the non-dealer selects and discards two cards from their hand, the dealer does likewise.  These four cards form the "Crib" for the "Show" phase.

Play

The play starts with the leader (the non-dealer) playing a card to the mat; the other player follows, and play continues until either all the cards have been played, or the cards played total 31 points (or less, if neither player has a card to play which would keep the total below 31).

In the Five Card Game, the play then stops.  In the six and seven cards versions, if either player has cards remaining in hand, play continues after resetting the points total to zero; the player of the most recent card scoring "One for Go" (unless 31 points were achieved).

At the end of the Play phase, the player of the last card earns "One for Last", unless 31 points were achieved.  (In the Five Card game, there may be a card or cards remaining in either or both players' hands, whereas in the Six and Seven card versions, all cards will be played from the hands.)

As each player plays a card, they will earn points if the card played makes a pair, a sequence, a total of fifteen, or a total of thirty.  There are other scoreable points, as described in the Points Scoring section.

Show

When play has completed, the cards played are returned to their respective players, who then score for combinations of cards in their hand together with the Start (the upturned stock card).  Non-dealer shows first, then the dealer.  The scoring combinations are pairs, sequences, a flush (all the cards are of the same suit, including or excluding the Start), and groups of fifteen points.  If the Start is not a Jack and a player holds the Jack, they score an extra point.  After the players have scored the points from their hands, the dealer takes the crib and scores points for the same combination types therein (together with the Start), with the exception that a flush must be five cards (i.e., including the Start).

Repeated rounds are played until one of the players has reached a total of 61, 121, or 181 for the five, six and seven card games respectively.


Euchre & Écarté

Euchre & Écarté is a dual-mode game which can be set to play either two-player Euchre or Écarté (or a hybrid from selected rules of each)

Euchre

Euchre dates from the 19th century, possibly from a common root with Écarté, possibly from Écarté itself.  In any case, it became very popular in the USA at that time, and may have originated with the Pennsylvania Dutch.

The standard Euchre deck for the two-person game comprises twenty-four cards, being the Nine through Ace, of each suit.

Five cards are dealt to each player. The remaining cards are placed face down by the mat as the stock, of which the top card of the stock is turned face up. The suit of this "upcard" defines the starting point for defining the trump suit for the round.

The play starts with the leader (the non-dealer) deciding whether to accept or reject the trump suit as indicated by the upcard.  The process of defining the trump suit may result in acceptance of the upcard suit, the choice of another suit, or a void round if both player's pass on each step of the process.

When the trump suit is "made", the Jack of the trump suit and the Jack of the other suit of the same color are promoted to become the Right and Left Bowers and are both now part of the trump suit, ranking higher than the Ace.  It is important to remember that the "other" Jack is no longer part of its original suit.

The upcard is transferred to the dealer's hand, and the dealer will then discard a card in return.  (There is an available rule preference that this does not occur, in which case the upcard remains with the stock.)

Trick play then starts with non-maker playing a card to the mat to which the other player follows. This forms the first trick.  (There is an available rule preference that non-dealer always leads, even if non-dealer is the maker.)

The leader of a trick is the winner unless the follower plays a higher card of the same suit, or plays a card of the trump suit. The follower must play a card of the suit led if they are able. If they cannot follow suit, they may either play a card of the trump suit (and win the trick) or play a card of another suit (and lose the trick).

A round ends after the five tricks have been played. if the maker wins the most tricks they score one point (two for all five tricks), otherwise the maker is said to have been "euchred" and the other player scores two points. The first player to accumulate 10 points wins the game.

Écarté

Écarté is a two-handed game which originated in 19th century France. The word Écarté means "to discard"..

The standard Écarté deck comprises thirty-two cards, being the Seven through King, plus the Ace, of each suit. The King is the highest card of each suit, and the Ace ranks between the Ten and the Jack.

Five cards are dealt to each player. The remaining cards are placed face down by the mat as the stock, of which the top card of the stock is turned face up and placed under the stock. The suit of this card defines the trump suit for the round.

The play starts with the leader (the non-dealer) deciding whether to play or propose. If the non-dealer elects to propose, and the dealer accepts the proposal, the non-dealer may exchange any or all of their cards with fresh cards from the stock. The dealer then does likewise. Another proposal may then be made, and so forth until either the stock is exhausted (the trump card is not exchangeable), or the non-dealer elects to play.

When the non-dealer decides (or is forced) to play a card to the mat; the other player follows. This forms the first trick.

The leader of a trick is the winner unless the follower plays a higher card of the same suit, or plays a card of the trump suit. The follower must play a card of the suit led if they are able. If they cannot follow suit, they may either play a card of the trump suit (and win the trick) or play a card of another suit (and lose the trick).

A round ends after the five tricks have been played. The player with the most points from winning a majority of the tricks and from bonus points wins the round. The first player to accumulate 5 points wins the game.


German Whist

German Whist is a two-handed version of Whist which was created in England, not Germany.  Why it is named German Whist is not known.

The deck is the standard fifty-two cards, being the Two through Ace of each suit (i.e., Ace is high).

Thirteen cards are dealt to each player.  The remaining cards are placed face down by the mat as the stock. The top card of the stock is turned face up.  The suit of this card defines the trump suit for the round.

The play starts with the leader (the non-dealer) playing a card to the mat; the other player follows. This forms the first trick.

The winner of a trick is the leader unless the follower plays a higher card of the same suit, or plays a card of the trump suit.  The follower must play a card of the suit led if they are able.  If they cannot follow suit, they may either play a card of the trump suit (and win the trick) or play a card of another suit (and lose the trick).

During the first phase, while there are still cards in the stock, the winner of the trick takes the top (visible) card from the stock, and the loser takes the next (unseen) stock card.  The purpose of winning tricks in this phase is therefore to improve your hand as much as possible.

When all the stock cards have been taken, the second phase is played.  In this phase, the winner of each trick earns one point.

A round ends after the thirteen tricks of the second phase have been played.  The player with the most points wins the round.  The first player to win three rounds or accumulate 50 points (depending on the scoring preference) wins the game.


Gin Rummy

Gin Rummy is oriented towards who goes out (knocks) first and who has the lesser amount of unmeldable points remaining in their hand.

A round of Gin Rummy starts with each player being dealt ten cards.  As the round progresses, each player picks up from the stock or the discard pile, melds out their hand (knocking) if able, and discards a card. The following are the major features of the game:

•	The last discard may be picked up as alternative to taking a new card from the stock

•	Melds are only played when a player knocks.  A player must have ten or less points of deadwood in order to knock.  The knocking player then lays down their melds, and the other player follows by laying down their meldable cards.  This ends the round.

•	The points scored are based upon the difference in deadwood points between the players; plus bonuses for knocking, undercutting (having less deadwood than the knocker), and winning a game (100 points).

Gin Rummy supports all well documented variations including: Hollywood Scoring, Oklahoma Gin, and 11 Card Gins.


Pinochle & Bezique

Pinochle & Bezique is configurable to play Pinochle, Binokel, or Bezique, or even a hybrid combination.

Bezique is the older game, having originated in France where it was evolved from games dating back to the sixteenth century.  Bezique then reportedly evolved into two-player Binokel in Southern Germany and Switzerland, which, after crossing the Atlantic via German immigrants, further evolved into two-handed Pinochle and then further into the four-player version.  The MeggieSoft Games implementations of Pinochle, Binokel, and Bezique are of the original two-deck, two-player games.  (The six-deck version of Bezique is reported as having been Winston Churchill's favorite game.)

These games combines elements of the Rummy and Whist families of games insofar as they involve trick taking and melding.  Each round is comprised of two phases of trick taking and follows the following cycle:

•	The cards are dealt and are played as tricks.  The higher card of each trick wins the trick.  Players may declare a meld only after winning a trick.

•	There is no requirement to follow suit during the first phase

•	Melded cards remain part of the player's hand, and may be further melded (subject to certain restrictions) or played just as other cards from the players' hands.

•	After each trick (and meld if there is one), each player takes a card from the stock.  The next trick is then played.

•	When the stock is depleted, the round moves into the second phase.

•	During the second phase, the remaining cards are played out as tricks.  Players must follow suit, and must win the trick if possible.

Pinochle & Bezique supports all widely documented rule and scoring variations of the three game types.


Rummy 500

Rummy 500 is oriented towards building the highest possible score from creating melds.

A round of Rummy 500 starts with each player being dealt thirteen cards.  As the round progresses, each player picks up from the stock or the discard pile, melds if desired, and discards a card.  The following are the major features of the game:

•	Any number of cards from the discard pile may be taken, provided the earliest discarded of them is melded immediately.  The remainder are added to the player's hand.

•	Players may lay down melds, or add to each other's melds, at any time that it is their turn.  Melding scores points and reduces the liability of points in a player's hand, but gives the opponent a greater chance of scoring points from melding some of their cards.

•	A round ends when one of the players has melded or discarded their last card, or when the stock is exhausted.  There is no lay-off of deadwood; what the other player holds when the round ends counts against them.

The first player to score 500 points wins the game.


How to Play Piquet

The following is the sequence of each round:

•	Each player, starting with non-dealer, exchanges a number of cards by discarding them from their hand and replacing them from the talon (stock).

•	Each player, starting with non-dealer, declares their point, sequences and sets and scores points accordingly.

•	The cards are played off as tricks, without trumps, with non-dealer leading to the first trick.  Points are scored for leading to, and for winning, tricks.  A bonus point is awarded for winning the last trick.

•	After the last trick is won, the round ends, with additional bonus points being scored by the player with the most tricks won.

Piquet Overview

Terminology

The Deal

Exchanging Cards

Declaring

How To Operate The Declaration Process

Playing Tricks

Scoring

The End Of A Partie

Getting Started

Watching a Partie Being Played

Strategies

Tournament Play & Replays


Piquet Overview

Piquet is a card game dating from the 1500s, and is frequently held to be one of the best of two-person card games.  It is relatively simple to play once one has mastered the basics, and provides a challenge to one's powers of deduction and skill.  The MeggieSoft Games implementation is faithful to the normal terminology used when playing Piquet.

The standard deck consists of thirty-two cards, being the Seven through Ace of each suit.  A dealing variation permits an alternative structure with the thirty-six deck which was used in the original versions of Piquet,  adding the Sixes of each suit.  In Piquet, the rank ordering of the cards is as usually found with most games, with Ace being high.

Twelve cards are dealt to each player in groups of three.  The remaining cards are placed face down by the mat as the talon.  The round starts with the non-dealer (termed "elder") exchanging a number of cards from their hand with those from the top of the talon.  The other player ("younger") follows by exchanging their cards.  For the default thirty-two card game, elder may exchange between one and five cards, and younger may exchange between one card and the number of cards remaining in the talon.

After the exchanges of cards, the non-dealer (elder) declares his point (longest suit), sequences, and sets which will score points unless younger has a better or equal declaration in each category.  Elder then leads to the first trick.

After elder has led to the first trick, younger scores for those categories where the elder's opening declaration was bettered.  Younger may also make declarations in categories in which elder made no declaration.  For both players, winning the declaration in the sequence and set categories entitles them to declare additional sequences or sets that they might possess.  Younger then responds by playing a card to elder's lead to the first trick.

The winner of a trick is the higher card of the suit led.  If one cannot follow suit, one may discard - there is no trump suit.  Points are scored for leading to a trick and for capturing a trick to which the other player led.  After the twelve tricks have been played, bonuses are awarded to the player who won the last trick and to the player who won the most tricks.

Additional bonuses are awarded for other achievements as described fully in the scoring section.


Terminology

MeggieSoft Games' Piquet adheres to the French-style terminology of the original game, as is used by virtually all sources of information regarding Pique.

The Talon is the deck of cards remaining after the deal, in other games this would frequently be termed the stock.

The two players are termed Elder and Younger.   For each deal, the dealer is younger, and the non-dealer, who exchanges first, declares first, and leads to the first trick, is the elder.

A set of rounds comprises a Partie (equivalent to a game).

Declared sequences of three, four, and so on to eight, are termed respectively: Tierce, Quart, Quint, Sixième, Septième and Huitième.  A sequence to the Ace is known as a Major sequence, one from the seven (or six for the 36 card deck) variation is a Minor sequence.  Thus the Ten through Ace is a Quint Major.  Other sequences are denoted as "to the" highest card, such as "Quart to the Queen".

A declared set is known as a Trio (three cards, scoring three) or a Quatorze (four cards, scoring fourteen).  Three Queens is a "Trio of Queens" and four Aces is "Quatorze Aces.

Both sequences and sets use the older term Knave instead of Jack within their descriptions.

Other special terminology refers to special declarations and bonus points and are described fully within other sections of this help file.  These terms include: The Cards (winning most tricks), Capot (winning all tricks), Pique (scoring 30 before the opponent scores any), Repique, (a Pique achieved within the declaration phase), Carte Blanche (no face cards in the dealt hand) and Carte Rouge (optional, using all cards in scoring declarations).


The Deal

The first round is dealt automatically after you confirm that you will start the first round, or after the cut for deal (if this option is selected).

A thirty-two card deck is normally used (Eights through Aces), of which twelve cards are dealt to each player, in groups of three.  Piquet also supports the thirty-six card variation (including Sevens), selectable via the dealing preferences.

After the end of each round, Piquet will shuffle and deal the cards for the next round. Within a partie the deal alternates between the players.

At the end of each partie, you will be asked if you want to proceed with the next partie.  If you select "Yes", Piquet will shuffle and deal the cards.

At any time, you may select "Replay Partie" from the Game Menu.  In this case, the current game is abandoned, and the cards are  redealt.  Alternatively, you can select "Replay Round", in which case the current round is restarted.  In both "replay" cases, the cards are dealt as before, without reshuffling.   If you wish to restart a game with a fresh shuffle of the cards, select  "Restart Fresh Partie" from the Game Menu.

If "AutoMouse Cards" is enabled, the mouse pointer will  be moved automatically to the player's hand after the cards have been dealt.

Previous deals may be replicated via the "Replicate Partie" option of the Game Menu, or via "Partie Scores" under the View Menu.  Also, deal sequences may be fixed for a whole series of parties via the "Tournament" option under Dealing Preferences.  This permits multiple players to play the same series of deals.


Exchanging Cards

After the deal, each player examines their hands to decide which cards will be exchanged with fresh cards from the talon.

The first consideration is whether a Carte Blanche has been dealt.  A Carte Blanche is a hand with no court cards (Jack, Queen, King).  If a Carte Blanche has been dealt, it may be immediately declared for 10 points.

The non-dealer (elder) exchanges first and must select at least one card, up to a maximum of five cards, to be exchanged.  By default, elder may peek at any untaken cards of this quota, if they exchange less than five cards.  The human player performs the exchange by clicking on each of the selected cards (they will turn green) and then clicking on the mat (the central area to which cards are played), or dragging one of the cards onto the mat.  If the player wises to declare Carte Blanche, or wishes to peek at untaken cards (if less than five are taken), the special methods described below will be followed instead of clicking or dragging to the mat.

You may select a group of cards in one simple drag-and-drop action via the "MultiSelect " capabilities.   Unless disabled under the Player Preferences, "MultiSelect" is effected by dragging across the cards with the right mouse button down.  See "Using The Mouse" for further information.

The dealer (younger) exchanges second.  The number of cards exchanged may be any number between one card (or no cards if the appropriate Rule Preference is enabled) and all the cards remaining.  This could be seven cards (of which elder may have already peeked at the first four) if elder only exchanged one card.  The human player performs this exchange by the same method of selecting and clicking on the mat as described above for the elder hand.

After the exchange is complete, your exchanges remain in the lower right corner of the mat, face down.  You have the right to review them at any time, which you do by clicking on them.  You may click again to turn them face down.  The opponent has no knowledge of what these cards are, even when displayed face up.

The cards in your hand that were taken from the talon will be shown with a pale green tint until the declaration phase starts.  (The tinting may be suppressed via the Player Preferences.)

Younger (the second to exchange), has the right to decide whether the remaining cards in the talon (if any) will be displayed to both players.  This ability is amendable by selectable Rule Preferences to be either not permitted, or to be permitted only after elder has completed the declaration phase and led to the first trick.  If you are younger and wish to invoke this right, you do so by clicking on the talon at any time.  Remember that these cards will then remain face up for the remainder of the round and are viewed by both players.

Declaring Carte Blanche - Player

If you wish to declare Carte Blanche, click on the sixth button of the middle of the status bar before clicking on the mat.  This button will be active when a player Carte Blanche may be declared - whether or not one exists (it is dimmed with a cross otherwise).

This button will be highlighted in green if you (as elder) exchanges first.  In this case, the discards must be selected (but not moved to the table) before the button is clicked.  Then the opponent will select their discards before your hand is exposed.  After your hand has been exposed (each card is highlighted in turn), the selected cards will be locked and no changes to the selection are possible.  At this point, click or drag to the mat or talon (if you wish to peek at untaken cards, see below) as usual to complete the exchange.

If the button is white, there is no requirement for you to identify discards first.  This will be so if the opponent exchanges first, or if the "Simple Carte Blanche" Rule Preference is set.  After the button is pressed the Carte Blanche is registered and selection and exchange proceeds as usual.

There is an available Player Preference which, when enabled, will provide a warning message when an available Carte Blanche is about to be not declared.

Declaring Carte Blanche - Opponent

If the opponent wishes to declare Carte Blanche, this will be declared via a displayed dialog box.

If the opponent is elder, they will exchange first.  In this case, unless the Simple Carte Blanche rule preference is enabled, the declaration will include how many cards the opponent will discard so that you may prepare your discards (in the normal way of selecting and moving to the mat) before the opponent exposes the cards in their hand and proceeds with the exchange process.

If the opponent is younger (or if the Simple Carte Blanche rule preference is enabled), the declaration will remind you that the opponent is about to expose their cards before you exchange.  The exchange proceeds as usual.

