Solitaire Games

Goodsol Newsletter #100 - Thanksgiving Card Set

Goodsol Newsletter #100
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http://www.goodsol.com


Pretty Good Solitaire version 10.3.1 Now Available
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http://www.goodsol.com/download.html

A new release of Pretty Good Solitaire is now available.  Version 10.3.1 is available for download from
http://www.goodsol.com/download.html .

Version 10.3.1 is a maintenance release with just bug fixes over version 10.3.0, primarily in the new games such as Anubis. Version 10.3.1 contains 640 games.


Thanksgiving Card Set
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http://www.goodsol.com/pgs/cardsets.html

Our latest new card set, the Thanksgiving Card Set, is now available. This card set features card face and back designs with holiday theme images for Thanksgiving. I think this might be the best looking holiday card set yet. The Thanksgiving Card Set can be downloaded from http://www.goodsol.com/pgs/cardsets.html .

This card set works in Pretty Good Solitaire version 8 or higher, FreeCell Wizard version 3, Spider Wizard version 2, or any versions of Action Solitaire and Most Popular Solitaire.


Pretty Good Solitaire Holiday Edition and Gift CD
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http://www.goodsol.com/holiday.html

The holiday season is here again and it is time for the Pretty Good Solitaire Gift CD. The Pretty Good Solitaire Gift CD is a gift wrapped CD especially for holiday gifts. Order at http://www.goodsol.com/holiday.html for $31.95 (price includes shipping).  Multiple copy discounts are available.

Also available is the Pretty Good Solitaire Holiday Edition. This is a special download of the latest version 10.3.1 of Pretty Good Solitaire bundled with the Thanksgiving and Christmas card sets. This special download is available at http://www.goodsol.com/holiday.html along with individual download links for each of the holiday card sets.


Featured Game - Appreciate
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Appreciate is one of the 30 new games in Pretty Good Solitaire version 10.3.  It is a variation of the game One234.

At the start of the game, one card each is dealt to four foundation piles at the top of the screen. Then the remaining 48 cards are dealt out in 8 piles of 6 cards each. This makes Appreciate an open game with all cards visible at the start.

The first (leftmost) foundation pile is built up regardless of suit from the first card dealt, wrapping from King to Ace as necessary. The second foundation pile is built up by twos from the first card dealt, the third foundation pile is built up by threes, and the fourth pile is built up by fours. Each pile is built until it contains 13 cards and the game is won when all the cards are moved to the foundations.

Building in the tableau is based on the foundation pile that the tableau piles are underneath. The first two (leftmost) tableau piles are underneath the first foundation pile and are built down regardless of suit. The second pair of tableau piles are under the second foundation pile and are built down by twos. The third pair are built down by threes and the fourth pair are built down by fours.

Spaces in the tableau can be filled by the last card in the sequence for the foundation pile above it - for example, if the first foundation pile starts with a Four the 13th card in its sequence is a Three.

Play consists of moving cards up to the foundations as possible and then moving cards around in the tableau piles in order to free up cards to go to the foundations. The complicated building rules make Appreciate a difficult game and it is hard to win. So far, the few players who have tried this new game are averaging 2.3%. Despite the difficulty, Appreciate is actually an easier game than One234.

Tips: when stuck, right click on cards to see if they can be moved (or use the hint function). Note that cards in foundations can be moved between foundations (except for the first card dealt).

Appreciate is one of the 640 games in Pretty Good Solitaire.  Pretty Good Solitaire 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

©2005 Goodsol Development Inc.
PO Box 9155, Springfield IL  62791
Pretty Good Solitaire, Action Solitaire, Pretty Good MahJongg, FreeCell
Wizard, Spider Wizard, and more.  Visit us at <http://www.goodsol.com>.

List Archive: <http://www.goodsol.com/newsletter.html#archive>
View past newsletters.

Goodsol Newsletter subscribe or unsubscribe:
<http://www.goodsol.com/cgi-bin/news/mail.cgi>

Pretty Good Solitaire v10.3.1

A new version of Pretty Good Solitaire has been released. Version 10.3.1 has some bug fixes from version 10.3.0. The fixes are primarily in individual new games, particularly Anubis.

