New Goodsol Solitaire Forum

Posted on June 18, 2011 by Gregg

Newsbrief: A new web forum is launched.

This week, Goodsol Development launched its new/improved Goodsol Solitaire Forum, now available at http://www.goodsol.net/forum (same old address).

After a short transition period, domain name propagation time, and the requisite teething issues, this forum is (again) the primary source for discussion and support of the following titles (of ours):

Pretty Good Solitaire Mac Edition
Pretty Good MahJongg [Windows/Mac]
Goodsol Solitaire 101 [Windows/Mac]
Most Popular Solitaire [Windows/Mac]
FreeCell Plus 4.0 [Windows/Mac]

My profile name is Seelhoff; I hope to see you there.

Pretty Good Solitaire Mac Edition 2.21

Posted on May 23, 2011 by Gregg

First, the Good News…

Pretty 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 May 4, 2011 by Gregg

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.

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 March 12, 2011 by Gregg

GS101 versions 2.04 and 2.05 are released.

101 favorite solitaire games Goodsol 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 games Through 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 February 11, 2011 by Gregg

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.

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 January 10, 2011 by Gregg

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 December 21, 2010 by Gregg

Mac/Windows FreeCell Solitaire (Twelve Different Ones)

Goodsol 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.]

Goodsol Solitaire 101 version 2.02

Posted on November 8, 2010 by Gregg

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!

Most Popular Action Solitaire

Posted on October 13, 2010 by Gregg

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.

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

Posted on September 22, 2010 by Gregg

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 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.

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