Category Archives: Products

Goodsol Solitaire 101 version 2.02

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More than 100 Solitaire games for less than $20.

Goodsol Development has released Goodsol Solitaire 101 version 2.02 for both Windows and Mac OS X.  This maintenance update fixes every reported bug on both platforms.

Goodsol Solitaire 101 is a collection of 101 of the most popular types of computer solitaire, plus another bonus 34 games as a bonus for customers.  The editions for each platform are functionally equivalent, the game deals are identical, and the saved games are even interchangeable.  You can get both the Mac and Windows software for only $19.95!  Buy now!

Pretty Good MahJongg 2.40 / ME 2.00

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MahJongg Solitaire for both Windows and Mac OS X.

Last month, just before I attended Meaningful Play 2010, Goodsol DevelopmentPretty Good MahJongg Mac Edition continued its intense autumn release schedule, publishing updates to its award-winning MahJongg Solitaire game, Pretty Good MahJongg, for both the Windows and Mac OS X platforms.

Pretty Good MahJongg 2.40 [for Windows] adds five more tile matching layouts, for a total of 300 layouts, plus the ability to have the program minimize to an icon in the task bar (a.k.a., “tray”) with just a keystroke.

Pretty Good MahJongg Mac Edition 2.00 includes 32 original solitaire games, and it adds 23 puzzle games, as well as 140 more tile matching layouts, bringing the Mac OS X version up to the same number of games and layouts as the Windows version (which turned 8 years old in October).

Download a trial version of PGMJ for Windows or PGMJME for Mac OS X now, or buy it today for only $24.95 (plus an optional $7.50 if you want it on CD).

Most Popular Action Solitaire

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Two more product updates were released.

Over the past few weeks, Goodsol Development has published updates to two more of our titles, Most Popular Solitaire and Action Solitaire.

MPS 2.03 for Windows and Mac OS XActSol 1.40 for Windows

Frankly, we have been so busy lately with programming and development of projects on four different platforms that I have fallen a bit behind the release schedule with these blog updates, but this particular posting brings me current (at least until next week, when yet another product update will ship for both desktop platforms).

Most Popular Solitaire 2.03, a Solitaire title for Windows and Mac OS X with 30 different varieties of games (plus 13 bonus game variants in the full version), was released on September 14.  This update was a maintenance release to fix every reported bug in the project.  Just about a month later, as I write this, Most Popular Solitaire still holds the #2 position on Apple Downloads‘ Card & Puzzles category, and still ranks #5 in the overall Games category.

Action Solitaire 1.40, an arcade Solitaire product for Windows (only), was released last week.  This is a significant update, adding 5 more games, bringing the total to 70 games, while also reducing the price to only $19.95.  The new version is free to existing customers.  The new games are Classic Scorpion, Sea Towers Kings, Baker’s Game, Klondike Free, and Black Hole (and only in the latter game has anyone bettered my high scores yet).  Honestly, I am hoping that many more people buy this addictive software so we can justify porting the game to our other platforms.

We still have three more releases for desktop platforms (Mac OS X and Windows) scheduled for the coming weeks, plus the first of our iPad titles is due before the end of the year.

FreeCell Plus 4.02

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Our package for FreeCell enthusiasts is updated.

As mentioned in my previous post, FreeCell Plus 4.02 was released at the end of last month, continuing the Goodsol Development autumn release party (which should continue into November).

FreeCell Plus splash screen

FreeCell Plus is a Solitaire game program available for both Windows and Mac OS X.  It includes the best version of FreeCell, one of the most popular types of computer Solitaire, along with 11 similar games (8 of which are playable in the trial version).  This free update fixes a few minor bugs on each platform and updates it to using the latest engine.  FreeCell Plus 4.02 is still available to purchase for the low, low price of only $9.95.

So, where have you been for the last three weeks?

Me?  Well, first of all, I have been recovering from a bad cold.  Perhaps it would not have been nearly so bad had I taken the time to actually get over it, but one disadvantage of working at home (and having a heavy release schedule) is the opportunity/pressure to keep working through illness.  Fortunately, the outcome has been positive.  (See below.)

Secondly, in a quirkily parallel situation, our server had some issues in presenting the blog.  Disappointingly, a system upgrade downgraded our copy of WordPress, effectively reversing all of the recent improvements, and caused some difficulty.  When I thought I had the problems fixed, it turns out that in my foggy state I missed one important file, so the blog was actually broken until this week.  (The fact that comment spam completely stopped should have a been a clue…)

Finally, and most importantly, I was working on a version of FreeCell Plus for a popular touch device developed by a company on Infinite Loop in Cupertino.  Internally, we have a playable version in the prototype phase, and we are now actively working on our recliner-based test methods.  Stay tuned to find out more in the near future.

