Thomas Warfield (Support)
Moderator
Username: Support
Post Number: 345
Registered: 12-2002
| | Posted on Saturday, May 31, 2003 - 2:50 pm: | |
Goodsol Newsletter #63
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<http://www.goodsol.com>
New version of Pretty Good Solitaire
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<http://www.goodsol.com/download.html>
A new release of Pretty Good Solitaire is now available. Version 9.1.0 is available for download from <http://www.goodsol.com/download.html>.
Version 9.1.0 adds 10 new games to bring the total number of games to 560. The new games are American Canister, Balcony, British Canister, Chelicera, Double Signora, Firing Squad, How They Run, Madame, Roman Patience, and Signora.
Also added is a new game type group, the Terrace type games. Many of the new games belong to this new group. This version also has the annual mass changes to the game difficulty ratings and the winning percentage in the help file. Many games had their number adjusted to reflect user statistics as posted on the web site, particularly those games added in 2001 and 2002. Some of these games are just now getting enough games played to get a sense of their difficulty.
This new version is a free upgrade for those who originally ordered the Quest Edition, 500 version, or version 9, or who paid to upgrade to those versions. Just download the trial version and it will use your same registration code. Users who originally ordered Pretty Good Solitaire 2k (2000 version) or earlier can upgrade at
<http://www.goodsol.com/upgrade.html>. New users can order at <http://www.goodsol.com/orderonline.html>.
Comments on the new version are always welcome at tom@goodsol.com!
TO DOWNLOAD
You can download Pretty Good Solitaire version 9.1.0 from
<http://www.goodsol.com/download.html>. If you have version 7.0.0 or higher already installed, you can also download by running the game, selecting the Internet menu and selecting "Download Latest Version". If you download this way you will have the option of downloading either the full version or an update version containing just the new files for your particular version. Be sure to exit out of the running game before installing.
MORE INFORMATION
More information about Pretty Good Solitaire:
<http://www.goodsol.com/pgs/index.html>
<http://ww.goodsol.com/pgs/whatsnew.html>
2003 Shareware Industry Award Nomination
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Pretty Good Solitaire has once again been nominated by the Shareware Industry Awards Foundation for best non-action shareware game of the year.
It's the fourth time Pretty Good Solitaire has been nominated. It won in 1999 and 2001. The awards are voted on by members of the shareware industry and the winner will be announced in July.
Featured Game - Signora
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The new version of Pretty Good Solitaire contains a new game group, the Terrace type games group. This group contains the classic game Terrace, also known as Queen of Italy.
Terrace is an under-appreciated game of skill. One of the things that makes Terrace a good game is the rare ability to choose the first foundation base card. This choice makes the first move of the game also the most important, and by making the right choice you can greatly affect your chances of winning.
Five of the new games in version 9.1.0 are Terrace type games. The most basic and typical of these is the new game Signora. Signora is designed to have all the elements of skill of Terrace, but a bit easier to win.
Signora begins with 9 cards dealt out one each to 9 tableau piles. Then 11 cards are dealt out to form a reserve pile. Cards in the reserve pile can only be played to the foundations, not to the tableau. The remainder of the cards in the two decks then form a stock, which will be turned over one card a time to a waste pile with no redeal.
The 9 tableau piles will be built down in alternate color and the 8 foundation piles will be built up in alternate color (rather than the usual up in suit).
The game begins by choosing the first card of the first foundation pile, which will decide what rank will start each foundation pile. You can choose any of the 9 cards in the tableau, the top car of the reserve, or a card from the waste. You can even turn cards over from the stock to the waste if you like to come up with the right card to start the foundations.
The rank of this first card of the foundations is a critical decision. Cards in the reserve can only be played to the foundations, so you need to choose a card that will allow you to get out as many of the 11 reserve cards as possible as quickly as possible. You need to look at what ranks are in the reserve and what ranks are available to you to play and figure out which one works best.
Once you choose the first card to the foundations, play continues by building on the tableau and running through the stock. Whenever an empty space is created in the tableau, the space is filled by the top card from the waste. This lets you know in advance what card will fill the space. You can use this to your advantage by only creating spaces when the top card in the waste is a card you want to bring down into the tableau.
In addition to Signora, other new games are Double Signora (a four deck version of Signora), Madame (a three deck version), Balcony (a one deck version), and Roman Patience (with the more normal up in suit building of the foundations).
All of these games are among the 560 solitaire card games in Pretty Good Solitaire, which can be downloaded from
<http://www.goodsol.com/download.html>.
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Thomas Warfield - Software Designer - support@goodsol.com
Anne Warfield - Order Fulfilment - orders@goodsol.com
©2003 Goodsol Development Inc.
Pretty Good Solitaire, Pretty Good MahJongg, FreeCell Wizard, Spider Wizard, and more. Visit us at <http://www.goodsol.com>.
You can subscribe to the Goodsol Newsletter at
<http://www.goodsol.com/newsletter.html>. |