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>.

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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>.

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