The opponent's cards are exposed by briefly displaying each one face up in turn.

Peeking

If the non-dealer (elder) is exchanging less than the five cards permitted, they, by default, have the right to peek at the cards not taken.  If the human player is non-dealer and wishes to peek in this manner, the process is merely that the talon is clicked instead of the mat, or the selected cards are dragged to the talon instead of the mat.

However, there is a Rule Preference which prohibits peeking and, if enabled, the untaken cards will not be displayed. In this case clicking on or dragging to the talon is treated as if you clicked or dragged to the mat.

There is also a Player Preference which can be enabled to automatically peek when less than five cards are exchanged, irrespective of whether the mat or the talon is used as the target.

The process of peeking results in the appropriate number of cards temporarily being displayed face up on the talon.  Click on the talon when you have finished reviewing them, whereupon the opponent will make their exchanges.

The peeked cards are displayed as turned over, from left to right, top to bottom.  Thus if four cards are displayed, of which the opponent takes three for their exchange, these will be the two in the top row, and the leftmost of the second row -- leaving the last (bottom right) remaining in the talon.


Declaring

After the exchange of unwanted cards, elder (non-dealer) makes the opening declarations.  There are three categories of declaration (point, sequence, set), as described below.  By default, the minimum description of the declaration is made first, to which younger will either reply "Good" (if younger does not have a better declaration), "Not Good" (if younger has a better declaration), or will request more definition (if younger has an equal declaration).  The reason for opening with a minimum description is to avoid providing further, potentially useful, information if the immediate response is "Not Good".

In case of an equal opening declaration, elder then provides a fuller qualification, to which younger will reply "Good", "Not Good" or "Equal" (equality is not possible for set bids).  If the bid is good, elder scores the appropriate number of points, and may then declare any additional declarations of the same category.  For example, if a sequence of four is good, and elder has one or more other sequences, they may then declare and score them.  (Neither player can make additional declarations unless their first declaration is good.)

There is no requirement to declare one's best combination.  If you can determine that younger probably has four of kind, declaring that you possess a set of three would merely provide younger with potentially useful information to no personal advantage.  It would be better to pass.

Point: Point is declared first, and is the number of cards held in a chosen suit.  Normally this would be the longest suit.  If younger responds with the same number, the fuller qualification is the points value total (or "ruff count" of the declared cards, calculated as eleven points for Ace, ten for each Jack, King or Queen and the face value for the rest.  Thus if elder has the 8-10-J-Q-A of Hearts,  the initial declaration would be "Point of Five".  If younger also has a point of five, the response will be "Making?", to which elder would respond "Making 49" ( 8+10+10+10+11).  The ruff count determines whether the declaration is good, equal, or not good when compared with younger's ruff count.  If the declaration is good, elder scores the number of cards in the point (e.g., five points for five cards).

Sequence: Sequences are declared next.  A sequence is a run of three or more consecutive cards in a suit.  If younger has a sequence of the same length, the fuller qualification is the highest card of the sequence.  Thus if elder has the 9-10-J-Q-K of a suit,  the initial declaration would be "Quint".  If younger also has a sequence of five, the response will be "How High?", to which elder would respond "To the King".  The high card determines whether the declaration is good, equal or not good.  If the declaration is good, elder scores the number of cards in the sequence, plus ten for sequences of five or longer. (e.g., fifteen points for a sequence of five cards - unless the five point scoring preference is selected), and then may declare and score any additional sequences.

Set: Sets are declared last.  A set is three of four cards, value ten or higher, of the same suit.  If younger has a set of the same size, the fuller qualification is the face value of the cards in the set.  Thus if elder has the Queens of three suits of a suit,  the initial declaration would be "Trio".  If younger also has a set of three, the response will be "What Card?", to which elder would respond "Queens".  The face value then determines whether the declaration is good or not good (a completely equal set bid is impossible).  If the declaration is good, elder scores three for a Trio of fourteen for a Quatorze, and then may declare and score any additional sets.

After elder has completed the opening declarations, they lead to the first trick.  Before replying to this lead, younger must declare their successful responses, i.e., those categories where the response to elders declaration was "Not Good".  These declarations score as described above, and may similarly be followed by any additional declarations of the same category.  Younger then responds to elder's lead to the first trick.

See also: "How To Operate The Declaration Process"


How To Operate The Declaration Process

If you are  Elder (non-dealer):

You will make the opening declarations.  After the exchange of cards has been completed, the player declaration window will appear on the table.

For each declaration, select the required cards by clicking on each one in turn (selected cards will turn yellow).  If you mis-select a card, click on it again.  Then press the "Declare" button.  If you cannot, or do not wish to, declare a category, make no selection and press "Pass".  You may select a group of cards in one simple drag-and-drop "MultiSelect" action by dragging across the cards with the right mouse button down.  See "Using The Mouse" for further information.

The opponent will respond via the opponent response window.  If the declaration is "Good" your declaration description will be updated to the full description (e.g., "Tierce to the Knave" instead of just "Tierce") as the opponent is now entitled to know the precise winning bid.  If your declaration is "Not Good", the additional information is not required to be provided.  In either of these cases, press "OK".

If the opponent has an equal declaration, further information will be requested via a response of: "Making?" (point), "How High?" (sequence), or "What Card?" (set).  Your declaration description will be updated automatically to provide this information.  Then press the "Declare" button again.

If your declaration is good, your score will be updated and (for sequence and set declarations) you will be prompted to declare any others of the same category.  In this situation, the previously declared cards of the category are blocked from the selection process and will be displayed in a dark yellow color.

After you have made your set declaration, you will make the lead to the first trick by right-clicking on the required card, or  by dragging the required card onto the mat.

The opponent will then declare in any category where (i) the response to your declaration was "Not Good", or (ii) you did not declare in a category and the opponent wishes to.  In both cases the opponent can declare any additional sequences or sets.  All these declarations are, by definition, good and no response from you is required, beyond pressing "OK" to acknowledge each of these declarations.

If you are Younger (dealer):

The opponent will make the opening declarations.  The first of these (Point) will be displayed in the opponent declaration window, to which you respond by selecting cards as described above.  As you do this, the button in your response window will automatically change between "Good", "Not Good", or one of the requests for more information if your selection is equal to the opening bid.  If you select the button as "Good" or "Not Good", the declaration process will proceed to the next step.

If you press "Making?", "How High?", or "What Card?" (i.e., an equal first level declaration), the opponent will update the declaration with further detail.  Your selection will then be locked from further adjustment, and your response button will then be "Good", "Not Good", or "Equal".  After you press this, the opponent will move on to the next declaration.  If this is an additional sequence or set declaration, your response button will then be "OK" as you are merely confirming that you understand the declaration has been made.

When the opponent has finished declaring, the opponent (as elder) will lead to the first trick.  You will then make your declarations in any category where (i) your response to elder's declaration was "Not Good", or (ii) elder did not declare in a category and you wish to.  In the former case, this is displayed automatically with your original card selection locked - you may not make adjustments; in the latter case you are free to select valid cards for whatever declaration you wish and are able to make.  In both cases you can freely declare additional sequences or sets as you wish and are able.  All these declarations are, by definition, good and no opponent response will appear.

Special Declaration Preferences

There are two selectable preference options which simplify the declaration process.

The "Single-step Declarations" option of the Rule Preferences removes the step requesting more qualification ("Making?", "How High?" and "What Card?") by providing the full declaration (e.g., "Point of Five making 49") from the outset.  Thus an immediate assessment of "Good", "Not Good" or "Equal" will be made.  Note that both you and your opponent will frequently receive more information about each other's holding than would otherwise be the case when this option is enabled, and it is intended that this option be used only while learning how to play Piquet.

The "Automatic Selection" option of Player Preferences simplifies the user interaction in that Piquet will automatically select the best available cards for each declaration, and skip over declaration categories for which you have no declarable sets or sequences.  Nevertheless, you have the freedom to adjust the selection before making the declaration, or clearing the selections if you wish to pass.  Note that these automatic selections are always the best possible, and may not be the same as those identified if you request a hint.  (The hint logic may determine that it is more advisable to conceal an advantage by not declaring all that is possible.)


Playing Tricks

To play a card, position the mouse pointer over the card and click the RIGHT mouse button.   Alternatively, you may click the LEFT mouse button with the ALT key depressed.  Alternatively, you may drag and drop a card directly from your hand to the mat.

If you are able to follow suit and attempt to play a card of a different suit than that led, an error message will be displayed.

If you have selected "Play Protect" under Player Preferences, a confirming pop-up menu will appear when you click on the right mouse button.


Scoring

In Piquet, a running total is maintained as points are scored.  In the human game, each player states their new running total each time that points are scored.  In MeggieSoft Games' Piquet, the speech subsystem (if installed) performs this function on behalf of you and the opponent, in addition to the totals being updated at the bottom of the scoresheet.

The default scoring structure (in order of achievement) is:

Carte Blanche: no face cards in dealt hand - 10 points

Point Declaration: One point for each card declared - maximum of 8 points (9 points for 36-card deck)

Sequence Declarations: One point for each card, plus 10 for sequences of five or longer - 18 points maximum (huitième, or quint plus a separate tierce)

Set Declarations: Three points for a trio, fourteen for a quatorze - 42 points maximum (three quatorzes)

Repique: If 30 points are earned before opponent earns any, before the start of the trick playing phase - 60 points.

Trick Lead: For leading  the first card of a trick - 1 point

Trick Capture: For winning a trick to which the other play led - 1 point

Last Trick: For winning the last trick - 1 point

Pique:  If 30 points are earned before opponent earns any, after the start of the trick playing phase, and if a repique has not been scored - 30 points

The Cards: If the number of tricks won is between seven and eleven - 10 points

Capot: If all twelve tricks are won - 40 points

At the end of a partie, the winner of the partie scores the difference between the scores plus one hundred, unless the loser failed to get over the "Rubicon" (100 points or more), in which case the winner scores the sum of the scores plus one hundred, irrespective of whether or not the winner got over the Rubicon.

Optional scoring methods available (via Scoring Preferences) are:

Carte Rouge: All twelve cards in hand were used in scoring declarations - 50 points

Trick Win: (replaces Trick Capture): For winning any trick - 1 point

Tens and higher: Trick Lead and Trick Capture (or Trick Win) points are only awarded if the card involved is a ten or higher.  (The Last Trick point is always earned.)

Special Considerations

Piques and Repiques are determined from points earned rather than points announced.  Thus if a declaration by elder is deemed not good by younger, then younger has earned points that will be declared and scored after elder has led to the first trick.  Therefore a response of "Not Good" from younger automatically prevents elder from earning a pique or repique.

Younger can never achieve a Pique because a Pique is only achievable after the trick play scoring commences, by which time Elder will already have at least one point from leading to the first trick.  However, Younger can earn a Repique even though Elder has led to the first trick when Younger's declarations are made.  A Repique is assessed from the points earned in the order of the scoring structure shown above, i.e., up to the end of all declarations but before the trick lead.

Capot, unlike The Cards, is considered to be scored after the end of the trick play.  It does not therefore count towards a possible Pique.

A Carte Blanche may only be worth ten points and does require you to expose your hand, but it does prevent the other player from scoring 60 against you with a Repique.  Unless your hand includes the four aces, or the four tens (if you hold an ace), that you can declare as the winning set, to not declare a Carte Blanche may cost you 70 points as the point and any sequences you hold are very unlikely to provide winning declarations.

Experienced players (like the higher opponent skill levels) remember all the cards that have been seen and can deduce much from these and the declarations.  For example, if you simply bid a Quint, the opponent will often be able to immediately deduce its suit and possibly its high card.  Experienced players don't declare, or deliberately under-declare, if they believe the probability of a "Not Good" response is high.  They do this in order to protect information about their holding; it is known as "sinking the bid".


The End Of A Partie

A partie normally comprises six rounds, each player dealing three times.

If, at the end of the sixth round, the players are tied with the same total number of points, the partie is extended by two rounds.  This can happen repeatedly until one player is the clear winner.

The points scored for the partie depend on whether the losing player has "crossed the Rubicon" by scoring at least 100 points.  If the losing player has crossed the Rubicon, the winner is awarded 100 points plus the difference in the scores.  If the loser has not crossed the Rubicon, the winner is awarded 100 points plus the sum of the scores.  For example:  totals of 116-109 scores 107 for the winner of the partie, whereas 96-89 scores 285 for the winner, and 106-99 scores 305 for the winner.   The loser of the partie scores nothing.


Getting Started

When you first start Piquet, you will see a "Start" button in the status bar.  If you wish to make any menu option changes before starting, now is a good time to do this.  Then click on the start button.

The first partie is dealt by you (unless the Cut For Deal" dealing preference is enabled).  The lead alternates for each successive round within a partie (a game of six rounds).   After you have dealt, the opponent will exchange cards, after which you exchange your cards.

After you have exchanged your cards, the opponent open the declarations.  You select cards from your hand (by clicking on them) to designate which cards are in your counter-declaration.  See the section on declaring for details of how the declare process proceeds.

After the opponent has completed the declarations, it will lead to the first trick.  At this point, your successful counter declarations will be announced and scored.  You may also declare additional sets and sequences, including those in categories which the opponent did not bid.  Then you respond to the opponent's lead to the first trick.

You must follow suit if you can, and discard any card otherwise.  There is no trump suit in Piquet.  The player who played the higher card takes the trick and leads to the next trick.

When all twelve tricks have been played, the round ends and final bonuses are awarded before proceeding to the next round.

See also:

"Exchanging Cards"

"Declaring"

"Playing Tricks"


Watching A Partie Being Played

If this is your first experience of Piquet, you might benefit from a guided walk through of a game being played before launching into reading the help information in detail.

Piquet incorporates a tutorial facility for this purpose.  The game is played fully automatically, and you are provided with an explanation of what is taking place at each step.

To use the tutorial, select Tutorial from the Assist Menu.  The operation of the tutorial will be self-explanatory.


Strategies

Exchanging

Because elder is able to exchange more cards (in the normal 32-card game), elder has a higher probability of achieving the stronger hand.  Also, younger cannot score a pique against elder because elder leads to and scores the first point of trick play.  For these reasons, elder will usually adopt an offensive strategy and younger will adopt a defensive strategy to attempt to protect against elder scoring pique or taking the cards, let alone a repique.

A offensive strategy tends towards long strong suits.  This provides good chances of winning the point and potential sequences, and to lead from, and maintain the lead, during trick play.  A defensive strategy tends towards high cards across all suits in order to defend against the elder's ability to take the majority, if not all, the tricks and to provide the possibility of a successful set declaration in order to prevent a repique.  A defensive strategy will also consider retaining K? and Q?? suits to tease out the other player's winning cards in trick play in order to capture a subsequent trick with the king or queen.

Declaring

Normally one will declare the best combinations that one can in order to score points or prevent the other player from scoring.  However, if you are elder (declaring first) and an examination of your cards leads you to believe that there is a high probability of younger having a stronger declaration in a category (point, sequence, or set), you may be wise to pass and avoid disclosing information about your hand.  For example, if your best set is a trio of knaves and you have one or zero queens, kings and aces, the probability is high that the other player has a stronger trio, or even a quatorze.

Similarly, underbidding may be valuable.  If, as elder, you have eight cards of a suit, you might declare a shorter point and sequence in order to confuse the player.  Alternatively, as younger, you might overbid a tierce with a quart, if you wish to conceal your holding of a longer sequence.  Such practices are known as sinking the bid.

Playing Tricks

As there is no trump suit in Piquet, trick taking is a simple matter of being to take tricks by leading strength or by following suit with strength.  Because elder leads to the first trick, an elder long suit from the top is itself strength.  Younger will usually benefit from a more even distribution of cards across the suits in order to capture the lead as and when elder has finished leading from strength.

Once the declarations have been made, an experienced player will be able to deduce, with reasonably high probability, most of the cards in the other player's hand.  The player with the better powers of recall and deduction will likely outwit the other by keeping clear of suits of personal weakness, and drawing the other's high cards with low cards in order to win the middle ground in a suit.


Tournament Play and Replays
Tournament Play & Replays

When the Tournament option is enabled (via Dealing Preferences), Piquet  deals a prescribed set of cards to each player's hand for a given partie number and round number.  Thus a player would always get the same cards for, say, Partie 2 Round 4.

This feature permits two different players to play the same sequence of hands against the computer in a competition method of play. Alternatively, you might establish two or more player names for yourself and repeat the same sequences of dealt hands as a method of self-training.

To permit variety, you may select a tournament sequence number from 1 to 100.  The deal sequences for each tournament number are different.  The hand dealt for, say, Partie 1 Round 5 of Tournament 2 will be different from the hand dealt for Partie 1 Round 5 of Tournament  3.

Replays

The Game Menu permits you to restart parties and rounds (hands) with the same deal(s).  You may either restart the current round or current partie from the beginning, or you can replicate the deal sequences of the previous partie.   You may also replicate the deals of any previous partie via the "Partie Scores" entry of the View Menu.  Additionally, you will get the option to replay a round when the results of a completed round are displayed.


Understanding the Interface

The talon is shown face down to the left of the mat.  The opponent's cards are displayed face down above the mat, and the player's cards are displayed face up below the mat.  Exchanged cards are displayed on the right side of the mat.  Cards are played as tricks on the mat.

The scoresheet is displayed to the right of the mat.   If you have rule or scoring preferences selected, these will be shown to the left of the mat, under the talon.  The status bar along the bottom of the window displays information about the partie in progress as well as providing shortcut buttons to facilitate hand adjustments, obtaining hints, and declaring Carte Blanches.

Select a topic:

Using the Mouse

Drag and Drop

Point and Click

Arranging Your Cards

Card Interleaving

Mousepointer Icons

The Scoresheet

Status Bar Counters

Shortcut Buttons

The Toolbar

Visual and Sound Effects


Using The Mouse

Piquet supports both "Drag and Drop" and "Point and Click" mouse operations.  Point and Click operations are performed by single clicking.  Double-clicking is not supported.

