WHAT'S NEW IN THIS 4.55 RELEASE?

All changes to all games on all platforms listed.
Changes specific to a game or platform have the first letter in front.

LAST UPDATED: August 16th, 2002

DETAILS OF ADDITIONS IN 4.60 (first 1.10 Beta build for 500):
1) First public Beta build of new 500 game after HSE frozen.
2) Cleanup: Added opts.cls and wrote more generic save/load (#967).
3) Cleanup: Simplified passing code for arbitrary number of cards (#1053).
4) Added support for 3-player trickcard/face drawing (#1254).
6) 500: Created initial 500 project shell (
7) Cleanup: Seperated out hand.cls from player.cls (

DETAILS OF ADDITIONS IN 4.55 FINAL RELEASE (check 3/15/03):
1) Fixed minor bugs in bid autohint, new profile, and version check (#1275).
2) Fixed truncation of endgame sound, fixed boot date, popup saves ok (#1275).
3) Added icons for 500 and Cribbage to lobby screen (#1275).
4) Provide msgbox warning to all on old client (< 4.52) connects (#1275).
5) H: Fixed moonshot calculation to give others 26 to make us winner (#1275).
6) H: If KA/AS + 1 low Spade are out & divided, now risks leading QS (#767).
7) H: Ok to play 3rd high in Spades if 4th shown out of Spades (#767).
8) H: Dont dump QH/KH/AH on shooter to keep low Heart exit (#767).
9) Switched from a 10-day trial to a 10-game (unlimited day) trial (#1275).
10) Added game-specific upsell messages to load from d/l config (#1275).
11) S: Dont trump to make bid if it means probably covering oppnil (#767).
12) S: Dont lead AS to partner if they likely have KS, lead medium (#767).
13) S: Exp lead suit back to partner if they discard high-low (#767).
14) S: Bid Nil after big 5 bid with high average suit w/2 low (#767).
15) S: No longer round 3/4 bids up when covering pard's Nil (#767).
16) S: Dont raise Suicide bids up on low bidtotal if pard bid Blind (#767).
17) E: Merged in early 500 AI changes for better Bid Euchre (#767).
18) E: Lead from two trump w/top ok if trump already played (#767).
19) E: Dont pass for defense if can pickup with 8pts and 3 in suit (#767).
20) E: Bid on 3 trump with weak bower and void opposite suit (#767).
21) E: Pickup with weak hand (only 2 trump + Ace) if opps have 9 pts (#767).
22) E: Prefer NT bid without either bower and has 2+ Aces and lead (#767).
23) E: Bid NTA with AKx and Kx with two voids and has lead (#767).
24) E: Dont bid Alone with Axx in trump (no bowers) + Ax in offsuit (#767).
25) E: Fixed bug causing Alone bids in first round to sometimes pass (#767).
26) No longer shows hinted bids on spacebar if practice disabled (#767).
27) S: Fixed nil coverer play of trump when sluffing is better (#767).
28) Nokia: n3.html to order + no _ in name + test network (#1271).
29) Nokia: Cleanup GUI, refresh, dialogs, network ok but cant test (#1212).
30) If demo, show nag when using practice features after 7 games (#1275+).
31) If demo, allow bonus of another 10 games if email provided (#1275+).
32) P: You can now arrow through card selections (red+yellow) (#1275+).
33) H: Hearts leads and plays are now MUCH faster, esp. on Palm (#1275+).
34) Updated vendinfo/PAD to include keywords & remove from installer.
35) Free: Free now saves profile information for online play (#1275+).


