Minnesota Whist
From Lycanth
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| Downloads |
Minnesota Whist is a simplified whist variant popular in the Midwest. It has no trump suit and is played as two teams of two. It was passed on from Norwegian immigrants and is sometimes referred to as Norwegian Whist.
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Install Instructions
Minnesota Whist requires the .NET 3.5 runtime to be installed. If you do not have the .NET 3.5 runtime installed, it will be downloaded and installed for you. This may require a reboot of your computer.
To install Minnesota Whist, simply download the installer from the link to the right, and run it. A shortcut to Minnesota Whist will be created in your start menu under Lycanth and you will be given the option to start the game after install is complete.
Rules
Minnesota Whist is played as partners, with each pair of partners sitting across from each other. A standard 52-card deck is dealt out so that all 4 players have 13 cards.
Once the cards are dealt each player must analyze their hand and decide if they want to go grand or play low. Going grand indicates that you want to play high. To indicate a grand, a player selects a low black card, or to indicate low play, a low red card is selected. All players select their bid and lay the card face down in front of them. Once all players are ready with their bid, the cards are shown in order starting with the dealer. If anyone bids grand, play will be high and no further players need show their card.
Once the bid is complete, the bid cards are returned to the players' hands and play begins with either the person to the left of the granding player, if playing high, or to the left of the dealer, if playing low.
The starting player may lay down any card, then play proceeds in a clockwise direction. Each player must lay down a card of the same suit if they have one available, otherwise they may lay down any other card. The player who lays the highest card of the starting suit wins the round, called a trick. The trick is collected for the winning team and the winner of the trick then starts the next round. Play continues in this manner until all cards are played.
If playing high, the goal is to take 7 tricks or more for your team. If playing low, the goal is to take 6 tricks or fewer for your team. When playing low, the team with the fewest tricks scores 1 point for any tricks under 7. (e.g. 4 tricks would be 3 points (7-4))
If playing high, the team with the most tricks scores 1 point for every trick over 6 if they were the team that granded. If the other team granded, a score of 2 for each trick is recorded. (e.g. Your team granded and you made 8 tricks, you score 2 (8-6) but if their team granded and you made 8 tricks, you score 4).
The first team to score 13 or higher wins.
Future features
This is a list of things I want to add/change in future versions. They are not currently implemented and are in no particular order
- Network play with central server and rating/stats system
- More advanced AI and greater variety of AI
Version History
v2.0.0
- New graphics and menus using .NET 3.5
- Low/High play indicator added
- Winning team is highlighted
- Graphically show the number of tricks each team has
- Animation to make it clearer who wins each trick
- Four uniquely named computers, 3 are randomly chosen at the start of the game. (NOTE: They still all play with the same strategy)
- Avatars for each player
- Icons to show dealer and granding players
- Log window
- Win/lose animations
- Instead of dragging cards to the table, mouse over to select and left click to play a card
- Created unique deck of cards
v1.1.0.8
- Created a real installer using Inno Setup
- Fixed a bug caused by maximizing the window by not allowing the window to be maximized
- Fixed up the last of the threading issues (hopefully).
- Fixed version info of the executable
v1.1.0.6
- Fixed more threading issues
- Fixed bug that caused person to left of dealer to always start a hand instead of left of the granding player
- Changed sort of hand
v1.1.0.5
- Fixed threading issue
- Made window size larger
- Added names underneath each player's card area
- Added status to show who won last trick
- Changed winning team display.
- Removed Debug menu
- Since there is still only one mode available and one AI available, the game now starts in single player mode upon startup.
v1.1.0.4
- Switched publisher from Hewlett-Packard to Lycanth
v1.1.0.2
This version has no major new features or major changes. Most changes are internal to prepare to upgrade the graphics to use WPF from .NET 3.5.
- Re-designed the graphics code
- Fixed a bug that caused the wrong team to be reported as the winner
- Fixed a few threading issues
- Removed the status bar. Instead the status of the game is reported in the left panel underneath the score.
v1.0
This was the very first version I created for .NET 1.1. It was designed to also work with DotGNU.
History
| Date | Notes |
|---|---|
| 2008-04-08 | Released version 2.0.0. This release includes a major graphical overhaul. See revision history for details. |
| 2008-03-31 | I released more bug fixes as 1.1.0.8, and also started using a more robust installer. |
| 2008-03-24 | I released some more minor bug fixes as 1.1.0.6 in preparation of branching off code to start version 2.0. |
| 2008-03-17 | I updated the binary download for Minnesota Whist to version 1.1.0.5. There are very few features added to this release. It is mostly a re-distribution of the code after I re-arranged it to prepare the project to use WPF. |
| 2008-03-14 | I've decided that this would be a good game to continue working on to try and bring it up to date. It may be awhile before a new version is posted, but I intend to try and update the graphics to use either the XNA framework or WPF. I've begun the process of converting the project to use Visual Studio C# 2008 Express |
| 2007-12-05 | Added project to wiki, and copied old history file |
| 2005-03-31 | This app has a ways to go before it is complete. I still want to add more variety to the AI, as well as network play. Network play is probably my top priority, so when I finally get around to working on this again, that's what will be added first. |