Pretty Good Solitaire Mac Edition 2.12 (and more!)

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A new version of our premier Solitaire for Mac OS X is released.

Pretty Good Solitaire iconThe autumn release schedule at Goodsol Development was kicked off with the release of Pretty Good Solitaire Mac Edition 2.12 on August 17th.

Pretty Good Solitaire Mac Edition is a Solitaire program that (currently) supports 200 different solitaire games.  PGSME 2.12 is a maintenance release that fixes a number of minor issues that have been reported by users.  You can download this free update here.  All registered users will be eligible for a free upgrade to PGSME 2.2, with 300 games, when it is released later this year, so Buy Now!

There is something for Windows users, too.

Of course, the flagship product is Pretty Good Solitaire (for Windows), so the same day also saw the release of Pretty Good Solitaire 12.4, which increases the total number of different Solitaire games to 750 (adding 10 new games).  You can purchase a copy here or download an upgrade/trial version here.  This release is the special 15th Anniversary Edition.

Unlike other Goodsol titles, these two versions of Pretty Good Solitaire are built from completely different code bases, in different languages, by different programmers.  I developed the Mac OS X version, and Thomas Warfield has been writing/improving the Windows version since 1995!  The dual release turned out to be almost double the usual work for a single “SKU” release (for Thomas, not me) so the upgrades are likely to be staggered going forward.

Even more is yet to come.

In the coming months, there are going to be releases every couple of weeks, with upgrades to all of the other major titles in Goodsol’s product lineup, including Most Popular Solitaire, Goodsol Solitaire 101, Pretty Good MahJongg, and even Action Solitaire.  Those who are paying attention will note that a “couple of weeks” have already passed, and true to this schedule, FreeCell Plus 4.02 was released two days ago.  I will write more about that next week.

Enjoy!

Pretty Good MahJongg Mac Edition 1.0

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A favorite product is now available on a new platform.

This week, Goodsol Development released Pretty Good MahJongg Mac Edition 1.0, our very first published Apple Mac OS X version of this award-winning title.  Pretty Good MahJongg Mac Edition is a MahJongg solitaire game which has 160 different tile matching layouts, but also 32 original solitaire games played with MahJongg tiles, as well as a custom layout editor (only available in the full/purchased version).

The develoment of Pretty Good MahJongg Mac Edition took longer than originally anticipated, due at least in part to working on three different products for three different platforms simultaneously.  The end result, though is very satisfying, and this Mac Edition has all of the same gameplay features as the Windows version, including downloadable tile sets.  The next major update of PGMJME will bring the number of solitaire games (and tile matching layouts) even with its 8-year-old sibling, but that is in the (not too distant) future.  For the moment, I am looking for the expected 50% productivity gains on the other two major upcoming releases.

You can download a trial version of PGMJME 1.0 from the Mac Edition web site, and you can purchase Pretty Good MahJongg Mac Edition for only $24.95.  (Registered users of the Windows version can find a link for a discount coupon on the Goodsol web forum.)  What a deal!

I challenge anybody to catch me in Free Klondike (one of the original solitaire games in PGMJME, and my favorite) playing in climb mode.

Most Popular Solitaire is #1!

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One of our solitaire games tops the Apple Downloads charts.

As I mentioned in a previous post, Apple had stopped updating the pages on its Apple Downloads site back in March, so Most Popular Solitaire, our solitaire title with 30 of the most popular games, was reliably in the top 15 on the (dynamic) ‘Top Downloads’ list on the left of each page but was not listed at all on the ‘Most Popular’ pages in the ‘Games’ category.  (As of this posting, Most Popular Solitaire 2.02 is #11 of all Apple downloads, including Apple’s own products.)

This morning, though, Apple finally updated the pages and Most Popular Solitaire is at the very top of all game downloads, listed as #1 on both the Games: Most popular and Cards & Puzzle: Most popular pages.  Sure, this position is likely to be fleeting, especially now that new submissions are being posted again, but it feels good for the moment.  Of course, some of those new submissions will be from Goodsol Development, so we will be looking to match this success and get more of our games to the top.

Thanks to Apple for finally getting this fixed.

More than Just a Name

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Most Popular Solitaire is the most popular solitaire game for Mac OS X.

The Good News over the last few weeks has been that our solitaire title, Most Popular Solitaire, featuring 30 favorite solitaire games, has proven to be the most downloaded solitaire game at Apple Downloads.  Ever since the latest update, Most Popular Solitaire 2.02 has been receiving amazing numbers of downloads, even eclipsing the Windows version of Pretty Good Solitaire.

