This is a "plugin" for the Video Disk Recorder (VDR).

Written by:                  Thomas Günther <tom@toms-cafe.de>

Project's homepage:          http://toms-cafe.de/vdr/spider

Latest version available at: http://toms-cafe.de/vdr/spider

See the file COPYING for license information.


Requirements:
-------------

- VDR >= 1.3.47


Description:
------------

'Spider Arachnid' is a VDR plug-in implementation of the best patience game.
It is known as Sun demo 'Spider' and Windows version 'Arachnid'. So I call
it 'Spider Arachnid'. You can play it on the On Screen Display of your
Video Disk Recorder.

Although the most games can be won it's quite difficult. But with help of the
unlimited history the game turns from pure chance to a tricky riddle.

This implementation of 'Spider Arachnid' is a port from my Java
implementation (see http://www.toms-cafe.de/spider/spider.html).
The VDR-specific parts are inspired by Sascha Volkenandt's Freecell plug-in
and the card images are taken from Patrick Maier's Solitaire plug-in.


Installation:
-------------

After installing the plug-in you have to copy the spider folder from the
plug-in's source directory to the plugins folder inside the configuration
folder of VDR. If you don't specify a configuration folder, your videodir
is used (e.g. /video0/plugins/spider/cursor.xpm).


Rules of the game:
------------------

The object of the game is to remove all cards from the tableau. It's only
allowed to remove complete suits of 13 cards. So the suits have to be
assembled inside the piles. The highest rank is the King and the lowest the
Ace.

Initially there are some cards in the piles. Only the last card in each pile
is open (face-up). You can move one open card to a matching pile where the
last card has one rank above (e.g. Ace to Two, Five to Six, Ten to Jack).
A sequence of matching cards with same suit can be moved at once. Face-down
cards that become exposed are turned face-up.

Empty piles can be filled by any card or sequence. When there are no empty
piles you can deal new cards from the pack one card into each pile.


Setup:
------

In the setup page one of two variations can be choosed:

- Mini        With one deck and 7 piles
- Normal      With two decks and 10 piles

Cause of the limited OSD space the 'Mini' variation is the standard.


Usage:
------

Global keys:
- Back        Quit the plug-in
- Blue        Start a new game

Cursor in pile:
- Left/Right  Move the cursor to the left/right pile
- Up          Move the cursor to the pack
- Ok          Select all matching cards in the pile
- Green       Take back one move
- Yellow      Redo one move

Selected pile (yellow cursor):
- Left/Right  Move selected cards to the next matching pile left/right
- Up/Down     Select one more/less card
- Up          Remove a complete suit

Cursor on pack:
- Down        Move to the first pile
- Ok          Deal one card into each pile