Version 10.3.1 can be downloaded from <http://www.goodsol.com/download.html>. 

Thanksgiving Card Set

A new card set for Pretty Good Solitaire (or Action Solitaire, FreeCell Wizard or Spider Wizard) is now available.


You can download the Thanksgiving Card Set from <http://www.goodsol.com/pgs/cardsets.html>. It features Thanksgiving holiday images on the cards.

This is a very good one!

Goodsol Newsletter #99 - Pretty Good Solitaire v10.3

Goodsol Newsletter #99
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http://www.goodsol.com


Pretty Good Solitaire version 10.3 Now Available
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http://www.goodsol.com/download.html

A new release of Pretty Good Solitaire is now available.  Version 10.3 is available for download from
http://www.goodsol.com/download.html .

Version 10.3 adds 30 new games, bringing the total number of games to 640. The new games are Adelaide, Anubis, Apophis, Appreciate, Bath, Block Eleven, Carthage, Crazy Quilt, Double Minerva, Dumfries, Farmer's Wife, Four Stacks, Galloway, Golf Rush, Gotham, Indian Carpet, Interchange Puzzle, Kings in the Corners, Klondike Puzzle, Moosehide, Phoenix, Queen of Italy, Republic, Roslyn, Souter, Three Pirates, Triple Minerva, Willow, Winery, and Yukon Cells.

The new feature in version 10.3 is foundation shading. In many of the games with foundation piles, the piles are now shaded when they are complete, making it easy to see which piles are done. The shading color is adjustable (and this feature can be turned off).

In addition, version 10.3 adds 10 high quality new full screen background bitmaps. For screen shots of some of the new games and features, see http://www.goodsol.com/pgs/whatsnew.html .


TO DOWNLOAD 
You can download Pretty Good Solitaire version 10.3 from http://www.goodsol.com/download.html . If you already have version 7.0 or higher installed, you can also download from within the game by going to the Internet menu and selecting "Download Latest Version". Be sure to exit the game before you install.

UPGRADES 
Pretty Good Solitaire version 10.3 is a free update for those who originally registered versions 8 through 10 in 2002 to 2005 or those who have already paid for an upgrade. Full details on upgrading are at http://www.goodsol.com/upgrade.html . In short, if you purchased after the release of version 8 on January 25, 2002 or have already purchased an upgrade, this is a free update.

If you qualify for a free upgrade, your registration code will work in the new version. Normally Pretty Good Solitaire should register itself if it finds a registered copy of one of these older versions. If not and you have lost your code, you can request that your registration code be sent to you again from http://www.goodsol.com/regusers.html . 

If you originally registered Pretty Good Solitaire 97, 98, 99, 2k, or Quest Edition, and you have not yet paid for an upgrade, you can upgrade for only US$11.95 from http://www.goodsol.com/upgrade.html . See that page for more information. 

TO ORDER 
Pretty Good Solitaire version 10.3 is still only US$24, plus an optional $7.50 shipping for a CD-ROM. In addition to installing the basic game, the CD-ROM also installs all of the currently available extra card sets.

You can order online from http://www.goodsol.com/orderonline.html . 
Phone and mail order options are also available from that page. For those who purchase for the first time now or upgrade, you get free upgrades through the 2007 version.

MORE INFORMATION 
More information about Pretty Good Solitaire version 10.3: 
What's New: <http://www.goodsol.com/pgs/whatsnew.html> 
General: <http://www.goodsol.com/pgs/index.html> 


Submit your picture for the next Cat Card Set
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Download the Cat Card Set: http://www.goodsol.com/pgs/catcardset.html

Due to the success of the Cat Card Set, we are going to make another one! In fact we are also going to do a Dog Card Set. And this time your dog or cat can be on it. We are accepting submissions of pictures of dogs or cats for inclusion in the new card sets.

Here are the rules: we are looking for pictures of dogs and cats in electronic form. The picture you submit must be owned by you and be of your pet. By submitting you are giving us permission to use it in the card set and any promotion of the card set. The pictures need to be in either JPG or BMP format and be as high quality as possible, as they will be resized, cropped and otherwise manipulated to create a good looking playing card. Email the picture file to support@goodsol.com along with your name and physical address and the name of the pictured dog or cat. We can't guarantee that we will use every submission as there are only a limited number of cards in a deck, but if we get enough pictures we may do multiple card sets. Also if you are a registered user note that in the email as we will give priority to registered users.
 