For both methods of mouse operation, actions take effect when the mouse button is released, and are ignored if the mouse button is released in a different area from where it was depressed when the "No Drop" cursor is showing.  The only exception is when taking a new card from the stock when the card will move to the player's hand if the mouse button is released under the "No Drop" cursor.

For Point and Click operation:

•	The left mouse button is used for all game operations except that of playing a card from your hand to a trick.

•	The right mouse button is normally used to play a card from your hand to a trick, although you may use the "Alt" key with the left button if you prefer. If "Play Protect" is selected, the PopUp menu displayed over the player's hand will include play confirmation as the first option.

Left-clicking on the stack of completed tricks will display the cards face up until you release the mouse button.

If the Opponent Preference setting to permit "Quick Peek" is enabled, you may click down on the opponent's cards to view them face up.  When you release the mouse button, the cards will return to be face down.

Right-clicking on the scoresheet is a shortcut to the Scoring Preference settings, and right-clicking on the rules panel (or under the talon if the rules panel is not displayed) is a shortcut to the Rules Preference settings.  Elsewhere, a right-click will display a convenient Pop-Up of common menu options.

The AutoMouse features may be enabled to move the mouse automatically between the stock and the player area and/or to and from the message and information windows.

MultiSelect

During the Exchange and Declaration phases, you may use the MultiSelect feature  to select multiple cards in a single action. (This feature may be disabled via the player preference settings if you find that it interferes with your preferred method of mouse operation.)

To select multiple cards, click down on a card in your hand with the right mouse button and then, with the button down, drag the mouse pointer across your cards sideways. The group of cards traversed will be automatically highlighted as being selected.

In the Exchange Phase, the cards selected are a contiguous sequence from the first card.

In the Declaration phase, only those cards that may be validly combined with the first card are selected.  For example, if you are performing a Sequence declaration and start the MultiSelect by clicking down on the Jack of Clubs, cards traversed which do not form a valid sequence with the Jack of Clubs will not be selected.

You may traverse left and right to select/deselect more of the cards. If you return to the card from which you started, no cards will be selected.  If you move the mouse off the cards and then release the button, the selection will be cleared.  You may disable the "MultiSelect" facility  via the Player Preferences.


Drag and Drop

"Drag and Drop" mouse operations are performed by clicking down on the mouse button above the card to be moved, dragging the mouse pointer to the destination, and then releasing the mouse button.

Unless the "Suppress Card Animation" animation preference has been selected, the card will be dragged with the mousepointer - in which case the left side of the card  denotes the specific drop position instead of the horizontal position of the mousepointer itself.   In order to provide leeway when dragging cards, the overall position of the card within the screen is considered when determining the intended drop area.  In order to be sure that the card is in the desired drop area,  watch the changing mousepointer icon.

The valid moves are:

•	Exchanging: Player's hand to the mat.

•	Exchanging and Peeking: Player's hand to the talon if the player is elder, is exchanging less cards than the permitted maximum (five cards in the default case of a 32 card deck), and wishes to peek at the untaken cards.

•	Playing Tricks: Player's hand to the mat.

Cards must be exchanged as a group.  To drag and drop as a group, first select each of the cards by clicking on it, and then drag one of the cards in the group to the mat.    You may also use the "MultiSelect" feature (see Using The Mouse) to select multiple cards for exchanging with a single drag operation.

Note: If you wish to use only the Point-and-Click method of mouse operation, and find that you inadvertently initiate unintentional card movements and playing actions when the mouse is moved with the button down, you may turn off the Drag-and-Drop capabilities via the Mouse Preferences.


Point and Click

"Point and Click" mouse operations are performed by clicking down and releasing the mouse button on the card(s) to be moved and then clicking down and releasing the mouse button on the destination.

The valid moves are:

•	Player's hand to mat or talon when exchanging cards (left mouse button).

•	Playing a card to a trick (right mouse button).

To exchange a group of cards (as will normally be the case), select each of the cards and then click on the mat or talon.  Be sure to click on the talon instead of the mat if you are elder (non-dealer, exchanging first), are exchanging less that your maximum, and you wish to peek at the untaken cards.


Arranging Your Cards

By default, Piquet automatically sorts and resorts the player's cards when dealt, and when new cards are added to it.  The default sortation is suit within rank.  When the "Sort By Suit" option is selected under Player Preferences, the sortation is changed to be rank within suit.  All sorting is performed in the order: Clubs, Diamonds, Spades, Hearts.  This improves color differentiation of adjacently displayed suits.

You may chose to arrange the cards yourself by selecting the "Do Not Sort" option under Player Preferences.  In this case,  new cards are always added to the right of the hand.

You may Drag and Drop cards to the left and right within your hand to order them to your liking at any time.  If you do not have the "No Sorting" preference selected, this may be a temporary adjustment for the current turn only.

If you are familiar with MeggieSoft Games'  Rummy 500 or  Gin Rummy games, note that Piquet does not support a "reserved" set of cards.


Card Interleaving

Card interleaving provides the very realistic appearance of cards sliding into and out of the player's hand.  However, the additional graphics processing involved with the display of the card interleaving effects may result in jerky movements and disjointed card display on slower systems, or those will other processor-intensive programs running simultaneously.  In such cases the capability may be disabled via the Animation Preferences.

What is Card Interleaving?

Single cards added to the player's hand and single cards leaving the player's hand are displayed in a manner that slides the moved card in or out of the hand, underneath the card to the right of it.  Unless automatic player hand sorting has been suppressed via the Player Preferences, a single discard or a card from the deck which is dragged to the player's hand will realistically slide into the correct position if it is dropped in the incorrect sorted location .

Dragging a card within the player's hand (rearranging the order) will similarly maintain the display of the moved card in an realistically interleaved manner, subject to the TrueSlide preference setting in the Animation Preferences.

By default (if TrueSlide is not selected), when a card is dragged within the area of the player's hand, the other cards in the player's hand will automatically jump to the front or back of the moving card such that the dragged card is always positioned between those that are adjacent to its left side (i.e., over those to the left of it, and under those to the right of it).

What Is TrueSlide?

TrueSlide provides perfectly realistic card sliding, in that cards cannot cut through other cards or jump over or under them. However, this will result in the card disappearing if it is slid horizontally to the right (as it would with an actual spread of playing cards in your hand).   For this reason, TrueSlide is not active by default lest it causes confusion.

If TrueSlide is enabled, the recommended method of moving a card within the hand (particularly to the right) is to drag it upwards out of the hand (over the mat) and then drag it back into the hand at the required new position. Because the card was completely withdrawn from the hand, its new interleaved position will be at the point of vertical re-entry to the hand. The point of re-entry is defined by the card's leading moving edge - i.e, the right side if it is moving to the right on re-entry, the left side if it is moving to the left.

If TrueSlide is enabled and a card is dragged to the left so that it is completely visible, its new interleaved position at any time will be defined by its right edge (as this would logically slide under the left edge of the card to its immediate right).

During the TrueSlide drag operation, the right mouse button may be clicked (while the left button performing the drag remains down) in order to momentarily override the effect of TrueSlide. This action will therefore pop the dragged card into a visible interleaved state between the adjacent cards at its current horizontal position.  You may also press and hold down the right mouse button while continuing to drag with the left button, in which case TrueSlide is overridden until you release the right mouse button.

TrueSlide summary:

•	A card cannot slice through other cards, only between them.

•	A card moved to the right in the hand will slide behind the cards to the right of it (and then not be visible unless its upper edge is partly over the table or is over an uncovered area of the table within the player's hand area).

•	A card moved to the left which is currently visible will remain fully visible as it traverses and covers the cards to the left of it.

•	A card moved to the left which is not currently visible (because it is behind the other cards in the hand) will slide on top of the next card to the left which has its right-edge to the left of the card being moved.


Mousepointer Icons

Piquet uses a set of informative mousepointer icons, which change depending upon where the mouse is located and what Drag and Drop operation is currently being performed.

The normal pointer is slightly larger than the standard Windows mousepointer and the mousepointers are colored so that they are easier to see when over a card images.

The meaning of each icon is shown below:

Normal pointer.  Awaiting your action.

Piquet is working.  Please wait.

Your actions are restricted (for example, because your online opponent is thinking).  Some menu and shortcut button operations are available.

You may drop the card here (exchange or play).  Release the mouse button to do so.

You may not drop the card here.  If you release the mouse button, the card will return to the player's hand

Card selected for shifting within player's hand.  Move to required position and release button.

If you experience flickering problem when using the special mousepointers, you may disable them via the Animation Preferences.


The Scoresheet

The information on the scoresheet to the right of the mat is displayed as follows:

•	The scores for each completed round are added the scoresheet at the end of the round.

•	After the second round of a partie is completed, the running totals for the current partie are displayed as a sub-total line under the round scores.

•	Within a round, points scored are displayed at the bottom of the scoresheet

•	If the scoresheet is about to become full, earlier round scores will be consolidated into a single line, displayed in bold font.

Because the scoresheet is facing the player, it is maintained from the player's perspective - hence the player is "Me" and the opponent is "You".  You may reverse this notation, or use the player and opponent skill names, via the Screen Preferences.

Select "Round Scores" under the View Menu option to see the full details (including date and skill level) of all rounds of the current partie.  These round scores are always shown individually, even if some have been consolidated on the scoresheet to make more room (see above).


Status Bar Counters

The following counters are displayed in the status bar:

Talon:  The number of cards remaining in the talon.  Unless the "Show Who Dealt" Dealing Preference has been deselected, an indicator of who dealt the current round is also displayed as a small green box in the upper (opponent dealt) or lower (player dealt) part of the status display.

Status: Current status, unless the player and opponent game counters (see below) are being displayed in the status bar. Also error messages (click on an error message to dismiss it).

Player (if set in Screen Preferences):  The number of prior parties won by the player.

Opponent (if set in Screen Preferences):  The opponent skill level and the number of prior parties won by the opponent.

Round: The current round number within the current partie.

Trick: The trick number within the current round.  Shows "Exchanging" or "Declaring" prior to trick play.

Partie:  Normally six rounds, but extends a partie by two rounds (repeatedly if necessary) if the players have an equal number of points.


Shortcut Buttons

The following buttons in the status bar provide shortcuts to certain menu operations.

 Query Symbol:  Click to get assistance on what you can do at this point of your turn

 Light Bulb:  Click to get a hint.

 Undo Turn: Click to undo the current round to one of your previous turns.  (Equivalent to "Undo Prevous Turn" under the Player Menu.)

 Deselect: Click to deselect all cards in your hand.  This is quicker than deselecting them individually if you wish to revise your exchange or declaration selection.

 Cannot Deselect/Undo: There is nothing to undo at this time.

 Cannot Deselect: There is nothing to undo at this time.  (This version of the icon is shown if the "Undo Turn" facility is disabled in the Player Preferences.)

 Stagger Cards: Click to display the player's cards offset by suit.

 Align Cards: Click to align the player's cards.

 Sort By Rank:  Click to sort cards by rank, right click to disable automatic sorting.

 Sort By Suit:  Click to sort cards by suit, right click to disable automatic sorting.

 Sort Disabled: Right-click to re-enable automatic sorting

 Declare Carte Blanche:  Click to declare a Carte Blanche.  The white icon indicates that you do not need to select your exchanges before declaring (either because you are younger or because the simple carte blanche preference has been selected).

 Declare Carte Blanche:  Click to declare a Carte Blanche.  The green icon indicates that you, as elder, are required to select your exchanges before declaring.

 No Carte Blanche: You do not hold a declarable Carte Blanche

 Waiting As Host (Online Play): A reminder that you are awaiting a guest connection.  Click to disconnect.

 Chat (Online Play): Click to open the chat window in order to communicate with your online opponent.

An alternative set of shortcut buttons are displayed when AutoStep is active.

Where a shortcut button is associated with a Preference setting, the change is not saved.  You must change the setting via preference settings if you wish a change to be saved permanently.


The Toolbar

The toolbar (enabled or disabled via the Screen Preferences) may be displayed under the menu bar or on the left side of the main window.

The toolbar buttons provide shortcuts to items within the menus, plus three sound toggle buttons for music, speech and sound effects.

The  sound toggles are displayed by default if the corresponding sound type is enabled and permit you to temporarily mute (suppress) and unmute (hear)  the corresponding sound type.  The effect of the toggle buttons is temporary and does not alter the saved preferences setting (i.e., enabled or not enabled) for that sound type.

The default toolbar contains reduced selection of the more commonly used menu items.

You may also select the use of the "all buttons" screen preference, in which case buttons representing almost all menu items will be displayed (except the Assist and Explore menus and operations accessed via the Shortcut Buttons).  These will usually extend beyond the right-side of the toolbar (or the bottom of the toolbar if "show on left side is selected) unless your window size is sufficiently large to show them all.  The extra buttons also include buttons to switch to the other MeggieSoft Games, but only those buttons for the other games which are installed on your computer will be visible .

Selecting the "show on left side" option displays the toolbar on the side, rather than the top, of the window.  This might be more convenient for some users, particularly if the ability to use larger card sizes is restricted due to the reduced table and mat heights when the toolbar is at the top .

You may customize the toolbar by double-clicking or right-clicking on it, or by using the "customize toolbar" button.  This permits you to remove buttons, change the display sequence of the buttons, and insert and remove separators.  If you remove buttons, you may add them back by again customizing the toolbar, or chose "Reset" to re-add all buttons.   (The "Help" button in the customization dialog window is intentionally inoperative.)

Customizations of each of the toolbars (with and without extra buttons) are saved separately between sessions.  This means that if you have customized either toolbar it will be restored as it was customized when you next select or deselect the "all buttons" preference.


Visual and Sound Effects

Piquet provides a number of visual effects and sound effects to improve realism and enhance your playing pleasure.  These are:

•	Rounded card corners

•	Customizable color schemes

•	"Wallpaper" effects for the main table window and the mat

•	Animation and visual card dragging

•	Custom card-style mousepointer icons

•	MIDI, MP3 and WMA Music support

•	Sound effects

•	Synthesized speech output

The above may be selected, customized, and deselected via the preference settings.

Note that these effects make intensive use of processor and graphics resources and can reduce responsiveness on slower or less graphics-capable systems.  If you find Piquet's interface to be sluggish, you should experiment with disabling some of the visual and sound effects.


Menus & Preferences

The following drop-down menus are available:

Game Menu

Online Menu

Player Menu

Preferences Menu

View Menu

Assist Menu

Admin Menu

Help Menu

In addition, a Pop-Up menu is provided for easy access to commonly used menu items:

Pop-Up Menu


Game Menu

The following selections are available under the Game Menu:

Restart Round

Restart Partie

Redeal Fresh Partie

Replicate Partie

Switch To Canasta

Switch To Euchre & Écarté

Switch To German Whist

Switch To Gin Rummy

Switch To Pinochle & Bezique

Switch To Rummy 500

Terminate

Exit

Each of the "Switch To ... " options is only shown if the corresponding game is found to be installed in the same filefolder/directory as Piquet.  If you use these frequently, you may care to select one of the "On Exit/Sleep" options within the Operational Preferences for all the games you have installed.  In this case, each game will sleep in the background when you switch from it and will re-awaken immediately when you switch back to it (i.e., without the loading delay).

All of the above selections will ask "Are You Sure?" before taking the corresponding action.  These confirmation requests may be suppressed by selecting the applicable Message Preference.


Restart Round

Select this menu option to restart the current round.  Piquet will abandon the current round and restart it from the beginning, with the cards in the same start order.


Restart Partie

Select this menu option to restart the current partie with the same deal. Piquet will abandon the current partie, reset all counters and scores, and redeal the partie (without reshuffling).  If you wish to restart the partie with a fresh shuffle, select "Redeal Fresh Partie" instead of "Restart Partie".

This action restarts only the current partie.  If you want to replicate the deal of the immediately previous partie use "Replicate Partie".  You may also make a selection under the "Partie Scores" option of the View Menu to replicate from an even earlier partie.


Redeal Fresh Partie

Select this menu option to restart the current partie with a fresh deal.  Piquet will abandon the current partie, reset all counters and scores, and shuffle the cards into a different start order before dealing.

This option is not available during tournament play (use Restart Partie instead).

This action redeals only the current partie.  Thus, if you are currently on partie 3, the play will restart at round 1 of partie 3.

If you want to start the current partie again with the same deal, select "Replay Partie".

If you want to start over from the beginning of partie 1, select "Reset Scoreboard".


Replicate Partie

Select this menu option to replay your most recent previously completed partie, with the same card deal as was used for that partie.

Piquet will abandon the current partie, reset all counters and scores, and arrange the cards in the order they were at the beginning of the previous partie before dealing.

All subsequent rounds of the new partie will also be dealt with the deck ordered as it was in the corresponding round of the previous partie.

This option is obviously not available during Partie 1.

To replicate a partie other than the previous partie, you may do this via the "Partie Scores" option under the View Menu.


Switch To Canasta

Select this menu option to exit Piquet and automatically start Canasta for the same player.

If the player name does not currently have a Canasta scoreboard file, Canasta will automatically create one and inform you that it has done so.

If you switch part way through a round, remember that Piquet only saves the scores of games and rounds completed, unless the "AutoStart - Restore" option is selected under Operational Preferences.

Note: This option is only shown if Canasta is found to be installed in the same filefolder/directory as Piquet.


Switch To Euchre & Écarté

Select this menu option to exit Piquet and automatically start Euchre & Écarté for the same player.

If the player name does not currently have a Euchre & Écarté scoreboard file, Euchre & Écarté will automatically create one and inform you that it has done so.

If you switch part way through a round, remember that Piquet only saves the scores of games and rounds completed, unless the "AutoStart - Restore" option is selected under Operational Preferences.

Note: This option is only shown if Euchre & Écarté is found to be installed in the same filefolder/directory as Piquet.


