Building a Generic Card Shuffler

 

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I have been contracted to design a series of card games for a company. I understand the basic logic for different games like poker or rummy, but how can I set up a good "all purpose" shuffler? I want to use a standard 52 card deck and give the user the ability to trade in certain cards. Where do I start?

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Sounds like a job for lists.  Lists are great for this type of thing since they are basically a series of values that you can add to, remove from etc. in one simple variable.  Lets start by looking at the basic characteristics of a deck of cards.  You have 4 suits and each has the same cards (2-A or 2-14 in number values).   We can quickly build a list of all values if we assign each suit a number (1-4) and then append that with the number of the card (2-14)  With a repeat loop nested inside another repeat loop we can build this list very quickly via lingo.  Then we name the cards to match so that we can call each card by name.  For example... The 2 of clubs would be 1-2.  The Ace of spades, 4-14, etc. Now that we have this "master list" of values we can begin our shuffling procedure.  Using the random command we can grab a card from our virtual deck and place it in any open card space.  We first use the duplicate command to make our current card list equal to the master list.  The reason we use duplicate and not just set one list equal to another is that Director handles list references differently than other variables.  If you set a variable = to a string and then set another variable equal to the first you get a copy that is independent. With lists you are referencing another variable so we use the duplicate command to make a copy, rather than reference the previous version... test = [] test2 = duplicate(test) From here we can use Director's random command with the count property to get a random card out of the list.  Once we do this we can set the suit and card number for that card and then remove that card from the current deck list.  This way we can reference the current list again if we want to swap a card and never get a duplicate a card. I have added checking for the user to select cards to "trade" to the dealer as well as display for the user and a computer opponent.  Note that this is not a full game and has no AI (artificial intelligence), it is just the shuffling, swapping, and dealing script.  Combine it with your own rules logic for any game to create most any popular card game.  Below is the code. --Copyright 1999 Chuck Neal --chuck@mediamacros.com --If you find this code helpful, send me an e-mail and let me know. :-) property spriteNum, suit, cardNum, player global cardList, masterList, activeList, flipList, swap on getPropertyDescriptionList me   p_list= [:]   p_list.addProp(#player, [#format : #string, #default : "Human", #comment : "Which Player:", #range : ["Human", "Computer"]])   return p_list end on beginSprite me   if masterList = void then     masterList = []     --create master list of cards     repeat with x = 1 to 4       --add each card       repeat with y = 2 to 14         masterList.add(x & "-" & y)       end repeat     end repeat   end if   if cardList = void then cardList = duplicate(masterList)   if activeList = void then activeList = []   shuffle() end on shuffle me   if activeList.getOne(spriteNum) <> 0 then     --old game list, reset the list     cardList = duplicate(masterList)     activeList = []   end if   --set a card   getCard()   activeList.add(spriteNum)   if flipList <> [] then flipList = []   swap = true end on mouseUp me   if flipList = void then flipList = []   if player = "Human" and swap = true then     if flipList.getOne(spriteNum) = 0 then       flipList.add(spriteNum)       sprite(spriteNum).member = "0-0"     else       flipList.deleteOne(spriteNum)       sprite(spriteNum).member = member(suit & "-" & cardNum)     end if   end if end on changeCards me   if flipList.getOne(spriteNum) <> 0 then     --change the card     getCard()     flipList.deleteOne(spriteNum)   end if   swap= false end on getCard me   the itemDelimiter = "-"   whichCard = random(cardList.count)   suit = cardList[whichCard].item[1]   cardNum = cardList[whichCard].item[2]   cardList.deleteAt(whichCard)   if player = "Human" then     sprite(spriteNum).member = member(suit & "-" & cardNum)   else     sprite(spriteNum).member = member("0-0")   end if end on showCards me   sprite(spriteNum).member = member(suit & "-" & cardNum)   swap= false end on getBehaviorDescription me   return "This is a card shuffler, swapper, and basic controller. Add your own AI for any basic card game." end Give the script a try. Not that this is not a full game, just a controller for shuffling. (Exhibit 1) So what now?  Well, pick a game and start working out the logic.   You can add a handler to report back the cards for each player and determine the winner.  Add a little more logic and create a computer player to balance the odds and challenge a human opponent.  Try it out and see what you can come up with.   Happy coding.