Category Archives: Products

Solitaire for iPad… almost.

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After months (years) in development, it is nearly here.

Mystery Icon for iPadToday, Goodsol Development (almost) announced our upcoming iPad games in their newsletter (issue #176).

In the “iPad Versions Coming” section, Thomas Warfield indicates that there are now development updates at http://www.goodsol.com/ipad.  The first two planned releases are still called “App 1” and “App 2” (not their actual names 🙂 ); for a little bit of intrigue and fun, I have included the iPad icon for the former above.  Feel free to submit your guesses for the actual name.

“And, by the way, I think the iPad games are going to be very good.
We’ve spent a long time trying to make them up to the standards of our
Windows and Mac games.”

As another Gamecraft exclusive, I can tell you that the app attached to the above icon has now entered “release candidate” status, as we prepare to run the gauntlet of Apple App Store submission.  Stay tuned…

PGMJ on Amazon

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Get the best MahJongg Solitaire program shipped to your door.

Now, you can order Pretty Good MahJongg from Amazon.com.  For those of you who (like me) prefer a physical product, especially for gift-giving, this is a great opportunity.  Not only do you get the full game, with 55 solitaire and puzzle games plus 300 tile matching layouts and a layout editor, but you also get a professionally packaged disc, all for a discounted price.  This is a perfect birthday gift for all ages, or you can get a copy for yourself and display the box right next to your other retail games.  (Mine will keep company with all of the products I have worked on over the last 30 years. 🙂 )

Get your copies by searching for “Pretty Good MahJongg” at Amazon.com, or you can use this direct link:  http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00BHIPOEG

For a limited time only: Be the first to review this item.

In Stock.

Pretty Good Solitaire Mac Edition 2.44

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Play 440 different Solitaire games on Mac OS X.

Pretty Good Solitaire Mac EditionPretty Good Solitaire Mac Edition 2.44, an upgrade to the largest (and growing) collection of solitaire games for Mac systems, has been published by Goodsol Development.

This version of Pretty Good Solitaire Mac Edition has 20 more new games, for a total of 440 different kinds of solitaire (or 504, if you include the 64 bonus games in the full version).  This version is a free upgrade for all previous PGSME customers.

The 20 new games in version 2.44 include the very latest games added to the Windows version (Candike, Single Spark, and Lancaster), as well as 17 more games of various types.  This upgrade also includes two more card sets in the main bundle: the Traditional Card Set and the Large Suit Card Set.  PGSME 2.44 was featured in Goodsol Newsletter #174; anybody may subscribe to the Goodsol Newsletter (for free) to receive updates, information on featured games, and occasional deals on game software (but don’t tell them I told you 🙂 ).

The new games (in alphabetical order) are:

  • Alexandria
  • Applegate
  • Breakwater
  • Brown Recluse
  • Candike
  • Cleopatra
  • Crossroads
  • Eight On
  • Eighty Thieves
  • Forty Bandits
  • Lancaster
  • Linus
  • Microbe
  • San Juan Hill
  • Scorpion Tail
  • Single Interchange
  • Single Spark
  • Suits in Line
  • Swiss Patience
  • Three Blind Mice

This was actually our quickest significant update yet, as there were fewer “oddballs” than usual.  However, Microbe was the recipient of our Oddball of the Group Award for this upgrade, accounting for 3 extensions to the Goodsol Solitaire Engine (plus two fixes to the rules in the PGS help file).

Our next Pretty Good Solitaire Mac Edition update (PGSME 2.46) is scheduled for mid-March; as always, it will be a free upgrade to those who buy version 2.44 now.

Pretty Good Solitaire Mac Edition 2.42

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Solitaire for Mac OS X with 420 different games

Pretty Good Solitaire Mac Edition 2.42This week, Goodsol Development published Pretty Good Solitaire Mac Edition 2.42, an upgrade to our largest collection of solitaire games for Mac systems.

Pretty Good Solitaire Mac Edition now has 20 new games, bringing the total to 420 kinds of solitaire, plus another 62 bonus variants in the full version.  This version is a free upgrade for all previous PGSME customers.

The interesting thing about the 20 new solitaire games in version 2.42 is that several of these games were selected by customers via the Pretty Good Solitaire page on Facebook, as well as in the Goodsol forum.  That’s right!  We not only take requests for a game, but sometimes even design original solitaire games for particularly active forum participants (e.g., Richard’s Patience).

