Free card game script?

[rhianna]

Hi,

I'd like to install an automatic card game on my site.
I plan to use public domain images of The Rider-Waite-Smith (RWS) Tarot Cards.
It would be great if I could adapt a script to different types of card spreads. It doesn't matter if the original script was created for Tarot or just for a regular card game as long as there is a way for me to use the public domain images and to reveal my interpretations of the card spread.

Any type of script that would produce a pleasing and/or interesting visual display would be appreciated.

The most important consideration would be the ability for me to write out interpretations corresponding to the cards revealed in the spread. If I could somehow get a script to meld interpretations, that would be great.


I know that there are many free tarot readings on the web but I want to create one with better interpretations.

What type of script(s) should I use?

Thank you for your ideas :-)

~Rhianna

[rhianna]

I can't believe that no one has come up with a simple script idea yet. What's going on, people?

[jerry4dos]

Moved from Free Services to Programming Help.

[rivux]

Since when were the Rider-Waite cards public domain? You need to contact US Games if you plan on using their deck or images from most other decks for anything other then Fair Use.

[Decker]

Not gonna be easy rhianna, I don't think I've ever seen anything more than a very basic (and inaccurate) script for any kind of card reading. I think I came across one Tarot script some time ago, I'll see if I can remember even which site it was from. :)

[rhianna]

Since when were the Rider-Waite cards public domain? You need to contact US Games if you plan on using their deck or images from most other decks for anything other then Fair Use.

Since


Any work published prior to 1922, regardless of the country of publication, the citizenship of the author, whether it was registered or not, is in the public domain in the United States. No further copyright claims can be made on that work, and any attempt to prosecute someone for use of that work would be thrown out of a copyright court. from http://www.sacred-texts.com/tarot/faq.htm

I am interested in the 1910 deck.


The RWS Tarot deck was published in December 1909 by William Rider And Son of London. The deck was the product of the collaboration between the artist, Pamela Colman Smith (b. 1878 d. 1951) and Dr Arthur Edward Waite (b. 1857 d. 1942), who were both members of the Order Of The Golden Dawn, a famous occult group of the 19th Century. For some reason (sexism no doubt), Pamela Smiths' contribution is usually ignored, and the deck is commonly called the Rider-Waite Tarot. I've decided to use RWS instead. from http://www.sacred-texts.com/tarot/faq.htm

[rhianna]

Not gonna be easy rhianna, I don't think I've ever seen anything more than a very basic (and inaccurate) script for any kind of card reading. I think I came across one Tarot script some time ago, I'll see if I can remember even which site it was from. :)

People actually prefer readings done by hand over readings done by a script.

Just for fun I want to develop a script or use an existing one.
If you have a basic one in mind, please tell me about it so that I can build upon it. My own interpretations are more important than fancy visual effects from a script.

Thanks :classic2:

[Decker]

Yep I know, it would be a nice novelty to have an automated :-) but a better one would be with interaction. I'll see what I can find :biggrin2:

Price - just tell me I'm in for some good luck at some point :P

[rhianna]

Yep I know, it would be a nice novelty to have an automated :-) but a better one would be with interaction. I'll see what I can find :biggrin2:

Decker, I can give people interaction & have in the past, but then I find myself glued at my computer desk doing mostly tarot spreads & interpretations for a long time. I used to have what I call "adjunct forums" in the past but I found that I was always the star of the forum :D People weren't interested in interacting with the others, they only wanted free readings from me (but they wanted intricately detailed free readings)--it's easy to get tired of that after a while.

I am not interested in charging for readings at all. I learned that lesson long ago. Once I had a cgi-email form on my site for people to request free readings for fun but a couple of people made it not fun by going into explicit details of their divorces and/or other serious problems. One woman needed an accountant not a card reader.

I still may have a forum, but I am not at that point yet.

Anyway, any readings I offer are free. I want my site fun & free.



Price - just tell me I'm in for some good luck at some point :P

Price--are you looking for lead fees?
:biggrin2:

If nothing else, what scripting/programming language might yield the best results? I'll try to figure it out from some books /magazines/online tutorials or something :-)

Thanks :-)

[Decker]

LOL - it is a tricky one rhianna.

PS I did not mean any insult in any of the post :o

You might consider a php (with a meta refresh on the page) script for chat and ask the questions live. Do a spread and ask for direction to which cards.


Price--are you looking for lead fees?
:biggrin2:
Nah! just had one really bad day :knockedou ARRRRGGGGHHH!!!!

The programming language would depend on your host - CGI.PERL is by far faster for instant responses but if the server complains PHP is your best option. So possibly go on the busy side and go for php (I think about 99% of folks prefer it) :-)

[rivux]

Ya thats great and all rhianna but US Games which licences the RWS deck still enforces their copyrights, rather vigorously. They still contend that the copyright lasts until 2012 and fight it every single time. I have never heard of anyone winning, in fact most dont even go to court because its obvious they will lose.

