Category Archives: Products

Pretty Good Solitaire Mac Edition 2.34

Posted on by
Reply

A free update is now available.

This week, Goodsol Development released Pretty Good Solitaire Mac Edition 2.34, a maintenance update that fixes a few bugs (introduced by yours truly) in the previous release version.  This is a free update for any customers who have purchased the downloadable version of Pretty Good Solitaire Mac Edition (ever).  [This version is functionally equivalent to PGSME 2.33 from the Mac App Store.]

As a refresher, PGSME is a Solitaire program for Mac containing 350 different games, plus 50 bonus games, with over 2 billion deals of each.  It runs on Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) and higher, including both Intel and PPC systems.  You can download a trial version, and you can purchase a copy for only $24.95 US.

This is the latest product in a long series of upcoming game releases from Goodsol.  Next up:  Look for an upgrade to Action Solitaire (free to anyone purchasing the game between now and then).

 

Pretty Good Solitaire 13.2

Posted on by
2

Goodsol’s flagship Windows game gets even bigger.

PGS 13.2 for WindowsThis week, Goodsol Development released Pretty Good Solitaire 13.2, the leading Solitaire program for Windows.  This new version now includes 780 (!) different Solitaire games, including all of your favorites, such as Klondike (a.k.a., “Solitaire“), FreeCell, and Spider, as well as many games not available anywhere else.

Pretty Good Solitaire 13.2 is available for download here, and it is a free upgrade for any customers who have purchased since version 12 (i.e., in the last 4 or 5 years).

The 10 new games in this update are:

  • Alloway Kirk
  • Five Pirates
  • Kettle Hill
  • McCarver
  • Open Peek
  • Pyramid Rank
  • Richard’s Patience
  • Undercover Aces Easy
  • Weddings
  • Yukon Two Suits

Aside from a little bit of play testing, I actually did no development work on this product; this is actually a triumph because our GDcard playing card library, which still runs the display of cards, symbols, and backgrounds, as well as the card animations, continues to work flawlessly.  Thomas Warfield (Goodsol) did all of the development work for this update.

Of course, now that Thomas has added yet another 10 games to the Windows version, it is now time for me to retaliate on Mac OS X, so look for a Pretty Good Solitaire Mac Edition update, with 400 games, coming soon to an internet near you!

Pretty Good Solitaire Mac Edition 2.3

Posted on by
Reply

Now with 350 games!

Yesterday, Goodsol Development published Pretty Good Solitaire Mac Edition 2.30, the latest version of the premier computer Solitaire program for Apple Mac OS X.

Pretty Good Solitaire Mac Edition 2.30 adds 50 new solitaire games, bringing the total to 350 games in the trial version, and 400 games in the full version (with 50 bonus games).  This game also introduces the Tour Explorer, which allows players to play game tours for a total score in pursuit of the perfect tour.  Click here for a list of other features in PGSME.  You can download a trial version of the product and buy it for only $24.95!  This version is a free upgrade for all previous PGSME customers, and new customers will get free upgrades through the end of 2012, which will include even more releases and new games.

As mentioned in my 2011: Year in Review article, this product is the culmination of a fairly long development and beta test cycle.  Surprisingly, the game tours feature (like the game groups before it) was the biggest single issue in getting the product released sooner.  Not only does the feature consist of four separate dialog boxes, plus two more back-end data classes, but the only specification was a somewhat flawed implementation, so I needed to rethink and redesign the entire feature, and then tweak the behavior until we had something that worked well.  Complicating matters was the fact the beta testers were not inclined to play game tours, and none are quality assurance professionals (nor aspiring to be), so in essence, only we developers (mostly me) were doing any real testing of this feature.

Of course, the sheer mass of 50 new games, when combined, contributed much more to the overall development and testing time, though none (even the real “oddballs”) took a huge amount of time alone.  Fortunately, our beta testers were more meticulous about play testing individual games, so the few significant bugs I let slip through to the beta versions were (hopefully) identified and crushed.  I challenge anybody to find a bug in PGSME now.

After a short breather, I will be back on development of PGSME 2.4 (a.k.a., GS400), which will contain (surprise!) another 50 games for a total of 400 (plus at least 50 bonus games).  Bring it on!

 

10 Years of the GDcard Library

Posted on by
2

We celebrate a decade of collaboration with Goodsol.

Time really does fly when you are having fun (and doing what you love).  It was 10 years ago today that we delivered the first properly functional version of a playing card library, then named PGScard.dll, to Goodsol Development.  We have been working with them ever since, improving this library, which is used heavily in Pretty Good Solitaire, writing new games (see below), and extending the product line to include Mac OS X (and, soon, IOS), as well as our Windows products.

