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Zonkers
By: J. D. Holdeman

Rules of the Game:

Zonkers is a game of chance and strategy for up to nine players.  Players begin each turn rolling six dice, adding points as follows:

1 or 2-1's                              100 points each
1 or 2-5's                               50 points each

3-1's                                  1000 points
4-1's                                  2000 points
5-1's                                  5000 points
6-1's                                 10000 points

3 of a kind (all except 1's)            100 times face value
4 of a kind (all except 1's)            200 times face value
5 of a kind (all except 1's)            500 times face value
6 of a kind (all except 1's)           1000 times face value


After each roll you may keep all points earned in the current turn and stop, or you may set aside one or more counters and re-roll all the remaining dice.  The option to stop is only available after you have rolled 500 or more points in a single turn to "open".

NOTE: In the following example the digit columns represent:
Dice face value---Number rolled---Points

For example, a sequence of rolls for a player during his first turn might be as follows:

Roll 1:
1---2---200
3---1---0
4---1---0
6---2---0

Player sets aside, say, both 1's for 200 points, and rolls four dice.

Roll 2:
2---3---200
3---1---0

In this example, the player must set aside all three 2's (as there are no other counters), for an additional 200 points, and roll the one remaining dice as he does not yet have 500 total points.

Roll 3:
5---1---50


If no new counters appear on any roll (for example, if neither a 1 nor a 5 had come up on the 3rd example roll), you have rolled ZONKERS, and all points earned previously in that turn are lost.  If, in any turn, all the dice--including those set aside--are counters, you must roll all six dice again.  If no new counters appear, you have Zonked; otherwise you may either stop or set aside one or more dice and roll again.

In the three example rolls, all dice have come up counters, so the player must roll six dice again.  If he rolls ZONKERS all points earned in this turn are lost.  If any counters are rolled, the player will have 500 or more points and may choose to take the points earned and stop rolling.  Also, if he stops this turn with 500 or more points before rolling Zonkers, he may choose to stop at any time in his next turn as he no longer needs to 'open'.  However, if he continues and rolls ZONKERS at any time, all points earned in the current turn are lost.

The game continues until a score of 10,000 or more points is reached by any player (unless a lower limit is set at the beginning of the game.)  At this point, all other players get one more turn to try to top this score.  The player with the most points after all have rolled is the winner.


Game Operation.

Zonkers may be played either from the keyboard or with a joystick.  Prompts of "Press <return>..." may be answered by pressing any key or either paddle button.  Responses requiring (y/n) may be entered from the keyboard or with either joystick/paddle button.  Where button 0 (open-apple) = "yes" and button 1 (solid-apple) = "no".

Dice selection can be made by entering the number of dice of each face value that you want to keep from the keyboard, but may often be made with the buttons also: i.e. button 0 will select all counters rolled for each face value, and button 1 will choose none.  The keyboard must be used to select a number between all and none.  Pressing the <Esc> key in response to the "Choose # of dice..." prompt will restart the selection process, but will not give the opportunity to stop rolling.

If only one player is selected, a computer player named "Apple" will be added. "Apple" will always choose to keep all counters rolled in any turn, and will stop rolling if only one or two dice remain (provided of course that he has enough points to "open", or that it is not the last turn in the game with another player leading).

Files needed:

ZONKERS
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