The new games (in alphabetical order) are:

  • Acme
  • Block Ten
  • Cadran
  • Capricieuse
  • Demon
  • Double Easthaven
  • Double Golf
  • Double Trigon
  • Harp Rush
  • Huge Spider
  • Kingdom
  • Nine by Five
  • Open Doublets
  • Opus
  • Quadruple Trigon
  • Richard’s Patience
  • Right and Left
  • Seven by Four
  • Six by Four
  • Trigon Left

This is our first product release of 2013, finalized on our first business day of the year, but I can assure you that many more are yet to come.

Pretty Good Solitaire Mac Edition 2.40

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This is our biggest Mac OS X product yet.

PGSME 2.40Goodsol Development has now published Pretty Good Solitaire Mac Edition 2.40, a significant update to this largest collection of Solitaire games for Mac OS X systems.

Pretty Good Solitaire Mac Edition contains 400 different solitaire games in this update, including 25 brand new variations, every one of the games from any of our Mac products, and even Concertina, which is not available anywhere else, on any platform (not even the Windows version of PGS).

In Pretty Good Solitaire Mac Edition, you can play the widest variety of different kinds of solitaire available for Mac systems, whether you have a brand new system running Mountain Lion (10.8) or a older [PowerPC] system running Tiger (10.4).  Every game provides 2 billion deals and online high scores, as well as full support for climb mode, where deals are played in numerical order for a total score, a fair and direct comparison to other players.  Additionally, you can play game tours including several games for a different challenge.  There is truly something here for everybody.

Fun facts: If you could play one game per second, it would still take you more than 27219 years to exhaust the deals in this game, and that does not even count the 60 bonus games!  More realistically, if somebody played one game of FreeCell every minute, eight hours every day, it would still take 5.7 years to finish the first 1 million deals.

You can download a free 30-day trial version here for Mac OS X 10.4 or later (Mountain Lion, Lion, Snow Leopard, Leopard, or Tiger [Intel/PPC]).  Buy a copy here for only $24.95 and you will receive the 60 bonus variants not available in the trial version.  Also, you will receive free upgrades for the foreseeable future, as we add even more new games.

Pretty Good Solitaire Mac Edition is our premier solitaire game for Mac OS X, not merely based on our proprietary Goodsol Solitaire Engine, but actually the driving force behind the development of that engine.  This version anchors a new release schedule for PGSME updates, where we plan to add 20 games per month (albeit with a slight holiday interruption next month) until this version contains every game in the Windows version of Pretty Good Solitaire (currently at 792, and counting), as well as Concertina and many more bonus games that are only available in this title.

FreeCell Plus 4.10

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This is a collection with FreeCell and several related games.

FCPlus 4.10 for Windows/MacGoodsol Development has published FreeCell Plus 4.10, a maintenance update to this inexpensive collection of FreeCell and related games, available for both Windows and Mac OS X systems.

FreeCell Plus includes 8 FreeCell-type games, including FreeCell itself, as well as several variations such as Sea Towers, a very popular game, Baker’s Game, the original game of this type, and Penguin, a challenging twist on the genre.

In FreeCell Plus, you can play these most popular “open” games, where every card is visible from the initial deal, putting an emphasis more on strategy, rather than luck, in solving these card puzzles.  The first one million deals of FreeCell are identical to the version shipped with Windows, but our game extends this to 2 billion deals, and the other games with the same general layout, Baker’s Game, Spidercells, and Two Cells (as well as three of the bonus games) use compatible deals.  Playing in climb mode, you can challenge yourself sequentially to each deal of this game that is winnable in more than 99.99% of deals (and play 11981 before reaching the first unwinnable one).

You can download a free 30-day trial version here for either Windows 8/7/Vista/XP or Mac OS X 10.4 or later (Mountain Lion, Lion, Snow Leopard, Leopard, or Tiger).  Buy a copy here for only $9.95, and receive 4 bonus games not available in the trial version.  Note that there is also a “special code” purchase available to allow FreeCell Plus to be played on all (Windows or Mac) computers in your household.

FreeCell Plus is actually a reboot/replacement of an older version for Windows 3.1 that sold well (unchanged) for more than a decade.  I recreated this version using our proprietary Goodsol Solitaire Engine (and none of the original code or resources), also adding the Quick Launch window.  This is currently the smallest GSE game, with only 12 games in the full version (although there is another game in the pipeline with even fewer, but a more diverse selection), and the iOS version is in active development.

