Darts!

1988 · MS-DOS · Lee Griffin

A Darts game for the IBM PC From the PC Games #3 disk from I.B.Magazette, June 1988. Full disk image here: https://archive.org/details/pcgames3_ibmagazette By Lee Griffin Contents of DARTS.DOC: Darts! A Computerized Dart Game by Lee Griffin for I.B. Magazette, Inc. (c) Copyright 1988 DARTS.EXE is a computerized version of the classic game of darts. It allows up to four people to play using standard tournament rules which may be modified for easier play. DARTS requires CGA compatible graphics and will not work with Hercules compatible graphics. It MIGHT work on a Hercules with a CGA emulation program. The object of the game, as in real darts, is to get your score to be EXACTLY zero by subtracting the points scored by each of your dart throws. The way a throw is scored is as follows: The dart board is divided into 20 pie shaped sections. Along the outer edge of these sections are numbers that correspond to how many points a dart in a section will score. There are also two sections in the middle of the board. The center ring surrounding the bull's eye is worth 25 points. The bull's eye itself is worth 50 points. Between the center ring and the outside edge, and along the outside edge are two narrow, circular bands. The inner band is the triple ring and the outer band is the double ring. Any dart in these rings scores points equal to the points for the section times the value of the band. In other words, a dart in the 20 point section of the board that is in the triple ring will score 20 times 3 or 60 points. In regular tournament darts, each player starts with 301 points. Each time he throws a dart, the score for the dart is subtracted from the player's point total. The player's first and last throws are scored a bit differently, however. Before a player may start scoring points, he must "Double In." This means that he must get a dart in the double ring to score points. After he gets a double, he may then score points normally. Here are some examples: 1. A player throws three darts. He gets a 15, a 5 and a triple 20. He will score 0 points because none of his throws was a double. 2. A player gets a 12, a 3, and a double 1. He will score 2 points. He gets 0 points for the 12 because he hasn't doubled in yet and 0 points for the 3 for the same reason. He did get a double 1 that allows him to score. He gets 1 point for being in the 1 section which is doubled for being in the double ring. 3. A player gets a 4, a double 20, and a 13. The player gets 0 points for the 4, 40 points for the double 20, and since he has now doubled in, he gets 13 points for the dart in the 13 section. For the purposes of doubling in, the bull's eye IS considered a double, but the center ring is not. Once a player has reduced his score to the point that one dart can make his score 0, he comes under the rule of doubling out. A player can reduce his score to 0 ONLY if the score for the dart thrown is a double. For example, a player with 2 points left throws a dart and gets in the 2 section. He cannot count those points even though they would give him a score of 0 because the throw was not a double. If he had hit a double 1 however, he would win because points for the throw would be 2 (1 doubled) and his last throw would be a double. After the title screen, the game option menu will be displayed. This menu allows you to tailor the scoring of the game to your tastes. The value that is to be changed will be displayed in a different color (highlighted) than the rest of the menu and will be enclosed by angle brackets. You may highlight other values by pressing the up and down arrow keys. You change the value that is currently highlighted by pressing the + and - keys. When you have the values like you want them, press to start the game. The values of the game that can be changed are: the number of players, whether or not you must double in, whether or not you must double out, and the starting value of your score. The number of players may be from one to four. Pressing the + key increases the number of players and the - key decreases the number. You may change whether or not you must double in by pressing the + or - key. By turning off the doubling in feature, you make the game easier to play as you no longer need a double for your first throw. Doubling out may be changed the same way. The number of points that you start with may also be changed from 301 to 201. A 201 point game goes a little quicker. Once you have the game options like you want them, you can begin to play the game. The screen will be divided into 5 sections. The lowest section is an overhead view of your dart's flight path. The section just above that is a side view of your dart's flight path. The section in the upper left corner is the dart board, the section in the upper right corner is the score board, and the section just below the score board is the power indicator section. You will start out with the overhead view section being active. The two green bars show the limits, le