Tuesday, January 21, 2003
Review of Rapture Technologies King Sol 1.3
Posted by Tim Jump in "SOFTWARE" @ 10:00 AM
After installing King Sol you may very well never touch plain old Solitaire again. Read about the ultimate version of Solitaire for the Pocket PC and find out the reason why if you can only have one game on your PDA, this should be it.
Since the early days of Windows, people have come to expect a version of Solitaire on any computer they've purchased – the Pocket PC is no exception and the Microsoft version works pretty much like every other version you’ve played. For most, Solitaire is a comfortable time-waster requiring little to no thought to play, good for killing time at work or while waiting for the computer to do something else. Rapture Technologies' King Sol 1.3 for the Pocket PC has changed all that.
Where To Buy
This game is available from Rapture’s Web site as well as Handango for the VERY reasonable price of $19.95. A time-limited evaluation version is also available with some of the features disabled. Rapture also has a Windows version available with 422 (!) Solitaire games for the same price, or you can purchase both for $29.95 (if you want the CD-ROM, it’s an extra $12.95 plus $2.00 shipping). The game works with Pocket PC 2002 and these Pocket PC devices: Casio E-115, E-125, EM-500, HP Jornada 54x Series and 525, Compaq iPAQ 3600 Series, or other devices upgraded to Pocket PC.
Features
King Sol features 70 different variations of Solitaire, ranging from mindless games such as the familiar Klondike (the same game included with every copy of Windows) to games that require deep thinking and planning ahead to win. For convenience, the games are divided into several categories (some falling into several), including Klondike & Canfield based games, Pairing games, "Popular" games and even Simple & Children's games for those times when you just don't need to think too hard about what you're doing. Every game includes its own rule page giving odds of winning, difficulty of the game and other information as well as instructions for playing. The variety of games available is simply astounding; there are games available for when you want to kill a few minutes before a meeting or when you have a half-hour or more of free time at the doctor's office. You can even have the program choose a game at random from all or one of the categories – a great idea if you can't decide what game to play or want to try something new. If you somehow find the strength to drag yourself away from the game, you are given the choice of either abandoning the game or saving your place for later while closing the application and freeing up your PDA’s valuable memory.
Figure 1: This shows some of the variations available along with the different categories. Notice that the program keeps track of what games you like to play or have played lately – a very nice feature for those of us without the greatest memory.
Bells and Whistles
The graphics in this game are straightforward and easy to view at their default settings. The sounds are effective at providing feedback for your actions, whether it's the sound of cards being moved around or the trumpet fanfare at the beginning or end of a game. Rapture thoughtfully added the ability for the user to customize much of the game, including the background image, the pattern of the card backs and the sound effects used during the game. If none of the built-in options are satisfying, you have the option of uploading your own images or sounds for use within the game. You can drop a bookmark at anytime during each game, so if you’re about to make a risky move and it doesn’t work out so well (this happened more times than I can count), you can go back to that point and try something different. There is also an “autoplay” option available for each game which will make the obvious moves for you, reducing a lot of the drudgery of Solitaire especially near the end of the game. One of the nicest features of this program is the keeping of your personal statistics for each game, including win/loss ratio and your best scores. They all available when you finish a game or by going into the Options menu anytime during play. Admittedly, scores don’t mean all that much when you’re playing a Solitaire game, but trying to beat your scores adds to the addiction factor, not to mention that it’s always nice to see your improvement in a game. Generally speaking, this game can be customized to meet almost anybody’s needs.
Figure 2: I’m not so great at Thirteens – but I’ll get better, so help me.
Gotchas
This game is addictive – REALLY addictive. At least once I was so absorbed into one of the games that I didn’t realize I had been playing it for a couple of hours until my iPAQ beeped at me to say that its battery was low. It’s THAT easy to become hypnotized by the sound of the cards and the desire to win just one more time. This thing should come with a warning label. All kidding aside, the only improvement that I can think of to make would be the addition of some sort of “Solitaire Construction Kit” for when you want to tweak some of the games slightly to make them less frustrating. Despite my wish list, this is an example of quality game programming.
Conclusions
It has been theorized that Solitaire is the most-played computer game in the world – partly due to its inclusion with Windows, but also partly due to its addictiveness and simplicity. King Sol multiplies that addictiveness several times over by providing many more options while pushing you to do better with each game. The games run the gamut from simple and mindless to deep and complex, allowing you to play what type of game you want when you want to. This game is a must-have for anyone who likes Solitaire or any sort of strategy/luck game, but even those who are burnt-out by solitaire games should give it a try – it truly is one of the best games available for the Pocket PC.