Switch To German Whist

Select this menu option to exit Piquet and automatically start German Whist for the same player.

If the player name does not currently have a German Whist scoreboard file, German Whist will automatically create one and inform you that it has done so.

If you switch part way through a round, remember that Piquet only saves the scores of games and rounds completed, unless the "AutoStart - Restore" option is selected under Operational Preferences.

Note: This option is only shown if German Whist is found to be installed in the same filefolder/directory as Piquet.


Switch To Gin Rummy

Select this menu option to exit Piquet and automatically start Gin Rummy for the same player.

If the player name does not currently have a Gin Rummy scoreboard file, Gin Rummy will automatically create one and inform you that it has done so.

If you switch part way through a round, remember that Piquet only saves the scores of games and rounds completed, unless the "AutoStart - Restore" option is selected under Operational Preferences.

Note: This option is only shown if Gin Rummy is found to be installed in the same filefolder/directory as Piquet.


Switch To Pinochle & Bezique

Select this menu option to exit Piquet and automatically start Pinochle & Bezique for the same player.

If the player name does not currently have a Pinochle & Bezique scoreboard file, Pinochle & Bezique will automatically create one and inform you that it has done so.

If you switch part way through a round, remember that Piquet only saves the scores of games and rounds completed, unless the "AutoStart - Restore" option is selected under Operational Preferences.

Note: This option is only shown if Pinochle & Bezique is found to be installed in the same filefolder/directory as Piquet.


Switch To Rummy 500

Select this menu option to exit Piquet and automatically start Rummy 500 for the same player.

If the player name does not currently have a Rummy 500 scoreboard file, Rummy 500 will automatically create one and inform you that it has done so.

If you switch part way through a round, remember that Piquet only saves the scores of parties and rounds completed, unless the "AutoStart - Restore" option is selected under Operational Preferences.

Note: This option is only shown if Rummy 500 is found to be installed in the same filefolder/directory as Piquet.


Terminate

This menu item is shown if you have selected a special "On Exit" Operational Preference which places Piquet in a background "sleep" state instead of being terminated when it is exited normally.

Select "Terminate" to force Piquet to terminate instead of sleeping as a background process.


Exit

Terminates the session and exits from Piquet.

Piquet automatically saves the scores of games and rounds completed, together with the state of a partially completed round, unless the "AutoRestore" option is deselected under Operational Preferences.

If AutoRestore is deselected then, before exiting, Piquet asks if you want to save the updated scoreboard for the current player, if it has changed since it was last saved.

•	If you respond "Yes", Piquet will save the scores of all previous games and the scores of the rounds of the current game (if not yet completed) for the current player.  When this player next plays Piquet, this information will be restored automatically and play will proceed from the start of the same game number and round number.

•	If you respond "No", the scoreboard information will not be updated and when the current player next plays Piquet, the situation will be as it was previously.

If, when you next play Piquet, you start part way through an unfinished game (e.g.,  round four) and you wish to restart from round one of the game, use the "Replay Partie" option.

If you have selected a special "On Exit" Operational Preference which places Piquet in a background "sleep" state instead of being terminated, this menu item is displayed as "Exit (Sleep)" .


Online Menu

The following menu entries support Online Play:

Online Preferences

Preference Alignment

Find A Partner

Direct Host

Direct Guest

Chat

AutoPilot (optional)

Online Status

Disconnect


Preference Alignment

There are a number of deal, rule, and scoring preferences that must match those of your online opponent for online play to operate.  A description of how the matching process is negotiated is described under "Online Preference Agreement".

The initial default is that all of the critical online preferences are disabled.  Thus when you start an online game, the corresponding preference settings are turned off until you disconnect from the online session.

The preference alignment menu option permits you to define one or more of the critical preferences that you would prefer to enforce for your online games.  If your candidate opponent has different preference alignment settings, the negotiation process may, or may not, result in acceptance of these.  Therefore, if you were to have many of these preferences enabled, you may find it harder to find an online opponent prepared to agree to them all.

The preference alignment window includes two buttons in addition to the "OK" button.  The "Clear" button clears the selection, while the "=Offline" button sets the selection to be the same as your current normal (offline) preference settings.

The same alignment window is shown if you decide to adjust your alignment preferences for the benefit of a particular negotiation.  In this case, any changes made will apply only to the current online session.  When in adjustment mode,  the differences are displayed in colored boldface; green indicating a preference that the online opponent has selected but you have not, and red indicating a preference that you have selected but the opponent has not.  If you wish to fully align the highlighted preferences check the green items and uncheck the red items.


Find A Partner

When you want play online, the first step (after completing the online preferences) is to connect to an opponent.

If you do not have a pre-arranged opponent for a direct online session, you may seek your opponent via the MeggieSoft Games Online Forum.

The two parties in a session are termed "host" and "guest".  A "guest" is a user who connects to a "host" (one who is already online and waiting).  Thus the host is the user who prepares to accept a connection which a guest will complete.

When you select "Find A Partner", you will be connected to the forum and a list of waiting hosts will be displayed.  Click on one of these and then click on the "Connect" button to inform the host that you are ready to play.  The online game will commence as soon as the host accepts your response.

If there are no waiting hosts listed in the forum, you may click the "Be A Host" button to list yourself in the forum as a waiting host.  You may then continue to play in local (human versus machine) mode until someone accepts your invitation.

For more detailed information, see "Forum Pairing".


Direct Host

Click the Direct Host menu option to initiate a Direct Online Session.  Your current IP address and port number will be displayed.  This information will be needed by the guest for a successful connection to be completed.

When you have dismissed the confirming dialog box (assuming you don't withdraw), your computer will be actively listening for a connection, and a pulsating watch icon will be displayed in the status bar to remind you.


Direct Guest

Click the Direct Guest menu option to connect to a Direct Online Session.  The host must already be waiting and have informed you of the IP address and port number to which you are to connect.  Enter this information, and click on "Connect".


Chat

At any time during online play either player may contact the other via an online chat window.  Select "Chat" under the Online Menu, or click on the chat shortcut button which will have been added to the status bar.  The online chat window will then appear.

To send a message to your opponent, type it in the box at the bottom of the chat window and click on "Send".  What you send will be echoed in the conversation history window.  You may then wait, or click on "Hide" to hide the online chat window.

If the online chat window is hidden (or you have not yet invoked it), it will automatically appear if your online opponent sends you a message or replies to your message.


AutoPilot

The optional "AutoPilot" menu entry may be enabled via "Online Preferences".  By default it is not visible.  If enabled, it is only operable when it is your turn to play.

AutoPilot operates similarly to the offline AutoPlay feature in that your online moves will be made for you automatically.   To turn the AutoPilot off, select the menu entry again (it will be captioned "AutoPilot Off").

The AutoPilot is not intended as a means to cheat on your online opponents, but as a facility you might use to keep the online game running if you are called away for a few minutes.

The AutoPilot was created to facilitate the development and testing of the MeggieSoft Games online features and is included in the released versions for your convenience.


Online Status

This provides an information display of your current online status, including (as applicable): the names and IP addresses of you and your opponent, whether you are disconnected, connected, or waiting as a host, the port number used, and your playing position (host or guest).


Disconnect

This will disconnect you from online activity.  If you are currently playing against a remote opponent, the opponent will be immediately informed that you have disconnected.

Abrupt disconnection may deter the opponent from choosing you as a partner in the future.  Good protocol is to disconnect only after the end of a game, or by using the chat facility to advise the opponent of your intention to disconnect.  Alternatively, you might chat at the beginning of the session to agree upon the number of games that will be played.


Player Menu

The following selections are available under the Player Menu:

Change Name

Add/Remove Player

Save Scoreboard

Reset Scoreboard

Undo Previous Turn

In addition, if more than one player name has been created using "Add Player" , the menu will contain a "Switch to..." selection for each of the other players.  This facilitates one-click switching between players.


Change Name

Select this menu option to change your player name.

Initially, the player name is "Player".  You may choose any name that it is legitimate to add, as described under Add/Switch Player.  Generally this would be your first name or a one word nickname.

When you change your name, all scoreboard, game history and preferences settings are preserved under the new name.


Add/Remove Player

Select this menu option to add a new player, to switch to another player, or to remove a player.

Add:  When you first use Piquet, the only player is "Player".  Use the "Add" button to add more players.  When you select the "Add" button, a sub-window will appear, into which you will enter the name for the new player.  Press "OK" to create a scoreboard for the new player.  Enter players' names as 1-8 letters and numbers.  Spaces, punctuation marks, and special characters are not permitted.  Irrespective of how you specify upper and lower case, Piquet will always display the player names in lower case with the first letter capitalized.  You may have up to 12 named players at any time

Switch:  Select the incoming player name, and press the "Switch" button.  You may select any named player except yourself (the current player).  When switching players, you will first be asked if the scoreboard for the outgoing player is to be saved, if it has changed since it was last saved.

Remove:  Select the player name to be removed, and press the "Remove" button.  You may select any named player except yourself (the current player).    You will be asked to confirm that the player is to be removed, after which the scoreboard file and the saved options for the player will be permanently deleted from your system.

The Switch facility described above is primarily for switching to a newly added player.  The quickest way to switch to another existing player is by selecting the "Switch to <name>" entry in the player menu.


Save Scoreboard

Select this menu option to perform an immediate save of the current scoreboard status (parties and rounds) for the current player.

This option is useful if you are enjoying an extended session of Piquet and don't want to wait until you exit Piquet, or change players, before your updated scoreboard status is safely saved to disk.


Reset Scoreboard

Select this menu option to reset your scoreboard to zero.  The partie counter will return to partie number 1.

If you are part way through a partie, the scores of the previous rounds of the partie are not cleared.  Thus you can make the current partie the first of your new scoreboard.

The previously saved copy of your scoreboard is not erased by this action.  You must use the "Save Scoreboard" option to replace the previous scoreboard with the new one.

If you clear the scoreboard and decide you would have preferred not to have done so, exit Piquet (or change players) and respond "No" when asked if the updated scoreboard is to be saved.


Undo Previous Turn

Select this option to undo the current round to one of your previous turns.  A selection box is displayed, from which you may choose to return to any of your previous turns.

Once you have returned to a previous turn, you must continue from that point.

This feature is provide as a practice and skill development aid in order to answer the question: "What if I had done something different?"

There is a small overhead in respect of saving the status at each turn.  If this overhead is noticeable, or if you wish to disable the "Undo Turn" feature for any other reason, you may do this via the Player Preferences.


Preferences Menu

You may customize Piquet to your taste to your taste by selecting from the Preferences menu.  When the preferences panel is visible, you may switch to any of the other sections.  If you want your changes to be saved for future sessions, ensure that the "Save Properties" box is checked.  Preferences are saved separately for each player.

Animation Preferences

Card Preferences

Card Back Preferences

Color Preferences

Dealing Preferences

Game Preferences

Message Preferences

Mouse Preferences

Music Preferences

Online Preferences

Opponent Preferences

Player Preferences

QuickSet Preferences

Rule Preferences

Scoring Preferences

Screen Preferences

Sound Preferences

Speech Preferences

Restore Pre-"Safe Mode" Preferences

Reset Default Preferences

The tree-structured selection menu may be replaced by the "radio-button" style of earlier versions by checking the "Button Navigator" option at the lower left of the preferences panel.

Note that right-clicking on the scoresheet is a shortcut to the Scoring Preference settings, and right-clicking on the rules panel (or under the talon if the rules panel is not displayed) is a shortcut to the Rule Preference settings.


Animation Preferences

The following preferences are available:

Suppress Declare Panel Animation:  When selected, the player and opponent declaration panels appear instantly instead of sliding out over the mat.

Suppress Card Animation: When selected, a card being moved automatically will disappear from the source and reappear at the destination, instead of floating from the source to the destination.

Suppress Animated Card Twisting: When selected, cards do not twist when moving, but remain flat.

Constant Travel Time: When selected, the duration of each animated card movement is the same.  Otherwise, the duration is distance dependent (i.e., cards move at a constant speed).

Animation Speed: Select the flight time duration for when cards are moved automatically from source to destination.

Suppress Card Display When Dragging: When selected, a dragged card will not be displayed in motion under the mousepointer.

Suppress Card Interleaving: When selected, card interleaving is suppressed.  In this case a dragged card will always fully appear over the top of the other cards in the players hand until the mouse button is released.

Enable TrueSlide: When selected, interleaving is displayed with true realism in that a card being moved will not automatically leap in front and behind the other cards as it traverses the player's hand.   See the Card Interleaving section for more information regarding TrueSlide.


Card Preferences

Card & Font Size: Provided that the required "Plus Pack" card image files exist in the "Cards" subfolder of the installation filefolder, you may select the Regular card size, or one of three alternative card display sizes: Small, Large, and Extra Large, depending upon the current main window size.  The font size displayed in the main window and the size of the status bar and shortcut buttons are adjusted when the card size is larger than the regular size.

Apply to Dialog Font Size: When selected, the font size of the text displayed in dialog boxes will also be larger when the card size is larger than the regular size.

When Resizing Main Window:

You may specify how the card and font size is to change when you resize the main window (by maximizing it, by dragging an edge or corner, or edge, or by direct selection via the Screen Preferences):

Do Not Change: The card size will always be as specified, unless the window size is too small to accommodate the selection - in which case it will be reduced appropriately.

AutoSize Per Window Size: The card and font sizes will adjust to the second largest possible for the new window size (i.e., extra large will never be used).

AutoSize To Largest Possible: The card and font sizes will adjust to the largest possible for the new window size.

Deck Design: By default, the "Standard" design is used.  However, if you have installed additional card sets (downloadable from the MeggieSoft Games website), you may also select these.  The images in many of these sets have been adapted from artistic card designs which were created by, and are owned by, the respective designers of the original decks.

Index Notation: You may select one of a number of European card index notations as an alternative to the standard Anglo-American notation (AKQJ).

Select "True Corners" for a more realistic card appearance with rounded instead of square corners. This may result in a performance penalty when cards are displayed.

Select "Wider Hand Spreads" to display cards in the player's and the opponent's hands with twice the card separation than the default setting.  The default is 25%  separation (75% overlap) whereas the wider spread is 50% separation (50% overlap).  (Note that card separation is dynamically reduced if the hand currently contains too many cards to display at the full 25% or 50% separation.)

Select "Display Face-up" to show tricks face-up at the end of each round.


Card Back Preferences

There are six standard card back designs available for each deck design, plus you may use an image file (jpg, bmp or wmf) of your own design or choosing.  Click on the Predefined or Custom button to select the type required.

Predefined Card Backs

Use the drop-down Card Back list for the predefined cards associated with the current deck design.

If you have more than the Standard deck design installed, you may also select the card backs from other installed card decks by first selecting the required Deck Design, and then the required Card Back.

If you do not wish your selected card back to change if you select another deck design via the Card Preferences, ensure that the "Link Deck Design to Card Preferences" box is unchecked.   When this box is checked, the predefined card back designs automatically change whenever you change the deck design via the Card Preferences.

Custom Card Backs

Select "Browse" to select a custom card design.

Piquet does not provide graphic design capabilities, so it is assumed that you are able to scan, copy, or design any custom image file(s) you require using other tools.  You may also use other appropriately sized bitmap files on your system.

The size of the "regular" card image is 71 by 96 pixels.  If the image is larger, the File Selector will reduce it to size and, if the aspect ratio of the image is different from that required for the card, will indicate that the image is horizontally or vertically adjustable.  In this case, you may click the mouse down on the image and gently drag it so that a hidden or obscured part of the image becomes part of the image display.

Piquet will automatically resize the card back design when card sizes other than "regular" are selected.

If "With Frame" is selected for the custom card back, a white frame will surround the selected image.  This usually creates a more attractive card back.

You do not need to add the card boundary (single pixel black line around the edge) or trim the corners.  Piquet will do this automatically when it loads the card back image file, which will override your efforts anyway.


Color Preferences

The color preferences are used to provide on-screen adjustment of the colors displayed by Piquet.

First, in the upper part of the window, select the target area for which you want to change the color.  The current color is displayed below the "Target" selection frame.  If the target allows you to change both the text and the background colors, select the one desired.

Second, click on the "New Color" button to select the color to which you require to change the target.  The standard Windows color selection window will be displayed.  You will return to the color control window after you have made your new selection.

If you wish to preview the effect of the change, click the "Preview" button.  The revised color scheme will be dynamically displayed "on-screen" in the main Piquet window.  If you cancel the preferences window after previewing, the previous color scheme will be reinstated.

The "Reset" selection frame allows you to set all colors to how they were before you selected "Preferences", or to the Piquet default color scheme.


Dealing Preferences

The following preferences are available:

Cut For Deal: (Not available when Tournament Dealing is selected.)  When selected, each new partie will start with a cut for deals.  Cuts are determined by Piquet card rank -- i.e., ace high.  If you win the cut, you will be offered the choice of whether you wish to deal or whether you want the opponent to deal.

36 Card Deck: A deck of thirty-six cards, including the Sixes of each suit will be used.  This size deck was often used in the early history of Piquet.  If enabled, each player must exchange at least one card, and the Rule Preference permitting a zero card exchange by younger is ignored.  A change to this deal preference will become effective at the start of the next Partie; until then the rules panel (to the left of the mat) will display the current deck size in parentheses as a reminder that a decksize change is pending.

Tournament Dealing: Piquet will always deal the same sequence of cards for a given partie number, depending upon the selected sequence number.  Thus, two or more player names set to the same sequence number preference can separately play identical hands for each partie number as a tournament.

Quick Deal:  Cards are dealt as a single block instead of as groups of three  cards.  This speeds up the display at the start of the partie, at the expense of realism.

Quiet Deal:  Cards are dealt individually but the Place Card sound effect is inhibited.  This speeds up the display.

