 |
Inside Macintosh Shareware - March 2005
March 10, 2005 | Marcus Albers | |
Welcome to the first edition of "Inside Macintosh Shareware," IMG's monthly guide to the world of shareware gaming. Each month we will cover four new shareware titles, giving them the mini-review treatment to see if they are worth the download and the dosh.For our premiere feature, we decided to focus on that game that accounts for more gaming hours than UT2004, Halo, and Battlefield 1942 combined: Solitaire. Ever since they appeared on the earliest Macs and PCs in their most basic form, computer solitaire titles have evolved into involved games of thought and skill with a wide range of graphic and gameplay features. There are many solitaire variants available for the Macintosh. Some are more full-featured than others, some encompass multiple types of solitaire games, others focus on a few, or just one. This month, we'll look at four different solitaire titles that are readily available for download. As an added bonus this month, we'll briefly look at two freeware titles as well.Solitaire Till Dawn X Solitaire Till Dawn X, from Semicolon Software, is a solitaire game in the vein of the classic solitaire games found bundled with Windows. It is very easy to pick up and play, has an intuitive interface, and has very nice card graphics.Solitaire Till Dawn X ups the ante with the inclusion of 85 different variations of the classic time killer. Favorites like Klondike, Baker's Dozen, Free Cell, and Golf are here, as well as more obscure variants such as Manx, Tabby Cat and Diamond Rush. All 85 games are categorized, and can be sorted and searched when looking for that perfect game to play today. Do you want an easy game to win? Try Carpet, Grandfather's Clock, or Westcliff. Do you want a game that will take a long time to play? How about Accordion, Forty Thieves, or Miss Milligan. There are help files for every game for those who don't know how to play 85 variants of solitaire, and it's easy to mark your favorites to come back to quickly. Sheer number of games is not all that Solitaire Till Dawn X has going for it. It also includes a number of additions to gameplay that set it above the everyday solitaire games. One unique feature is the Magnetic Mouse. When you click on the Magnetic Mouse button, your mouse pointer will turn into a red horse-shoe magnet. By pausing the pointer over the upper corner of a card, you will pick it up. You can then drag it wherever without touching the mouse button. As you move the card over the playfield, legal moves will be highlighted under the card. By pausing over a legal space, the card will be dropped automatically. This may seem a bit lazy, but for laptop users who haven't quite mastered the art of click-dragging with the trackpad, it's a dream. Solitaire Till Dawn X also includes a couple of useful tools for the player. If you've played through the deck, and aren't sure whether or not there are actually moves left, you can select "Am I Stuck?" from the Play menu. Ace the card shark will pop up and let you know if you have moves left or not. You can also select an option in the preferences that will stop the game if you do not have any moves left. This option keeps some games from being endlessly frustrating. Another useful "tool" is the "Cheat" menu. There are three options here that can help you win that un-winnable game. Note that selecting any of these options forfeits the score on the current game. Selecting "X-ray" will allow you to see what the cards are that are currently face down on the playfield. This is very helpful when deciding which cards to move off of which piles. "Another Redeal" is very useful for games like Pyramid and Montana which only allow you to cycle through the deck a certain number of times before the game is over. "Shuffle Deck" can help if you are playing a game that turns multiple cards off the deck at once, like variants of Klondike. Shuffling the deck can help to turn up those cards that continue to fall under other cards. Cheating may not be for everyone, but it can make a seemingly unbeatable game a little more bearable. I really have no complaints about Solitaire Till Dawn X. The developers continue to add new games, and if the selection of backgrounds and cardbacks aren't enough, you can add your own. At $24.95 for the registered version, it falls right in with the average price level. But for what you get, it's definitely worth it.
|
|
