Member of the Internet Link Exchange
NAGROM PRODUCTIONS CHARITYWARE PRESENTS:
Welcome to my Spades Home Page. Please feel free to browse around this page and click
on any link you like to find out a variety of info on Spades including
how to download it to your computer.
Author's Note:Please accept my apologies as neither this web site nor the Spades game itself
has been updated in several years. Nonetheless there has been a loyal following of which I am grateful.
What's more, thanks to you, the game is as popular as ever. At some point in the future your patience will be
rewarded and both an updated game and web site will exist.
Next Spades Update: 2002 ----------You are visitor![[digit's page counter]](http://counter.digits.com/wc/-d/1/spadescount)
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Best of the Web
Nagrom Productions Charityware SPADES Home Page
is a proud recipient of the 2ASK Best of the WEB Award
About Spades:
SPADES is a version of the popular card game. You remember Spades from
your dorm room, home, hospital, maybe even the service. Now you can play
at home. Design your own partner or opponents or choose from those
available.Choose your own rules and options. Features include sound
events, saving and loading games, create partners and opponents,
sandbagging, setting minimum bid and game point, choice of cardbacks,
nil bidding, big/little moe, big/little joker, "mini",Boston,Two For Ten,
game summary and more.
Spades was originally written on an Intel 8088 for DOS and was first
upgraded to Windows capability in July of 1995. It premiered in America
On Line's Software Center in August of the same year and was upgraded
several times to accomodate downloader's requests.In its first six months
Spades has been downloaded by over 10,000 people, has been uploaded (and
downloaded) on several ftp sites, and has been distributed on CD-ROMs.
Spades takes about 15-20 minutes to download depending on your modem
speed and contains shared windows files which are useful for many windows
based games.
Spades in it's compressed format is just about 2 to 3 MB in size. Decompressed
it requires about 2 megabytes on your hard drive.
Spades requires a VGA or SVGA monitor, Windows 3.1 or later, a 386 processor
or better, a CPU speed of 33 mhz or faster. A sound card is suggested to
hear the sound events but you can still play the game without one.
Download Spades Now!
The 7/19/96 version (revised on 8/19/96) of Spades is now available! This newest version of Spades includes animation, a built in instant upgrade, and more! Spades will take about 15 minutes to download and requires about
2 MB on your hard dirve.. When finished you should have files entitled
Spad16-1.zip,Spad16-2.zip, and Spad16-3.zip (for Win 3.1) or Spad32-1.exe and Spad32-2.exe (for Win95/NT).
(Though you no longer need WinZip (or any standard decompression program) to
unpack this archive, if you're using Win95, I still think it's a wonderful utility.)
Double clicking on this file will evoke a brief DOS shell which will unpack
the 28 program files. Run, or double-click on the program file Setup.exe to continue
with installation. It is suggeseted that you install to a directory called
/Spades. Most of the program files will be installed there. Several other files
(including VBRUN400x.DLL and QCARDS.DLL) will be placed in your Windows/System directory.
A program group and Spades icon will also be created for easy starting
of the game.
Spades is virus free. If you're ready to download Spades now click HERE!
![[Screenshot of the game]](screenshot.gif)
About the Author - 1996
The author is a twenty something (born, raised, probably
die here) New Jersey native. He has been a psychotherapist working with suicidal
and sexually abused teens and currenlty does client/server work in the managed health care industry. He's a musician, lives for baseball, and likes
to shoot pool.
(Here's a shameless link to his resume.)
Most of all he loves his family , his friends, his
newlywed wife (she said, "YES!") Virginia and their son Micah.
Circa 1983- A fledgling sophmore in high school gets
hooked by the computer bug. He's got a TRS-80 Model III maxed out at 48K
RAM and two low-density disk drives. These are the days long before hard
drives were common in microcomputers and Windows weren't even thought of.
No, my friend DOS was boss.
Anyway the young man moves quickly through BASIC and
decides that it would be fun to learn machine language for the Z80 chip
his TRS-80 uses. No, he's not a computer nerd or geek, in fact he drops
out of his pre-calculus class before he fails it.