Most Popular Solitaire 2.10

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This is a wonderful collection of favorite solitaire games.

MPS 2.10Goodsol Development has published Most Popular Solitaire 2.10, a maintenance update to this collection of the most popular solitaire games for both Mac OS X and Windows.

Most Popular Solitaire contains 30 games, including the most common varieties such as Klondike (a.k.a., “Solitaire”), Spider, and FreeCell, as well as more unusual forms of patience such as Crazy Quilt.  This version greatly improves the interface for selecting and organizing games.

In Most Popular Solitaire, you can play a wide variety of different types of solitaire, giving a taste for various forms of gameplay and allowing you to decide (and mark) your favorites.  Here is a quick sampling: Pyramid is very popular, involving removal of pairs of cards to reveal other cards and clear the layout; Forty Thieves is enormously popular, involving the proper selection of cards and use of tableau spaces; Aces Up (which I learned more than 40 years ago as “Idiot’s Delight”) involves eliminating lower card ranks until only the four Aces are left; Canfield is a historical game with some cards needing to be unburied from a reserve; Golf is based on removing cards by building up and down on the waste pile; La Belle Lucie is a favorite game of mine of the Fan variety; Cruel is an interesting form of solitaire made popular in the (original) Microsoft Entertainment Pack; Scorpion and Yukon are solitaire games where entire columns of cards are moved regardless of sequence.  I have mentioned fewer than half of the games in this collection; there is truly something here that will appeal to everyone.

You can download a free 30-day trial version for Mac OS X 10.4 or later (Mountain Lion, Lion, Snow Leopard, Leopard, or Tiger) or Windows 8/7/Vista/XP.  When you buy a copy here for only $16.95, you get both Mac and Windows versions for one low price.  You also get access to 13 bonus games not available in the trial version.  (The web site says that is less than 57 cents per game, but it could be less than 20 cents per game, considering both platforms and the bonus games.)

Most Popular Solitaire is another one of the games based on our proprietary Goodsol Solitaire Engine; in fact, MPSol 1.0 was the original source for GSE, as well as the first version of Pretty Good Solitaire Mac Edition.  It was originally introduced, more than 7 years ago, as an alternative product for those solitaire players who were a little overwhelmed by the hundreds of games in PGS (for Windows); however, my design and programming approach (and tools) were enough different from the flagship product that, while the deals are the same, the playing experience is certainly different.

Pretty Good MahJongg 2.41 / ME 2.02

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MahJongg Solitaire and Tile Matching for Windows and Mac OS X.

Goodsol Development has published Pretty Good MahJongg 2.41 and Pretty Good MahJongg Mac Edition 2.02, maintenance updates to this award-winning MahJongg game, featuring both original solitaire games and traditional tile matching puzzles, available for both Windows and Mac OS X.

Pretty Good MahJongg contains 300 tile matching layouts, an integrated layout editor, and 55 solitaire and puzzle games, most of which are original and unique, including Pyramid of Wild Dragons, which was designed exclusively for this product by Thomas Warfield.

In Pretty Good MahJongg, you can play 10 different types of solitaire and puzzle games, including MahJongg FreeCell, Crazy Quilt, MahJongg Klondike, MahJongg Spider, and MahJongg Gaps, playing card solitaire games adapted to only 3 suits with 9 ranks, plus extra tiles (such as Dragons).  In Pyramid of Wild Dragons, you build pyramids from a hand of tiles.  In Great Wall, you match tiles to remove them from a grid and then the tiles above fall down to fill in the gaps.  In Pelmanism (Memory), you play a classic game of memorization and recall.  In Four Rivers (Shisen-Sho), you remove proximate pairs of tiles until the tableau is cleared, while in MahJongg Stones, you add single tiles to a zen garden until all of the tiles rest in harmony and balance.

Of course, PGMJ also features standard tile matching, and it ships with 300 layouts, including “Standard” (the most common layout); you can play more than 2 billion deals of each layout, and these deals can be (by default) guaranteed winnable.  However, registered users also get an integrated layout editor that allows them to create and play custom layouts, using up to 4 full MahJongg sets (576 tiles!), alongside the other layouts.  You can share these layouts with your friends or even share them with all other players.  You can download more tile sets (for both solitaire and tile matching games), and with any image editor you can create your own custom tile sets.

