Electrum Dominoes

The First All Fives Game for Your Palm^TM Handheld

The Game

Electrum Dominoes is a variation of All Fives, using a 28-piece set consisting of one bone with each possible combination of pips from 0-0 through 6-6.

At the beginning of a new hand, each player draws seven bones. The player with the heaviest doublet plays it as the spinner. (A doublet is a bone with the same number of pips on each side; the heaviest one is the one with the most pips.) The other player must play a bone that matches the spinner on one side. For example, if the double six is played first, the next bone played must have a six on one side, and is placed to the east or west of the spinner. The next bone must match either the spinner or the last bone played. Once the east and west sides of the spinner have been played, bones may be played to the north or south. Doublets are placed perpendicular to the direction of play.

If a player has no bones that match the outermost ends, bones must be drawn from the boneyard until a match is found (and the matching bone is played) or the boneyard is empty and the player passes. Bones may be drawn even if the player already has a match, as long as there are bones in the boneyard. If the boneyard is empty, a bone must be played if possible.

If, after a bone is played, the number of pips on the outermost ends add up to a multiple of five, that number of points is added to the player's score. If the outermost bone is a doublet, both sides are counted. The spinner is counted this way as long as it is at one end (or the only bone; the double five scores the player ten points when played as the spinner). When a player empties his hand, he is awarded the sum of pips remaining in the other player's hand and a new hand is begun. If neither player has a bone that can be played and the boneyard is empty, the pips in each hand are added and the player with the lower number of pips is awarded the difference. The game continues until one player reaches 150 points.

In this version, the hands are drawn and the heaviest doublet is played automatically. If neither player has a doublet after the draw, the hand is void; a new boneyard is built and another draw takes place. Void hands do not appear on the display.

The Dominoes Display

The traditional appearance of an All Fives game is something like this. Your hand appears in the foreground, your opponent's at the back, the boneyard to one side, and the played bones in the middle. Handheld devices aren't suitable for this type of display; their screens are much too small. Even if the boneyard and opponent’s hand were not shown, the possible expansion of the player's hand and the meanderings of the played bones would require so much scrolling as to render the game unplayable. So we came up with a better way.

We collapsed the lines of played bones so that only the ends are seen next to the spinner. We moved the rest of the bones to a panel that also contains the bones in your hand. The played bones are added from right to left, bottom to top; the bones in your hand are added from left to right, top to bottom. There's just enough room so they never overlap, and there's almost always a gap between them. And you have just about the same information available to you as you would if you were playing against a human. For purposes of explanation, let's say the display consists of a status area, a playing area, a multi-purpose button, and a bone panel. The status area shows the players' scores, the number of bones in each player's hand, messages indicating scoring, whose turn it is, etc., and (to the right of the multi-purpose button) the number of bones remaining in the boneyard. The playing area contains the spinner and four end buttons. The end buttons show which bone was last placed on each end, and are used to indicate where a bone is to be played. You can use the end buttons even when you can't see them; that is, when no bone has yet been played on a given end (as long as the move is valid).

The bone panel contains a button representing each bone in your hand. In order to play a bone, tap it; the colors are inverted to indicate the selection. You can tap a different bone if you change your mind. When you are satisfied with your selection, tap an end button to indicate where the bone is to be played. The pictures below show what would appear if you first tapped the blank-two bone, then the west end button (the one with the blank-three bone).

Note that no bone has been played to the south of the spinner. The south end button is there, though, and could be used if you had a bone with three pips on one side that you wanted to play.

The multi-purpose button will be labelled 'Draw' when it's your turn, and tapping it will cause a bone to be drawn from the boneyard to your hand. When it's your opponent's turn (we call him 'Nestor'), this button will be labelled 'OK', and tapping it will enable him to take his turn.

If Nestor draws, a message to that effect will appear and you must tap the 'OK' button again to enable him to either play or draw again. If the boneyard is empty when it's your turn, this button will be labelled 'Pass'; tapping it indicates that you are unable to move, and Nestor will take his turn. If he is also unable to move, the hand will be ended as described above.

If you empty your hand, the bones in Nestor's hand are displayed in the bone panel with the colors inverted, and the multi-purpose button will be labelled 'New Hand'; tap it to begin a new hand.

At the end of a game, Nestor's hand will be displayed (if there are any bones in it) and the multi-purpose button will be labelled 'New Game'. You can probably guess what happens when you tap it.

The Game Menu

From the Game menu, you can go to the Settings Display, begin a new game if you chicken out, or display 'About' information.

The Settings Display

This display enables you to alter some settings and shows the number of games each player has won. The Difficulty setting controls how hard Nestor tries to thrash you. The descriptions may be a bit misleading. If you're a beginner, the 'Easy' setting might not be that easy, and the amount of chance in the game means that you'll beat the harder settings some of the time. In any case, you should be able to find a setting that is challenging enough to make the game enjoyable. The Auto-OK setting allows you to speed up the game a bit by causing the multi-purpose button to be tapped automatically whenever it reads 'OK'; that is, when it is Nestor's turn. If you select this option, status messages that would normally appear after your move will not be visible, and you will have to keep an eye on the 'My Bones' field to determine whether Nestor has drawn. The 'Return to game' button takes you back to the Dominoes Display. The 'Clear totals' button resets the game counts to zero.

Notes

In order to select his move, Nestor has the same information available to him as a human player would have. He 'knows' only the bones in his hand, the number of bones in your hand, the number of bones in the boneyard, and the bones that have been played. Honest.

This game is shareware. If you like it (or use it for more than thirty days), visit Handango or PalmGear to obtain the registered version, which is nag-free and preserves the game status and settings when you use other applications. Registered users will receive new versions via e-mail as they are released. No user information will be made available to any third party unless required by law.

Electrum Dominoes can be installed on any device that runs Palm OS® version 2 or later. On non-color devices, the display appears in glorious monochrome.

Please read the accompanying information in licence.txt and install Dominoes.prc only if you understand and accept the terms and conditions therein.

Questions, comments, and suggestions about Electrum Dominoes may be directed to support@electrumsoftware.com.au.

Visit Electrum Software for the latest trial version and information.

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