He learns the language and starts programming at the
guts level of the computer. He gets pretty good at it. In his senior year
he sleeps through his advanced computers class, waking only to teach the
teacher something new, and gets an A.
He's on his way to Rutgers as a comp sci major. His
future is so bright...he's gotta wear shades!
He arrives on campus only to find out that dozens
of other former high school comp sci geniuses have the same dream he does.
He's a great programmer but they make him take Calculus 151 and a class
called Data Structures. These are the infamous "weed out" classes
made to weed out the smart kids from the uh, well, not-so-smart kids. In
Data Structures they teach him one thing then test him in something only
remotely like what he learned in class. He feels it's unfair but then some
of these kids are getting A's on these exams. He fails both Data Structures
and Calculus miserably. Two 4-credit F's make him an instant dismissal
from school.
He finds himself working at GMAC as a customer service
representative with no room for advancement and says, "This is not
my beautiful life!".
He quits the job and gets back into Rutgers. He finds
his other "true calling" in psychology and suddenly he finds
himself on the Dean's List semester after semester. He goes on to grad
school and becomes a Clinical Social Worker/Psychotherapist and works mostly
with sexually abused and suicidal teens.
1995. His father offers him his old Tandy 1000 because
he feels his son needs to stir up his old hacking skills. The Tandy is a relic only slightly
ahead of the time of the aforementioned TRS-80. (Can you believe he still
has disks for that TRS-80, only the machine doesn't work now.) The Tandy
has a 8088 chip. This relic predates the evolution of the 286-386-486-Pentium
generation of chips. In short, it has no purpose. It doesn't do Windows
either.
Nonetheless. The computer bug has bitten him again.
He combines that with his love for Spades and creates a DOS version of
the game. It looks ridiculous! You can't even use the mouse! You have to
use the little arrow keys on the keyboard.
But it was fun to make! (If anybody wants to see it
just drop me a line.)
Anyway he soon stepped up to a 486 and got caught
up with the modern world of computing and programming again after what
had turned out to be a 10 year hiatus. He got into the Visual Basic stuff
and decided that Spades needed to be played by everyone. In August of this
past summer he put up the first Windows vesion of Spades on AOL. About
2,000 people downloaded it. Some sent him mail asking him to make changes.
He tried to accomodate everyone and put up upgraded versions of Spades
on AOL in October, November and then again in December. He especially liked
it when he got mail from someone about the game, especially if their comments
were positive (as most were), if they told him what state they were from,
and most especially if they were making a donation to Covenant House. (He
had volunteered there for a short while several years ago.)
So now he programs in Visual Basic, Visual C++, Java, SQL and still finds
use for Pascal and assembly language. He's the site manager for Nagrom
Productions Charityware. He's got a pretty working understanding of TCP/IP
and (as you can see) knows how to write a fairly decent web pages in HTML with a little
JavaScript and VBScript to boot.. He's always willing to provide custom business solutions programming for anybody who's
willing to pay him or help out the Covenant House cause.
Anyway, end of story for now. Did I bore ya?
About Charityware
Charityware is a derivative of the shareware concept. Users freely download
software and if they choose to keep it they, on their honor, send a donation
to the charity promoted by the software's author. Often times (as in the
case of Spades) this form of registration results in the user getting the
contributer's version of the software which has all features enabled. Charityware
is a win-win situation for all involved.
About Covenant
House
![[Covenant House Logo]](covenan2.gif)
Covenant
House is a safe haven for homeless and runaway youth. Though originally
based in New York City there are now several Covenant Houses across the
USA. Your contribution will go to help feed, clothe, and shelter a young
woman or man who may not be very different from your son, daughter, sister,
brother or even yourself. This software is considered "charityware"
in which the author requests that instead of a registration fee the user
instead sends a donation to the charity. This is a win-win situation for
all involved.100% of the proceeds from Spades go to Covenant House. Even
if you've never registered shareware before wouldn't this be the perfect
time to start?
Letters of the
Week:
" Your Spades game is by far the greatest Spades game that I have found.
There are several other games available but they do not compare to your
product. Your Spades has considerable more options for the user. I applaud
you for your attention & detail to the game. Your Spades game is contagious
& I greatly enjoy playing the game whenever possible.
