ACTIVISION. INSTRUCTIONS You have in your possession the ultimate Bridge by ACTIVISION” deals you hu random, provides a computer partner whe plays as your opponents after you'v« play the sa over and ove intil you find. a hand you want top i n be withe game with Bridge by ACTIVISION™. Look inside 10w it's do taire bridge gar of millions of ho bids by the rules, aA NOTE TO BEGINNING BRIDGE PLAYERS... Bridge by ACTIVISION™ was designed for people who already know how ta play the game. It won't teach you the basics—yau'll want to read a good in- structional book or take some classes for that. But it will give you virtually unlimited opportunities to practice what you learn and sharpen your game—at your own pace. BRIDGE BASICS 1. Hook up your video game system. Follow manufacturer's instructions. 2. With power OFF, plug in game cartridge. 3. Turn power ON. If no picture appears, check connection of your game sysiem to TV, then try steps 1-3 again. 4, Plug in left Joystick Controller (it’s the only one you'll need). Hold it pele CONS with the button at the upper left Se ata _ 2 On your Sears System, diffi- 5. Set both difficulty switches at b. culty switches orecalled (down) to begin. skill left (or right) player and a(or up) is expert and b (or down) is novice. Note to owners of Sears SELECT YOUR GAME 6. Select game with game select switch. The game number will appear ot the top center of screen, If you want to bid and play: Game 1: 21 team points or more Game 2: 25 team points or more Game 3: 29 team points or more If you want to play without bidding (you set the contract): Game 4: 13 team points or more Game 5: 21 team points or more Game 6: 25 team points or more Game 7: 29 team points or more (Point counts above are based on the standard American point count system popularized by Charles Goren and represent the total combined team points of your hand and your partner's.) DEALING A HAND Deal a hand by pressing the game reset switch. Your hand will appear at the bottom of the screen. Every time you press game reset, you will get a new and completely different hand with at least the minimum team point count for the game you have selected. N1 . Select your bid with the Joystick, It's your bid when you see the bid option . Your computer partner will then respond. He recognizes most standard . If you pass instead of opening the bidding on any hand, the computer will . Ingames 4~7, where there is no bidding, BIDDING (GAMES 1-3) flashing on and off in the upper right hand corner of the screen. Push the Joystick forward to raise the bid and pull it toward you to lower the bid, Bids increase through normal suit rotation (Clubs, Diamonds, Hearts, Spades, No-Trump). Pass ("P", which flashes in red) is always the lowest bid When the bid you want is flashing on the screen, push the Joystick button toenter the bid. It will appear in the center of the screen above your hand opening bids (see below) and uses Stayman and Blackwood conventions, where appropriate, to bid with you to establish a contract. Your opponents. do not bid; assume that they pass every bid. Note: Your partner will respond only to the following opening bids: 1 or 2 of any suit, and 1, 2, or 3No-Trump. If you bid anything else, your partner will pass. For more details on how your partner bids see “How Your Partner Bids in Bridge by ACTIVISION”, a special booklet included with this cartridge. After your partner bids, his bid will appear in the center of the screen above your bid. Your next highest available bid will begin flashing in the upper right corner of the screen. You should bid again if you are still seeking a contract. The bidding continues until either you or your partner passes; the last bid before passing becomes the contract. deal a new hand. Your partner will not open. When a contract is established, four things happen: 1} the contract bid is displayed in the upper right corner of the screen; 2) your partner's hand appears (since one of you is now dummy); 3) the upper left corner of the screen shows how many total tricks you need to take to make your contract (in red, with a minus sign); 4) your opponent to the left of declarer leads a card from his hand and play begins. Your partner's hand (see TAKING A PEEK) Select your bid you simply select the contract (or bid) you want to play by using the Joystick asinsteps | and 2. You may bid on your hand alone or you may check your partner's cards by moving the left difficulty switch up to. a and bid on both hands. Once you select a bid, play starts as described next. Your partner’s response” Your opening bid, Your (South) hand -PLAYING (AFTER A CONTRACT IS ESTABLISHED) Playing a hand in Bridge by ACTIVISION” is like playing any game of bridge. After the opening lead, you control the play of both hands on the table, whether North (your partner) or South (you) is dummy, The computer plays East and West in proper order, . When it is North’s or South’s turn to play, one of the cards in that hand will begin flashing. Move the Joystick left or right until the card you want to play is flashing, When the card you want to play is flashing, push the Joystick button. The card’s number and suit will now appear in the middle of the screen: . After all four hands have played their