SUMMARY OF IMPROVEMENTS IN THE 4.52 RELEASE SINCE 3.50 (check 9/1):
1) Sound code rewritten to use DirectX7, if installed, to fix XP crashes.
2) Replay to round now restores game back to exact card play on startup.
3) Added support for high DPI displays and sizing is now better on XP.
4) Bid suggested improved + you can now click to lower cards immediately.
5) You can now manually sort your cards by right-clicking on cards.
6) New host deal cross-platform seed format allows hosting Palm or PPC.
7) Hearts now uses true LRA passing and prompts for moonshot scoring +26/-26.
8) UPX scrambling now allows faster play while using virus scanners.
9) Over 200 major Hearts pass and play improvements for expert robots.
10) Over 400 major Spades bid, pass, and play improvements for experts.
11) Over 300 major Euchre bid, discard, and play improvements for experts.
12) Online: OOS errors are now auto-corrected using replay to round by host.
13) Online: Added player list to bottom-right of lobby chatcard.
14) Online: Customizable popup off in-game face, table, or player list.
15) Online: Emotes and macros are now both in an editable macros.txt file.
16) Online: Behind NAT firewalls or blocking servers can now host via relay.
17) Online: Hosts select game type, p/w, voice, watcher, and other options.
18) Online: Rewrote much of the GameSpy lobby code for faster lobby response.
19) Online: Players now forced to use host's settings for autoplay timer.
20) Online: Added /supermute for rated players to mute badmouthers for all.
21) Online: Hosts are now able to host custom variations with any options.
22) Online: Added hand-limits incl. 400-point games end at 8 hands for Spades.
23) Online: Lobby tables now sorted better + click on header to hide games.
24) Online: Added new USCF rating system for registered players.
25) Online: Random + first-timer tip shows when going online.
26) Online: You can now play ahead (out of turn) both offline and online.
27) Online: Mouseover now highlights (small popup) card if its a legal play.
28) Online: Registered players can use a custom face for online play.
29) Online: License sharing is enforced + several bugs with licensing fixed.
30) Online: Invite players in finished or empty games to join your game.
31) Online: Numerous OOS fixed: var/name changes, pies, replays, esp. Euchre.
32) Monitor: Massively improved with tourney features and better refresh .

DETAILS OF FIXES IN 4.52 PATCH:
1) Fixed endgame exit and corrupt hands/no cards on startup (#1243).
2) S: Dont bid Nil with 425+ points and 60-pt lead if no 10+ or Nil (#1243).
3) S: Dont bid Nil with tripleton Ace if partner bid 1 or 2 (#1243).
4) S: Nil bidder wont sink their Nil to stop win if BagToStopWin (#1243).
5) Palm: Reset or corrupt savegame now actually removes bad one (#1243).

DETAILS OF FIXES IN THE FINAL 4.5 RELEASE (check 9/15):
1) Monitor: Fixed icon, improve refresh, sort name list (#1241).
2) Online: Unlock refresh, phantom watchers fixed (#1241).
3) Online: Host now saves lasthost.txt so disconnect can load (#1110).
4) Palm 4.51: Fixed background, bidcard refresh, sunshots, 1-char name (#1239).
5) Palm 4.51: Document memory install, no AF shortcut + in Games group (#1233).
6) Online: Fixed HTTP-1.0 + send game version in User-Agent (#1240).
7) H: No-trick statistic now clears properly + last-trick click (#1241).
8) H: Sunshots now correctly prompt for +52 or -52 and score (#1239).
9) H: Dont take 1st Heart trick w/lots of royals if QS in trick (#1239).
10) E: Fixed so dump of Ace is ok if only Ace + guar trump left (#1239).
11) E: Save Ace and low card in suit in no-trump when dumping (#1239).
12) E: AKxx + Ace no bids NTA instead of suit alone bid (#1239).
13) E: Alone bids with 3+ trump+bower+Ace now requires trump Ace (#1239).
14) E: Alone bids with 3+ trump+King+Ace now requires 2 of top 3 (#1239).
15) E: Tweaked bidding to better handle double-deck overbids (#1239).
16) E: Fixed bug causing underbidding with best bower (#1239).
17) S: Dont blow Nil to stop opp's bid unless win or bid 10+ (#1239).
18) S: Take 11th trick instead of avoiding bags if pard has 2+ trump (#1239).
19) Fixed testlobby allowing hosting of more than one game.
20) S: If pard lead echo in 2nd round and have top, lead it (#1239).
21) S: Fixed bug leading low Spades with pardnil + oppnil (#1239).
22) S: If playing 2nd with AQ and round >= 10, take for lead (#1239).
23) S: If bid Blind Nil, ok to cover pardnil if have 5+ Spades (#1239).
24) S: If 2 tricks will stop bidders from win, give up our Nil (#1239).
25) S: Adjusted overbidding of trump with jokers and no royals (#1239).