Show Who Dealt: When selected (the default), the dealer of the current round is indicated in the left side of the status bar as a small green box in the upper (opponent dealt) or lower (player dealt) part of the status display.


Game Preferences

The following preferences are available:

AutoDeal: When selected, the "Deal" button will not appear in the status bar at the start of each round.  Note that preference changes before the start of a round may only be made when the "Deal"  button is displayed.

AutoResume:  When selected (as is the default), Piquet will remember which player was playing when it exits, and will automatically resume for that player when Piquet is next run.

AutoRestore:  When selected (as is the default), the state of a partie in progress is automatically saved with the scoreboard and is automatically restored when the player next plays Piquet.

AutoStep - Full Cycle Step: By default, AutoStep plays one turn for either the player or opponent for each click of the step button.  When the Full Cycle Step option is selected, each click of the button plays one cycle of player turn followed by opponent turn, ending at the next player turn.

Minimize Window: By default, minimizing the window will follow the normal Windows practice of continuing to show the Window icon and description as a button in the Windows taskbar, from which it may be restored.  You may specify alternative behaviors if you wish:

Minimize As Tray Icon: When the main window is minimized, an icon will appear in the Windows tray (the area at the bottom left of the screen which contains the clock).   The normal taskbar button is not displayed in this case.  Click on the tray icon to restore the Piquet window, or right-click on the tray icon to terminate the program.

Minimize To Background: When the main window is minimized, all visible references to it are removed and Piquet is "sleeping" in the background.  To re-awaken, merely run Piquet again as usual, in which case the sleeping process will be re-activated.

On Exit: By default, exiting Piquet (by whatever means, including switching to one on the other MeggieSoft Games) will follow the normal Windows practice of terminating the program execution.  You may specify alternative behaviors if you wish:

Sleep As Tray Icon: Instead of terminating, Piquet stays in the background in a sleeping mode and an icon is displayed in the tray.  To re-awaken, click on the tray icon, or right-click on the tray icon to terminate the program.

Background Sleep: Instead of terminating, Piquet stays in the background in a sleeping mode and all visible references to it are removed.  To re-awaken, merely run Piquet again as usual, in which case the sleeping process will be re-activated.

The "Minimize Window" and "On Exit" preferences are system-wide (they apply to all users of your computer).  They provide convenient methods of placing Piquet in the background so that Piquet may be swiftly re-awoken when you want to play again.

•	If you "minimize to background" or "exit to background sleep", you will need to re-run Piquet to re-awaken it.

•	If you "minimize as tray icon" or "sleep as tray icon", you will need to click on the tray icon to restore/re-awaken Piquet.

•	If you "minimize as tray icon" or "sleep as tray icon", you may right-click on the tray icon and select "Terminate" to terminate the process execution completely.

•	If you have enabled one of the alternative "On Exit" preferences, a "Terminate" item entry will be shown the Game Menu in order to bypass the specified "On Exit" behavior.

•	The operational difference between minimizing and exiting (whether to tray or background) is that exiting will save the scoreboard and game status (providing AutoRestore is enabled).

•	If you use the special "Minimize Window" and "On Exit" preferences, the recommended combination is to minimize as tray icon and exit to background sleep.


Message Preferences

The following preferences are available:

Display Error Box:  When selected, error messages displayed by Piquet are shown as dialog boxes (with an "OK" button) instead of in the status bar.

Suppress Tool Tips: When selected, Tool Tips are not displayed when the mouse is positioned over one of the shortcut buttons in the status bar.

Suppress "Are You Sure?" for Game Menu Items: When selected, these messages are not displayed when parties and rounds are to be redealt/restarted/replicated and for Switch/Exit/Terminate.  In such cases these game menu actions are immediate when the menu item, or corresponding toolbar icon, is selected.

Suppress Status Messages: When selected, status messages are not displayed in the status bar during play.  Error messages will continue to be displayed as appropriate.  Note that opting to have partie scores displayed in the status bar automatically suppresses status messages.

No Start Reminders:  When selected, the reminder of who starts the next round or partie is suppressed.

No Bell:  When selected, the bell/beep sound associated with errors is suppressed.  It is recommended that the "Display Error Box" option be selected in this situation so that error messages don't go unnoticed.


Mouse Preferences

The following preferences are available:

AutoMouse - Cards: When selected, the mouse pointer automatically moves: (i) to your hand when you take a new card from the stock or you take one or more cards from the discard pile, and (ii) back to the stock after you discard.

AutoMouse - Dialogs: When selected, the mouse pointer automatically moves to any message or information windows which are displayed and, if "AutoMouse - Cards" is also selected, back to the player's hand or the stock after the dialog window is dismissed.  Some mouse drivers and add-in utilities also perform this function. Therefore this is a separately selectable option within Piquet.

Use Windows Mouse Pointers: When selected, the standard Windows mouse pointers are used instead of the special MeggieSoft Games mousepointer icons used by Piquet.

Use MeggieSoft Games Mouse Pointers: When selected, the special MeggieSoft Games mouse pointers are used.

... in black & white: when selected, the MeggieSoft Games mouse pointers are displayed in monochrome instead of in color.

... without online indicators: when selected, the offline MeggieSoft Games mouse pointers are always displayed, even when you are online.

Disable Card Drag And Drop: When selected the ability to move cards via drag-and-drop mouse operation is suppressed.  In this case, all mouse operations will be performed by the point-and-click method.  This preference is provided for users who find that the drag-and-drop capabilities are inadvertently interfering with their preferred use of point-and-click if the mouse is moved with the button down.


Music Preferences

This preference panel permits you to enable and disable the playing of MIDI, MP3 and WMA music files and to specify the music file(s) to be played.  MeggieSoft Games does not distribute music files, but Piquet will automatically select the first MIDI file found in your windows\media or windows filefolder as the default (if one is found).

If your system has difficulty playing music and other sounds simultaneously, either do not enable the music feature, or do not enable sound and speech features.

When music is playing, you may also select the "Music Status" option (View Menu) to display the name of the file being played, to skip to the next music file in the filefolder, or stop the music.

To change the music file from that displayed, press "Browse..." and select the required MIDI, MP3 or WMA music file.  (If there is no currently associated file, [none] will be displayed.)  To test the music, press "Test".  To clear the music file selection, press "Clear".

The available play modes are:

Single - the selected music file will be played once.

Repeat - the selected music file will be played repeatedly

Cycle - the music files in the filefolder will be played in sequence.

Random - the music files in the filefolder will be played in random order.


Online Preferences

Note: The MeggieSoft Games online technology uses your system's Internet Settings for managing network connections.  Non-standard specifications (e.g. pertaining to firewalls) must be present in your Internet Settings.  If the default IP port number used by MeggieSoft Games conflicts with local network policies or causes unexpected disconnection, this may be changed (see below).

In addition to the following preferences, see Online Preference Agreement for details of how critical deal, rule and scoring preferences are managed in order to ensure that both players are playing under the same conventions.

Online Name

You may freely choose a name by which you wish to be known within the MeggieSoft Games community.  Each time that you register as a waiting host for forum pairing, this name will be displayed to users who are looking to find a partner.  Your online name will also be shown to the host when you connect to them as a guest (forum or direct).

The forum does not check for uniqueness of online names, so choosing something a little unusual will more clearly identify you to those seeking partners.  Useful examples may be "Dortmund Dieter", "Anna Napolis", or "Disparate Don".  If someone else of the same name registers as a waiting host, the worst that will happen is that you may receive partners expecting to play with the other person.  In such a case, you might consider changing your online name.

By default, your online name is the computer name defined in your Windows System properties.

Minimal Dialog

The default connection process provides step-by-step confirmations as the host and guest computers acknowledge each other and initialize the game.   If this is too much verbosity for your liking, check this box.  When checked, the dialog is restricted to the notification to the host that the opponent has accepted the invitation to join.  (Note that error conditions will be displayed whether the box is checked or not.)

Enable AutoPilot

Check this box to include the "AutoPilot" entry in the Online Menu.

Private Forum

The address of the private forum server that you wish to use, if you have access to one that has been created.  Advanced users who wish to create a private forum will find instructions on how to do so under "Establishing A Private Forum".

Use Private Forum

Check this box if you have specified a private forum address and wish to use that forum to seek online partners.  The default, when unchecked, is to access the MeggieSoft Games public forum.

Default Direct Host

You may specify a default opponent IP address if you frequently play in direct online session mode against an opponent who has a fixed IP address.   If specified, this address is used as the default in the "Direct Guest" connection dialog.

IP Port

There is normally no need to change this entry, but there are instances where a different IP Port number may need to be defined.  Such instances include satisfying local restrictions (such as firewalls) and avoiding unexpected disconnection due to some other program using the default port number.

The specified port number will be included automatically in your "Be A Host" registration at the "Find A Partner" forum so that guests will respond to the correct port.  It will also be the default for a "Direct Guest" connection so that frequent partners who connect directly and encounter connection/disconnection problems with the MeggieSoft Games default (54001) may each choose the same alternative number.

If you are not sure what alternative port number to define, use trial and error on five digit numbers in the vicinity of the MeggieSoft Games default.


Opponent Preferences

The following preferences are available:

Skill Level:  Select the skill level required from the six ascending skill levels listed in the drop-down box.

Full Declaration Display: Deselect to skip the display of the full description of an opponent declaration (and requirement to acknowledge) when the opponent's declaration is "good".  The default is that this display is enabled.  Note that you can always review the full description via Declaration Details under the View Menu.

Quick Display:  When selected, Piquet does not enact the 400 millisecond pause between each of the opponent's actions.

Show Cards:  When selected, shows the opponent's cards face up.

Permit Quick Peek: When selected, you may click the mouse button down on the opponent's cards to show them face up.  The cards will return to the face down display when you release the mouse button.


Player Preferences

The following preferences are available:

Highlight If Carte Blanche Held: When selected the turn counter area of the status bar will be highlighted if you hold a Carte Blanche.

Carte Blanche Warning:  Confirmation will be requested if the player is about to miss the opportunity to declare a Carte Blanche.

Automatically Peek: If, as Elder, you elect to exchange less cards with the talon than you are permitted, the untaken cards will be automatically shown.

Automatically Select: For each declaration, your best combination will be automatically selected.  (You may adjust the selection before making the declaration.)

Disable MultiSelect: When selected, the MultiSelect facility is disabled.  (MultiSelect enables multiple cards to be selected in one drag-and-drop action - see "Using The Mouse" for more information.)

Disable Undo Turn: The ability to undo turns is removed, together with the small processing overhead associated with providing this facility.

Play Protect:  The playing of a card requires confirmation from the resulting Pop-Up menu.

Do Not Sort:  The player's hand is not automatically sorted as cards are added to it.

Sort By Suit:  The sort criterion is set such that cards will be sorted by rank within suit.

Sort High to Low: When selected, the cards in the player's hand are sorted in descending value order (highest card on the left).

Stagger Hand:  The cards in the player's hand will be displayed such that the suits are vertically offset from each other.

Suppress Card Tinting: When selected, cards taken from the talon will not be tinted when they are added to your hand.


QuickSet Preferences

Click on the preference group buttons to facilitate selection and deselection of the following groups of  preferences.  Finer adjustments may be made via the corresponding preference panels.  Changes will take effect when the "Apply" or "OK" button is pressed.

Appearance/All:

•	The table and mat image effects are enabled (if the corresponding image files exist)

•	3-D effects are enabled (i.e., if the suppression option is selected, it is deselected)

•	The custom card back image effects are enabled (if the corresponding image file exists)

•	Cards are displayed with "True Corners"

•	The game totals are displayed at the top of the scoresheet and the scoresheet headings are the player/opponent names

Appearance/None:

•	If the default font has been altered, it is reset to the default

•	If enabled, use of the table, mat, and  custom card back images is disabled

•	3-D effects are suppressed.

•	Cards are not displayed with "True Corners"

•	The game totals are displayed as on-table scoremasts and the scoresheet headings are "You/Me"

Interface/All:

•	If card animation has been suppressed, it is re-enabled

•	If standard Windows mousepointers have been selected, this option will be deselected in favor of the MeggieSoft Games intelligent mousepointer icons

•	AutoMouse will be enabled for cards and dialogs

Interface/None:

•	Card animation is suppressed, standard Windows mousepointers are used and AutoMouse is disabled

Audio/All:

•	Depending on system capabilities, the sound effect, music and speech options are all enabled

Audio/None:

•	Any enabled sound effect, music and speech options are disabled

Operation/All:

•	Enables the AutoStart, AutoRestore, and AutoResume features

Operation/None:

•	Disables the AutoStart, AutoRestore, and AutoResume features


Rule Preferences

The following preferences are available:

Younger May Exchange No Cards: The dealer (the second to exchange) may elect to exchange no cards. This option is ignored if the Dealing Preference for a 36 card deck size is selected.  The default for the 32-card game, and the requirement for the 36-card game, is to exchange at least one card.

Simple Carte Blanche:  Removes the requirement that younger identify their discards before the declarer's cards are exposed.  In which case younger has the advantage of viewing the elder's cards before choosing their discards.  This is considered to be an unfair advantage in some circles.

Must Wait Before Reviewing Untaken Cards:  Younger (the dealer) must wait until after the elder has led to the first trick before electing that the untaken cards in the talon (if any) are displayed face up.  The default is that the election may be made after exchanges are complete.

Prohibit All Displays Of Untaken Cards: All review of untaken cards is prohibited.  Elder may not peek at untaken cards (if they take less than five), and younger may not elect that any final untaken cards are displayed face up.

One-Step Declarations: If selected, full descriptions of declarations are made (and will therefore be known to the other player) and there is no interim step requesting more information.  The default is that only the minimum information is declared unless the bids are equal and further qualification is required.

Permit Carte Rouge: Some schools of play permit the scoring of a Carte Rouge for 50 bonus points.  A Carte Rouge is a hand in which every card has been used in at least one scoring declaration.

Equality Prevents Pique and Repique: When selected, neither player may score a Pique or Repique if the Point declaration or Sequence declaration resulted in an "equal" result.  (Equality is not possible in a set declaration.)


Scoring Preferences

The following preferences are available:

Only 10/J/Q/K/A Can Win Trick Points: Under the original rules of Piquet, one can only score a trick point if the card led, or the winning card if the lead is captured, has a value higher than nine.  The default is that all cards can score trick points when led or capturing the lead, sometime termed the "American" method.  Note that the extra bonus point for winning the last trick is always scored, irrespective of the winning card value.

Taking A Trick Always Scores: Under the original rules of Piquet, all tricks won score a point (subject to the value rule above, if selected).  Thus a trick  led and won scores two points.

Capot Scores 60 Points: Under the original rules of Piquet, a Capot (or Capet) was worth sixty points.

Quint Scores 5 Points: Although almost all sources document a quint as scoring fifteen points, there are sources that state the score to be five points.   Perhaps this is an early convention, as one might expect the original term to be cinqième if it were to score in the higher sequence band.

No Point For Last Trick When Capot: The extra point for winning the last trick is not awarded if the winning player has earned a Capot.

"The Cards" Do Not Count Towards Pique: A Pique must be earned during playing of tricks.   However, sources differ regarding whether the ten points for "the cards", normally awarded at the end of the twelfth trick, should be included as being scored within the round, or whether (like a Capot) they should be considered as being awarded after the round finishes.  The default is to include the ten points towards a potential Pique.

Early Points For "The Cards" If Pique Scoreable: Sources differ regarding whether the ten points for "The Cards" can be scored after the seventh trick or whether  they may only be awarded after the twelfth trick.  Select this option to enable the points for "The Cards" to be awarded after the seventh trick if a Pique is thus scoreable.  If these points are awarded early and the player ultimately wins all twelve tricks, the Capot bonus is correspondingly reduced by ten points.  The default is to score for "The Cards" after the twelfth trick.

Note: The latter two scoring preferences are mutually exclusive; if one is selected the other is disabled.


Screen Preferences

The following preferences are available:

Main Window - Size:  Depending upon your monitor resolution setting, up to five window sizes are available, the fifth of which is "Custom".  As an alternative to selecting a standard window size via preferences, you may also resize the main window by dragging the lower left corner.  The resulting size is held as the Custom setting so that you can return to it later.

Main Window - Font:  The default font is the earliest named of the following, depending upon whether each is installed on your system: Tahoma, Arial, MS Sans Serif.  (Versions prior to v12.1 were fixed as MS Sans Serif).  A change to the font setting affects the status bar, scoresheet and Rules/Scoring panel.  The "Font" label to the left of the drop-down list is shown in the currently listed font to facilitate comparison and selection before applying the change.

Remember Position: When selected, the position of the game window within the monitor screen is remembered on exit and is recovered to the same position when the next session is played.  Otherwise, the game always starts with the game window centered within the monitor screen.

Scoresheet Headings: The default scoresheet headings are "Me" and "You". Select "You"/"Me" if you wish the computer to be "Me".  Select names if you want the player and opponent skill name displayed as the headings.  Deselect both for the default of "Me"/"You".

If "names" is selected you may also choose to shrink to fit if the current font setting can accommodate such small sizing, otherwise the names may be truncated.  Shrink to fit may result in unreadable column headings at smaller card/font preference settings.

Scoresheet (Handwritten): Select if you would like the scoresheet entries to be displayed in a handwritten blue font.

Table Effect: Select if you want the main table window to be "wallpapered" with an image file (jpg, bmp or wmf) of your choosing.

Mat Effect: Select if you want the mat to be "wallpapered" with an image file (jpg, bmp or wmf) of your choosing.

Suppress 3D Effect: Select if you wish to disable the 3D effects in the main window.

Hide Rules/Bonuses: Select if you wish the rules/bonuses panel to not be displayed.

Enable Toolbar: Select if you wish to display the menu toolbar.

...with all buttons:  The default menu toolbar is a "short version" corresponding to the more commonly used menu items.  Select "all buttons" if you wish to use a "full" toolbar containing almost all menu selections.   As all the possible buttons will most likely not fit within the toolbar (depending upon your main window size), you should customize this toolbar to remove those buttons you are less likely to use.

