Ultimate Cards is a game packed with various card games created by Magicode in 1992. In this title you are able to play card games such as Spades, Hearts, Gin Rummy, Oh Hell!, Whist and Crazy 8’s.
When you start the Ultimate Cards game you are taken to a blue background image with the main menu in front of you. Here you are able to select one of the six games mentioned above. You are also able to navigate to Player Option, Show Master Records, About Ultimate Cards, Use Laptop Colors or Exit Ultimate Cards.
In the Player Option you are able to change, add or delete a player. If you want to change or delete a player a simple list with all available players listed which you just click on to select or delete. If you want to add your very own player you simple click on the “Add new player” button and enter a name, the name of the player. The newly created player will automatically be the player you play as. In the main menu your current player is displayed at the top of the screen. As for the Show Master Records is a high score list with the top ten card players. The About Ultimate Card section is naming a few of the developers of the game and lastly the interesting Use Laptop Colors mode turns everything into black and white.
When you have selected a game you are taken to an opponent screen. Here you will find ten different opponents with a graphical photo together with a name, the skill and current score the opponent has. The opponent’s skills are ranked between Average to Expert. For each game you need to select three opponents, simple click on the opponent photo to add him/her as an opponent. When you are done, click on the “Play” button.
In each game you will find six new buttons: INFO, AUTO, HELP, SORT, BACK and MENU.
The info section tells you all about the current table you are at, the opponent’s names, your name, current type of game etc. Auto makes the game play by itself for one round; you can sit back and relax. The help button gives you a recommendation from Chip, you can choose to go with that recommendation or request a new one. Sort will just sort your current hand of cards. Back is a useful button, it lets you go back and undo your recent action. The menu button opens a new little menu where you are able to Cheat, View Options, Start a New Game, Exit This Game, Show Records, Rules or Quit. By selecting the cheat tab you are able to see what each of the current opponents are holding. The Show Records is useful to see which player is in the top of just this particular game and of course the Rules are very useful if you don’t know all the different card games.
As for the graphics it is OK, for a card game it might not need to be flashier even though it could have been nice. The background is always one colored blue and the cards are of course white. The graphics overall is very simple. As for tunes there aren’t any. You are able to hear some voices from the opponents from time to time and when you click on your cards a little beep and boop will be heard. The controls are rather simple, if you have a mouse that will do everything for you except when creating a new player; you need to have a keyboard to enter your name. The game runs rather smoothly and the AI in each of the games is pretty good, the game isn’t too easy or too hard. Overall I say Ultimate Cards is a rather fine cards game. It offers a lot of different games, offers a lot of customization including the cheats and auto play. Recommended!
Written by:
~niklas
