Text File | 1990-01-28 | 6.5 KB | 55 lines | [50] Apple IIgs Word Processing (0x5445)
REVIEWS
SOLITAIRE ROYALE
Reviewed by Donna K. Woody
Publisher: Spectrum HoloByte
Requirements: 512K RAM required, 786K recommended
800K disk drive
ROM version 01 or higher
Mouse
Are you addicted to solitaire card games? Is your current deck dog-eared? Or is your favorite computer solitaire game getting a little boring? Well, I have good news and bad news. The good news is that Solitaire Royale is here to offer eight solitaire games to play on your GS. The bad news -- it╒s far from perfect.
First of all--The Games
Solitaire Royal is a collection of eight solitaire games:
The object of Pyramid is to remove all the cards from the screen by removing Kings or pairs that total 13.
In Golf, you must also remove all the cards from the screen but in this one you have one foundation card that is built up and down regardless of suit and changes each time a card from the hand is dealt to it.
Klondike is the favorite every solitaire buff has played with real cards or on a computer screen: find the aces and build them up in suit to kings. This is the only one of the eight games that does not display its name and a running score on the screen while you play.
Canfield is another ace-building favorite.
The layout is unusual in Corners--the foundation cards are placed in each corner of a three by three square.
Calculation makes you think and plan ahead. The four foundation piles are built (regardless of suit) by 1╒s, 2╒s, 3╒s, and 4╒s. While 4, 8, 12, 16, and 20 are easy to figure, adding the king, queen, and jack into the sequence isn╒t easy at all.
I╒ve played Three Shuffles and a Draw, but not under that name. The four aces are removed from the deck and the rest of the cards are dealt in groups of threes with only the top card available for play.
Reno is like Canfield but only one card is turned from the hand at a time and the waste pile can╒t be re-used. Some version of this game may be played in casinos since ╥winnings╙ and ╥balance╙ are shown on the screen.
In addition to the eight adult games on the disk, there are three children╒s games that even adults will enjoy playing when the want to win for a change: Concentration, Pairs, and The Wish.
The Pull-Down Menus
File allows you to quit, save games in progress and then load them at a later time.
Start a New Game allows you to select one of the eight games, ╥Tour╙ (a special feature that lets you play one of each game and save the total score to disk), ╥Tournament╙ (lets you compete with the same layout against yourself or another player), and the children╒s games.
Help lets you do such things as peek at a pile, backup up a move, re╨start a game, or learn more about how to play solitaire. It also contains the special extra shuffles and draw a card options used in Three Shuffles and a Draw.
Settings deserves a little more attention. You can change the right-handed pointer for a left-handed one (sorta silly but a nice touch). This is also where you can turn the sound on and off (nice for those late night games) and choose whether or not to have messages displayed. The right-handed pointer, sound on, and messages displayed are the defaults.
Fast Deal is something you want to set as soon as you boot the disk. Dealing defaults to ╥slow╙ mode which becomes exceedingly irritating the more you play. Choosing Fast Deal makes play more normal and much more enjoyable.
Select a Deck (you╒re given five to choose from on a GS with at least 768K RAM) is an option you╒ll want to play with until you find one that you like. Unfortunately, the manual is written for the Mac version of the game and shows 12 nifty decks, none of which are available for the GS. The GS decks, however, are interesting, readable, and, in some cases, very colorful.
When you reach the point where you can no longer get onto the high score list from Tour or Tournament, use the Clear Scores to start over again.
Desktop Color allows you to select the background color of the screen. It works, but I stayed with the default color, although you may want to change this color as you change decks.
About the documentation
The manual is well written with one page descriptions of each card game as well as a sample layout of the game. All common solitaire terms used in the game are explained for novice players. Another section of the 48╨page manual describes all the menu bar options including loading and saving a game and tour and tournament play. It╒s unfortunate that some of the menu options described for the Mac aren╒t in the GS version, but they do include a one page sheet listing all the differences. Still, the manual is much better than those found with most programs.
The Problems
A major drawback of Klondike is the inability to move a card from one pile to another without moving the entire pile. I╒ve played a computer version that allows you to do this and it╒s great. While it doesn╒t allow you to win more often, it does offer more options for play. Its lack can be felt with this version.
High scores and the various settings are saved to the disk only when you quit the game. Saving them during play would be much better.
The BIG problem is that the program crashed twice (dropping me into the monitor) and froze once, all requiring a re-boot, which lost all scores, settings, etc. I╒m at a loss to explain why the program crashed in Golf and Three Shuffles and froze in Golf since I was just doing regular moves each time. And it happened only three times out of at least 20-30 Tour rounds (playing one of each game) and multiple plays of each game, a total of probably 300 or more individual games. Just be warned that this could happen to you.
CONCLUSION
My first reaction to the disk was to give it an A+ rating in spite of a few minor things I didn╒t particularly care for. After it started crashing . . . well, my rating went down.
If you╒re addicted to solitaire computer games, you╒re going to enjoy this disk in spite of the problems. I╒m certainly not going to stop playing because of the problems I encountered. Just realize that there is a possibility of having to re-boot in the middle of a game--if you╒re willing to live with that, then buy the disk. If you╒re not that fond of solitaire games and/or don╒t like programs that may crash, I wouldn╒t recommend buying this disk. It probably won╒t give you that much enjoyment.
Final rating is going to have to be a C, and that only because I AM addicted to solitarire computer games and am willing to put up with a lot to find some new ones to play.