DETAILS OF FIXES IN THE 4.44 RELEASE (check 9/15):
1) Palm: Switched to 3.0 of AppForge Booster + fixed edit field.
2) Monitor: /ping, top, /timed, top, refresh, player list, score (#1208)
3) Palm: Created manual install for memory-tight installs (#1228).

DETAILS OF FIXES IN THE 4.42 RELEASE (check 9/15):
1) Online: Corrupt custom faces that crash now delete themselves (#795).
2) Online: Re-fixed simultaneous joins w/o causing 'cant join' stuck (#1230+).
3) Online: Fixed problems with pinging from 'cant join' (#1230).
4) Online: Log variation, if Palm clients, and max # clients (#795).

DETAILS OF FIXES IN THE 4.40 RELEASE (check 9/15):
1) Perf: Improved speed of mouse handling and online card play (#1237).
2) Online: Workaround and manual refresh/new fix for 'cant join' (#1230).
3) Online: Verified Watcher change (#795) + #1218 tourney/room chg (#1218).
4) Online: Fixed 2nd round Euchre bids + rebid OOS errors (#1232).
5) Palm: Eliminated dead code from Palm build to cut size (#1165).

SUMMARY OF IMPROVEMENTS IN THE 3.70 RELEASE SINCE 3.50:
1) Sound code rewritten to use DirectX7, if installed, to fix XP crashes.
2) Replay to round now restores game back to exact card play on startup.
3) Numerous OOS errors fixed: var/name changes, pies, replays, esp. Euchre.
4) OOS errors are now auto-corrected using replay to round by host.
5) Hosts can now allow late joins to sync-up to round immediately.
6) Added support for high DPI displays and sizing is now better on XP.
7) Bid suggested improved + you can now click to lower cards immediately.
8) You can now manually sort your cards by right-clicking on cards.
9) New host deal cross-platform seed format allows hosting Palm or PPC.
10) Over 200 major Hearts pass and play improvements for expert robots.
11) Over 300 major Spades bid, pass, and play improvements for experts.
12) Over 300 major Euchre bid, discard, and play improvements for experts.
13) License sharing is now enforced + several bugs with licensing fixed.
14) Various minor online, lobby, and scoring bug fixes + quicker timeouts.
15) Added Hearts LRAS passing scheme + improved Sp mirror joker handling.

SUMMARY OF IMPROVEMENTS IN 3.50 SINCE 3.23 RELEASE (10/9, check on 1/9/02):
1) We now use a new, faster, smaller Inno installer and uninstaller.
2) You can now autopatch to the latest version from inside of the game.
3) All installer, patch, uninstaller issues fixed + smaller w/o VB runtimes.
4) Improvements to sound playback, skin restoring, and game speed.
5) Lobby refresh better handles phantom, duplicate games, and firewall use.
6) Added support for RogerWilco voice chat.
7) Clicking on a face in the lobby now shows current game score with profile.
8) /ignore command improved and better documented for players to use + /boot.
9) Scoring history completely rewritten, now scrollable & saveable.
10) Negative score games now end properly + several online OOS bugs fixed.
11) Improved handling of 'name-in-use' error and fixed reset of statistics.
12) Euchre & Hearts scoring + taunts simplified + several bugs fixed.
13) Fixed a few Euchre play failures and bad Nil bids w/jokers in Spades.
14) Improvements to lobby monitor: /whisper, /scores, /host, /ping, /clear.
15) Registered players can now order discounted value pack inside the game!
16) Creation of a Palm and PocketPC Beta version of the game!
17) Massive code cleanup, restructuring, and merging with new Palm build.
18) Lots of testing and minor bug fixes to polish the game, incl. XP testing.

