Kristanix have brought us a pack of three of the most popular solitaire games on the market, Matching pairs, Tripeaks and Klondike Solitaire. There are over 110 levels as well as a levels editor so that you can create more levels if you wish. I’ve added a list of links for freely available solitaire (plus a few others) games at the end of the review just in case these aren’t enough for you. It’s nice to see some card games here as they are rarely seen.
The game initially starts in windowed mode. Before you can adjust this you have to create your first profile, and then you can gain access to the options menu where you’ll find music and sound sliders as well as a toggle to switch the timer off and on. The style of the menus and toggles as well as the Enya style music is the same as for the game we were given last week called Mahjong Epic.
Each of the three games has a hint and undo button and all actions are performed by the mouse though you can also press the 'D' key on your keyboard to deal a card, and the 'H' key to get a hint. There is a link to a second menu from each of the games that enables you to carry out several actions that include restarting, shuffling, saving or exiting from a level; when exiting it takes you to the main menu.
The music is soothing, but as with any music it can become a little wearing if you’re playing the games for a while. There are two tracks which can be found in the games data folder. These are both in the ogg format, so if you wish to add some of your own music you can just so long as you convert it to the ogg format using one of the many freeware audio converters available (see the audio section of the freeware library for a couple that will do the job). You must also rename the files you decide to use to the names of the two files you’ll find (Music1 and Music2)
There are 80 different layouts for the matching pairs game and 32 layouts for Tripeaks; though you can add as many levels as your imagination will allow to the matching pairs and tripeaks games by using the editor that is available with the game. It’s really simple to use (see the images I’ve posted to my photo bucket account below to get an idea as to how simple it is - to add a card you left click with the mouse and to remove a card right click). Once you’ve created a level it is saved to a custom folder which is accessible for both the matching pairs and Tripeaks. The Klondike game is the standard game you get with windows and has only the one board set. There are several gorgeous background images which change every few minutes.
The game is also free standing, which means you can back it up onto disk, or even play it from a pen drive anywhere. :)
The following is a brief description of each game:
Matching:
The aim of Matching pairs is to remove every card. Click on pairs of identical cards to remove them.
Tri Peaks:
Click on cards that rank one higher or one lower than the playing card on the top. If your current playing card is a Queen, you can only click on cards that rank one higher or lower than the Queen.
Klondike:
Your goal is to gather all the cards in columns by alternating red and black suit cards from Ace through King. Then move the cards up to the four containers on the top of the screen, starting with the Ace.
Features:
• 3 games in one: Matching, Tri Peaks and Klondike!
• More than 110 different levels
• Make your own Solitaire layouts using the editor
• Intuitive and easy to use interface (very)
• No time-limit pressure (though you can add a timer)
• Unlimited undo and hint feature
System Requirements:
• Windows 98 or better.
• Pentium II/III or better.
• 400MHz or faster CPU.
• System Memory of 64MB or more.
• Video RAM of 16MB or more.
• DirectX 8 or better.
Images:
All on one page:
http://s109.photobucket.com/albums/n61/Whiterabbit_01/gaotd/Solitaire%20Epic/?start=all
As a slideshow:
http://s109.photobucket.com/albums/n61/Whiterabbit_01/gaotd/Solitaire%20Epic/?albumview=slideshow
Googled Images:
http://images.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&q=solitaire+epic&btnG=Search+Images&gbv=2
Conclusions:
A straightforward three pack solitaire cards games, one of which is supremely easy and one that is already packaged with all copies of windows that I’ve ever known. The best thing about this games pack is the levels editor. There are many freeware alternatives to this pack for it to be worth the usual $19.99. The games are playable though and are not bad so I’d give this a score of 6.5 out of 10 and most of that is for the editor. I wouldn’t purchase this game, but for free I’ll keep it because my only copy of Tripeaks is on a 1.44Mb diskette and will only play on a DOS system. (It’s about time I cleared out all those old discs but I’m always loath the get rid of them. (It’s only a few years ago that got rid of hundreds of old computer cassettes, the ones that you could record music onto, but not much because they were always only enough space for a few songs, lol - there were some great games, but no longer having the hardware it was pointless keeping them).
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Other free card games:
Klondike Solitaire:
http://www.gametop.com/download-free-games/klondike-solitaire/
Pyramid Solitaire:
http://www.gametop.com/download-free-games/pyramid-solitaire/
Texas Hold ‘Em Poker:
http://www.gametop.com/download-free-games/poker/
Spider Solitaire:
http://www.gametop.com/download-free-games/spider-solitaire/
Golden Dozen Solitaire:
http://www.gametop.com/download-free-games/solitaire/
plus there’s another two pages full of card games (nearly 30) such as Free Doko, Kraken, Mendicot, Freecell, 3D Solitaire, and one for the boys super model solitaire (they are all portraits only, lol)
http://www.caiman.us/scripts/fw/fcard.html
References:
I used information from the following sites in my review. Both were accessed on the 20th June 2008:
