Game Guys – Classic Cribbage – My Mac Magazine #56, Dec.

Classic Cribbage 1.0
Author: FreeVerse Software
Shareware: $19.95

http://www.freeverse.com

Mike: Right off the heels of last month’s Deathground, FreeVerse has released yet another game. This one is a traditional card game, in the same vein as their other classics, Hearts Deluxe and Spades Deluxe. This time, the game of cribbage gets the FreeVerse treatment.

Adam: Freeverse is famous for well done card games, and their latest, Classic Cribbage, is no exception. It combines all the fun of Cribbage with the intuitive interface and interactive gameplay that only Freeverse does so well.

Mike: Neither Adam nor I had ever played cribbage before, so we had to rely on the online help system to show us the ropes. Luckily, the folks at FreeVerse had this in mind, and made sure the help was pretty good.

Adam: While I’m surprised that Mike has never played Cribbage, being the card buff he is, I botch every card game I lay my hands on. Luckily, Freeverse is forgiving, with as-you-play help, and entertaining music to calm your nerves.

Mike: You’d be a card buff, too, if you lived in Iowa and had nothing else to do! 🙂 Anyway, the basic concept of cribbage is to move your peg around the playing board and reach the end before your opponent. You get to move your peg according to the number of points you score during the hand being played. You can score points for bringing the point total of the hand to 15 or 31, or by playing the same ranked card twice in a row. You also score points based upon the overall strength of your hand, and the dealer scores points from the discard pile, as well. (The discard pile is called the crib, for those of you wondering where the name of the game comes from.)

Adam: Scoring precisely 15 or 31 can be quite challenging, and can yield all types of expressions, so Freeverse was kind enough to include some “expression” faces that allow you to show your emotions in creative fashion!

Mike: Adam is absolutely right‹FreeVerse’s trademark sense of humor and fun is present in Classic Cribbage, as well as many other great features and options. Computer opponents have three different skill levels (dumb, good, and god-like), and you can use either the included music or any music file that’s in the QuickTime format.

Adam: Fortunately for me, I can set it to dumb, because when it comes to card games, I’m dumb!

Mike: Even better than computer opponents, of course, are real-life human ones. And, in a rarity for shareware games, FreeVerse allows you to do just that over the Internet, using their very own game server, the HMS FreeVerse. Quite impressive!

Adam: Very impressive, indeed. I wish more shareware companies would take notice of Freeverse’s dedication to the Internet and allow Internet play. It creates a whole new experience for gamers, and with so many commercial games supporting online gaming, it’s great to see a shareware company following suit.

Requirements/Availability
Classic Cribbage 1.0 requires Mac OS 8.1 or higher and a minimum of 8 megabytes of RAM. It also requires NetSprocket 1.7.1 or higher for Internet play. The game costs $19.95 to register, and may be downloaded from FreeVerse’s own website, http://www.freeverse.com, or other software libraries such as C|Net’s Download.com, http://www.download.com.

The Summary
Mike: FreeVerse has come through again, with a fun and enjoyable computer version of Cribbage. Fun features, adjustable difficulty, and Internet play makes it well worth the $19.95 price tag. I think all card playing fans should check it out!

Adam: Best of all, FreeVerse lets you evaluate the majority of its features in a free demo. Once you register, playing card games will never be the same. Their breakthrough to the Internet is well worth $19.95. It may seem like too much to some, but it’s not to us.


Mike Wallinga
mikew@mymac.com

Adam Karneboge
webmaster@mymac.com

Websites mentioned:
http://www.freeverse.com/deathg/index.html
http://www.download.com

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