SUMMARY OF IMPROVEMENTS IN 3.23 SINCE 3.0 RELEASE (6/22, check on 7/15):
1) We now have professionally-done hi-color player face artwork.
2) H: Fixed bugs in partnership, moonshot, exact, and JOD bonus scoring.
3) Added support for room-specific/tourney/event info.txt to show in game list.
4) Players in lobby are now color-coded to show registration and rating level.
5) Dragon logo no longer covers up 15-day+ nag remind text in register dialog.
6) Fixed various bugs in profile and name changing and update rating & picture.
7) H: You can now enable a trickcard in Hearts to show tricks taken.
8) S: If partner bid big 5 and I have junk but highest trump, dont go Nil.
9) Added /reply to quickly reply back to the previous incoming whisper.
10) /whisper will now default to last whisper destination.
11) H+S: Over 500 Hearts and Spades lead, play, and bid improvements.
12) Fixed Fancy.gif cards which were causing blank/white cards in 3.04.
13) You can now 'watch' from lobby using 'Watch' button from profile dialog.
14) Profile information now properly transferred & restored for watchers.
15) Fixed 256-color palette broken by watcher eye & improved Gamespy Lobby.
16) Added numerous upsell registration improvements and give a 7-day grace.
17) Added Partners Cards to the View menu & history/view ok w/alert online.
18) Skin and music settings now saved and restored for each player's profile
19) Hints now 'popup' pass/play and space will play it.  New autohint mode.
20) Improved network detection and new /forcenetwork cmd-line override option.
21) /ignore will now also ignore pies, taunts, and chats from in-game players.
22) E: Hundreds of Euchre bid, discard, and play improvements in 1.23 (#807).

EUCHRE 0.8 BETA RELEASE BUILT ON 3.02 (released 3/8, expires 4/1)

SUMMARY OF IMPROVEMENTS IN THE 3.0 RELEASE (released 2/12, expires 6/1/01):
1) Over 800 Hearts and Spades bid, pass, and play improvements in expert AI.
2) Chat & emotes are now IRC compatible, colored, & cut/paste to clipboard.
3) Right-click on chatcard shows some emotes and last 3 chat macros used.
4) Various bugs fixed and improvements in the GameSpy lobby monitor (#709).
5) Refresh of GameSpy listed games in lobby & room change improved (#697).
6) Disconnection from GameSpy now handled quietly & reconnects (#715).
7) Players can now use a graphical /smile or play an audio /taunt in chat.
8) Private /whisper messages, /shout to lobby, and /yell to get attention.
9) Added support for GameSpy Arcade, better theme support, better LAN play.
10) Added support for custom Face and Taunt libraries & add-on packs.
11) Added some new online variations & replaced some copyrighted sounds.
12) Fixed sound-related crashes under Windows 2000 and NT systems (#720).
13) Disabled playahead & fixed lead and play failures when playing quickly.
14) Fixed dialup prompt crash if chose to Play Online without connection.
15) Fixed 256-color palette display and prevent non-online dialup prompts.
16) Various name change problems that caused crashes, OOS, and bugs fixed.
17) All known out-of-sync errors when playing online have been fixed & tested.

SUMMARY OF IMPROVEMENTS IN THE 2.1 RELEASE (released 1/1/01, expires 3/1/01):
1) Over 500 Hearts and Spades bid, pass, and play improvements in expert AI.
2) All known out-of-sync errors when playing online have been fixed & tested.
3) Chat & emotes are now IRC compatible, colored, & cut/paste to clipboard.
4) Right-click on chatcard shows some emotes and last 3 chat macros used.
5) Various name change problems that caused crashes, OOS, and bugs fixed.
6) Various bugs fixed and improvements in the GameSpy lobby monitor (#709).
7) Refresh of GameSpy listed games in lobby & room change improved (#697).
8) Fixed dialup prompt crash if chose to Play Online without connection.
9) Fixed sound-related crashes under Windows 2000 and NT systems (#720).
10) Fixed 256-color palette display and prevent non-online dialup prompts.
11) Disconnection from GameSpy now handled quietly & reconnects (#715).
12) Players can now use a graphical /smile or play an audio /taunt in chat.
13) Private /whisper messages, /shout to lobby, and /yell to get attention.
14) Added support for GameSpy Arcade, better theme support, better LAN play.

