Romi lets you play games against the computer at three different levels. The game is played with two sets of 52 cards and with two wild cards . The purpose of this game is to form groups of three or more cards, which contain either consecutive cards of the same suit or cards of the same number value but of differing suits.

    You can play against one to three other players simulated by Romi. All the players simulated by Romi play at the same level of difficulty that you have chosen.

    Romi is available in English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish and Norwegian on the Macintosh, iPhone, iPad, iPod-Touch, on Android and on Windows 8 / 7/XP/Vista .

    On the Romi Web page http://www.romi.ca you will find the latest versions of Romi.

    Romi is a shareware program with a free trial period. For being able to use all the features of Romi, you must pay the shareware fee at the following Web site: http://www.romi.ca

What's new in Romi 8.8.8

  • You can see how many cards are remaining for each player, by using the Score... menu.
    The numbers of remaining cards are not displayed at the Expert level.

Romi 8.8.7

  • Romi has been updated for OS X Mavericks.

  • Graphic changes and minor corrections have been made.

Romi 8.8

  • You can now set a time limit for playing your turn, when you are playing at the Expert level.

  • Romi has been updated for Mac OS X Lion and is now sandboxed and signed with my Developer ID.

Romi 8.6

  • Romi has been reprogrammed in the Cocoa language for MacOSX 10.6 or later.

  • The Romi scores are now automatically saved when you quit Romi. When you start Romi, the game and the scores are automatically restored like they were when you quit Romi.

  • When a game is finished, the scores of the current game are displayed in red to the right of the player's names.

  • You can select the sound effects that you want Romi to play, by using the Sounds On... item of the Options menu.

  • The number of cards remaining to be drawn is now displayed on the icon of Romi.
Romi 8.4

  • Graphic changes and minor corrections have been made.

  • The Romi scores are now calculated with the same official rules of the physical game.

Romi 8.2

  • A larger screen view of the Romi game has been added. The two screen sizes available for the game are 960 x 690 pixels for the small size and 1190 x 845 pixels for the larger size.

Romi 8.0

  • Beginning with Romi version 8.0, a click on a card without moving the mouse, automatically places the card on the board. If you want to place a card in a specific location, you must select the card and move it manually to the desired location without releasing the mouse button.

The general rules of the game are:

    This game can be played with many variations. Romi is able to use two of them, one of which is the american standard. The second is the same but with the possibility of placing an 1(Ace) after the 13(King) as in (12,13,1). Note that (13,1,2) is not allowed. The american standard rules are used by default, but this can be change by using the Options menu.

    When you begin a new game, 14 cards are drawn randomly for Romi and 14 for the player. Those cards are placed on the rack in sequential order.

    The player opens his game by playing at least one group of 3 cards or more, using only the cards on his rack. The sum of those cards values must be 30 or more.

    Please note that you can't move cards (which are not yours) on the board before you open the game with your own groups of cards of 30 points or more.

    After the player has opened the game, he can use the cards on the board to complete groups with cards on his rack. The player can move or reorganize all the cards on the board, but the new groups must be valid and be groups of 3 and more.

The particulars rules of Romi are:

    The window of Romi is divided into two principal elements: the board, with 8 rows of 23 cells where you put the cards that you play, and the rack where the player's cards are stored. The groups of cards placed on the board must be separated by one or more empty cells. The player's cards can be placed anywhere on the rack.

    To place a card on the board, you can click the card and it will move automatically on the board. You can also select a card and move it manually to the destination of your choice.

    You can form groups of cards on the board by clicking sequentially on each card from your rack or from the board.

    Romi does not allow you to place a card before or after a card on the board, if the group formed with this card is not valid.

    The player can select a group of cards on the board by clicking with the Option key on the first card he wants to select, all the following cards are selected. He can also use the same Option-click for selecting a group of cards on his rack. In this case, only the following consecutive cards who can make a valid group are selected.

    If you can't or don't want to play a card, you must draw one by clicking on the icon. The card is selected randomly in the remaining cards.

