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Inside Macintosh Shareware - March 2005
March 10, 2005 | Marcus Albers | |
Eric's Ultimate Solitaire Eric's Ultimate Solitaire has the distinction of being the very first solitaire game that I played on the Macintosh. Originally released in 1993 by Delta Tao Software, Ultimate Solitaire eventually found its way onto the install CDs for the Macintosh Performa line of home computers. With its smooth graphics, easy play, multiple games, and quirky sense of humor, it was easily the best solitaire game available at the time.With the coming of OS X, Delta Tao has recently revised Ultimate Solitaire to bring it to the next-generation OS in a native format. Delta Tao has made the game freely available to the public while it goes through the early stages of development. While the company lists the game as being in an "Alpha" stage of development, the game currently plays like a late beta. The game itself is much like other solitaire games. There are 26 games to choose from, including some variations on games, like Double Klondike and Spiderette. There are a couple of things that set Ultimate Solitaire apart from other solitaire games. The biggest thing is its personality. Yes, Ultimate Solitaire has a personality. A weasel, to be exact. In the previous versions, he would show up in the dialogs and taunt you via text, along with an "Awwwwww" sound effect when you had to end a game without winning it. But now the Weasel talks, thanks to voice actor Derek McCaw. Who knew that solitaire would get a mascot on par with Mario or Sonic? Well, maybe not that big, but it's definitely unique to Ultimate Solitaire.But what really sets the game apart from the crowd is the choice of features that figure into the gameplay. While other games give multiple options for how to drag cards and get them to the appropriate place, Delta Tao has settled on one basic method, and it is implemented so naturally that you don't have to go looking for options to set. Clicking on a card will send it to its nearest legal move. In games with foundations, Aces and deuces will automatically go to the foundation without clicking at all. A single click on other foundation moves will send the cards there. Alternatively, if you have a number of cards showing that can be moved to foundations, you can select the "Play Up" option from the Options menu to automatically move them. When clicking the cards to move them automatically, the cards fly smoothly from one place to another, complete with drop-shadow. Cards that are revealed also automatically flip over without having to click on them. The whole process happened so smoothly and effortlessly as I was playing through the game that it never occurred to me to ask how to turn a feature off or on. You also have a couple of options if you are absolutely stuck in a particular game. The non-destructive option is to hold down the left shift-key. This will darken all cards on the playfield that can currently be moved to a different position. This can help you to see that elusive move that will win the game. The more destructive option is to choose the "Cheat" option from the Options menu. This will allow you to turn up overturned cards that aren't legally available yet, or allow you to re-deal the deck in games where you are only allowed to go through the deck a limited amount of times. Unfortunately, if you decide to cheat, you will forfeit the score for the game, and it will register as a loss. All in all, Eric's Ultimate Solitaire is a solid solitaire game. Its gameplay style has been proven over the years. As it is often said, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it," and that's exactly what Delta Tao is doing with this new version for OS X. While an official price is not available for the OS X version, the OS 9/Classic version is available for $29.95. The price may seem a bit steep, but once you play the game, you may very well wonder why you played any other solitaire game.
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