Featured Game - Interchange Puzzle
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Interchange Puzzle is one of the 30 new games in Pretty Good Solitaire version 10.3. It is similar to the game Yukon Puzzle, except that it is like the game Interchange rather than Yukon. It is a 3 deck game.

The game consists of two areas. On the left side are 7 tableau piles, 8 foundations piles and a stock and waste. This area is identical to Interchange, where 7 cards each are dealt to 7 tableau piles, alternating face up and face down. The remaining cards form a stock. The stock is turned over to the waste pile one card at a time. The foundation piles are built up in suit from Ace to King. The tableau piles are built down in suit and groups of cards in sequence down in suit may be moved as a unit. Empty spaces may be filled only by a King.

On the right side, there are 13 piles of 4 cards each. Building in these piles is by the same rank (such as Jacks on Jacks), and a maximum of 4 cards are permitted in each pile.

The game is won when all the cards from 2 decks are built on the foundation piles, and all the cards from the 3rd deck are built in the 13 piles, 4 cards of each rank. There will be a pile of 4 aces, a pile of 4 Twos, and so on.

Play begins by building in the 7 tableau piles as is possible, pulling cards over from the 13 piles when you can. There is a special situation you need to be aware of in this game. Eight suits of cards are played to the foundations, but note that you do not necessarily have to play two piles of each suit to the foundations. Any 8 suits out of the 12 suits in the 3 decks may be played to the foundations based on the suits of the starting Aces. The remaining 4 suits are played to the 13 reserve piles. It is important to keep track of which suits are needed in the reserve piles so that you build the 13 piles of the ranks with the needed suits of cards that make the game work out.

While Interchange is a difficult game to win, Interchange Puzzle can be won virtually every time, although it takes time to work it out.

Interchange Puzzle is one of the 640 games in Pretty Good Solitaire.  Pretty Good Solitaire can be downloaded from http://www.goodsol.com/download.html .

------------------------------------------
Thomas Warfield - Software Designer - support@goodsol.com
Anne Warfield - Order Fulfilment - orders@goodsol.com

©2005 Goodsol Development Inc.
PO Box 9155, Springfield IL  62791
Pretty Good Solitaire, Action Solitaire, Pretty Good MahJongg, FreeCell
Wizard, Spider Wizard, and more.  Visit us at <http://www.goodsol.com>.

List Archive: <http://www.goodsol.com/newsletter.html#archive>
View past newsletters.

Goodsol Newsletter subscribe or unsubscribe:
<http://www.goodsol.com/cgi-bin/news/mail.cgi>

Pretty Good Solitaire v10.3.0

A new version of Pretty Good Solitaire has been released.

Version 10.3.0 adds 30 new games and some new features.  For a list of what's new in version 10.3, see http://www.goodsol.com/pgs/whatsnew.html

Download the new version 10.3.0 from http://www.goodsol.com/download.html

Note that this is a free update for all those who originally ordered the 2002, 2003, 2004, or previous 2005 versions, or those who have previously paid for an upgrade. Those who originally ordered the 2001 (Quest Edition) version or earlier can upgrade at http://www.goodsol.com/upgrade.html 

Modern Tile Set

New Pretty Good MahJongg Tile Set
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http://www.goodmj.com/tilesets.html

A new tile set for Pretty Good MahJongg is now available. The Modern Tile Set is a classic MahJongg tile set with a modern twist. This clean, sharp tile set is usable in all games in Pretty Good MahJongg, including the solitaire games.

The Modern Tile Set can be downloaded from http://www.goodmj.com/tilesets.html .  It requires version 2 or higher of Pretty Good MahJongg.  Pretty Good MahJongg can be downloaded from http://www.goodmj.com/download.html .

Goodsol Newsletter #98 - Modern Tile Set

Goodsol Newsletter #98
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http://www.goodsol.com


New Pretty Good MahJongg Tile Set
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http://www.goodmj.com/tilesets.html

A new tile set for Pretty Good MahJongg is now available. The Modern Tile Set is a classic MahJongg tile set with a modern twist. This clean, sharp tile set is usable in all games in Pretty Good MahJongg, including the solitaire games.

