Games are not my forté, but I had seen the game of Solitaire on a friend’s PC-Clone under Windows 3.0 and my father used pass cloudy afternoons in the summer playing the game with real cards.
So I bought a copy of version 1.0 for the QL from Sharp’s for $19.95. It was entertaining but lacked the addiction of one variable offered on Windows – the option to play by Las Vegas gambling rules. This option is now available in version 2.01.
The game many know as Solitaire is just one of a number of solo card games and is actually called Canfield or Klondike. The deck is layed out in seven columns. The first column has one face up card; the second has one faceup and one face down, and so on through to the seventh column. The rest of the deck is placed face down.
The object is to move aces to the foundation and then build the suites through to kings.
Points are given for various achievements – 10 points for playing a card from the deck to the layout, 20 for exposing a face down card in the layout and 40 for playing a card to the foundation.
To play, select whether to turn the cards over three at a time or one at a time. If you choose the latter, the easy way, the points are halved.
On screen in white-on-green are the key codes for effecting the moves. Press D to move a card from the deck and an arrow lights under the deck. Press the number of the column to which you want to play it; F to play to the foundation; V to view the next card or cards in the deck.
A card can be played to the foundation only if there is already a card in the same suite one number lower. To play to the layout, there must be an exposed card one number higher and of the opposite color.
Cards can be moved from column to column to expose face down cards or from a column to the foundation.
The program keeps score. If you reach an impasse, press Q to Quit the particular game. If your score qualifies you, you may enter your name on the high score table. You can play again as often as you like.
Version 2.01 now has Las Vegas rules as well. In Vegas or other gambling houses you ‘buy’ the deck for $52. For each card that you play to the foundation, you get back $5. The program stores a running tally of your losses and gains between sessions.
It is a particularly addictive form of playing. Some would have you believe that the current recession is tied to the release of Windows 3.0 and the preoccupation of gamblers in the workplace. I will let you decide.
Version 2.01 runs on an unexpanded QL with any ROM. A TV does not do justice to the very sharp graphics of the card faces, but it works. As with Windows 3.0 version, QL Solitaire multi-tasks.
It is from Softshoe Software and is compiled with Q-Liberator. It comes with a short instruction manual and is available on a choice of disks for $19.95 ppd (plus $4.00 for micro-cartridge) from EMSoft, P.O. Box 8763, BOSTON MA 02114-0037.