...show on left side: When selected, the toolbar is shown on the left side of the game window instead of at the top.

Partie Score Display: Select "Title Bar", "Status Bar" or "Top of Scoresheet" to display partie scores elsewhere than the default of in the main window.   If you select display in the status bar, error messages will continue be shown in the status bar and will temporarily cover the game score display (unless you have selected the "display error box" option of Message Preferences).


Sound Preferences

This preference panel permits you to enable and disable sound effects, and to specify the sound effect files to be used.  Piquet permits the optional association of a wav file with each of the eleven events shown.  Note that the Welcome and Goodbye sounds are not used if Speech is enabled.

If you do not have a sound card, the speak.exe driver is a freely available Microsoft product which uses your PC speaker to play (low quality) sound.

If your system has difficulty playing music and other sounds simultaneously, either do not enable the music feature, or do not enable sound and speech features.

To change a sound effect, select the corresponding button.  The name of the currently assigned file name will be displayed.  (If there is no associated sound file, [none] will be displayed.)  To test the sound, press "Test".  To assign or change a sound file, press "Browse...".  To break the association between the file and the event, press "Clear".


Speech Preferences

When enabled, Piquet will speak to you if you have a speech engine installed on your system.  The spoken phrases will include prompts, error messages, confirmations, points scored, and score summaries.

Host/Opponent: You may set the pitch, speed, and volume of the host and opponent voices to your liking.

Mode: A drop down selection box permits you to define the spoken phrases as "Standard" or "Terse".  When "Standard" is selected, various phrases are randomly selected when spoken to reduce monotony.

Speech Engine: Piquet supports three speech engines.  All three are available for download from the MeggieSoft Games website.  The WinSpeech engine is older and simpler, but represents a smaller download.  The more superior engines are Microsoft's Text-To-Speech engines.  If more than one speech engine is installed on your computer, the default selection is the highest Microsoft engine installed (v4 or v5.1).

With the Microsoft TTS engines, you can define different host and opponent voices by name, depending on which voices you have installed on your system.  With WinSpeech, only a single voice style is supported, but you can define different pitch parameters to differentiate the spoken host and opponent phrases.

Enable: When selected, the speech capability is enabled.  Uncheck this selection to disable the speech capability.

Stop Speaking When Interrupted: When selected, the currently spoken information will stop immediately when you exit a dialog box.


Restore Pre-"Safe Mode" Preferences

(This selection is only available if you started the current or previous session in "Safe Mode".)

Select this option to restore your preferences to their most recent settings prior to selecting "Safe Mode" for this, or for the previous, session.

At the end of your next normal session, this menu item will no longer be available as it is assumed that you wish to retain the preference settings that exist at that time.


Reset Preferences To Defaults

Select this menu option to remove all non-default preference settings for the current player from the registry.  This facility is provided as a swift method for resetting all preferences.  The Preference facility may then be used to alter your preferences, or the QuickSet Preferences facility may be used to re-establish preferences to one of the preset configurations.


View Menu

The following selections are available under the View Menu:

Declaration Details

Trick & Point Details

Review Tricks

Round Scores

Partie Scores

League Table

Hall Of Fame

Music Status

Hide/Show Toolbar

Toggle Rules/Bonuses

Refresh Display


Declaration Details

Provides full information of winning, lost, and equalled declarations, together with which cards comprised each winning or equalled declaration.  If the card descriptor is shown in parenthesis, this means that the card has been played to a trick and is therefore no longer in the declarer's hand.

The detail provided for failed declarations will only be that appropriate to the depth of the declaration.  For example if one player declared "Tierce" and the other responded "No Good", then only the knowledge that a tierce existed will be shown.  If, however, the other player responded "How High?", the opening player's declaration would be expanded to, say, "Tierce to the Queen".

Reviewing declarations and seeing which cards were involved is not cheating.  The normal rules of Piquet are that a player is entitled to see the cards which comprised a winning declaration by the other player.  If a player's declaration is rebuffed as equal, each player is entitled to see the cards which the other player holds.

Some rule sources also permit a player to enquire which cards of a winning or equalling declaration are still in the other player's hand, hence the display of the card identifiers with or without parentheses.


Trick Point Details
Trick & Point Details

Displays the current scores of the player and the opponent for the current round.

Points for tricks and bonuses are individually detailed, plus the total points from declarations.   For details of declarations, select the "Declaration Details" menu option.

When selected via the "Details" button of the end of round display, a "More" button is included to provide a shortcut to the declarations details display.


Review Tricks

Select this option to review the cards which comprise the tricks taken during the current phase of the round.

You may also click on the trick pile as a shortcut to this menu item, in which case the cards are displayed face up when you click down with the mouse, and returned to the face down pile when you release the mouse button.


Round Scores

Displays the winner, and the scores of the player and the opponent, for all previous rounds of the current partie.

The display includes the date and opponent skill level for each partie.

The text colors (blue for wins, red for losses) may be changed via Color Preferences.


Partie Scores

Displays the winner, and the scores of the player and the opponent, for all previous parties played by the currently active player. The display includes the date and opponent skill level for each partie.

A selection pad permits the display of the partie history against the opponent at a particular skill level.  The text colors may be changed via Color Preferences.

Partie Replication

Partie replication means playing a new partie with the cards being arranged for the first deal, and each subsequent round's deal, exactly as they were for the corresponding round of a previous partie.  You can select the partie to be replicated by clicking on the result in the partie scoreboard and then pressing the "Replicate Button".

If you wish to replicate the immediately previous partie, you may also do this from the Game Menu.


League Table

When selected, Piquet will display the following information for all players for whom a saved scoreboard file exists: Parties Won, Parties Lost, Points For, Points Against, Average (points for divided by parties played).


Hall Of Fame

When selected, Piquet will examine all saved scoreboards and display statistics such as highest and lowest scores for and against, narrowest and widest winning margins, etc.


Music Status

Select this menu option to see what music track is currently playing.  You may then choose to skip or stop the current music track if you wish to.


Hide/Show Toolbar

If the menu toolbar option in Screen Preferences is selected, you may toggle between the toolbar display state via this menu selection.


Toggle Rules Bonuses
Toggle Rules/Bonuses

Selecting this menu option will toggle between the rules display and the bonuses display.

You may also click on the Rules/Bonuses panel itself to achieve the same action.


Refresh Display

Clears and refreshes the display window.  This action is rarely necessary unless some strangeness with the display layout is encountered.


Assist Menu

The following selections are available under the Assist Menu:

Tutorial

Explain Options

Suggest Hint

AutoStep

AutoPlay


Tutorial

The tutorial provides a documented walk through of Piquet in action and the operation of the tutorial is self explanatory once it has been started.  Each set of moves is explained as they take place, and help is always available.

The tutorial is intended to facilitate learning of the basic game.  Therefore, any specific dealing, rule, or scoring preferences that you have enabled will be disabled for the tutorial.

The tutorial restarts the current game and can guide you through as many games as you wish.  When it is dismissed, you are returned to the original game state at the point you started the tutorial, with your chosen preference settings if any were disabled for the tutorial.

See also: Tutorial Operation


Tutorial Operation

If your screen size is large enough to accommodate it, the tutorial display will be in an extended panel under the game window.  If your screen resolution is 640x480, it is not possible to accommodate the tutorial panel, and feedback will be provided by pop-up dialog boxes.

Tutorial Panel

The game window may be adjusted to accommodate the panel, in which case it will be returned as it was when the tutorial is stopped. The left side of the feedback shows the sequence of current moves by the player or opponent.  The right side shows pertinent rule notes (black), or notes regarding Piquet operation (blue).  These notes do not reappear once shown until the tutorial is next started.

Dialog PopUps

The upper part of the displayed messages show one or more recent moves and the lower part may show pertinent rule notes, or notes regarding Piquet operation.  These notes do not reappear once shown until the tutorial is next started.  Every attempt is made to position the popup box in a non-obtrusive position, but if it is in the way, you may move it by dragging its title bar.

To step through the tutorial, press the "Next >>" button each time that it is enabled.  To exit the tutorial, press "Stop".

You may hold down the Shift key when pressing the "Next" button in order to advance rapidly to the next rule note, or the end of the round (whichever occurs first).  If there are operation notes pending, these will be skipped.

The following links provide useful further information regarding topics covered during the tutorial:

Terminology

Exchanging Cards

Declaring

Playing Tricks

Scoring

Understanding The Interface


Explain Options

When selected, the "Assist!" window will appear.

The Assist! window is context sensitive and will describe your alternatives at the current state of play.

You may move the Assist! window by dragging its title bar.


Suggest Hint

When selected, Piquet will examine your hand and display a reasonable series of actions for you to take.  (Piquet does not take advantage of this knowledge when determining subsequent turns for the opponent.)

When it is your turn to exchange cards, Piquet will suggest which cards you should exchange.   Similarly, Piquet will suggest which cards you should declare during the declaration phase, and which card you should lead or follow during trick play.

You may select the "Do It" or "Show It" button when the suggestion box is displayed, and Piquet will play or highlight the suggestion card(s) for you.

Piquet employs the same logic for providing the suggestion as it does for playing the opponent's hand.  The method employed is the "Master" skill level.


AutoStep

AutoStep puts Piquet into an interactive automatic mode whereby both the opponent's and the player's hands are played alternately by the computer.  Unlike AutoPlay, AutoStep provides the additional ability to control pausing, stepping and speed control.

The initial buttons include a run button and a step button.  If you press the step button, you will see the next turn played by either the player or the opponent (alternately).   If you wish a full-cycle mode of operation (player turn and opponent turn in one step), this may be selected via Operational Preferences.

If you press the run button, the step button is replaced by a pause button and the run button is removed.

Then AutoStep will run constantly until it is again paused (for step mode operation), or stopped.

Always visible are the stop button, and buttons to increase (right double chevron) or decrease (left double chevron) the speed of play in steps of 200 milliseconds. The slowest speed introduces a delay of two seconds between each play.  Clicking a chevron symbol using the right-hand mouse button will increase/decrease the speed to the highest/lowest limit.  The current speed setting speed is retained between sessions.

After you press the red stop button, the turn cycle will need to continue until it returns to your turn to play.  If this takes a second or two, you may see a notification message covering the status bar buttons during this process.  However, cycle completion is executed with no sound/speech, no animation, and at maximum speed, in order to minimize completion time.

AutoStep starts at the current point of the game in progress.  At the end of AutoStep, the game may be continued at its current position ("As Is"), or returned to the game position when AutoStep was started ("As Was").

AutoStep always uses the Master skill level for the player.  The opponent will play at the skill level in operation when AutoStep is selected.


AutoPlay

AutoPlay puts Piquet into a fully automatic mode whereby both the opponent's and the player's hands are played alternately by the computer.  AutoPlay is used in development testing and is provided for users who might find it useful.

Learners and students of Piquet are recommended to use the AutoStep facility, which provides interactive control.

You will be asked to define which of the six skill levels is to be used by the player. The opponent will play at the skill level in operation when AutoPlay is selected.  You may also select fast mode and silent mode.

After the player skill level has been selected and you have selected "OK", just sit back and enjoy the view.  AutoPlay starts a separate set of games (starting at game 1).  When you have seen enough, press the "Stop AutoPlay" button in the middle of the status bar.

Before AutoPlay starts, you may be asked if the updated scoreboard for the current player is to be saved.  Respond "yes" if you wish to recover to the current state after AutoPlay has finished, otherwise recovery will be to the point that the scoreboard for the current player was last saved.

When it is stopped, AutoPlay will permit you to display the game scoreboard for the AutoPlay session, if at least one game was completed.  After AutoPlay is dismissed, Piquet returns to status of the player's game when AutoPlay was started.


Explore Menu

The following selections are available under the Explore Menu:

Deduce Opponent's Cards

Recall Seen Cards

Doctor Hand

Swap Cards


Deduce Opponent's Cards

Select this option to see an analysis of the disposition of all the cards relative to the opponent's hand.  A map of the cards is displayed, with each card denoted as one of the following:

Opponent has this card (Y): we know this because they declared it, or (as elder) we peeked at the cards we did not exchange with the talon.

Opponent never had this card (X): we know this because we received it from the deal or exchange, or it remains in the talon which has now been exposed, or because the fact that the opponent didn't follow suit means the opponent couldn't have had any of the remaining cards in the suit.

Opponent does not have this card (x:): we know this because they played it to a trick.

Opponent might not have this card (?x): we surmise this because of declarations that might have been made but weren't. For example, if we know that the opponent had two kings but did not declare a trio or quatorze of them, they may not have either of the others.

Opponent may have this card(?): we cannot determine that the card is one of the above.


Recall Seen Cards

The Recall facility is a powerful aid to those who cannot remember which cards have been seen during play.  It is not intended to be used frequently as an alternative to concentration, but may help you develop improved powers of recall.

"Seen" cards are: those in your hand, those you exchanged, those that you may have peeked at from the talon, the exposed talon (if applicable), and those played as tricks.

"Unseen" cards are all other cards.


Doctor Hand

This facility is provided for learning and experimentation purposes.  It permits you to change the cards in your hand.

The option is enabled after a new deal, and is disabled when you exchange your cards.  (If the opponent exchanges first, you may still doctor your hand until you make your exchange.)

When selected, the mat is cleared and a spread of all the cards available is shown.  The ones already in your hand are shaded.  To exchange a card in your hand, click on it to highlight it.  Then click on an available card on the mat.  Wherever that card is currently (the talon, opponent's hand, opponent exchanges), it will be swapped with the card in your hand.

While doctoring is being performed, all menu and status bar actions are inhibited.

When you have finished the doctoring process, click anywhere on the card display with no card selected in your hand.


Swap Cards

Select this menu option if you wish to swap cards with the Opponent.  Piquet will then swap the cards currently in the player's hand with those in the opponent's hand.

This option is not available when the opponent has led to a trick and is awaiting your reply.

The purpose of the option is as a learning tool.  It is not intended to be used to distort your true scoring ability relative to your peers, as might be reported by the League Table and the Hall Of Fame.


Admin Menu

The following selections are available under the Admin Menu:

* Order Registration Code: Provides information regarding the registration process for Piquet.

‡ Enter Registration Code: Permits you to enter your registration number.  Should the Piquet options data on your hard disk become missing, or if you move to a new computer, Piquet will return to the unregistered status.  In this case, you will need to re-enter your registration details.  Note that the validation code shown at the top of the "Enter Registration Code" window must also be copied and entered as security confirmation that the registration information is being entered manually.

Check For Updates: Checks the MeggieSoft Games website to determine if program updates exist.   For further information see the online update section.

Manage Old Install Files: This entry appears only if you have downloaded files stored on your hard disk from the online update process.  The menu entry shows the total size of these files.  Selecting this menu item will provide you the option to explore (using Windows Explorer) or delete all of these files.   See the Downloaded File Store section for an understanding of what these files' names mean.

Create Diagnostic File.  Creates a diagnostic dump file for analysis by MeggieSoft Games in order to resolve system and program problems.  If your email method is using a MAPI-compliant mail client (such as Outlook, Outlook Express, Eudora, Thunderbird, AOL version 7.0 and later, etc.), you will be offered the option to open your email "compose" window automatically with the MeggieSoft Games email address already included and the required file included as an attachment.  Otherwise, the email address for MeggieSoft Games will be shown for you to use in other email methods.  (For further information, see "Automatic MAPI Email Creation" under "Miscellaneous Topics".)

Create Preferences Backup.  Creates a disk file named "msgprefs.reg" in the MeggieSoft Games installation filefolder.  This file contains all the preferences information for all installed MeggieSoft Games.  Running it (by clicking on it in Windows Explorer) will apply the saved registry settings for all installed MeggieSoft Games.  You would use this feature if you wish to transfer your preference settings to a new computer.

* "Order Registration Code" is only shown during unregistered evaluation.

‡ "Enter Registration Code" is shown during unregistered evaluation.  After you have entered your registration information, this item becomes "Re-enter Registration Data".  This would be used if you have been sharing a registration code between your computers and you now wish to use them simultaneously for online play.  In this case, one of the computers must be registered to a different name than the other and therefore you will need to re-enter newly obtained registration data (under a different registered name) on one of them.


Help Menu

The following selections are available under the Help Menu:

Show Tip Of The Day: Displays a random "Tip Of The Day".  If applicable, clicking the "More Info" button will display the relevant section of the help file, and the "Show How" button will display the corresponding section of the preference settings.

Select or deselect the "Show automatically" checkbox to define whether these tips should be shown on start up and at the start of each new game.  If deselected, the tips will only be seen via this Help menu entry.

Help Contents:  Displays the main Piquet help window.

Help Index:  Displays the Piquet topics search window.

User Guide (Printable): The contents of the help file are provided as a printable user guide (with page-numbered contents and index sections).  This file is in Adobe Acrobat (pdf) file format, for which you will require the Acrobat Reader (from www.adobe.com/acrobat) if it is not already installed on your system.

Note: The User Guide is formatted for US Letter size (8.5x11.0).  Users of other paper sizes, such as A4 (8.3x11.7), will need to select the "Shrink Oversize Pages..." option in the print dialog within the Acrobat Reader.  For A4, this will very slightly (2½ percent) reduce the document width and add about ¾ inch of horizontal whitespace to each printed page.

Revision History: Displays the READPIQ.TXT file using the associated txt file program for your system.

ReadMe File: Displays the README.TXT file using the associated txt file program for your system.

MeggieSoft Home Page: Accesses the MeggieSoft Games home page (Provided you have Internet capability and an associated web browser).

Email MeggieSoft Games: If your email method is using a MAPI-compliant mail client (such as Outlook, Outlook Express, Eudora, Thunderbird, AOL version 7.0 and later, etc.), you will be offered the option to open your email "compose" window automatically with the MeggieSoft Games email address already included.  Otherwise, the email address for MeggieSoft Games will be shown for you to use in other email methods.  (For further information, see "Automatic MAPI Email Creation" under "Miscellaneous Topics".)