The Modern Tile Set can be downloaded from http://www.goodmj.com/tilesets.html .  It requires version 2 or higher of Pretty Good MahJongg.  Pretty Good MahJongg can be downloaded from http://www.goodmj.com/download.html .



New Tile Matching Layouts Available
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http://www.goodmj.com/layouts.html

Five new tile matching layouts for Pretty Good MahJongg are now available. The layouts Checkbox, Estate, Express, Fair, and Taiwan 4 can be downloaded from
http://www.goodmj.com/tilesets.html .  These layouts are in addition to the 215 layouts that come with version 2.2 of Pretty Good MahJongg.


Featured Game - Granada
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Granada is a two deck variation of the classic game Alhambra. In Granada, 4 Aces and 4 Kings (one of each suit) are put out to form 8 foundation piles. The aces are built up in suit and the Kings are built down in suit. Then 4 cards each are dealt to 8 reserve piles. The remaining cards form a stock. In addition, the game begins with 4 empty cells.

The cards in the reserve piles can be played to the foundations (if possible) or moved to the cells. There is no building in the reserves. However, you can build on the cells up or down in suit, wrapping from Ace to King or King to Ace.

When play comes to a standstill, click on the stock to deal a card to the top of each cell.  There are two redeals.

Play consists of moving cards from the reserves to the foundations if you can. Then move cards from the reserves to the cells if that can free up a card to move to the foundations. When nothing more can be done, deal more cards to the cells. When the stock is empty, all the cards in the cells will be picked up to form a new stock in the redeal, therefore all the cards in the cells will become available again (until the last redeal).

Granada is a fairly easy game to win. Alhambra is a much tougher game. Alhambra is like Granada except there is only one cell (considered a waste pile), rather than four. A 2% winning percentage is a great percentage for Alhambra.

Granada and Alhambra are among the 610 games in Pretty Good Solitaire.  Pretty Good Solitaire can be downloaded from <http://www.goodsol.com/download.html>.   

---------------------------------------
Thomas Warfield - Software Designer - support@goodsol.com
Anne Warfield - Order Fulfilment - orders@goodsol.com

©2005 Goodsol Development Inc.
PO Box 9155, Springfield IL  62791
Pretty Good Solitaire, Action Solitaire, Pretty Good MahJongg, FreeCell
Wizard, Spider Wizard, and more.  Visit us at <http://www.goodsol.com>.

List Archive: <http://www.goodsol.com/newsletter.html#archive>
View past newsletters.

Goodsol Newsletter subscribe or unsubscribe:
<http://www.goodsol.com/cgi-bin/news/mail.cgi>

Goodsol Newsletter #97 - Most Popular Solitaire

Goodsol Newsletter #97
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http://www.goodsol.com

Most Popular Solitaire
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http://www.moposol.com

We have released a new game - Most Popular Solitaire is a collection of 30 of the most popular solitaire games. It can be downloaded from <http://www.moposol.com>.

We've been getting a lot of requests for a solitaire game from people who are a bit overwhelmed by the number of games in Pretty Good Solitaire. Some people just want a small number of games.

Most Popular Solitaire is a small collection of only the most played and classic solitaire games. The games were carefully chosen as the games that people play the most. You can see a summary of the features in Most Popular Solitaire at <http://www.moposol.com/features.html>. Most Popular Solitaire has almost all of the features from Pretty Good Solitaire for its 30 games.

If you already have Pretty Good Solitaire, obviously you won't be interested in Most Popular Solitaire. Most Popular Solitaire is intended for those people who don't want the full selection of games that Pretty Good Solitaire provides. Every game in Most Popular Solitaire is in Pretty Good Solitaire, except one. Most Popular Solitaire contains the new game Crazy Quilt, which is not in Pretty Good Solitaire (but Crazy Quilt will be in the upcoming new version of Pretty Good Solitaire).

TO DOWNLOAD
Most Popular Solitaire can be downloaded from <http://www.moposol.com/download.html>.