I mailed my $25.00 donation today to Houston. The idea you have is unique
& different in donating the proceeds to charity & for this I commend you. I
wish you all the success in your endeavor to bring a little happiness &
bright light to the children you have reached out & touched. By requesting
the donation to the Covenant House you have allowed all of us to participate
with you.
Thanks,
Kevin
"
"
Hey Morgan!
I wanted to write something profound so that I can get on your list of
favorite letters, but I didn't have time to refine my thoughts. Anyway,
I love your spades game. Me & my boss play it every morning before &
every night after work.It's a real stress reliever.Besdies, it's so
awesome to hear homer say "What the hell was that!!" when I kick their
butts.Here's to a job well done!!!! I hope you keep up the good work,
and I know there are thousands of people out theere who are extreemely
grateful to you for donating your "spades revenues" to Covenent house.
It is a truly noble gesture. Now maybe if Bill G. would donate a day's
earnings to a charity or two.... ;)
I donated $50 to Covenant house, and i'm expecting a letter from them.
The lady said to contact you for the registration number, so here I am.
Please let me know if I can get the number now, or if I need to wait
until my confirmation letter arrives.
Thanks, and Happy New Year!!!
Earl Robinson
"
"Morgan
I just love your game of Spades. What a great idea: Charityware. I mailed a check today...Christine Moore
My Favorite Letter:
"Morgan. I downloaded your Spades game (12-24-95 version) around the first of the year to evaluate it. It is clearly the superior spades game of the 5 or 6 that I have tried. It is remarkably flexible for setting preferences. It is the only one that can be configured to play Spades in the manner in which I learned. It also has all the playing options that I was aware of and many more. You have done a magnificent job of realistically recreating the game on computer in a manner similar to the way it is played in real life.
I sent a $25 contribution to Covenant House of Washington, DC today, as you suggested. Your compensation arrangement is very generous on your part; I am sure they appreciate it. Although Covenant House was not formerly one of the charities to which I gave, I was aware of the good work they did and was happy to make the donation to them.
Any thoughts about developing any other games? Pinocle, perhaps?"
Keep up the good work.
Darryl Schenk
If you e-mailed me about a donation you made and haven't got a response please e-mail me again. Some people's mail was un-deliverable.
More Quotes:
Don't take my word for it. Click
HERE and read what other downloaders have
had to say about Spades.
FAQs
(Frequently Asked Questions)
Q: When the game begins it always starts me off with a
bid of 12 or 13. How come?
A: Even though it says " Click Here To Begin " don't
bother clicking at all. If you have the Downloader's version answer one of the
buttons below the logo. If you have the Contributor's version just wait two seconds
and the game will start. Think of the logo like a commercial.
Q: Spades won't set up properly. It keeps giving
me the error message, " Error -Could not copy file: ver.dl_->c:\windows\ver.dl"
A: The problem is not yours nor mine but, if you
can believe it, a Microsoft Problem. Here's how to resolve it: You evidently
have a file named VER.DL in your \WINDOWS directory. As long as that file
is there, the install will not work. You can delete, rename, or move that
file to disk, but do not delete VER.DLL, which you will find in the \WINDOWS\SYSTEM
directory. Afterwards attempt setup.exe again and you should have no problems.
Q: I got the game to run but things don't appear
right on my screen. Sometimes the windows overlap my cards, etc.
A: Spades was intended for the market user who
uses the standard VGA/Super VGA resolution settings 640 X 480, 256 colors.
Do the following to resolve this problem:
1) Go to Control Panel.
2) Go to Windows Setup. (In WIN95 go to DISPLAY -> Settings.)
3) Display Settings can be changed.
My settings read: S3 2.41 640 X 480, 256 colors.
Q:Hey, these aren't the rules I'm used to!
A: The author took in the comments of the first 2,200 downloaders of
the game and added all of their options to the game. No matter where
you play Spades the finer points of the rules are bound to change but
the spirit of the game is the same everywhere as it is here.
Q: How can I get the upgrade? I want to play with
the cut-throat/non-partners option and be able to save all of my created
players and opponents to a disk data base for automatic loading everytime
I play Spades.
