Getting Started

This chapter explains how to start up Solitaire Till Dawn, and the basics of playing a game.

Starting Solitaire Till Dawn

Start Solitaire Till Dawn by double-clicking its icon. If this is the first time Solitaire Till Dawn has run on your computer, then it will automatically start up a game of Klondike; after that, it will always start up whichever kind of game you played the last time you ran Solitaire Till Dawn.

Playing a Game

Moving Cards. Available cards can be moved from one pile to another by dragging them with the mouse. In most games, dragging the topmost card of a pile will move only that card, while dragging a card from the middle of a fan will move that card and all the cards on top of it, as a unit. Only available cards (those that can be legally moved according to the rules of the game) can be dragged; if you try to drag anything that’s not available, the program will just beep at you.

Sometimes you can move a card to an “obvious” place by simply clicking it. The “obvious” destinations vary with the different games’ rules, but usually they are the foundations and sometimes the empty piles.

Dealing from the Hand. The hand looks like a face-down card, but its border shows some three-dimensional shading, and there is a number displayed in a small white rectangle. The number is usually the number of cards in the hand, although in some games it is the number of deals remaining instead. When you want to deal, just click on the hand. (Don’t double-click!) You can also deal by choosing Deal from the Other menu, or by typing ⌘D, if you prefer.
	
(See picture: The Hand.)
		
When the game rules don’t allow dealing, the hand is disabled: the light over the card-player’s head goes out. If the number of remaining cards or deals vanishes also, then no more deals will be allowed. If it remains, then dealing is only temporarily disabled, and may be enabled again later on according to the rules of the game.

Auto Play. The Auto Play command in the Other menu will begin making “obvious” moves,  and will continue until the game has been won, or until no more obvious moves are available, or until you stop it by clicking the mouse or by pressing any key. Usually, the only moves considered obvious are moves to the foundations.

Auto Play is not guaranteed to make smart moves. You should use it only when you’ll be happy with any legal move.

Undo and Redo. Solitaire Till Dawn keeps a complete history of the moves you make during a game. You can always undo your latest move by choosing Undo from the Edit menu. You can undo as many moves as you like, one at a time, all the way back to the start of the game if you wish.

If you undo some moves, and then change your mind before making any new moves, you can redo some or all of those moves by choosing Redo from the Edit menu. You may undo and redo, back and forth, as much as you like; but if you make a new move by clicking or dragging a card or by dealing, then Redo is disabled and the old moves past that point are forgotten.

The Undo All command in the Edit menu will simply begin undoing moves continuously until the beginning of the game is reached, or until you stop it by clicking the mouse or by pressing any key. The Redo All command does the same thing by redoing moves until the last move made is reached. 

Finding Cards. In a complex layout, it can sometimes be hard to find a card you’re looking for. To find cards, type a letter or number corresponding to the rank of the card you want. For example, typing 5 will highlight all visible fives, making them easy to spot. To find Aces, type a or 1 (one); to find tens, type 0 (zero); to find Jacks, Queens, or Kings, type j, q, or k. The highlighting will vanish the next time you use the keyboard or click the mouse.

Winning. Solitaire Till Dawn will tell you when you have won a game, by displaying a “Congratulations” notice. In some games, this notice may appear sooner than you expect, because you have done so well that your win is guaranteed even though you haven’t finished moving all the cards yet. You can still keep playing after the “Congratulations” if you want the satisfaction of really finishing, or you can start up a new game right away.

Losing. Solitaire Till Dawn will not tell you when you’re stuck and can’t possibly win the game. You’ll have to figure that out for yourself.

Scrolling

The area taken up by the cards may vary as a game is played. At times, the layout may be larger than your window. You can use the window’s scroll bars to bring different portions of the layout into view.

The window will scroll automatically if you try to drag cards past its edge into a hidden portion of the layout. Sometimes you may not want this to happen. You can turn auto-scrolling on and off by selecting Auto Scroll from the Other menu. You can still scroll by using the scroll bars, even when Auto Scroll is turned off.

Rules

Choose Rules from the Other menu to see a very brief summary of the rules for the game you are playing. For a full description of the rules of each game, see the Solitaire Till Dawn 2.0.3 Games Guide.