card-game.el/NEWS

card-games NEWS  -- user-visible changes
========================================

* Version 1.0.90 (pre-test snapshot)

This release grows the package from the five-game 1.0.60 candidate to a
full collection of 30 games, all of which now draw SVG card faces on a
graphical display (with a plain-text fallback in the terminal) and accept
the mouse as well as the keyboard.

** New games (since 1.0.60)
  - Solitaire: Klondike, FreeCell, Spider, Yukon, Forty Thieves,
    Scorpion, Canfield, Russian Bank; Golf, TriPeaks, Pyramid.
  - Trick-taking: Hearts, Spades, Whist, Oh Hell, Euchre, Pitch,
    Briscola, and Contract Bridge (auction, dummy, rubber scoring).
  - Rummy family: Gin Rummy, Rummy, Rummy 500, Hand & Foot.
  - Matching: Go Fish, Old Maid.
  - Shedding and climbing: Crazy Eights, President.
  - Two-player: Russian Bank / Crapette, played against the computer --
    foundations, shared houses, loading cards onto your opponent, the
    "stop" rule that ends your turn if you skip a foundation play
    (toggle with ~cg-crapette-stops~), and sequenced house-to-house
    moves limited by the number of empty houses -- with ~[~ and ~]~ to
    choose how many cards of a run to drop onto an empty house.  On a
    graphical display it draws an SVG board (houses shown as stacks) that
    you can click to pick up and drop, with ~+~ / ~-~ / ~0~ to zoom;
    set ~cg-crapette-svg-cards~ to nil for the plain-text board.
  - Pegging: Cribbage.   Capturing: Scopa, Casino.   Spite & Malice.
  (These join Gaps/Montana, Hell's Half-Acre, and 500 from 1.0.60.)

** Graphics and input
  - SVG card faces for every game, behind per-game ~cg-*-svg-cards~
    toggles, with a plain-text fallback off a graphical display.
  - Mouse support everywhere: click cards to select or play, click board
    slots and buttons, and use an on-screen card-size slider plus the
    ~+~ / ~-~ / ~0~ zoom keys.
  - Full SVG table for the trick-taking games (Hearts, Spades, Whist,
    Oh Hell, Euchre, Pitch, Briscola): the three opponents, the trick in
    the middle, and your fanned hand, with the legal cards you may play
    ringed.  Click a card to play it.  Set ~cg-trick-svg-cards~ to nil
    for the plain-text board.
  - Full SVG board for the rummy games (Gin Rummy, Rummy, Rummy 500):
    the stock and discard, the melds already down on the table, and your
    fanned hand with cursor, marks, and lay-off hints; click a card to
    select it.  Honours ~cg-rummy-svg-cards~.
  - The same board now covers Hand & Foot (each team's books, and your
    hand or foot) and the fishing games Scopa and Casino (the loose
    table cards and the deck).

** Rummy-family rules completed
  - Rummy 500: take a card from anywhere in the discard pile (key ~T~) --
    you take it plus every card above it, and meld the chosen card at once.
  - Hand & Foot: pick up the discard pile (~p~) by melding its top card
    with two natural cards; red threes score as bonus cards; and each
    round opens with a rising go-down minimum (50, 90, 120, 150).

** 500 full-SVG UI
  - The kitty exchange is fully mouse-driven: a Discard button, a five-card
    selection cap, an on-table guidance banner, legal-play dimming during
    play, and a clickable ~? Help / Rules~ overlay.
  - A card-size slider scales the South hand; layout fixes to the
    "Next hand" button and the hand fan.
  - Live multiplayer 500 over TCP (~M-x cg-bid-host~ / ~M-x cg-bid-join~).

** Playtest fixes
  - ~q~ now returns to the ~M-x card-game~ menu from any game, instead of
    burying the buffer and leaving the previous buffer on screen.
  - The cursor/selection ring no longer borrows the theme's ~region~
    colour, which on some themes drew an alarming ring around the board;
    it is now the intended gold (customize ~cg-svg-highlight-color~).
  - Go Fish shows an "Ask for:" row of clickable rank buttons, so you
    choose a rank to ask for without hunting for one card in a large,
    overlapped hand.
  - The tableau solitaires (Klondike, FreeCell, Canfield, and the rest)
    and Go Fish now show a one-line control legend, so a new deal (~n~),
    undo, help, and the menu are visible rather than hidden behind a key.
  - Hell's Half-Acre / Gaps: clearer prompt pointing at the green ~+~
    gaps to fill, and a ~q menu~ button on the control line.

* Version 1.0.60
  - First multi-game release candidate: Montana/Gaps, Hell's Half-Acre,
    500 (with live multiplayer).  SVG rendering foundation and the
    renderer-strategy registry.

* Version 1.0.50
  - Initial ELPA-suitable packaging of the engine, Gaps, and 500.