    When you have finished your turn, you click on the sand-glass icon. Romi checks that the game is valid and Romi plays his turn. When Romi plays, the sand-glass is replaced by a computer icon.

Shortcuts

    You can form groups of cards on the board by clicking sequentially on each card from your rack or from the board. You can also move two or more cards of a suit by clicking with the Option key on the first card of a suit of cards that you want to move on the board.

    You can add a card to the end or to the beginning of a group of cards, by dragging the card respectively on the first or the last card of the group. If the space before or after the group is not sufficient, Romi moves the new group of cards where there is enough space.

    Romi also allows you to make two groups of cards with one group of 5 cards or more, and another card which is identical to one of this group. The two new groups must each form groups of 3 cards or more. For example if there is a group of cards like (4,5,6,7,8,9) and if you have an other 6, you can make the following two groups (4,5,6) and (6,7,8,9). The shortcut works by selecting your 6 and by dragging it on any card of the group (4,5,6,7,8,9).

Menus descriptions

Romi menu

  • Quit quit Romi and automatically save your game and your scores.

File menu

  • New game begin a new game.

  • Romi registration... allows you to register your copy of Romi. If you have paid and received your password from the author of Romi, you can use this menu to register your copy of Romi and you will have an illimited access to Romi.

Options menu

  • Beginner (when selected), tells Romi to use the lowest level of strategy when he play against you.

  • Intermediate (when selected), tells Romi to use intermediate level of strategy against you.

  • Expert... (when selected), tells Romi to use the highest level of strategy against you. When you choose this menu item, Romi asks you to select a time limit for your turn.

  • Sounds On... (when selected), Romi will play sounds when some events will occur.

  • Standard rules (when selected), Romi use the american standard rules for playing the game.

  • Allow 12-13-1 (when selected), allow you to place an 1(Ace) after the 13(King) as in (12,13,1).

  • Number of players give the number of players (including you) that will play the game.

  • Landscapes allows you to choose between different landscapes board.

Speed menu allows you to change the speed of animations.

Utilities menu

  • Sort by suit rearranges the player's cards on the rack by suit.

  • Sort by number rearranges the player's cards on the rack by number.

  • Cards played shows you the cards played by Romi on his last turn or the cards played by you during your turn.

  • Validate check that the groups of cards played on the board are valid.

  • Restore the board restore the game as it was after the last turn of Romi.

  • Clean Up the board rearranges the cards on the board in a special order like below:

  • Score... displays your score and the number of games that you have won against Romi.

THANKS

    I would address special thanks to my son Charles and Bryan Pietrzak for their help in programming this game and to Pierre Lachance and Jurjen N.E. Bos from Netherlands for their many suggestions and their help in debugging and translating this program in English. I want to thank Marcella Chiovaro, Amalie Rothschild and Claudio Jacomelli for translating this program in Italian, Henrik Huber, Thomas Kraus and Rolf Schindler for the German translation, Adrien Dion, Raúl Padilla Alonso and Ricardo Trenard for the Spanish translation, Harold Bouwmeester and Fred Kelder for the Dutch translation, Gustavo S. Duarte Garcia and Stephen Fleming for the Portuguese translation, Benkt Steentoft, Anna Ekman, Dieter Mitternacht for the Swedish translation, Jon Gunnar Nesse and May Lis Ruus for the Norwegian translation.

DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY:

    IN USING THIS SOFTWARE, YOU UNDERSTAND AND AGREE THAT THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND. THE AUTHOR DOES NOT MAKE ANY WARRANTIES, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, WITH RESPECT TO THIS SOFTWARE.

    IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR ANY CONSEQUENTIAL, INCIDENTAL, OR SPECIAL DAMAGES WHATSOEVER (INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF CRITICAL DATA, LOSS OF PROFITS, INTERRUPTION OF BUSINESS, AND THE LIKE) ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THIS SOFTWARE.