=== WHAT IS THIS?! ===
This is a rudimentary replication of Chronobind, created by vgperson in Game Maker 7.0.
Chronobind is a casino minigame from Final Fantasy XIII-2, hidden away in some optional DLC. Despite this, it is one of the best things about the game.
A friend of mine loved the concept, but didn't want to buy FFXIII-2 just for Chronobind - and I completely understand that - so I made this for her birthday.

All rights to Final Fantasy XIII-2, Chronobind, and Spirit Burning Sazh probably belong to Square-Enix, I suppose.

=== RULES OF CHRONOBIND ===
Chronobind is admittedly a pretty confusing game to start out with, but it quickly starts to makes sense as you play.
You have a regular 52-card deck. At the start of a round, the deck is shuffled and the four players are given five cards each.
An additional card is drawn (the "starter card") whose rank (Ace 1 to King 13) decides the initial position of the clock.
The clock being, of course, the big round thing in the middle which is divided into thirteen instead of twelve.

Once all players have their cards, they pick cards from their hand to enter into a "showdown" against the other players.
A player can enter any single card, or they can enter multiple cards of the same rank, such as a 10 of Hearts and a 10 of Clubs. (Suits have no real bearing in Chronobind.)
A showdown is essentially a battle for control of the clock: the winner will be able to move the clock hand a number of spaces according to the of the card(s) they picked.

The player with the highest card(s) wins the showdown, as long as there isn't a tie. However, the ranking is a little more convoluted than you'd expect.
Ordinarily, the highest rank wins. However, the card corresponding to the current position of the clock is a "trump card"; if the clock is on 12, for example, it's the Queen.
The trump card beats most other cards, but it can be beaten by an Ace (which is normally 1). An Ace can also beat a King. That's just how it works, okay?

When someone wins the showdown, they can move the hand (either clockwise or counterclockwise) a number of spaces corresponding to the rank of their card(s).
If the hand passes or lands on 13 while being moved, the clock is "charged" by the number of cards the mover played. Charging increases the payout; I'll give more exact details later.
If there was a tie in the showdown, no one gets to move the clock hand. Instead, the clock is charged according to the number of cards involved in the tie.
For example, if one player played a King and another played two Kings, the clock would be charged three times.

Once the clock hand has moved (or after a tie), all players place coins on the corresponding clock numbers for each card they played in the showdown.
Example: If the cards in the showdown were Ace / King / 8 / Jack x2, Ace would win, and Player 1 who played it would move the clock.
Then the first three players would each put one coin on 1, 13, and 8, and Player 4 would put two coins on 11.
After placing the coins, players draw from the deck to get back up to five cards, and then have another showdown.

So what are the coins for? Numbers with coins on them are "bind points," which are the means of ending a round and winning coins.
When the clock hand is moved and lands on an empty space, nothing happens. But if it's a bind point (read: it has any coins on it), the one who moved it has the option to "clock out."
If they choose to clock out, the round ends and the player takes their winnings. Otherwise, the game continues.

Upon clocking out, the player takes coins from each of their opponents, as well as any coins placed on the clock.
How many coins each opponent surrenders is determined by the clock's charge; its value starts at 5 and increases by 5 with each charge. This is then multiplied by the number of coins on the bind point.
(Technically speaking, in the original Chronobind, each player has four stacks that are added to with each charge, and the coins on the bind point determine how many stacks they hand to the winner.)

If a round goes on long enough without anyone clocking out, the deck may run out of cards, eventually leaving some players with no cards to play.
If this happens, the round will end with no one winning anything, and losing any coins they put on the clock.

=== CUSTOMIZATION ===
You can customize which players are used, modify players in the "players" folder, and change some settings in settings.txt.
Check players.txt in the "players" folder, the default player files, and settings.txt respectively for more information.