                                    DOMINOES
                       (c) Blue Ribbon Software Ltd. 1990

There are 28 dominoes in a set, and each is divided in half by a line. Within
each half, the surface is either blank or marked by dots, ranging in number
from one to six. Seven of the dominoes are doubles, with the same values on
either side of the line, ranging from double blank to double six. The rest have
different combinations of values e.g. 6-5, 4-1, 3-0.

Of the many variations on the game, all share the same central objective; to
get rid of all your dominoes before your opponents can get rid of theirs. This
program contains two of the most popular versions of the game - 'domino out'
and 'fives and threes'.

In each game, the computer will shuffle the dominoes and draw seven for itself
and seven for you. The leading player places any domino from his hand face up
in the centre of the table. The other player then has to follow suit, putting
the half of a matching domino against the appropriate half of the lead player's
domino, and so on. The dominoes are laid end to end. If a domino can be placed
at either end of the chain, you may press either A or B to tell the computer
which end the domino should be placed.

If a player cannot follow suit, it is called 'knocking' and allows his opponent
to take another turn, if he can follow suit. Play ends either when neither
player can use any of their dominoes, or when one player has got rid of all
his dominoes.

After each hand, the dominoes are shuffled again, and each player takes turns
to start. A points total of 61 is set as the winning total.

                                   DOMINO OUT

In domino out, if one player has got rid of all his dominoes, the loser counts
the dots on the dominoes he still holds, and the total is passed to the winner
as his score for that hand. If neither player can follow suit, both players
count the dots on the dominoes they hold. The winner is the one with the lower
total, and he scores the difference between the two hands. As an example, if
player 1 has two dominoes 2-4 and 1-0 (total 7), and player 2 has one domino
6-4 (total 10), player 1 wins and scores three points (10-7).

                                FIVES AND THREES

In fives and threes, the scoring is done on a turn-by-turn basis. When any
domino is placed, the combined value of the dots at each end of the chain is
divided by five or three, or both, and the value is added to your score. As an
example, say the dominoes are laid out like this:

                                         5
                                     3-2 -
                                         5

The combined value of the dots at each end is 5+5+3 = 13, which does not score
any points since 13 is not divisible by either five or three. If a 3-0 domino
is now placed on the left, we get:

                                          5
                                    3 3-2 -
                                    -     5
                                    0

The combined value of the dots at each end is 0+5+5 = 10, which scores 10/5 =
2 points. Similarly, if a 5-3 domino is now placed on the right, we get:

                                        5
                                  3 3-2 - 5-3
                                  -     5
                                  0

which scores (0+3)/3 = 1 point.