A: Contact the author directly via e-mail
after sending your donation to Covenant House. The author will ensure that
you have the very latest Contributer's Edition of Spades by sending you
a passcode to enter.
Q: The game doesn't save the players I am
using from one time to the next.
A: You must choose "Exit" under
"Game" on the menubar in order to preserve players. Simply clicking
an X in the upper right corner will not preserve the players.[This was corrected in the 7/19/96 version.] When you
hear "Goodbye" you know you've done it right.
Upgrades
The downloader's version of Spades has a few very important features disabled.
Those features include the cut-throat/non-partners option, the ability to
save every created player/opponent to a disk data base to be automatically
loaded each time the game is run, and an ability to cheat!
Upgrades are available for free to confirmed contributer's to Covenant
House. Once you are a confirmed contributer you will be added to the author's
contributer e-mailing lists and will recieve a password to upgrade it with.
If you have the 7/19/96 version of Spades you DO NOT need to use the Java
Instant Upgrade that appears below (if you have a Java-Powered browser.) Instead
simply enter in your passcode in the game itself directly. When the Covenant House logo
comes up select the button below that says, " I've contributed. Show me to Instant Upgrade "
and your game will be instantly and permanently upgraded. This passcode will be changing with
different version dates of the game so be sure to include the version date of your particular game
when you e-mail the author after having donated.
If you have the 12/24/95 version and a Java-Powered browser you can
enter your passcode below.
You will recieve a file called SPDCEUPG.ZIP. Unzip this file and simply
read Upgrades.doc. It's easy, painless, and of course virus free!
Spades on CD-ROM:
Spades recently made it's premiere on CD-ROM.
It was included in the March 1996 release of Best of the Internet
GameHead CD-ROM by Pacific
HiTech. (About $12 for more than 50 great games.) Visit their ftp and
web sites for a lot of great stuff! And if you visit and do a search
under "S" you can find my Spades game and vote for it!
(Give me 4 stars!)
Go here to find several Spades games for
your computer complete with short write ups from the authors. Try several
different Spades games. Remember these games are shareware and charityware
so be sure to support the authors efforts.
To visit the Spades Mania site click here ->
MANIA
Meanwhile, in addition to visiting the Spades Mania site
you might check out some of these links to great Spades shareware and information:
-WINSPADES
by Dax Prather - This is one of the most professional Spades games I've
seen. Dax is a solid programmer, his game is crisp and clean. Go to his
home page for more info and a sneek peek at his game.
-DAN
AND BRAD'S SPADES TRIBUTE PAGE - So you think you can play? Try taking
on these two guys! Aside from bragging about their victories and skills
these guys offer a wealth of information about Spades including their way
of playing the game. (There will always be variations.) Go take a look
at their site!
Good News!
The author has recently been contracted to help create a networked version
of Spades so that you can play against others live on line.
[Latest News: Didn't get the contract so this project is delayed.]
Obviously this project is his first priority.
However, as time allows you can expect these other projects soon:
(Probably in this order:)
-Beavis and Butthead Replacement Wavs
-In it's original form the sound bites for Spades have a
decidedly " Simpsons " feel. Try these replacement wav files
to give it a " Beavis and Butthead " feel!
-Spades Screen Saver (Available 8/24/96)
-The Spades Screen Saver is 4 screen savers in one
using the wonderful cardback artwork of Daniel DiBacco.
-Download it today!
-Spades 96 (Available 8/24/96)
-A new upgrade of Spades for Windows with many new
features. (16bit/Win 3.1 and 32bit/Win95/NT versions)
-Both downloader and contributor's editions.
-Improved Animation Options.
-JavaSpades and/or Shocked Spades
-A web site where you can play Spades against the
computer live on line.
-King's Corner -The popular card game on Windows (16 and 32 bit).
-King's Corner -As a Java-Powered web site. Play it on the web!
-Windows Wallpaper Changer/Randomizer/Rotator
-Use this utility to rotate through or randomly select
different Wallpaper for your Windows 95 each time you
boot up.
-Free Applets
-More of my applets free (with source code included).
Thanks for visiting my Spades Home Page. Come back again soon!
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