CRIBBAGE(6) BSD Reference Manual CRIBBAGE(6)
NAME
cribbage - the card game cribbage
SYNOPSIS
cribbage [-emqr]
DESCRIPTION
cribbage plays the card game cribbage, with the program playing one hand
and the user the other. The program will initially ask the user if the
rules of the game are needed - if so, it will print out the appropriate
section from According to Hoyle.
cribbage options include:
-e When the player makes a mistake scoring his hand or crib, provide
an explanation of the correct score.
(This is especially useful for beginning players.)
-m "Muggins" - if a player mistakenly scores less than is due, the
opponent may claim the overlooked points. (Of course, the
computer never miscalculates!)
-q Print a shorter form of all messages - this is only recommended
for users who have played the game without specifying this op-
tion.
-r Instead of asking the player to cut the deck, the program will
randomly cut the deck.
cribbage first asks the player whether he wishes to play a short game
("once around", to 61) or a long game ("twice around", to 121). A
response of 's' or 'S' will result in a short game; any other response
will play a long game.
At the start of the first game, the program asks the player to cut the
deck to determine who gets the first crib. The user should respond with a
number between 4 and 48, indicating how many cards down the deck is to be
cut. The player who cuts the lower ranked card gets the first crib. If
more than one game is played, the loser of the previous game gets the
first crib in the current game.
For each hand, the program first prints the player's hand and whose crib
it is, and then asks the player to discard two cards into the crib. The
cards are prompted for one per line, and are entered as explained below.
After discarding, the program cuts the deck (if it is the player's crib)
or asks the player to cut the deck (if it's its crib); in the latter
case, the appropriate response is a number from 4 to 36 indicating how
far down the remaining 40 cards are to be cut.
After the deck is cut, play starts with the non-dealer (the person who
doesn't have the crib) leading the first card. Play continues until all
cards are exhausted. The program keeps track of the scoring of all points
and the total of the cards on the table.
After play, the hands are scored. The program requests the player to
score his hand (and the crib, if it is his) by printing out the appropri-
ate cards. Play continues until one player reaches the game limit (61 or
121).
A carriage return when a numeric input is expected is equivalent to typ-
ing the lowest legal value; when cutting the deck this is equivalent to
cutting after the fourth card.
Cards are specified as rank followed by suit. The ranks may be specified
as one of: 'a', '2', '3', '4', '5', '6', '7', '8', '9', 't', 'j', 'q',
and 'k', or alternatively, one of: 'ace', 'two', 'three', 'four', 'five',
'six', 'seven', 'eight', 'nine', 'ten', 'jack', 'queen', and 'king'.
Suits may be specified as: 's', 'h', 'd', and 'c', or alternatively as:
'spades', 'hearts', 'diamonds', and 'clubs'. A card may be specified as:
"<rank> <suit>", or: "<rank> of <suit>". If the single letter rank and
suit designations are used, the space separating the suit and rank may be
left out. Also, if only one card of the desired rank is playable, typing
the rank is sufficient. For example, if your hand was "2H, 4D, 5C, 6H,
JC, and KD" and it was desired to discard the king of diamonds, any of
the following could be typed: 'k', 'king', 'kd', 'k d', 'k of d', 'king
d', 'king of d', 'k diamonds', 'k of diamonds', 'king diamonds', 'king of
diamonds'.
FILES
/var/games/criblog log file (if logging is enabled)
/usr/share/games/cribbage.instr instructions
AUTHORS
Earl T. Cohen wrote the logic. Ken Arnold added the screen-oriented in-
terface.
MirBSD #10-current May 31, 1993 1