About:  Displays information about the version number and author, and the registration confirmation.

Note:

The User Guide is not included as part of the Piquet installation.  If you select the User Guide option, and the user guide is not present on your system, you will be asked if you would like to download it from the MeggieSoft Games website.

Also, if your system is unable to display the newer Windows "chm" help files (requires Internet Explorer 4.1 or later), you will be offered the facility to download the alternative, older style, "hlp" file.

In either case, if you elect to download, the file will be retrieved from the website and will be displayed automatically when the retrieval has completed.  (The help file size is less than 200K  and the user guide size is less than 500K.)

If you select the option to remove older files during a subsequent installation of Piquet, these files (if present) will be removed from your system and you will be able to download the newer versions.


Pop-Up Menu

The PopUp menu is invoked by right-clicking the mouse on any part of the Piquet window where a right-click has no other meaning.  In general, this means anywhere except the melded cards and cards in the player's hand.

The Pop-Up menu offers easy access to the Play special action (enabled when the Play Protect player preference is active), and common menu options, as follows:

Play <Card>

Preferences

Music Status (View Menu)

Explain Options (Assist Menu)

Suggest Hint (Assist Menu)

Add/Switch Player (Player Menu)

Change Skill (Preferences/Opponent)  This change is only applied for the current session.

Round Scores (View Menu)

Partie Scores (View Menu)

Help (Help Menu - Contents)

Exit (Game Menu)


Online Play

Piquet supports the ability for two human opponents to play against each other via the Internet or a LAN using TCP/IP protocols.

The user interaction for online play is exactly the same as it is for local human vs. computer play.  Each time that you play your turn, coded details of it are transmitted to the online opponent and you will then be waiting for the opponent's response.  When the opponent plays their turn, the actions are transmitted to your computer and displayed upon your screen exactly as they would be in human vs. machine play.  With the exception of a longer delay waiting for the opponent to play, you will experience no difference compared with local human vs. computer play.

Connections between opponents may be made by private arrangement as a direct online session, or by connecting to the public MeggieSoft Games Online Forum to locate a waiting opponent ("Find A Partner").

For either connection method, one person will first establish themself as the "host" and remain in a waiting state (with the "watch" button flashing in the status bar) until the other person (as the "guest") makes the connection to the host.

For online play to be sucessful, certain deal, rule and scoring preferences must be adopted in common.  For example, if one player had a certain rule enabled and the other did not, it would be impossible for them to play against each other.  The Preference Alignment menu option ensures that each player is able to define these key preferences for online play, and is able to negotiate with a prospective online opponent who has different online preference alignment settings.

The MeggieSoft Games online technology incorporates a chat window which either player can invoke at any time if they wish to communicate with the other.

Select a topic:

The Host and The Guest

Direct Online Session

Forum Pairing

Online Preference Agreement

Establishing A Private Forum

The following help topics are also relevant to online play:

Online Menu

Online Preferences

Online Play Protocol (for the technically curious)


The Host and The Guest

For a successful connection, one party must first be established as waiting as the "Host", and the other then connects to them as the "Guest".

The Telephone Analogy

When you make a regular telephone call, one person needs to be waiting near a phone, and the other needs to dial the correct number in order to make the connection.

If there is no-one waiting near the telephone being called, the caller will receive the ringing tone until they decide to give up.  If the caller calls the wrong number, they will not connect to the required person (if they indeed connect to any person).  If the caller calls when the other person is already making a call, they will receive a busy signal.  (if each calls the other simultaneously, they will each receive the busy signal.)

MeggieSoft Games Online Connection

The online connection process is very similar to the telephone analogy.  In this case, the caller is termed the "Guest" and the person being called is termed the "Host".

Being the Host:

First the Host must establish themselves as waiting to receive the connection.  (Otherwise, the caller will be calling someone that is not there.)  This is done as either selecting the Direct Host option under the Online menu (if you are expecting a specific caller), or by using the "Find A Partner" facility and selecting "Be A Host" (if you do not mind who calls you).

After the Host has established themselves as waiting, the Guest may now initiate connection to the Host.  If the Host has not completed the "waiting process" or has withdrawn from the waiting state, they will not see a flashing "wristwatch" symbol in the status bar - in which case they are not waiting as a Host, and therefore no Guest will be able to connect to them.

Being the Guest:

If the Host used the Direct Host method, the Guest must use the Direct Guest method specifying the exact IP address and port number of the Host.  (The IP address and port number is akin to a telephone number and extension number - if either is in error, the expected connection to the Host will fail).

If the Guest chooses to connect to anyone who might be waiting as a Host in the Find-A-Partner forum, they do so by selecting the name of the Host and pressing the "Connect" button.  (The IP address and Port number of the Host are stored in the forum and are not required to be specified by the Guest).

If the Guest attempts to connect to someone who is not (or no longer) waiting as a Host, no connection will be made.

Reasons For Failure To Connect:

•	Each person waits as the Host.  (Analogy: two people waiting to receive a call, but neither is making the call.)

•	Each person attempts to connect as a Guest.  (Analogy:  two people telephoning each other simultaneously, neither is able to receive the other's call.)

•	The Guest attempts to connect to a party who is not waiting as a Host.  (Analogy: There is no-one there to receive the call.)

•	The Guest specifies an incorrect IP address and/or port number.  (Analogy: Wrong number, or no such number.)

•	A firewall setting is preventing communication.  (Analogy: Call Blocking.)


Direct Online Session

A direct session is a private one that has already been agreed between you and your opponent.  One of you will be the host, the other the guest.

Whoever is the host will run Piquet, make or ensure connection to the Internet or LAN, and select "Direct Host" from the Online Menu.  The host will, if necessary, make a note of the host IP address and port number shown in the confirmation dialog box before clicking on "OK".

Unless the host has a fixed IP address which is already known to the guest, the host will need to communicate the host IP address and port number to the guest.  This might be via local oral conversation, a phone call, an online instant chat facility, or email.

The guest will then run Piquet, make a network connection if necessary, and select "Direct Guest" from the Online Menu.  To complete the connection, the guest will enter the host's IP address and port number and click on "Connect".

The host must remain in Piquet while waiting for the guest to connect,  but can continue to play in local (human vs. computer) mode until the connection is made.   During the waiting period, a flashing watch will be displayed in the status bar to remind you that you are awaiting a guest connection; you may click on this to stop the waiting process (i.e., to disestablish yourself as a waiting host).

You will be immediately informed when connection occurs. At this point your local game status will be remembered, and will be recovered automatically at the end of your online session.

The alternative to establishing a private session is to take advantage of Forum Pairing, the MeggieSoft Games publicly available player matching facility.


Forum Pairing

Forum Pairing is the alternative to establishing a direct online session.

Forum pairing supports the situation where a user wishes to play an online game, but does not have a prearranged opponent.  In this situation, a central forum server facilitates the pairing of hosts and guests.

Find A Partner

To participate in a forum-arranged game, select the "Find A Partner" option of the "Online Menu".  You will then be connected to the MeggieSoft Games forum server.

The process of finding available hosts takes approximately 15 seconds, after which a list of available playing partners will be displayed.  Click on the name of the player you wish to play against, and then click on the connect button.

Be A Host

If no waiting hosts are available, you may register yourself as an available host by clicking the "Be A Host" button.   Your connection details will then be recorded in the forum as an available host for the next person seeking a forum pairing to find.  The host list will be redisplayed with your entry in gray as confirmation.

After confirming the registration, you must remain in Piquet while waiting for your partner to identify and connect with you, but you can continue to play in local (human vs. computer) mode until the connection is made.   During the waiting period, a flashing watch icon will be displayed in the status bar to remind you that you are awaiting a guest connection; you may click on this to stop the waiting process (i.e., to disconnect yourself as a waiting host).

You will be immediately informed when connection occurs, which might even before you have confirmed your registration.  At this point your local game status will be remembered, and will be recovered automatically at the end of your online session.

If you exit Piquet before an opponent makes contact, your status as a waiting host in the forum will be removed.  You may "Be A Host" again when you next go to "Find A Partner".


Online Preference Agreement

For the successful operation of online play between two players, a number of the Piquet deal, rule, and scoring preferences must be in alignment between the two players.  The preferences involved may be reviewed by clicking on the Preference Alignment item under the Online Menu.

The first stage of a guest connection to a waiting host is the exchange of these preference settings.  This occurs automatically and invisibly.  If the players' settings are found to be the same, the connection process continues.  When the game starts, the online preference overrides will be applied to each player's normal (offline) preferences.

If the online preferences are different, the guest will be informed of the specific differences first.  If you are the guest, you then have four alternatives:

Disconnect: You are not interested and wish to withdraw the connection.

Adjust: You intend to issue a counter proposal, but wish to adjust your default alignment preferences before countering.  A preference alignment adjustment window will be displayed with differences between your preferences and the host's preferences highlighted.  You may check and uncheck preferences before returning to the notification window.  (Any changes made will apply only to this connection.)

Counter: You reject the host's preferences and are countering with your own proposed alignment (which may have been adjusted from your alignment defaults, as described above).  If your counter proposal is accepted, your preference alignment settings will be adopted by both players.

Accept: You accept the host's preferences. The host's preference alignment settings will be adopted by both players.

If the guest counters, the host will be informed of the specifics, and requested to accept or decline the connection contingent upon the guest's preference alignment settings being adopted by both players.

If the host declines, the guest will be informed of this and the connection process is terminated.  As there is only one opportunity to counter per connection attempt, the guest is best advised to accept the host's conditions if they are acceptable, or minimize the differences in the counter proposal so that the host is more likely to find the counter proposal acceptable.

After the preference alignment is agreed, the online game proceeds with the corresponding overrides applied to each player's normal (offline) preferences.


Establishing A Private Forum

This section is provided for advanced users who wish to establish a private online forum.  Please read all content carefully before acting upon it.

What is a forum?

A forum in the context of MeggieSoft Games is merely a central file area where users can create and access tagfiles as a means to connect with each other.

What is a tagfile?

A tagfile is a very small file with a filename constructed from data which includes the host user name, their IP address and the port number  being monitored.

•	When a user selects "Find A Partner", the designated forum is accessed and the user names associated with the tagfiles are listed.

•	When a user elects to "Be A Host", a new tag file is created.

•	When a user connects to a waiting host, the extension of the tagfile is changed until the connection is accepted.  If the host accepts, the tagfile is deleted.  If the host declines, the tagfile is renamed back to its original extension.

•	When a host user disconnects from the forum without accepting a connection, the tagfile is deleted.

•	If a connection is attempted to a host to which a connection cannot be made, the tagfile is deleted.

Thus tagfiles provide a simple, self-cleaning, method of connecting parties together.

What is a Private Forum?

By default, users seeking online partners will access the central MeggieSoft Games online forum.   An alternative to this forum may be created by anyone who wishes to provide a closed forum for members of an association, a company, or any other grouping.  All that is required is a central file area provided by the person establishing the private forum.   Once this is ready, other users in the group can specify the address of the private forum and select the "use private forum"  checkbox in their Online Preferences.

What is the format of the address?

Private forums may be established as a directory (filefolder) on a file server or an internet (ftp) server.

•	If a fileserver is used, the address is simply the full directory name, such as:

"k:\myfiles\meggieserver".

It is the responsibility of the user group to ensure that any required login/password access and file write permission requirements are catered for locally.  The MeggieSoft Games will merely open and use this directory.

•	If an ftp server is used, the address must be of the form ftp.<site>/<dirpath>:login:pword, such as:

"ftp.mysite.com/games/forum:onplay:letmein".

Be sure that you are comfortable with the server area being accessible by login and password without compromising security to other areas of the ftp site.

Anything else?

•	The server must be able to accommodate reasonably long file names (40-50 characters, typically) as these will include the user name, IP address, port number, plus some delimiting characters.

•	Test the forum access yourself, perhaps with one other user, before declaring the forum open

•	Check the forum area for debris from time to time.  The MeggieSoft Games forum management technology is designed to be self-cleaning but, as with any generally accessible file area, other content may become deposited there.

•	MeggieSoft Games does not provide support to users who have problems accessing private forums.  Be sure that your user group knows who to contact if they need access support.


Online Update

The MeggieSoft Games Online Update feature connects to the MeggieSoft Games website to determine what updates and additional features are available for you to download and install.  By using this capability  from time to time, you will be able to keep fully up-to-date with the latest releases.

The process is comprised of three steps:

•	Connecting to the MeggieSoft Games website

•	Downloading the updates and features you select

•	Managing the process of installing the updates.

Select a topic:

The Connection Process

The Retrieve Process

The Installation Process

Downloaded File Store


The Connection Process

If you are not already connected to the Internet, you will need to press the "Connect" button.  This will use your default internet connection method (as defined in your Internet Settings) to connect to the MeggieSoft Games website.  If you use a proxy server, this will need to be defined in your Internet Settings (via the Windows Control Panel).

After the connection has been made, or if you were already connected when the Update Manager started, you will need to press the "Start" button.  This retrieves the details and file sizes of the latest files available at the website and displays this information.  The display indicates the latest version and build numbers available alongside the version you currently have installed (if this is known to the Online Update Manager).  A checkbox is placed beside any file that you may wish to download and install.  These may be updated versions, or additional files which you are entitled to install but have not yet done so.

If the Update Manager itself has been updated since the version you are using, its own update will take priority and you will be informed of this.  After the new installer module and Update Manager have been downloaded, the Update Manager will exit and will be restarted with the updated version.

With respect to speech systems, the default speech system will be Microsoft Text-To-Speech v5 unless you are running Windows 95, in which case Microsoft Text-To-Speech v4 will be the default.  If you wish to use another supported speech system (in addition to, or instead of, the default), you will need to download and install it from the MeggieSoft Games website.   If you select Text-To-Speech v5 for installation then the MSI file installer will be required if you are using Windows 98 or NT4 and msiexec.exe is not already found to be on your system.  This will be automatically downloaded and installed if it is required.  (Note that msiexec.exe is a standard part of Windows Me/XP/2000.)

After you have reviewed the information, click on the check boxes of those items that you wish to install.  Then press the "Retrieve" button to start the retrieve process step.


The Retrieve Process

The retrieve process downloads the selected files from the MeggieSoft Games website.

As the selected files are downloaded a progress indicator will be displayed.  If more that one file is to be downloaded, you may press the "Skip" button to abandon that file and move to the next.  Alternatively, you may press the "Stop" button to abandon the entire retrieve function (skipping the downloads of all remaining selected files).  You may then alter your selections before restarting the retrieving function, or you may exit the program.

Occasionally, MeggieSoft Games releases a major update which requires that a full base installation be performed instead of a simple update.  The Online Update will detect this condition automatically by comparing your currently installed version with the latest version.  If a full installation update is required, you will notice a much larger file size for the first game listed.

When the retrieval process has completed, you will be presented with the "Install" button.  Press this to start the installation process step.


The Installation Process

The installation process runs each of the selected installation files in turn.

If one of the MeggieSoft Games to be updated is running, it will need to be exited before the new version is installed.  You may do this yourself when prompted, otherwise the Online Update process will terminate it for you.


Downloaded File Store

Files downloaded by the online update process are placed in the "downloads" subfolder of your MeggieSoft Games filefolder - i.e., the filefolder which you specified when installing MeggieSoft Games programs.

The names given to the files in the download file store are based upon what they contain and the version/build numbers.  The higher the number, the later the version.

The prefix to the version/build number is a program code, as follows:

For the games:

•	The first two characters of the program code are "cn", "cb", "eu", "gw", "gr", "pn", "pq" and "r5" for Canasta, Cribbage, Euchre & Écarté, German Whist, Gin Rummy, Pinochle & Bezique, Piquet, and Rummy 500, respectively.

•	The third character is "f" for full installation, "u" for update installation" and "b" for beta version

•	The numeric part is the build number

Thus pqu16001.exe is an update installation for version 16.0 of Piquet.

For other files, the three character codes for these files:

•	upd (Online Update prior to version 3)

•	plp (Plus Pack),

•	wsp (WinSpeech)

•	t4s (Text-To-Speech v4.0)

•	t5s (Text-To-Speech v5.1)

•	mmv (Mike and Mary Voices)

•	msi (MSI file installer)

You may delete these files unless you wish to keep them for reinstallation later.  You may review and delete any existing files in your downloaded file store via the "Manage Old Install Files" selection in the Admin Menu.  Note that this selection will not be displayed if you have no downloaded files stored.


Useful Things To Know

The MeggieSoft Games share a number of features to facilitate operational ease and playing realism.  A number of the most popular of these are presented in the following sections:

Assistance and Information

Starting and Resuming

Mouse and Mousepointers

Realism and Sound Effects

Visual Customization


Assistance and Information

Each of the MeggieSoft Games includes a wealth of facilities to help you understand and play the game.  These include:

Query button:  To the left of the center of the status bar, clicking on this button will informs you of what you should be doing next.  This is equivalent to selecting "Explain" under the Assist Menu.

Lightbulb button: Next to the query button, clicking on this button will result in an examination of your cards with a specific recommendation, i.e., hint,  of what the computer opponent (master level) would do in this situation.  This is equivalent to selecting "Suggest" under the Assist Menu.

Status Bar Displays:  Helpful information regarding the state of play and (depending on the game and selected preferences) the state of your hand.

Tutorial: The tutorial feature is started from the Assist Menu.  This will walk-you through as many turns, rounds or games as you wish while providing a visual commentary of what is happening at each step.  Your current game in progress will be suspended for the tutorial and resumed when you conclude the tutorial.

AutoStep: The AutoStep feature is started from the Player Menu.  This operation permits you to step through the playing of the game with the computer opponent playing your cards for you.  when you stop the AutoStep operation, you may resume playing yourself, either from the current state of play, or from where you were before invoking AutoStep.

