Grouper by Daniel McCarty

and Joel Epstein

ScreenShot

Overview

As in the card game "Set," the object of Grouper is to remove all cards in groups of three. Learning to identify a group is the most challenging part of the game.


Requirements

To play Grouper, you must have a Pilot (any version should do).


Object

Twelve cards are displayed on the screen at one time. Select three cards that make a group (see below) and the cards will be removed and be replaced by new cards from the deck. Remove all cards, and you win.


Cards

The full deck contains 81 cards. Each card has 4 characteristics:

Levels

You can choose to play one of 3 levels (set by the "Prefs" menu command).

Groups

This is the most complicated part of the game - to learn & to explain. Once you've mastered it, though, you're ready to go. Let's give it a try:

A group is made up of 3 cards. Across all three cards, EACH characteristic must be either ALL THE SAME or ALL DIFFERENT. The following are some examples:

Example

#1 is a group because: #2 is not a group because unlike #1, each spot is NOT of a different Color.


#3 is a group because: #4 is not a group because unlike #3, each spot is NOT of the SAME length.


#5 is a group because: #6 is not a group because unlike #5, there are not the SAME Number of spots on each card.


Selecting Cards

Tap a card to select it -- a grey rectangle will surround the card to indicate it is selected. Tap a second time to deselect the card. When no cards are selected, text in the status box at the bottom of the screen will indicate how many groups are available.

When three cards are selected, one of two things will happen: a) the cards make a group and they will be removed and replaced with the next three cards from the deck; or b) the cards do not make a group and the button at the bottom of the screen will read "But Why!". Clicking on this button will display a message explaining why the three selected cards do not make a group.

If three cards are selected, and you tap on an unselected card, the third card that was selected will automatically be deselected and the new card will become selected.


Restarting

Choose "New" from the "Grouper" menu to begin a new game.


Sound

Choose "Prefs..." from the "Grouper" menu to toggle the sound on/off. When the game is first launched, the sound will be set to they system preferences.


High Scores

Choose "High Scores" from the "Grouper" menu to view the high scores. The scores can be cleared by tapping the "clear" button.


Grey Pattern

Choose "Prefs" from the "Grouper" menu. You can choose between seven different grey patterns.


Hints

The button in the lower right corner of the screen usually reads "Hint" (except for when 3 cards which don't make a group are selected, then it reads "But Why!"). Tap this button, and a card on the grid will highlight. If you select this card, and tap the hint button again, the second card of the group will highlight. Then, if you select this card, and tap the hint button again, the third and final card of the group will highlight. You will have 2 points removed from your score for every hint (except at the beginning of the game, because your score can never fall below 0).


Cards Remaining

The deck of cards appears at the right of the screen. The bottom card on the deck displays the number of cards remaining. When this count reaches zero, you win.


Scoring




Freeware Agreement

Grouper costs nothing (well, maybe it will cost you hours of wasted time as you stare at the screen looking for the next group). We hope you like playing it as much as we enjoyed making it.


Download

You can download a zipped version of the PDB file.
Or you can download a stuffed version of the PDB file.


Installation

Install Grouper like you would any other Pilot program. No muss, no fuss.


Questions

I welcome any questions or comments. Please e-mail Daniel McCarty danielmccarty@compuserve.com.

Source code is also available upon request. Enjoy.