TO ORDER
Most Popular Solitaire regularly sells for the one time amount of US$19.95. As a newsletter subscriber, you can get 20% off Most Popular Solitaire by using this special newsletter coupon code: GOOD-NAMS-MPSX
This special charter offer expires September 30, 2005.  You can order Most Popular Solitaire at <http://www.moposol.com/orderonline.html>.  In order to get the discount, be sure to enter the coupon code GOOD-NAMS-MPSX on the final step of the order.

LIST OF GAMES
The games in Most Popular Solitaire are Klondike, Double Klondike, Lady Jane, Canfield, FreeCell, Sea Towers, Penguin, Eight Off, Spider, Spider One Suit, Spider Two Suits, Scorpion, Forty Thieves, Interchange, Thieves of Egypt, La Belle Lucie, Pyramid, Beleaguered Castle, Yukon, Russian Solitaire, Australian Patience, Demons and Thieves, Golf, Aces and Kings, Cruel, Gaps, Osmosis, Aces Up, Terrace, and Crazy Quilt.

All of these games (except Crazy Quilt) are also in Pretty Good Solitaire at <http://www.goodsol.com>.  Version 11.0 of Pretty Good Solitaire is coming later this year with Crazy Quilt and many other new games.


Connection Errors
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http://scores.goodsol.com

A number of people have been having trouble submitting their solitaire statistics lately.  They are getting "code 0" errors.

A code 0 error occurs when the game cannot access the internet. This can happen either because there is no working internet connection or because a firewall is blocking the game from accessing the internet. As people get more concerned about computer security, more people are installing firewalls on their computer (in fact, the latest update of Windows XP includes one).

With most firewalls, you will need to tell the firewall to allow the game access to the internet before it will be able to submit scores. This applies to all of our games that allow you to submit statistics, which includes Pretty Good Solitaire, Pretty Good MahJongg, Action Solitaire, and the new Most Popular Solitaire (Most Popular Solitaire scores are posted on the regular Pretty Good Solitaire scores lists at <http://scores.goodsol.com>).

If you get a code 0 error when submitting your scores, please first check to see if your firewall is blocking the game access. Most firewalls make it fairly easy to give individual applications access to the internet. Note that you can view submitted scores without giving the game access because the scores pages are regular web pages viewed in your internet browser rather than within the game itself.


Featured Game - Osmosis
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Osmosis, sometimes also known as Treasure Trove, is an interesting and different solitaire game. Unlike most solitaire games, you do not build the foundation piles up in the usual way (such as up by suit).

In Osmosis, 16 cards are dealt 4 cards each to 4 reserve piles, with only the top card face up. This top card is available for play. Then one card is dealt out to the first foundation pile. The remainder of the cards form a stock, which will be turned over 1 card at a time to a waste pile.

The first card dealt to that first foundation pile is what starts the game. The other 3 foundation piles begin empty. On the first foundation pile, you can play any other available card of the same suit. So, for example, if the King of Hearts is the card played to the first foundation pile, you can play any other Heart to that pile. On the next foundation pile, you can start the pile by playing any card of the same rank (value) as the first card played to the first pile. So in the example, you could start the next pile with any other King. After the first card has been played to a pile, you can then play any other card of that suit that is of a rank that has already been played to the pile above.

Suppose in the example you are able to play the King of Clubs to the 2nd foundation pile. With the King of Hearts starting the first pile and the King of Clubs the 2nd, you can now play any Heart to the first pile, and then any Club of the same rank to the 2nd pile. So if you then play the 6 of Hearts to the first pile, you could then play the 6 of Clubs to the 2nd pile if it is available. The process filters down through 4 foundation piles, one for each suit. Eventually the goal is to get all of the cards into the 4 piles.

When you have no moves, you can turn over the top card of the stock to a waste pile. There are unlimited redeals. When the stock is empty, you just turn over the waste pile and run through it again.

The key to winning is to get the face down cards out of the 4 reserve piles. Since all of the cards in the stock will eventually become available, the only way to lose is to not be able to get a card out of the reserve.

The game Peek is a variation of Osmosis. The only difference between Peek and Osmosis is that in Peek you can see all the cards in the reserve (none of the cards are face down). Therefore in Peek you know where all the cards are buried. Diffusion is another variation of Osmosis where there are three waste piles to make more cards available.