Help: The MeggieSoft Games provide in-depth help documentation regarding how to play the game and how to get the best from the user-interface.  The text you are reading is part of the help file.

User Guide:  The contents of the help file are also included in a printable User Guide in Adobe Acrobat (PDF) format.  You will need the free Acrobat reader in order to read and print this User guide.

Analysis and Review: Additional facilities under the Assist and View Menus permit you to review, deduce, and/or analyze various aspects of the play and card distribution of the current round.


Starting and Resuming

When you first start Piquet, you start with the player name "Player" at Round 1 of Game 1, with the "Start" button showing in the status bar.   When you exit, a record is retained of the games and rounds completed.  When you next start Piquet you will, by default, start at the beginning of the round following the last one completed.  Thus if you exit halfway through round five, you will be at the beginning of round five when you next start Piquet.

There are numerous menu option and preference facilities which are available to alter this default behavior.  These include:

Player Names: If you don't want to be called "Player", select "Change Players" from the Player Menu and use the "Add" facility to add a player name of your own.   You may then switch to your new player name and, if you wish. remove the record of "Player", again via the "Change Players" menu item.  If you have more than one player name defined, see the note regarding multiple players (below).

Start Button: If you select  "AutoStart - Dealing" from the Operational Preferences, the start button will be bypassed and dealing will commence immediately.

Multiple Players: If you have defined more than one player name (perhaps for different family members), you will be asked to choose which player each time that you start Piquet.  however, you may bypass this by selecting "AutoResume" from the Operational Preferences.  When selected, Piquet will always start for the player who last exited Piquet.

Restore Game In Progress:  If you want to start each session from exactly where you left off the previous one (that is part way through a round), select "Autostart - Restore" from the Operational Preferences.

Replaying Games or Rounds: You may select "Replay Partie" or "Replay Round" from the Game Menu.  Note that these are strict replays - the cards will be dealt as before.  If you wish to restart the current game with a fresh shuffle, select "Restart Fresh Partie".


Mouse and Mousepointers

The Meggiesoft Games support both "Drag and Drop" and "Point and Click" methods of operation.  There is no preference setting required; you can use either method at any time.

With the drag-and-drop mode, the special mousepointer icons change to provide a visual reminder of where you can drop what is being dragged.  You may suppress these mousepointers and use the regular Windows mousepointer icons if you wish.  This is done via the Animation Preferences.

All point-and-click operations are effected via single mouse-clicks.  Double-clicking has no effect and, even though every effort is made to ignore the second click, may in rare circumstances cause an operational error.  You will receive an advisory message if you are double-clicking frequently.

The "AutoMouse" features may be enabled via the Operational Preferences.  When selected, these move the mousepointer automatically to where you are most likely to next need it.


Realism and Sound Effects

MeggieSoft Games has invested considerable effort in developing the level of realism included in the game playing experience.  However, we are very aware that such a feature to one person is a gimmick to another, so all of these effects are selectable and deselectable as personal preferences:

Rounded Card Corners:  The majority of computer card games have rectangular cards, or moderately approximated corner rounding.  The MeggieSoft Games include proprietary "True Corners" technology which correctly displays cards with rounded corners on every background (even your own custom image files).  This preference is set via the Card Preferences.

Animated Card Movement:  This effect refers to the display of a card moving across the display as it is moved from one place to another.  It may be enabled or disabled via the Animation Preferences.  When disabled, cards merely disappear from their start position and appear at their end position.

Animated Card Turning: This effect is additional to animated card movement and refers to the additional display of a card rotating as it is moved from a face up position to a face down position (or vice versa).  It may be enabled or disabled via the Animation Preferences.  When disabled, cards instantaneously flip when they reach their end position.

Card Interleaving: This effect refers to the sliding of cards in and out of the player's hand between the adjacent cards.   For even more realistic effects, the TrueSlide Animation Preference may be selected.  Because the card interleaving effect is somewhat processor and graphics intensive, it may be disabled via the Animation Preferences.  For more information, see the Card Interleaving section.

Sound Effects:

The sounds effects, including those of shuffling and cards being placed, may be suppressed (or changed to a wav file of your choosing) via the Sound Preferences.


Visual Customization

The MeggieSoft Games provide a wide variety of customization options so that you may enjoy playing them in an environment that you find personally pleasing to the eye.

Table Effect: If you wish, you may enable/disable the use of a "wallpaper" image for the table display (the outer area).  If enabled, you may select an image effect supplied by MeggieSoft Games or select any image file (bmp, wmf, or jpg) from within your own computer files.

Mat Effect: If you wish, you may enable/disable the use of a "wallpaper" image for the mat display (the inner area).  If enabled, you may select an image effect supplied by MeggieSoft Games or select any image file (bmp, wmf, or jpg) from within your own computer files.  The table and mat effects may be enabled/disabled via Screen Preferences.

Card Back: If you wish, you may enable/disable the use of a graphic image for the card backs as an alternative to the six built-in designs.  This is achieved via the Card Back Preferences.  You may select an image effect supplied by MeggieSoft Games or select any image file (bmp, wmf, or jpg) from within your own computer files - a photograph of a loved one, perhaps.

Colors: The colors for various parts of the display, including the table and mat if wallpapering is disabled, may be changed and defined via the Color Preferences.

Font: The font used for the scoresheet and the status bar may be changed via Screen Preferences.

Game Score Position:  You may display the game totals in any one of four positions (main title bar, on the table, on the scoresheet, in the status bar) via the Screen Preferences.

Display Size: You may alter the display window size to your liking, or maximize it to fill your screen.  This is achieved either by selecting on of the preset sizes under Screen Preferences, or by dragging the bottom or side of the window (per normal Microsoft Windows practices).  If the MeggieSoft Games mousepointers are operative, you will not see the normal Windows resizing mousepointer icon, but the operation will work without problem if the mouse is positioned at the edge of the window.  If you have installed the Plus Pack, there will be three additional card sizes (one smaller and two larger) in addition to the standard size for you to select according to your window size.  These are selected via the Card Preferences.


Miscellaneous Topics

The following topics are included to help you learn more about Piquet, and enhance your enjoyment of the game:

Silent Startup

Automatic MAPI Email Creation

About The Opponent

Skill Levels

Online Play Protocol

How To...

Saved Information

Increasing Performance

Troubleshooting

Diagnostic Dump Files

Technical Construction

Third Party Components


Silent Startup

If you use Piquet extensively, you may choose to have it startup as a background (sleeping) process when Windows starts.

To do this, you need to add a shortcut to your Windows Startup folder with the following target:

"C:\Program Files\MeggieSoft Games\Piquet.exe" \S

(you will need to alter the path accordingly if you installed Piquet to a different installation filefolder than "C:\Program Files\MeggieSoft Games\".)

During Windows startup, you will then see the Piquet splash screen as Piquet loads, and then Piquet will sleep as an icon in your Windows taskbar tray.  When you want to play Piquet, you may then merely click on the tray icon.  Piquet will appear instantly.

If you startup using this method, you should also select the "On Exit:Sleep As Tray Icon" setting in the Operational Preferences so that Piquet will return to sleeping in the tray when you exit it.  (If you do not do this, Piquet will exit completely and will undergo a fresh start when you next run it.)


Automation MAPI Email Creation

Piquet includes the ability to invoke MAPI-compliant email clients automatically.

If you use such a client (popular examples include: Outlook, Outlook Express, Eudora, Thunderbird, AOL version 7.0 and later), selection of the "Email MeggieSoft Games" facility under the Help menu, or the "Create Diagnostic File" facility under the Admin menu, should result in your email client's "compose" window being opened with the Meggiesoft Games email address already included.  For the "Create Diagnostic File" facility, the diagnostic file will automatically be attached.

In the case of an unexpected program failure, the email client will be invoked in a similar manner and will also include the detail of the failure as the message text.

If you do not use a MAPI-compliant email client (for example, if you manage your emailings online through your internet browser), or if the automatic MAPI link  does not work for any reason, you will need create and send the email by hand, following the alternative instructions that will be displayed.


About The Opponent

The opponent plays automatically whenever it is the opponent's turn to act - whether exchanging cards, declaring, responding to the player's declarations, or playing tricks.

The opponent skill level may be set at any of six levels from the "Skill Level" option under Opponent Preferences.


Skill Levels

Six skill levels are available, in ascending order of difficulty from Carefree to Master.  The three higher levels are the most time consuming of the skill levels, and may be frustrating on a slow processor.  However, they make for the most challenging game and are relatively hard to beat.

When rounds and parties are recorded on the scoreboard, the skill level of the opponent is also saved.  If the opponent skill level is changed during a round or partie, then the skill level recorded is the highest that was used during the round or partie.

Note that the Carefree level very rarely wins because it exchanges, selects points, and plays tricks somewhat randomly, and never declares a sequence or set.


Online Play Protocol

This information is provided for users who have some knowledge of online communications protocols and who are interested to learn something about the protocol used within the MeggieSoft Games to manage online play between two computers.

The underlying transport protocol is IP managed by the "msinet.ocx" ActiveX control.

Once communication has been established, the MeggieSoft Games protocol is applied on top of the IP transport protocol, and the "Play Sequence" super protocol is applied on top of the MeggieSoft Games protocol.  The current level of the MeggieSoft Games is Level 4.  If the connecting users are using different versions of the protocol, the level employed is the lower of the two levels.  (If the level employed is lower than Level 4, many of the following features will not be applied.)

Protocol Level 4 operates as follows:

Packet Basics

•	The primary packet types are termed "data", "receipt" and "confirmation".

•	A "play" packet is a data packet which contains the details of a player's turn (card play), or which contains control data indicating readiness to receive the next play packet.

•	Outbound data packets are sequence numbered in a cycle of 1-9.

•	Each data packet received is acknowledged by the return of a corresponding receipt packet .

•	Each receipt packet received is acknowledged by the return of a corresponding confirmation packet.

Duplicate Packets

•	All duplicate packets are ignored upon receipt; only the first accepted is processed.  Prolific packet duplication is a standard feature of Protocol Level 4 in order to compensate for the receiver not receiving a packet, or ignoring the receipt of a packet if it is otherwise busy or if the packet arrives out of sequence.

Partial Packets

•	If a partial packet is received, it is not processed until the remainder arrives.  (This compensates for the possibility of packets arriving in pieces due to network pathing conditions.)

Ignored Packets

•	Receipt and confirmation packets are ignored if they do not carry the same packet number as the corresponding data packet.

•	A data packet is ignored if it does not carry the next expected packet sequence number.  (This compensates for the possibility of packets arriving out of order due to network pathing conditions.)

•	The games do not transmit or accept new data packets while awaiting a receipt or confirmation packet, or if actively operating upon the last data packet received.

•	Any data packets that are received when the game is not accepting new data are ignored.  (However, if a data packet arrives with the next packet number following that of an expected confirmation packet, it is accepted as a confirmation packet before it is ignored.  This compensates for the possibility of a lost confirmation packet.)

Packet Retransmission

•	While awaiting a receipt packet, the data packet transmitter will repeat sending the data packet until the receipt packet is received. This compensates for the packet being ignored (see above) or lost in transit.

•	While awaiting a confirmation packet, the receipt packet transmitter will repeat sending the receipt packet until the confirmation packet is received. This compensates for the receipt being ignored (see above) or lost in transit.

•	In order not to overload the recipient's capacity to accept retransmission, Protocol Level 4 continuously monitors the round-trip time (data sent - receipt accepted) of the connection and the repeat transmissions of a packet are timed accordingly.   Retransmission will occur for sixty seconds, after which time the link will be dropped as non-responsive.  (Note that this is not sixty seconds of user inactivity, but sixty seconds of not obtaining the required protocol communication feedback to a data packet or receipt packet.)

Play Sequence Super-Protocol

The super protocol protects against any possibility of a communication gridlock due to play packet collision (each sends a play packet simultaneously) or premature play transmission (one sends a second play packet before the other has fully processed the previous play packet).

•	When one side is ready to accept the other's card play (i.e., it is "waiting for opponent"), it sends a "positive" play control packet indicating that it is ready.

•	The other then sends its play detail packet when the player completes their turn.  When it receives the receipt for this packet, it temporarily suspends all further outbound data packet transmission.

•	The recipient of the play detail packet will then send a second "negative" play control packet (indicating that the recipient has started processing the play packet, and will not accept another play packet until it indicates that it is ready to do so).

•	When it receives the "negative" play  control packet, the sender of the play packet will remove its suspension on outbound transmissions.  However, it will not transmit another play packet until it receives a "positive" play control packet indicating that the other party is ready to accept a play packet ("waiting for opponent").

The testing for Protocol Level 4 is performed on a connection with a very fast round trip time (less than 2 milliseconds on average) for a non-stop series of over 500 online games without failure.  The testing procedure uses AutoPilot on each side, so that the user responses when taking a turn are significantly faster than under human player conditions.  Moreover, in test mode, each side completely ignores 7% of inbound packets in order to simulate a high-level of corruption or loss in transit.


How To ...

How to save personal preferences

All options changed via preference settings are saved when the "Save Preferences" option at the bottom of the Preferences window is checked.

How to recover a reset scoreboard

Scoreboards are only permanently saved when you select "Save Scoreboard", or when you  respond "Yes" when exiting Piquet or changing players.  If you have reset your scoreboard and would have preferred no to have done so, just exit Piquet and respond "No" to the prompt "Save updated scoreboard...?"  When you restart Piquet, your previous scoreboard will be active.

How to start Piquet for a specific player

Piquet supports Windows file associations.  If you know how to associate a file extension with a program, you may associate the extension "pqb" (scoreboard files) with "piquet.exe".   You may then create a shortcut for each player's pqb file and have Piquet start automatically for that player.  You might put these shortcuts on the desktop.


Saved Information

Registration and preference information is saved between Piquet sessions in the Registry.

Registration

If you are a registered user, your name and encoded registration are stored.

AutoResume

When AutoResume is active, the name of the last player is maintained.  Thus AutoResume always recovers the state that it was when the previous session exited.

Personal Preferences

The preference settings for each player are saved separately.  For example, Jane's options will be saved in the section named "Jane".

Personal Scoreboards

Each player's scoreboard is saved in the Piquet directory as xxxxxx.pqb, where xxxxxx is the player's name.  Piquet considers a player to be currently defined by whether a scoreboard file exists for the player, irrespective of whether options are saved for that player.  An empty scoreboard file is created for a player when their name is added via the "Add Player" menu option.  If AutoRestore is enabled, the state of the game in progress is saved as xxxxxx.pqk.

To clear the scoreboard completely, use the "Reset Scoreboard" option of the Player Menu.


Increasing Performance

Piquet includes Preference options that are intensive of graphics processing.   You should select these if you want more realism, but deselect them if graphics performance suffers unacceptably.  These options are:

•	True Corners

•	Card Dragging

•	"Place Card" Sound Effect.

•	Animation

•	Table Effect and Mat Effect

•	Staggered Hand

If the speed of the deal is the only aspect that you find frustrating, consider using the "Quick Deal" or "Quiet Deal" under Dealing Preferences.   Also, consider selecting the "Quick Display" option under Opponent Preferences if the opponent is too slow for your liking.  This will remove the 0.4 second delay between the opponent's actions.


Troubleshooting

Most problems encountered are a result of one of the following:

•	Graphics driver conflict, usually manifested by the system freezing or by the display of white cards.  Check that you have the latest drivers from your graphics card manufacturer.  Otherwise configure your system to use a graphics setting with fewer colors (256 or 16), reduce the intensity of acceleration effects (via the System Control Panel), or disable Table Effect and Mat Effect, Animation, and perhaps Custom Cardback, if you have these selected.

•	Corrupt scoreboard file.  Under the "Change Players" option of the Game Menu, remove the player for whom the problem occurs and re-add.  Alternatively, exit Piquet and delete the corresponding xxxxxx.pqb and xxxxxx.pqk files from the directory where Piquet resides and then re-add the player from within Piquet.

If all else fails, delete the directory where  Piquet resides, and reinstall. If the problem persists, you may need to create a diagnostic dump file for analysis by MeggieSoft Games.


Diagnostic Dump Files

Occasionally there is a fault with Piquet, or its interaction with a particular system configuration, which requires in-depth analysis to resolve.

If you report such a problem to MeggieSoft Games, you may be requested to provide this file, which contains all the preference and other data required to exactly replicate your playing conditions.

In order to create such a file, select the Create Diagnostic File option under the Admin menu.  The file will be created with the name "piqdiag.txt" and will be found in your MeggieSoft Games filefolder (default is C:\Program Files\MeggieSoft Games).  Please then send the file as an email attachment in your reply to MeggieSoft Games.

A similar file is generally created when Piquet is terminated abruptly by the system (e.g., via the Windows Task Manager or a reboot)..  In this case the file name is msgdump.txt.  Again, MeggieSoft Games will need to receive this file in order to swiftly examine and resolve any problems.


Technical Construction

Piquet is programmed in Microsoft Visual Basic, Version 6.

Piquet works from a bitmap of all the card images and makes extensive use of the Windows API BitBlt function.  Because of this, Piquet is fast, but consumes some RAM and GDI resources.  Alternative methods of managing the user interface proved to be more processor intensive and less conducive to fluid play.  The trade-off was made for performance at the cost of resource consumption.


Third Party Components

Although Piquet does not use a dll for card drawing (for performance reasons), Stephen Murphy's excellent freeware "qcard.dll" was used to create the bitmaps which  Piquet uses.  The card back designs included in qcard.dll were created by Daniel Di Bacco.  Acknowledgments are extended to each of them.

The Piquet help system was created using Firas Bushnaq's powerful "Visual Help".

Visual Help is a shareware product licensed by the author.

The "Speak-To-Me" feature uses PC WholeWare's WinSpeech technology, which has been licensed by MeggieSoft Games.