Since the early days of Windows, people have come to expect a version of Solitaire on any computer they've purchased – the Pocket PC is no exception and the Microsoft version works pretty much like every other version you’ve played. For most, Solitaire is a comfortable time-waster requiring little to no thought to play, good for killing time at work or while waiting for the computer to do something else. Rapture Technologies' King Sol 1.3 for the Pocket PC has changed all that.
Where To Buy
This game is available from Rapture’s Web site as well as Handango for the VERY reasonable price of $19.95. A time-limited evaluation version is also available with some of the features disabled. Rapture also has a Windows version available with 422 (!) Solitaire games for the same price, or you can purchase both for $29.95 (if you want the CD-ROM, it’s an extra $12.95 plus $2.00 shipping). The game works with Pocket PC 2002 and these Pocket PC devices: Casio E-115, E-125, EM-500, HP Jornada 54x Series and 525, Compaq iPAQ 3600 Series, or other devices upgraded to Pocket PC.
Features
King Sol features 70 different variations of Solitaire, ranging from mindless games such as the familiar Klondike (the same game included with every copy of Windows) to games that require deep thinking and planning ahead to win. For convenience, the games are divided into several categories (some falling into several), including Klondike & Canfield based games, Pairing games, "Popular" games and even Simple & Children's games for those times when you just don't need to think too hard about what you're doing. Every game includes its own rule page giving odds of winning, difficulty of the game and other information as well as instructions for playing. The variety of games available is simply astounding; there are games available for when you want to kill a few minutes before a meeting or when you have a half-hour or more of free time at the doctor's office. You can even have the program choose a game at random from all or one of the categories – a great idea if you can't decide what game to play or want to try something new. If you somehow find the strength to drag yourself away from the game, you are given the choice of either abandoning the game or saving your place for later while closing the application and freeing up your PDA’s valuable memory.
Figure 1: This shows some of the variations available along with the different categories. Notice that the program keeps track of what games you like to play or have played lately – a very nice feature for those of us without the greatest memory.
Bells and Whistles
The graphics in this game are straightforward and easy to view at their default settings. The sounds are effective at providing feedback for your actions, whether it's the sound of cards being moved around or the trumpet fanfare at the beginning or end of a game. Rapture thoughtfully added the ability for the user to customize much of the game, including the background image, the pattern of the card backs and the sound effects used during the game. If none of the built-in options are satisfying, you have the option of uploading your own images or sounds for use within the game. You can drop a bookmark at anytime during each game, so if you’re about to make a risky move and it doesn’t work out so well (this happened more times than I can count), you can go back to that point and try something different. There is also an “autoplay” option available for each game which will make the obvious moves for you, reducing a lot of the drudgery of Solitaire especially near the end of the game. One of the nicest features of this program is the keeping of your personal statistics for each game, including win/loss ratio and your best scores. They all available when you finish a game or by going into the Options menu anytime during play. Admittedly, scores don’t mean all that much when you’re playing a Solitaire game, but trying to beat your scores adds to the addiction factor, not to mention that it’s always nice to see your improvement in a game. Generally speaking, this game can be customized to meet almost anybody’s needs.
Figure 2: I’m not so great at Thirteens – but I’ll get better, so help me.
Gotchas
This game is addictive – REALLY addictive. At least once I was so absorbed into one of the games that I didn’t realize I had been playing it for a couple of hours until my iPAQ beeped at me to say that its battery was low. It’s THAT easy to become hypnotized by the sound of the cards and the desire to win just one more time. This thing should come with a warning label. All kidding aside, the only improvement that I can think of to make would be the addition of some sort of “Solitaire Construction Kit” for when you want to tweak some of the games slightly to make them less frustrating. Despite my wish list, this is an example of quality game programming.
Conclusions
It has been theorized that Solitaire is the most-played computer game in the world – partly due to its inclusion with Windows, but also partly due to its addictiveness and simplicity. King Sol multiplies that addictiveness several times over by providing many more options while pushing you to do better with each game. The games run the gamut from simple and mindless to deep and complex, allowing you to play what type of game you want when you want to. This game is a must-have for anyone who likes Solitaire or any sort of strategy/luck game, but even those who are burnt-out by solitaire games should give it a try – it truly is one of the best games available for the Pocket PC.
