Untitled - TRS-80 Color Computer Archive

I have
by Richard Ramella
yet to decide whether by these words
A.E. Housman meant: Don 'tfall in love in a
casino or Try to get the house to accept British
currency for the fa vorable dollar exchange rate.
I think it's the former because I've never sensed
anything near affection in a gambling den.
Consider, this month, the seemingly puz­
zle-like contraption known as the slot ma­
chine. Some people who enjoy puzzles are
also attracted to lotteries and slots. They like
to regard the latter device as a mechanical
puzzle that can be beaten by brainpower­
though, of course, it can't. In recent weeks
I've had three requests for a puzzle with a
slot-machine motif. I've succeeded in writing
a slot-machine game like none you have ever
seen. The program in the listing is called
Jackpot Jerome.
When you've typed and debugged the list­
ing (that is, if you have run itl. type POKE
65494,0 and press the enter key before trying
to save it. This disables the high speed POKE
65495,0. If your computer won't work with
the speed-up POKE, delete the statement
from the beginningofline 140. With the speed
POKE invoked, you can't LLlST the program
to paper or CSA VE it to cassette. You might
also have difficulty saving it to disk.
When you run Jackpot Jerome, you're in­
structed to press any key to start. This gives
the randomizing routine the chance to theo­
retically make every run of the program dif­
ferent. Once you have pressed a key to begin
the randomizing process, the program asks
16 HOT CoCo February 1986
Hit the Jackpot!
----_o>� �oo---
--
When I was one-and-twenty
I heard a wise man say,
'Give pounds and crowns
and guineas
But not your heart away,
you to be patient. A few seconds later the
playing screen appears.
Jackpot Jerome is a small and friendly me­
chanical creature. On his chest appear three
reels, each of which shows three vertical po­
sitions. In the upper right comer of the screen
the figure 100 appears. Press the space bar to
register a wager and select the number of
rows on which you want to bet. With each
press of the space bar, pointers in the shape
of plus signs appear marking the rows of the
three reels that must match for you to win.
You can attempt to match one of one, two, or
three rows. Press the space bar once followed
by any key (except the break or shift keys) to
bet on one row position. Press the space bar
twice and any key to bet on two row posi­
tions. Pressing the space bar three times se­
lects three positions. Each time you tap the
space bar, the number in the upper right cor­
ner is reduced by one.
Once you've placed your bet. the reels spin.
If you get three solid bars in a row, you win
50 pOints. With three open bars In a row you
get 20 pOints. This is a true simulation. The
reels have a definite arrangement. and the
game works by spinning the reels randomly.
I claim that the reels are arranged so you will
more often go broke than raise your total to
System Requirements
16K RAM
Extended Color Basic
200. It's up to you to prove me right or wrong.
If you would prefer that Jerome pay out more
than he takes in (something you won't find in
world of casino gambling), Insert this line:
625 IF PI =0 AND VI = 5 AND P2 = 0 AND
V2 = 5 THEN Q = 6
It makes Jerome pay six points for a row with
consecutive open bars in the left and middle
reels that ends with an empty space in the
right reel.
To see the arrangement of the reels, insert
the following line:
245 SCREEN 1,1: GOTO 245
When you type RUN, instead of the game
you'll see the three reels as if they were un­
coiled and laid nat on the screen. Each reel
contains 19 positions made up of solid bars,
open bars, and empty spaces. If three solids
pay 50 and three opens pay 20, how much
will you win or lose on the average for every
100 plays? For the purposes of this problem,
let's assume that a hypothetical player wag­
ers only one point (in other words, one row)
on each play. I need a mathematical answer.
If this problem makes your temples pulse,
be assured it has the same effect on me. If no
one writes to me with the solution, the question
might go forever unanswered .•
Write to Richard Ramella at 1493 Mt. View
Ave., Chico, CA 95926.