MiniHandS for Yahoo! Spades

©bocosan, since 2006 April.

       ♠MiniHandS is a utility software for Yahoo! Spades, which has been developed by a player in the Beginner Lounge struggling for higher rating.
      So, it is friendly to users.
      Requires no installation.
      Plenty of amusing, original ideas in the software. Write more to me.
      ♠MiniHandS records bids, hands, card-plays, tricks (for each player), as well as score, for your games in Yahoo! Spades.
      With the hand records provided by ♠MiniHandS, you will review them for yourself, learn how others bid and play, and brush up your skill in Spades.
       Once you try out, it will soon be your lovely favorite.

Version 2.3 of ♠MiniHandS counts cards for the sake of Beginners. However, it is never intended to be cheater or backdoor to Yahoo! Spades. With ♠MiniHandS, always practice reviewing your hands (so-called post-mortem in Bridge) once a game is over, which will improve your judgment and skill in Spades. In many lost games, you will find the reason why.

(1) [Unzip] Pick up the INI and two EXE files into a single folder. Never try to work within the ".zip" sub-folder on Windows XP and later.
(2) [INI file] Edit the initialization file MiniHandS.INI. Here, it is important to fill your Yahoo! ID (and aliases) in the INI file, so that MiniHandS may detect your nickname on the Last Hand window, and know where you are seated. Without this information available, ♠MiniHandS will assume you sit always at North, and hence your bids will be interpreted as if done by the North player.

[ For more screen shots, see below ]

      (3) [three sub-windows open automatically] Start ♠MiniHandS after you get at a table of Spades. ♠MiniHandS will move the mouse cursor to the upper-left corner on the screen, and simulate to click the three buttons,
             Last Trick , Last Hand and Score ,
to open automatically the corresponding three sub-windows.
      (4) [work files] Once started, ♠MiniHandS builds up a heap of work files in sub-folder Work from the bids and hands played.
      (5) [you play and will see] You play Spades as usual. You will view the two windows (Spades and MiniHandS) in parallel. ♠MiniHandS displays all about a deal, when one has been played, as you see in the above JPEG image.
      Of particular concern will be the number of tricks taken by each player. From this display, you know in a moment whether your partner consistently overbids or as consistently underbids. You can then adjust your bidding according to the nature of your partner.
      (6) [summary in HTML] When a game is over, just run the attached utility

MiniHandSut.exe. It will write a beautiful HTML file in sub-folder GameRec from the heaped files in Work. You will review this HTML file, pondering where the turning point was in the game.
       This utility may be run, even when ♠MiniHandS itself is running.
      (7) [when you start again] When you play Spades anew and start ♠MiniHandS again, it is advised to click the Delete All Files button and empty the sub-folder Work.
      (8) [VB6 run-time] This software is written in Visual Basic 6.0, and will run by itself on Windows Vista and Windows 7. On Windows XP (and earlier down to Win 95), you need download/install VB6 run-time (VBrun60sp6.exe) from Microsoft Download Center (choose English or any other).
      (9) [Java] ♠MiniHandS runs with both MSJVM (Microsoft) and JRE (Sun Microsystems).
    (10) [browser] Browser may be any you like.
    (11) [uninstall] In case you need no more ♠MiniHandS, then delete the MiniHandS folder entirely. The software neither overwrites your registry, nor requires (un)installation.

Notes

      (1) [hand display] By default, ♠MiniHandS will rotate the four hands so that your cards appear on the bottom, both online and offline. Otherwise, click yout seat under MySeat .
      (2) [bids and tricks] ♠MiniHandS shows the bids and tricks for each player both in the bottom table and the middle hand display, where, for example, 3(4) means that the corresponding player has bid 3 and taken 4 tricks.
      When it appears like [3](4), he is dealer (who was the first to bid.)
      (3) [failure in Nil] When a player fails in Nil or DNil, you will see N(1) or D(1), and the wrong card(s) will be circumscribed in red like §6, or underlined in red.
      (4) [score window is prolonged automatically] When a game extends over some ten or more deals, the score window accordingly becomes long. ♠MiniHandS will automatically elongate the window so that you can view it in full, and will restore its original length in a new game.
      (5) [for frequent use] If you use this software often, then prepare shortcuts of the two EXE files, and drag/drop them into your Quick-Launch Bar, so that you can readily start them even when you are at a Spades table.

[ More Screen Shots ]

(1). Bids and Tricks are superimposed on the main window in larger font (Nil and DNil in red).

(2). Counter for Bids and Tricks.

(3). Use this movable Bidding Board (on your own responsibility) to avoid mishit in bidding.
Don't miss the chance to bid DNil Pass.

    (4) After a game is over, you review the hands, and may check/uncheck some name under AlertPlayer , to enroll/remove one in your list “AlertThem.txt”, who will be alerted when appears in your table.
      Using this feature, wait for a moment before starting game till ♠MiniHandS tells you None or some to alert.
      When a new player comes in, click and ask   NoneToAlert? (which is hidden now).

    (5). Score table within the blue frame may be pasted anywhere, possibly superimposed onto the top banner, so thay you may bid and play carefully.

(6). Watch this screenshot, which was taken when the 9-th trick was being played.
(7). And more … .
This window appears only rarely. When it does, however, it helps you in a critical situation.

13 Features of MiniHandS

Free. Never expires.
Runs on Windows 95, 98, 2000, …, XP, Vista, Windows7.
Minimum 800×600 PC screen, 16-bit color.
Runs in all Yahoo! sites in the world, where Spades is available,
in English, Spanish, Japanese, German, and Italian.
Runs on any browser.
(Tested with Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Opera).
Runs on both Microsoft MSJVM and Sun Java RE (1.4, 5.0, 6.0).
Takes complete records of bids, tricks (for each player), hands, card-plays, and score, which will greatly help you reviewing your bids and card-play.
Alert by sound:
    When you enter Suicide table, or DNil-Pass table,
    When you can bid DNil pass,
    When someone has bid Nil, or DNil.
Leaves history of your Spades games in a LOG file with your rating.
Counts played (as well as remaining) cards, and short suits.
Never intercepts Java communications between Yahoo! server and your PC.
Never rewrites the system registry of your PC.
(Beware that many softwares require installation and overwrites your registry, sometimes breaking your system down.)
What ♠MiniHandS does is to keep watching over the PC screen and read quickly any changes on it in all the five languages. Nothing more. So, MiniHandS is clean and safe software.