SUMMARY OF IMPROVEMENTS IN THE 2.0 RELEASE (released 11/26/00):
1) Support for network and Internet play.  Give it a try!  We have made it
   super-easy to host and join games  You may find yourself addicted to the
   excitement, challenge, and chat of playing with other real people!
2) Extensive lobby chat features including emotes and buddy lists.
3) Traybar lobby monitor will alert you when games are dealt or buddies login.
4) Updated player and table graphics and higher-quality sounds and taunts. 
5) Support for the new skin/theme format used in our add-on center.  Other
   players can submit their favorite themes, artwork, and custom taunts.
   We already have over a dozen, including Star Trek, Cats, Jungle, and others.
6) More stable sound play (particular under Windows NT and Windows 2000).
7) A new interactive Intro 101 tutorial and an improved uninstaller.
8) A few more game variations and options requested by avid players.
9) Literally thousands of computer/AI improvements, including the use of
   bidding and play conventions used by expert players such as Joe Andrews.

SUMMARY OF IMPROVEMENTS IN THE 1.95 BETA RELEASE (expires midnight 11/26/00):
1) All the join and late join out-of-sync errors should be fixed.
2) GameSpy IRC users not playing the game are squelched.  Also added /ignore.
3) You can now scroll the game list and change to different lobby rooms.
4) Several performance improvements to speedup gameplay.
5) All of the in-game sounds and taunts are better quality and more clear.
6) Monitor, LAN hosting, and game lobby polished for final release.
7) You can now directly apply and export themes to and from ZIP files.
8) All outstanding Hearts AI bugs have been fixed.

SUMMARY OF IMPROVEMENTS IN THE 1.9 FREE RELEASE (expires 6/1/01):
1) Free versions do a much better job now of trying to connect before exiting.
2) Several CTR improvement measures added.
3) Added workaround to prevent rare OLE automation errors.
4) S: Extensive AI improvements including major underbidding bug (#605).
5) H: Extensive AI improvements including smarter moonshot play (#606).
6) H: Undo now recalcs hand points and JOD moonshot prevention improved (#606).
7) FAQ has been majorly updated with new questions and answers.

SUMMARY OF IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PUBLIC 1.8 RELEASE (released 8/00):
1) Sound and music no longer cause intermittent crashes under NT or Windows 2000.
2) Registration code system rewritten and nicer upgrade/nag screen added.
3) H: Hearts computer pass and play massively improved over 1.1 release (300+).
4) S: Hundreds of Spades computer bid, pass and play bugs fixed and improved (200+).
5) New hi-color icons (small and large) look better in a variety of resolutions.
6) 'Check for latest release...' and 'Get latest News...' functions added.
7) Uninstaller completely rewritten and improved.
8) S: Small bid and made total counts added to trickcard & other extras.
9) Added game and scoring history dialogs (registered versions only).
10) Extensive improvements to Theme/Skin support to make them easier to write.
11) Our freeware versions now use Conducent 5.x & 3rd party partner ads.

SUMMARY OF IMPROVEMENTS IN THE 1.1+ RELEASE:
First public release of 32-bit Championship Euchre was on March 21st, 2001
First public release of 32-bit Championship Hearts was on April 22nd, 2000
First public release of 32-bit Championship Spades Pro was on January 1, 2000
Championship Spades 7.1 (from which Pro was built) released on August 4th, 1999
First public release of 16-bit Championship Spades was on June 16th, 1996
