To play a game, click on the underlined name of the game. Games are grouped together in several ways. To see a group of games, click on the group name on the left side.
If you can't decide what game to play, try the "Random Game" button. It will select a game at random for you. This is a great way to learn new games.
To learn the rules while playing a game, select "How to Play" from the Help menu. If you have a toolbar you can click on the Help button. Or simply press the F1 key.
The solitaire game that comes with Windows is known as Klondike in Pretty Good Solitaire.
If you quit while in the middle of a game, Pretty Good Solitaire will remember the game position for you. The next time you play that game, Pretty Good Solitaire will replay the game up to the position where you left off. From there, you can either play on or play a new game. If you don't want Pretty Good Solitaire to save games for you, uncheck "Save Game Positions" in Options.
In most games that have Foundations, Pretty Good Solitaire has an "AutoPlay" option. This option will automatically play cards to the Foundations when possible. In games where you don't want one foundation pile to get too many more cards than the others, it will refrain from moving cards if this happens. You can turn AutoPlay on and off for each game in the Options menu of the game.
Pretty Good Solitaire will let you Undo back to the beginning of the game. Just select "Undo" from the Options menu to undo a move. If you have a toolbar, click the Undo button. Or simply press the backspace key. All moves that are undone can be redone with the "Redo" function.
To Redo a move after it has been undone, select "Redo" from the Options menu. If you have a toolbar, click the Redo button. Or simply press the spacebar.
Most games in Pretty Good Solitaire can have a Toolbar across the top of the screen. This toolbar contains shortcuts buttons for functions like undo, redo, New Game, etc. If you want this toolbar, check "Show Game Toolbar" in Options. To remove the toolbar, uncheck this option. The toolbar is not recommended in the 640x480 screen resolution, since it takes up valuable game space. However, you can use it if you wish to. Some games cannot have a toolbar for space reasons.
Most games in Pretty Good Solitaire can have a Statusbar across the bottom of the screen. This statusbar contains shortcuts buttons for functions like undo, redo, New Game, etc. If you want this statusbar, check "Show Game Statusbar" in Options. To remove the statusbar, uncheck this option. The statusbar is not recommended in the 640x480 screen resolution, since it takes up valuable game space. However, you can use it if you wish to. Some games cannot have a statusbar for space reasons.
Don't want to drag and drop? You can use Pretty Good Solitaire's right click mouse shortcut to move cards. You can click on the right mouse button over a card or group of cards to have the computer automatically move the card(s) for you. Note that this right-click option works in most situations in most games, but does not necessarily work in all situations in all games. It also won't necessarily move the cards to the same place as you would, but, hey, you've got to do _some_ work here.
Frequently Asked Question: When I start a game the program plays a bunch of moves automatically even though I have AutoPlay turned off. Why? Answer: This is the automatic game saving feature. When you quit a game in progress, the program will automatically save your position. When you play that particular game again, the program will replay all your moves up to the point where you left off. You can either continue playing or click on the new game button for a new game. The automatic game saving feature can be turned off in the Options menu.
To replay the current game, select "ReStart Game" from the Game menu. If you have a toolbar, click on the ReStart button. Or simply press "Control-G".
If you get into a tough position with two or more likely choices of moves and you are not sure which to make, select "Snapshot Position" from the Options menu (or press "Control-P"). Then continue playing. If you discover that you made the wrong choice and want to go back to try something else, select "Undo to Snapshot" from the Options menu (or press "Control-Q). Pretty Good Solitaire will automatically return you to the position you were at when you selected a snapshot.
Each starting position of a Pretty Good Solitaire game has a game number (the number is displayed in parentheses in the title bar). You can select a game using this game number using the "Select Game" option in the Games menu. Typing in the same game number will always give you the same starting position. By using the up and down arrows in the select game box you can play consecutive game numbers. There are over two billion possible starting positions for each game!
You can choose from 6 different card back designs. To see them, select "Card Backs" from Options. To select a card back, simply click on it.
The games in the group "800x600 Games" can only be played in screen resolutions of 800x600 or higher. You can change resolutions by choosing "Change Game Resolution" from the Options menu on the main screen.
You can change the background color of a game by selecting "Background Color" from Options. Click on a game name, and click on "Change to Color" to select a new color for it. By checking the "Fade Background" box, you can have the color fade away down the screen. You can also change the background to a bitmap image by clicking on the "Change to Bitmap" button.
Pretty Good Solitaire supports multiple players. To add a player, go to players in Options. Statistics, games, and settings are saved for each player. To change players, select a new player name from the Player name box on the main screen. To delete a player, go to players in Options. Using multiple players can keep your spouse or friends from mucking about with your settings.
Pretty Good Solitaire keeps won/loss statistics for each game. To see your current statistics, click on the Statistics button. If you don't want statistics kept (or if you want to turn them off because you're losing), uncheck the "Keep Game Statistics" in Options.
You can see your statistics for all games at once by selecting by clicking on the "Statistics" button on the main screen. Clicking on the header of a column of the list will sort the list by that column. Clicking on a specific game in the list will give detailed statistics for that game.