You can download a free 30-day trial version for Windows 8/7/Vista/XP or Mac OS X 10.4 or later (Mountain Lion, Lion, Snow Leopard, Leopard, or Tiger).  For only $24.95, you can buy PGMJ 2.41 for Windows or buy PGMJME 2.02 for Mac, and receive all of the above, including the integrated layout editor.  (That is only 7 cents per game/layout!)

Pretty Good MahJongg just celebrated its 10th birthday in October!  This was the first full game that I (solely) wrote to be published by Goodsol, and it remains the one game that I still play almost daily a decade after its initial (1.0) release.  I also flexed some quasi-artistic muscles and generated three tile sets myself, including two (Simple Tiles and International Marine Signal Flags) which ship with the game, and the other, Playing Card Tiles, which is currently the most popular downloadable tile set.  Active development continues, as version 2.5 with even more games and layouts is scheduled for 2013.

Goodsol Solitaire 101 version 2.12

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This is a great collection of solitaire games with a nice interface.

GSCI 2.12Goodsol Development has published Goodsol Solitaire 101 version 2.12, a maintenance update to this collection of the most played solitaire games for both Windows and Mac OS X.

Goodsol Solitaire 101 contains 101 games, including Klondike (a.k.a., “Solitaire”), FreeCell, Spider, and many other favorites.  This version has an updated game selection interface that makes it quicker to find games and easier to organize them as desired.

In Goodsol Solitaire 101, you can play any of more than 2 billion deals for each game, and the program keeps track of your score and time on each deal, as well as other statistics.  Better yet, you can play in climb mode, where deals are played in ascending order for a total score, for direct comparison with other players.  The game list can be arranged according to any of the statistics, and automatic groups let you select from, for example, games you have not played yet.  Of course, all scores can be reported to the online high score server, which shows results for individual games and lets you compare your results against other players (even those on other platforms or using different Goodsol products).  You can also customize your experience by using different free card sets, such as the Halloween Card Set, perfect for the current season.

You can download a free 30-day trial version for Windows 8/7/Vista/XP or Mac OS X 10.4 or later (Tiger, Leopard, Snow Leopard, Lion, or Mountain Lion).  When you buy a copy here for only $19.95, you get both Windows and Mac versions for one low price.  You also get access to 34 bonus games not available in the trial version.  Note that this is the largest current Windows version that supports climb mode (unless you apply to be a beta tester on the Goodsol Solitaire Forum); Mac users may want to consider Pretty Good Solitaire Mac Edition as well.

Goodsol Solitaire 101 is one of the games based on our proprietary Goodsol Solitaire Engine, for which your humble blogmaster was the sole programmer and primary designer (with Thomas Warfield).  GSE currently runs under Windows and Mac OS X, obviously, with a version for iPad in the testing phase, and it is regularly being improved to provide additional features (and, for some products, even more games).

Action Solitaire 1.50

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Save $7 on this arcade-style game of solitaire against the clock.

Goodsol Development has published Action Solitaire 1.50, a significant (and long awaited) update to this arcade Solitaire game for Windows.

This version of Action Solitaire adds 5 more games, bringing the total to 75 games.  The new games are ForeCell, Seven by Five, Seven by Four, Double Klondike Deal Three, and Scorpion II.

In Action Solitaire, you play rounds of Solitaire against a timer for points; earn enough points and you advance to the next level.  Strategy involves not only deciding which moves to make, but also consideration of tradeoffs between actions that cost points (like undoing a move) and acceptance of a suboptimal result, as well as determining when to just accept the current bonus points versus continuing to play.  A wide variety of different games, with varying lengths of play, provide an addictive challenge for any player.  All games have two online high score charts (recent games and all-time scores) so you can compare/compete with hundred or thousands of other players around the world.

You can download a free 30-day trial version here, and you can buy a copy here for the reduced price of $19.95.  Wait!  There’s more!  If you act now you can save $7 on Action Solitaire, which is less than 18 cents per game; however, I do not know how long this offer will last, so you should stop waiting and start playing.

Action Solitaire was programmed entirely by yours truly, and it has now been around, actively maintained and supported, for 9 years, though it is only available for Windows at the moment.  If it gets a little extra outpouring of appreciation, we should be able to justify versions for Mac OS X and iOS (iPad).  If you want this to happen, please let us know!