cards on a trick, the card that took the trick will start flashing. If your team took the trick, the number of tricks remaining to make your contract will decrease (or your overtricks will increase, if you've already made your bid). After you've reviewed the trick, press the Joystick button again to take the cards off the table. . If your team won the trick, a card in the winning hand will begin flashing. You start the next trick by choosing a card to lead from that hand. Continue play as in steps 2 and 3 above. If East or West took the last trick, the com- puter will lead from the proper hand and the card will appear on the table. Continue play as abave until all tricks are played After the last trick is played and you push the Joystick bution to clear the ta- ble, your bid will appear just above your hand, and the number of under- tricks (negative, in red) or overtricks (positive, in black) you made will be displayed in the upper left corner of the screen. Ifa zero (0) appears there, you made your bid exactly. Nicely bid and played! If you overbid or under- bid and want to play the hand again, take a look at "Replaying a Hand” ‘on the next page. Trick: to make bid ricks remaining to make Poctrack' bid East plays Your play... select card when flashing Kd so &SOME SPECIAL FEATURES OF BRIDGE BY ACTIVISION ™ REPLAYING A HAND You can play any hand over again as many times as you like. Just start bidding again after the last trick is cleared by following the steps outlined in Bidding. If you don't want to replay the hand, press the Joystick button when the “P” is flashing, and the computer will deal a completely new hand. STARTING OVER One of the great things about Bridge by ACTIVISION™ is that you can start playing over again in the middle of a hand, if you don’t like the way the hand is playing. To start over, you must first finish playing a trick, but, in- stead of simply pressing the button to clear the trick, pull the Joystick toward you and hold it there while pressing the button. The hand will reset at the beginning, and you can start the bidding over again. You may want to try this a few times to practice the procedure TAKING A PEEK Use the left difficulty switch to determine whether your partner's hand is visible during the bidding: a(up)— Displays both your hand and your partner's. b (down)—Displays your hand only. Use the right difficulty switch after you have played a hand to see what your opponents held. East will show on the top of the screen, West on the bottom. A flashing red “E” will appear beneath the East hand a(up)— Displays East and West hands after play is complete. b (down)—East and West hands are not displayed at any time. Note: As long as the right difficulty switch is up at a, you cannot deal a new hand by pushing your Joystick button. You must push game reset to deal a new hand HOW YOUR ACTIVISION COMPUTER PARTNER BIDS A complete description of how your computer partner responds to your bids is discussed in a booklet titled “How Your Partner Bids in Bridge by ACTIVISION™” enclosed with this cartridge. >HOW BRIDGE BY ACTIVISION” CAN HELP YOU SHARPEN YOUR GAME Tips from Larry Kaplan, designer of Bridge. Larry Kaplan has been playing bridge since high school. Like most of us, he frequently has had the experience of not being able to find ¢ fourth, let clone a second or third, to play bridge. He has solved this problem with Bridge by ACTIVISION™. Larry isa senior member of the Activision design team and a veteran video game designer. “Our game, like bridge with cards, has millions of possible hands. | calculate that our computer can deal over five hundred million different hands. None of us in the design group has yet seen the same hand twice, and we play almost every day, “Lean't give you tips on how to beat the game, because the point isn't to beat it. Its purpose is to let you have fun running through a wide variety of bid- ding and playing situations, with your choice of minimum partnership point counts, playing and replaying as many hands as you want without having to gather up other players to practice. “Many people who have tried Bridge by ACTIVISION™ say that it con help partners better understand each other's bidding and interpretation of the point count system. Some of you may quarrel with some of my computer playing rules, but | tried to adjust the computer bidding and playing to reflect the way a vast majority of players would react. Bridge is a wonder- fully flexible game, and most players develop their own style of bidding and playing. That's part of the fun of it “I hope you enjoy our game of Bridge. I'd love to hear from you with your comments. Goad luck!” fa. “PS. | would like to thank a good friend and a great bridge player, Jack Verson, for his invaluable assistance on Bridge by ACTIVISION™.” Look for more exciting video game cartridges by ACTIVISION™ wherever you buy video game cartridges. Drop us a note and we will add you to our mailing list and keep you posted on new ACTIVISION ™ game cartridges as they become available. ACTIVISION. Activision, Inc., 759 E. Evelyn Ave., Sunnyvale, CA 740G6 AIARI® ond Video Computer System™ ts ‘are trademarks of ATARI, [NC Tele-Gome"™ is o trademark of Sears Roebuck and Co. © 1980 Activision AX-006-03 Print