Most Popular Solitaire appears on the ‘Top Downloads‘ list on the left side of every Apple Downloads page, and has consistently done so since shortly after its release.  Charting as high as #7 and only dropping off for a single day.  (As of this writing, MPS is ranked at #12.)  Note that this is for all downloads from Apple’s site, including such packages as iTunes, Safari, and Mozilla Firefox.  At times, our solitaire game has been ranked higher than QuickTime, and no other solitaire game has appeared on the list.  In fact, we have regularly had the most download game (period).

Now comes the Bad News.  Whether it is due to some oversight in the midst of the iPad excitement, or related to the recent change to remove the ‘Downloads’ link from the main Apple page (in favor of “iPad”), or just a run-of-the-mill screw-up, the ‘Most popular’ pages for each category are not being updated, and this problem has lasted for three weeks now, which means that these pages show the top downloads from just before our game update was released.  It is clear that Most Popular Solitaire should be ranked #1 on the Cards & Puzzle: Most popular page, and probably no lower than #2 on the Games: Most popular page.

Now we still have the problem that traffic is falling off due to the lack of updates, and assuming that the problem will be fixed (hopefully soon), there will probably be a frenzy of product submissions, especially with those already in the pipeline, and our products could become lost in the noise.  Since Apple Downloads is a very important distribution point for Mac OS X titles, this issue is already impacting our marketing.

Despite this inconvenience, development for this platform is continuing apace, and there should be an official announcement about Pretty Good MahJongg Mac Edition in the very near future, as well as one for a related platform, hinted at the end of the most recent post at A Shareware Life.

In any event, I am currently enjoying an absolutely beautiful day, with summer temperatures, bright sunshine, and the stress-free knowledge that all of our business and personal taxes have long since been filed.  Happy Tax Day!

Most Popular Solitaire 2.02

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Our entry level product for Mac OS X and Windows is updated.

This week, Goodsol Development released Most Popular Solitaire 2.02, a maintenance release of this popular solitaire title.  The product contains 30 of the most popular solitaire games, including FreeCell, Spider, and Klondike (known to many as simply “Solitaire”), plus 13 more bonus variants (not available in the evaluation version).

Ostensibly, this update contains a few bug fixes and does not change much about the product itself, though internally it takes a sizable step forward.  This version brings the code up to the latest (properly tested) version of the Goodsol Solitaire Engine, so future updates will be easier to build and maintain (on multiple platforms).

Most Popular Solitaire is available for only $16.95 via secure server, and trial versions are also available for Windows and for Mac OS X.

More is yet to come.

A couple of weeks ago, I decided to challenge myself to completing three products in three weeks.  I have been sequestered in my office, for the most part, since then.  As much as I would like to proclaim the two Most Popular Solitaire 2.02 SKUs as two of those, the truth is that they were not even considered, so there are still three products (and SKUs) yet to come, albeit not next week.

My status is that the first priority, a full Mac OS X port, has taken longer than originally anticipated, but it will be announced shortly.  The second project, extending a recent product to operate on a new platform, has been forcibly pushed back for at least 9 more days.  (You figure it out; I cannot talk about it.)  The final product in this group, Pretty Good Solitaire Mac Edition 2.20 (with 100 more games and a few new features), is making good progress but…  there is only so much we can do at once.

Finally, although I have not had any time for Facebook during my challenge, I will tell you that you — yes, you! — can now become a fan of Pretty Good Solitaire.

Pretty Good Solitaire Mac Edition 2.11

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An update to our primary Mac product is published.

Goodsol Development released Pretty Good Solitaire Mac Edition 2.11 last week.  This updated version is a maintenance release that adds no features, but fixes a number of issues that were discovered in the previous version, including a couple of obscure crash bugs.  It is definitely a recommended update, and it is free to all previous PGSME customers.

Pretty Good Solitaire Mac Edition features 200 different types of solitaire games using standard playing cards, plus an additional 45 bonus games in the full (purchased) version.  You can download an evaluation version, or just purchase via secure server for only $24.95.  For more information on the product, please visit http://www.goodsol.com/mac.

This is our third or fourth product release in 2010 (depending on how one counts), and the regular release schedule should continue for a while yet.  Upcoming releases will include Pretty Good MahJongg Mac Edition, the first version of our MahJongg solitaire game for Mac OS X, and Pretty Good Solitaire Mac Edition 2.20, which will increase the game count to 300 (plus even more bonus games).  We also have some other titles planned in the near future, so stayed tuned for more announcements (soon).