Back then, the whole nation was still asking questions, like ‘Where do we go from here?‘  We were facing a bit of a crisis here as well, as our primary external opportunity was stopped in the midst of economic uncertainty, and our main internal project was rendered unpalatable for release, so we were available immediately when Thomas Warfield inquired.  (The subject line of my reply was, “Work?  Did you say work? <g>“.)

In the intervening years, the library was renamed to GDcard, had numerous extensions and updates, and has been in every PGS release (for Windows) in the last decade.  The current version, GDcard 2.09, has not required any modifications in the past 4 years, but it still draws cards and provides other related functionality in the latest release, Pretty Good Solitaire 13.1.0 (with 770 games), published last week (almost 10 years to the day after the initial agreement).

This first project led to many others with Goodsol (in roughly chronological order):

… and several products to be announced later.  All of the above games have trial versions available for download (at the links provided).  We also created MahJongg Patience (a smaller version of PGMJ) for the original (retail) MahJongg Master, published in 2003 by eGames.  (I now see that we are averaging more than one new SKU per year.)

I do not expect to be exchanging diamond jewelry, or even tin or aluminum gifts, but I do look forward to much more productivity and success from this arrangement in the future.  Thanks, Thomas and Anne!

Pretty Good Solitaire Mac Edition 2.21

Posted on by
Reply

First, the Good News…

PGSME 2.21Pretty Good Solitaire Mac Edition 2.21 is now available in the Mac App Store.

Pretty Good Solitaire Mac Edition 2.21 is essentially the same as Pretty Good Solitaire Mac Edition 2.20, including all 350 games (including bonus games), with the alterations required for MAS inclusion.  Mostly, this is just the elimination of any registration codes or acknowledgment that Apple is not the one and only possible source of this product.

Click here for PGSME 2.21 on the Mac App Store.  (We would really appreciate decent reviews, too.)

 

… and then the Bad News.

Apple, in its myopic wisdom, has determined that updated products should not be shown at the top of the various product lists, so PGSME 2.21, despite having 50% more primary games than its MAS predecessor, PGSME 2.14, which itself helped make the initial Mac App Store launch successful, is not listed on the first (visible) page of ‘All Card Games’ (nor under ‘New and Noteworthy’ on the general ‘Games’ page).

I can understand and appreciate the concept of not automatically bumping up minor updates and bug fixes, thus encouraging spam-like behavior and regular submission of inconsequential changes, but when one of the launch day products adds 100 new games (plus another 10 bonus games), after being trouble free for 5 months, it seems genuinely unfair to penalize it with keeping its (now) almost bottom of the list position.  In fact, it is actually counterproductive, as it encourages us to bombard them with releases of “different” titles using our internal product names (GS200, GS300, GS350, GS400, etc.).  Apple needs to review this policy.

Fortunately, despite the lack of attention from Apple itself, our customers recognize the quality of our product and, somehow, have managed to find out about the new release.  Pretty Good Solitaire Mac Edition is (as I write this) back to #3 on the ‘Top Grossing’ chart in ‘Card Games’, so we have been voted onto the page anyway.

Nice.

Pretty Good Solitaire Mac Edition 2.2

Posted on by
1

What is your profession? Fun! Fun! Fun!

After half a year in development, the latest version of Pretty Good Solitaire Mac Edition has been released by Goodsol Development this week.

300 solitaire games for Mac OS X

Pretty Good Solitaire Mac Edition 2.20 adds one hundred new solitaire games to the product, and also makes some significant interface improvements, including customizable game groups, to allow players to arrange games just the way they desire.  The 300 games in this title are joined by 50 bonus games (in the full version), to make PGSME the ultimate solitaire game for Mac OS X.

You can download a trial version of the product, or buy it for only $24.95!  (That is not even a dime per game for hours upon hours of relaxing enjoyment; where else could you get that much fun for less than 10 cents?)  This version is a free upgrade for all previous PGSME customers, and new customers will get free upgrades through the end of 2012, including PGSME 2.3 later this year.

In other news…

By popular request, our RSS feed has now been updated to display each article in its entirety.  (Thanks, Rich, and you are very welcome.)

Goodsol Solitaire 101 (and more)

Posted on by
Reply

GS101 versions 2.04 and 2.05 are released.

101 favorite solitaire gamesGoodsol Solitaire 101 version 2.04 is now available for download on both Mac OS X and Windows, while version 2.05 is also available in the Mac App Store.  (The only differences between these two versions are minor restrictions imposed on the latter by Apple.)

Goodsol Solitaire 101 contains 101 of the most played solitaire games from Goodsol Development, including all of the favorites included in Most Popular Solitaire, plus 34 bonus games.  All of this can be purchased for only $19.95 (although quick readers may be able to catch a special introductory price on the Mac App Store).