Osmosis, Peek, and Diffusion are among the 610 games in Pretty Good Solitaire. Pretty Good Solitaire can be downloaded from <http://www.goodsol.com/download.html>.  Osmosis is also one of the 30 games in Most Popular Solitaire, which can be downloaded from <http://www.moposol.com/download.html>.

---------------------------------------
Thomas Warfield - Software Designer - support@goodsol.com
Anne Warfield - Order Fulfilment - orders@goodsol.com

©2005 Goodsol Development Inc.
PO Box 9155, Springfield IL  62791
Pretty Good Solitaire, Action Solitaire, Pretty Good MahJongg, FreeCell
Wizard, Spider Wizard, and more.  Visit us at <http://www.goodsol.com>.

List Archive: <http://www.goodsol.com/newsletter.html#archive>
View past newsletters.

Goodsol Newsletter subscribe or unsubscribe:
<http://www.goodsol.com/cgi-bin/news/mail.cgi>

Goodsol Newsletter #96 - Fred's Spider

Goodsol Newsletter #96
-----------------------
http://www.goodsol.com

Pretty Good Solitaire wins Peoples Choice Award
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Pretty Good Solitaire has won the Shareware Industry Awards Foundation's Peoples Choice Award for best shareware non-action game of 2005. This award is voted by the public at web sites such as download.com, Tucows, and Simtel. Pretty Good Solitaire previously won in 1999, 2000, and 2004. The full list of all winners is at <http://www.sic.org/peopleschoice.asp>.

Thanks to all the people who voted for Pretty Good Solitaire this year! 


Featured Game - Fred's Spider
--------------------------------------------

Fred's Spider is a two deck, easy variation of Spider.

At the start of the game 5 cards each are dealt face up to 10 tableau piles. Then remaining cards go face down and form a stock. There are eight foundation piles. The object is to build the foundation piles up in suit from Ace to King to win the game.

In the tableau, the piles are built down regardless of suit. But as in Spider, you can only move groups of cards if they are in sequence down in suit. You will want to prefer building down in suit then, when possible.

When all plays have been made, clicking on the stock deals one card to each tableau pile, burying the existing cards, as in regular Spider.

Fred's Spider is easy to play and can be won nearly every time, making it one of the easiest of the Spider type games.

Fred's Spider was invented by Fred Lunde. Fred's Spider is one of the 610 solitaire games in Pretty Good Solitaire. It can be downloaded from <http://www.goodsol.com/download.html>.

---------------------------------------
Thomas Warfield - Software Designer - support@goodsol.com
Anne Warfield - Order Fulfilment - orders@goodsol.com

©2005 Goodsol Development Inc.
PO Box 9155, Springfield IL  62791
Pretty Good Solitaire, Action Solitaire, Pretty Good MahJongg, FreeCell
Wizard, Spider Wizard, and more.  Visit us at <http://www.goodsol.com>.

List Archive: <http://www.goodsol.com/newsletter.html#archive>
View past newsletters.

Goodsol Newsletter subscribe or unsubscribe:
<http://www.goodsol.com/cgi-bin/news/mail.cgi>

Most Popular Solitaire

Most Popular Solitaire is a collection of 30 of the most popular solitaire games.  It can be downloaded from <http://www.moposol.com>.

We've been getting a lot of requests for a solitaire game from people who are a bit overwhelmed by the number of games in Pretty Good Solitaire. Some people just want a small number of games.

Most Popular Solitaire is a small collection of only the most played and classic solitaire games. The games were carefully chosen as the games that people play the most. You can see a list of the games in Most Popular Solitaire at <http://www.moposol.com/features.html>.  Most Popular Solitaire has almost all of the features from Pretty Good Solitaire for its 30 games.


If you already have Pretty Good Solitaire, obviously you won't be interested in Most Popular Solitaire. Most Popular Solitaire is intended for those people who don't want the full selection of games that Pretty Good Solitaire provides. Every game in Most Popular Solitaire is in Pretty Good Solitaire, except one. Most Popular Solitaire contains the new game Crazy Quilt, which is not in Pretty Good Solitaire (but will be in the upcoming next version).

The Most Popular Solitaire web site is at <http://www.moposol.com>.