Some games, such as Klondike, FreeCell, and Scorpion, have a KingOnly option. Normally, these games only allow empty Tableau spaces to be filled by Kings, or sequences of cards with a King on the bottom. But by unchecking the KingOnly option in the Options menu, you can move any card or legal sequence of cards to an empty Tableau pile.
The Favorites group gives you a way to quickly find your favorite games. You can add or delete any games from this group in the Group section of Options.
Pretty Good Solitaire does not count a game as over until you either win the game, select "New Game", or select "Select Game". If you have a game saved because it is not complete, it won't be counted in your statistics until it is complete.
In FreeCell, you can only move one card at a time. However, as a shortcut, Pretty Good Solitaire allows you to move groups of cards in descending opposite colors if there are enough open cells that the cards could have been moved one at a time. This rule applies to Sea Towers as well.
Selecting the Vegas Scoring Option in Options changes the way scores are calculated. At the beginning of the game, $1 is subtracted for each card. When a card is played to the Foundation, $5 is added. Completing a 52 card game with all cards gives a score of $208.
You can create your own groups of games. To add games to a new group, first add the group by going to Options and clicking on the Group tab.á The click on the Add button on the left side, under the groups.á Type in the name for the new group and press OK.áá The new group name will appear on the left side.á Highlight this name by clicking on it.áá The member games of the group (none yet) will appear on the right.á Click on add on the right side.á A list of all the games will pop up.á Choose the games you want to add (note you can add more than one at once by holding the shift or control key down when selecting). When you return to the main menu, you will have a new group with just the games you selected in it.
The "Save Games on Exit" option, when set, saves the game positions of every game upon exit. This means that if you are interrupted during play, and exit the game, you can return to the same position the next time you play.
If the "Confirm New Games and Restarts" option is set Pretty Good Solitaire will ask you if you really want to start a new game or restart a game when you select new game from the menu or from the toolbar. This prevents accidentally starting a new game. This options defaults to off.
You can turn the sound on and off with the "Play Sound" option. Click on the Options button on the main screen to see this option.
The "Minimize to Taskbar Tray" option will place an Pretty Good Solitaire icon in the Windows 95 system tray in the taskbar when the program is minimized. This gives you quick access to Pretty Good Solitaire, along with all your other important utilities.
To add a new player, click on the Options button and choose the Players tab. Click on the Add button and type in the name of the new player.
To delete a player, click on the Options button and choose the Players tab. Select the player you want to delete and click on the Delete button. You cannot delete the last player.
The game Rouge et Noir has a special way of building Foundations. The leftmost 2 foundations begin with red Aces and are built up in color to Kings. The next 2 foundations begin with black Aces and are also built up in color. The rightmost 4 foundations, however, are not built up a card at a time at all. In these foundations, you must drop an entire 13-card sequence of cards. For the left 2 foundations, these sequences must be headed with a red King, the last two a black King. These sequences must be built in the tableau. Rouge et Noir is the author's favorite game.
To delete a game created with the Solitaire Wizard, click on the Options button and choose the Groups tab. Select the "Wizard Created Games" group on the left and choose the game you want to delete on the right. Click on the Delete button.
Most of the games in Pretty Good Solitaire came from the two best books ever written on solitaire - "The Complete Book of Solitaire & Patience Games" by Albert H. Morehead & Geoffrey Mott-Smith (1949) and "Teach Yourself Card Games for One" by David Parlett (1994).
In games with Foundations, double-clicking on a card with the left mouse button will move the card to the foundation, if that move is legal.
Many of the most challenging solitaire games belong to a category called "open games". An open solitaire game is a game where all the cards are dealt face up at the beginning of the game. The player then has the opportunity to see where every card is before beginning play. This increases the skill-level of the game. A game where a player can plan moves in advance offers more opportunities for skill than games that have unknown cards in a stock pile. The most popular open solitaire game is probably FreeCell. With the position of every card known from the start, it becomes almost entirely a matter of skill whether the player wins or not. To see the open games, select the "Open Games" group.
Over 20 of the games in Pretty Good Solitaire were invented by the author Thomas Warfield and are original to the program. To see these games, select the "Original Games" group.
Clicking on a card with the right mouse button is a good way to check to see if there are any legal moves for that card. If there is a legal move, clicking on the right mouse button will probably move the card. If there isn't, it won't.
Although in many games it is technically cheating, some games allow you to move a card from the foundations back to the tableau, if you wish. However, if AutoPlay is turned on, the AutoPlay feature will promptly play the card back to the foundation! Therefore, if you ever want to do this you will need to turn AutoPlay off.
You can get more room to play by hiding the taskbar. This can be done by clicking on the start button, selecting Settings and then Taskbar, and setting AutoHide on.
The first version of Pretty Good Solitaire had only 5 games! These games were Freecell, Baker's Dozen, Fourteen Out, Golf, and Yukon.
Need more space? You can resize the game window to make it bigger. Pretty Good Solitaire will then adjust to the bigger window the first time you do a "New Game". This will spread out the piles.
If you switch resolutions and play a game that was previously played at another resolution, you will need to "New Game" to get Pretty Good Solitaire to adjust to the new resolution.
If you have a 3 button mouse, clicking on the middle button will undo your last move.