[maddude]

i think tarot cards and star signs etc. are all just stupid occultic witch craft for sad fat loosers with no life who hope one day they're "fortune" stuff will predict a partner for thier fat/looser/no friened selves. If you want to kno what happens in your future i have a way create your future dont relie on cards/horoscopes to do it all for you. Only person that can make thier future is you. The reason they "seem" to come true is cause if it says you will meet the love of your life in a pub on tuesday then youll go and find out hence it may come true. and if it says you'll get runover by a bus on tuesday at 5 you'll wait for the number 5 buss to ealing and jump in front of it. Its all a load of rubbish. I am currently writing a book called "Mind of matter" which explains how tarot cards are occultic loosers cards and that star signs are wrong cause recently they found theres 10 planets and 13 signs duh its wrong get over it asrologists kept all this quiet. :shame:

[Decker]

Ever thnk that 'yeh - it's okay' And you like what you do

[rivux]

madude, your understanding of tarot cards and the occult industry is so overwhelming its almost like you don't have your head entirely up your ---.

[rhianna]

Ya thats great and all rhianna but US Games which licences the RWS deck still enforces their copyrights, rather vigorously. They still contend that the copyright lasts until 2012 and fight it every single time. I have never heard of anyone winning, in fact most dont even go to court because its obvious they will lose.

Gee rivux,

My first response was not good enough for you? You think you can trip me up on card images? I'm not concerned about the images; my concern is with programming the presentation of the images :-)

As for US Games, back in 1993 they gave permission to Paul Caskey to distribute Rider-Waite Tarot Cards en masse across the Internet. You can see Caskey's download page here (http://www.swcp.com/pcaskey/tarot/)
Look at the jpeg scan of permission by US Games given to Paul Caskey (http://www.swcp.com/pcaskey/jpg/usgames1.jpg) Plus if that wasn't enough, there is a site for downloading free card decks--tarot & regular decks (http://freeware.esoterica.free.fr/html/freecards.html#ta) (the site lists a # of decks, but some have restrictions, read the descriptions to make sure you are in compliance) so you see, I have plenty to choose from and now you do too :classic2:

[rhianna]

i think tarot cards and star signs etc. are all just stupid occultic witch craft for sad fat loosers with no life who hope one day they're "fortune" stuff will predict a partner for thier fat/looser/no friened selves.

maddude,

I see that you "can only hope to improve." What areas need improvement? Perhaps you should consult the cards :ditsy2:

I have no intention of becoming the next Miss Cleo. In the past I had to fend off some guy (from the Internet/Usenet) who wanted me to work for him in some equivalent of a "Psychic Friends Network"--you can bet I turned that down.

I've always been interested in tarot cards & astrology for sheer entertainment purposes ---that's it.

Here's a photo of me (http://www.rhianna.uni.cc/3.jpg) in a coffee shop where I used to read cards for quarters. I had the most fun on the night that picture was taken. :-)

Any online readings/information I write are free; I use them to compliment the affiliate programs I have. :wink2:

[rivux]

Gee rivux,

My first response was not good enough for you? You think you can trip me up on card images?

nah not trying to trip you up or anything, just letting you know my experience with US Games and specifically them and the rider-waite deck. Thanks for those links I will check them out for sure.

[rhianna]

You might consider a php (with a meta refresh on the page) script for chat and ask the questions live. Do a spread and ask for direction to which cards.
The programming language would depend on your host - CGI.PERL is by far faster for instant responses but if the server complains PHP is your best option. So possibly go on the busy side and go for php (I think about 99% of folks prefer it) :-)

That's a good tip, Decker :-)
My plan is to consider a bunch of scripts, study them & then create one that would suit my needs :-)
Card spreads & the shuffling of cards really make the study of different types of programming interesting.
This PHP script looks very helpful:
http://www.php-scripts.com/php_diary/012100.php3

This idea is a lot of fun because I am really learning things :-)

I'll jot these links here to remember them all! They're pretty good!:

http://webster.cs.uga.edu/~purewal/csci1301/notes5.html
http://www.mines.edu/Academic/courses/math_cs/macs261/LABS/projectfaq.html
http://cs.leanderisd.org/current/cs2/programs.shtml
http://studio.tellme.com/library2/code/ex-106/index-p.html
http://www.devarticles.com/c/a/PHP/An-Introduction-to-Arrays
http://www.phpfreaks.com/tutorials/109/0.php
http://www.phpfreaks.com/tutorials/51/0.php
http://www.phpfreaks.com/tutorials/42/0.php
http://www.tizag.com/


And there's more :-)

[rhianna]

Now I'm thinking about using Java for this project :-)

What do you think?

[Decker]

Good on you, let's face it it's great for what you need. SUN always turn out good stuff.

If you need someone to bounce stuff off just ask :biggrin2:

[rhianna]

Good on you, let's face it it's great for what you need. SUN always turn out good stuff.

If you need someone to bounce stuff off just ask :biggrin2:

Thanks, Decker. You've been very helpful :-)

If you look at my post dated January 25th, you'll see I found a lot of interesting PHP scripts and the nice thing about this project is it is something I am really interested in & I am learning from the research.

I'm not one to just ask & grab, so I did provide the links in case others would like to learn too (there's info on regualr card scripts, not actually tarot -- which is why I need to understand so I can adapt :wink2: )

I borrowed a bunch of Java books from the library today. The good thing about Java 2: The Complete Reference, Fifth Edition by Herbert Schildt [McGraw-Hill/Osborne] is that the source code for the examples & projects from the book are available for free download here (http://www.osborne.com/downloads/downloads.shtml)

My goal is to grasp a basic understanding so I create a fairly simple but worthwhile & fun project :classic2: