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Comparing Solitaire
game units
Maximum
Score: When
I played Solitaire in timed mode on Radica's Pocket
unit (shown to the left of this paragraph), I found out that the maximum possible score was
5999 points. I
knew that it should have gone higher, because I had seen that the timer
bonus was always a multiple of 25 except when the total score including
bonus stopped at 5999. Since 5999 was the highest score it displayed, I
defined 5999 to be a "perfect" score and kept track of my perfect scores
for over a
year.
- - - In November, 2004, I had a chance to purchase my third Radica Solitaire
unit,
and this time, I purchased the unit you see to the right of this paragraph. I apologize for the quality of the picture (lousy camera no
flash), but you might see
that it shows a score of 6256. I got this score two days after I
purchased the unit proving, to my mind, that my fingers had not
forgotten how to quickly move around the buttons. I started keeping
track of my perfect games again, but this time, I'm considering
anything higher than 5999 to be perfect.
- - - I have not yet evaluated the color handheld unit shown at the top of this page, but I assume that it's bonus scores are also without limit.
The
Buttons:
The buttons for the tableau cards on the
larger units (fuzzy picture at right and color units above) are more naturally arranged. The smaller Pocket Solitaire unit (to left) has its tableau buttons awkwardly arranged in two rows (they even had to draw lines helping you remember which button flips
which card). The larger units don't need lines, the buttons are naturally arranged so that the fingers learn to know which key goes with which card.
My
Recommendations:
If you only
have a choice of one unit, by all means buy the one that you have the
opportunity to get. It will be lots of fun. But if you have a choice
between these three units, I definitely recommend the larger units with 7 buttons in
one row rather than 9 buttons in 2 rows because I believe that the
7-button-in-one-row unit is the better unit. I'm guessing that the color unit is slightly preferable, just because it's color, but I have not actually played with the unit yet, so this is only my quick opinion.
Color
Solitaire:
As mentioned above, there is a Color Solitaire unit advertised at www.Spilsbury.com and in their print catalog. When I get a
chance to review
that unit (hint hint Spilsbury), I will add my full review about it to this page. Meanwhile, I can only offer my guess that this might be the best Radica Solitaire unit yet. You can read more about this color game unit by clicking any link in this paragraph. My reason for guessing I'll like it better is strictly due to the fact that the suits are shown in color. When I'm playing with the black and white units, I frequently find myself saying "red seven on a black eight" which means my mind is having to quickly translate card shape to color. My guess is that the presence of color in this unit will let me play faster and get better scores but I'd
like to actually try it before I say it.
Other Handheld Units: There are other game units out there. If the manufacturer or marketer would like their unit reviewed here, send a review copy to John Knoderer, webmaster, www.MAZES.com, 610 Oak POBox 235, Sulphur Springs, AR 72768-0235.
Complaints
to the Manufacturers:
- - - Don't let us
turn over the deck if doing so is redundant.
I play in Klondike mode (turning three cards at a time) and it annoys
me no end when I turn over the deck only to find out that there were
only three cards left (all that happens is that the player loses 20
points for no good reason). If pressing the
deck button twice would give me the same displayed card, I believe that
the unit should not turn the deck over. Instead, it should give us one
of those "bad move beeps" to tell us we're down to three or fewer cards.
-
- - Show the face-down deck.
Or at least, the unit should show us when there are no cards left in
the face down pile. That way, we can choose to search for playable
moves on the tableau before we turn the deck over again.
-
- - Bonus award is too slow when sound is turned off.
Please speed up the awarding of bonus points when we turn off the
sound. Sometimes, I just want to know what my final score is or I want
to start the next game. You could simply set it so that if a person
presses sound twice, it skips to the final score.
-
- - I want to see the second card in a tableau pile.
Sometimes, I want to know what card is below the top card. Let me
illustrate with an example. Tableau pile 1:
5♥-4-3-2♠.
Tableau pile 2: 4♦. The foundations include
A♦-2♦ and A♠ but the A♥ has
not yet appeared.
If the card under the 2♠ is the 3♦, I will play
2♠, 3♦ and 4♦ up to the foundations
which will turn up a new card on the tableau. But if the card under the
2♠ is the 3♥, I'll hold off playing 2♠
up to the foundations, because I'm hoping to earn 5 extra points if the
A♥ appears in the hand (if I play the A♥ from
hand to tableau then to foundations, I earn 15 points, but if I play it
directly from hand to foundations, I only earn 10 points. I suggest
that you program the buttons so that when a
player presses a tableau button, the unit alternately display the
second card and the bottom card in the bottom card view. In the example
above, tableau pile 1 would show 5♥-2♠ blinking
with 3♦-2♠ while the tableau button is active. (Or
you
could let it alternately show all the cards in the stack while it is
waiting for us to press the next key.)
- - - You should let us briefly see the other two cards flashed as the unit deals the next three cards, or display the most recent three cards on top of the pile. In normal play, the player sees all three cards, and in computer games, the player can see all three cards.
Other
Suggestions to the manufacturers:
I have some suggestions for the makers of these units:
1. Occasionally
blink back to show the original total score
when displaying final score including bonus. Sometimes, I want to know
what I earned before the bonus.
2. Show
us how many times we've been through the deck
so far. I'd like to know, when I win, how many times I went through the
deck, and I often can't remember. You could show this when the hand is
blank, by showing just a number (no suits or all suits showing)
indicating how many times the deck has been gone through so far. In
other words, at the beginning of the game, you would see 0. After
you've completely gone through the hand once and turned the hand over,
you'd see a 1. And, of course, once you've won the game, you'll see the
number showing the total times through the hand.
3. Undo?
You might think about giving us an undo button. There are times that my
finger has pressed the next button just as my eye saw my next move.
(Yes, I know that some moves cannot be undone, like turning up a
tableau card, but it would be nice to back up one deck click.)
4. Show
us when going through the deck again would probably be useless.
If we didn't play any cards from the deck the last time through the
deck, we've probably lost already. This could be done with a green
indicator if you've played some cards from the deck this time through,
and a red indicator if you haven't.
5. Volume?
Consider giving us several volume choices. Each time we press sound,
the beep level (or no beep) could tell us what level of sound we are
choosing. You might also consider different beep lengths.
6. Elapsed
Time? Show us how long it
took us to play the game. I'd love to keep track of how many seconds it
took me to win a game.
7. Partial
Piles? Even though it's
against the rules, consider giving us the option of moving partial
piles. I know the rules say that only the top card or the entire pile
is movable, but I'd love to move the 2-3-4 onto another 5 in order to
play the covered 5. You could deduct 100 points if the player moved a
partial pile.
8. Consider a button combination to make all moves to the foundations. Windows Solitaire allows this with a certain key combination. You might consider a similar shortcut.
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Radica
Solitaire
(larger than
pocket unit)
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