Goodsol products on the Mac App Store

a dozen great FreeCell gamesThrough a fluke of timing and the whims of one Apple reviewer, FreeCell Plus 4.05 arrived on the Mac App Store last week, while the store version of Goodsol Solitaire 101 (submitted first) appeared just a few days ago.  However, the debuts of these two products are very encouraging.  All four of our playing card solitaire products have spent time in the Top 10, seemingly taking turns to share the spotlight.

As of this writing, all four of these solitaire titles are among the top 24 card games in the Mac App Store (3 in the top dozen):

Fortunately, FreeCell Plus has been camped in the ‘Top Paid’ chart since its release, usually among the top 3 card games.  Unfortunately, it is our least expensive (current) offering, which shows the downside of eliminating trial versions in favor of straight sales (and indicates that shareware still works).

Most Popular Solitaire 2.04/2.05

Posted on by
1

Thirty (30) great solitaire games are ready for download.

Goodsol Development has released Most Popular Solitaire 2.04 for both Windows and Mac OS X.  This maintenance release fixes a rare bug and updates the title for 2011.

30 great solitaire games

Most Popular Solitaire is a collection of 30 of our best solitaire games, plus 13 more bonus game variants for registered users, all for only $16.95 (less than 40 cents per game).

This game is also available at the Mac App Store.

Now, Most Popular Solitaire 2.05 is available on the Mac App Store.  This version is functionally equivalent to MPS 2.04, but with minor alterations required by Apple (such as the removal of all download links).  However, it automatically includes ten (10) additional card sets for your immediate enjoyment.  (Card sets are also available for free download on both Mac OS X and Windows, and these work on all versions.)

As I write this, Most Popular Solitaire is currently ranked #7 in the ‘Card Games’ category, and rising, despite only becoming available hours ago.  If you are interested in getting a copy, now is the time to do so, as it is currently being offered at a special introductory price for a limited time only.  (I will not publish it here, but suffice it to say that it is substantially less than the price mentioned above, so act quickly.)

Mac App Store (times two)

Posted on by
3

Apple launches the Mac App Store with titles including two of our products.

Last Thursday, Apple released Mac OS X 10.6.6, a free update to Snow Leopard, and the primary change is the addition of the (much anticipated) Mac App Store.  The Mac App Store is an online store for direct purchase and installation of software, modeled after the App Store for iOS; it replaces Apple Downloads, which officially closed on the same day.

At launch, Pretty Good Solitaire Mac Edition 2.14 and Pretty Good MahJongg Mac Edition 2.01 were both in the Mac App Store product lineup.  Pretty Good Solitaire is currently #5 on the ‘Top Grossing’ list for card games, and Pretty Good MahJongg is #100 (with a bullet!) on the same list for puzzle games.  Our other three Mac products (Most Popular Solitaire, Goodsol Solitaire 101, and FreeCell Plus) should be available there in the near future.

The launch of the Mac App Store is the culmination of months of work and waiting on our part (though mostly the latter).  We began the process of getting into the store on November 1 last year, and after numerous automatic failures, then a full month wait, one rejection, and ultimately two dozen application changes, PGS was given the green light (on Boxing Day).  Having properly documented all of the required modifications during the process, we were able to produce the store version of PGMJ in less than a day and submit it successfully with no rejections or rebuilds.  (It spent 3 days in the queue, and only 2 hours in review before final acceptance.)

If there is interest (i.e., comments left to this effect), I can document the various obscure and undocumented problems we faced during the initial submission process in another post.

FreeCell Plus 4.03

Posted on by
Reply

Mac/Windows FreeCell Solitaire (Twelve Different Ones)

FreeCell Solitaire for Mac and WindowsGoodsol Development has released an update to our premier FreeCell solitaire product, FreeCell Plus 4.03, which contains the classic solitaire game FreeCell, plus 7 other games in the same category and 4 more bonus game variants (in the full version).

FreeCell Plus 4.03 is only $9.95 and can be purchased here (and an optional CD-ROM is available for $7.50).  Of course, evaluation versions can be downloaded for Windows 7/Vista/XP and for Mac OS X 10.4 or higher.

The full version of FreeCell Plus is our only Mac product that currently contains the FreeCell variants, Three Cells and Two Cells, though these will be added to Pretty Good Solitaire Mac Edition with the next update.

In other news, the Mac Editions for three of our other products, Goodsol Solitaire 101, Pretty Good MahJongg, and Most Popular Solitaire, all currently occupy positions among the 20 most popular titles in the Cards & Puzzles section of Apple Downloads.  [Domination: 15% complete.]