Copyright: Robin's Cards copyright 1997 by Stephen Leake


Welcome
Welcome  to Robin's Cards!

Remember playing Solitaire when you were a kid? When you got stuck, did you give up and start over, or did you cheat so you could win? If you're like me (and most of the people I know), you cheated - after all, winning is much more fun - and this card game is for you!

Quick Start hints

Move cards by clicking on them or dragging them from pile to pile.

Choose a different game from the Actions | Choose Game menu.

You cheat by using the Actions menu.

The right mouse button brings up the Actions menu as a pop up.

Game files have the extension .cds. In Windows 3.1, if you drag your .cds file from File Manager to a group in Program Manager, you will create an icon for your game; that way, you don't have to remember to open your file each time you play. In Windows 95, you can create a shortcut for your .cds file.

Sometimes piles can extend off the bottom of the screen. You can bring them back on the screen by using Actions | Scrunch Cards.

Shareware Registration

This game is distributed as shareware; if you like it, please register by sending me US $10, so I can continue to improve it, and add more games. The unregistered version is restricted to one game set; every time you start Robin's Cards, you get the same set of deals. My web page is at http://www.erols.com/leakstan/stephe. Check there for other stuff I'm up to!

Introduction

General Play

Rules of the Games

Patience

Solitaire

Spider

Yukon

Menus

File

Actions

Options

Help

© Copywrite 1997 by Stephen Leake, all rights reserved


File
File Menu

New File

Creates a new game file, with default settings for all options. You will be prompted for a file name when you exit.

Open ...

      Opens a previously saved game file.

Save

Saves the current games and options in the current game file.  This is done automatically when you exit the game.

Save As ...

Saves the current games and options in a new game file; you are prompted for the name.

Show Stats ...

Shows the win/lose statistics for the current game, and gives you the option to reset them to zero. This is also shown when you win a game.

Hard wins shows games won without cheating.

Easy wins shows games won with cheating.

The Consecutive field shows how many games you have won (or lost) in a row.

Exit

Exits Robin's Cards, saving the current games and options in the current file.


Actions
Actions Menu

Clicking the right mouse button anywhere brings up this menu.

Some items on this menu are not available for some games, because they aren't allowed or aren't needed.

Undo

Undoes the last move. The last 15 moves are remembered for Undo. However, all remembered moves are forgotten when you restart from a mark or the beginning, or when a deal pile is refilled, or when you open a file. Shift left click also does Undo.

Mark

Saves the current game position, so you can come back to it later with Actions | Restart from Mark.

Restart

from Mark

Restores the game position saved by Actions | Mark.

from Beginning

Restores the game position to the beginning of the current game.

Undo

Restores the game position to just before the last Actions | Restart. This is useful if you do a Restart accidently, or if you're trying an alternate path after doing Restart | from Mark, and decide you liked the first path better!

Add Work Pile

Adds a work pile (this is cheating).

Any Card to Empty

Allows moving any card (not just King) to an empty pile (this is cheating).

Any Card Face Up

Allows setting any face down card face up, even if it is buried in a pile (this is cheating).

Foundation Moveable

Allows moving a card back from the foundation piles (this is cheating).

Layout to Discard

Allows moving cards from layout piles to the discard pile (this is cheating).

Unlimited Stack Moves

Allows any size stack to be moved (this is cheating).

Scrunch Cards

Reduces vertical card spacing in layout piles, so more cards fit on the screen. You can use Options | Card Spacing for more control over the vertical card spacing, but this is quicker.

Spread Cards

Increases vertical card spacing in layout piles, reversing Scrunch Cards.

New Game

Gives up on the current game (adding a lost game to the statistics), starts a new one.

Choose Game

Switches to Patience, Solitaire, Spider, or Yukon; the current game is saved.

Move Multiple

Performs the automatic moves selected by the Options | Multiple Move menu. Double clicking the left mouse button on the background does the same thing.

Face Up

Turns all face down cards that are on top of a pile face up. This item is not available if Options | Auto Face Up is checked.

Move To Foundation

If there is a card that can be moved to a foundation pile, moves it. This item is not available if Options | Auto To Foundation is checked.

Move Deal

Moves cards from the deal pile, until it is empty or a card is moved to a layout pile. If Options | Click Move and Options | Auto Move Deal are checked, clicking on the deal pile does the same thing.

Move To Layout

If there is a legal move from one layout pile to another, makes it. If Options | Click Move is checked, single left click on the background does the same thing.

Reminder ...

Allows you to set a reminder to stop playing, after up to two hours. Robin never sets this! You can set the reminder to only bug you after you've won, or in the middle of a game.

Refresh

Redraws the screen, so all the card pictures are correct. This is sometimes necessary if you have Options | Animate checked, and cards are moving, and you open another window over the Robin's Cards window. Then some of the card pictures will look like parts of the other window! Selecting Actions | Refresh fixes this.

If you need to do Refresh at any other time, you've found a bug; please let me know!


Options
Options Menu

Click Move

If checked, the computer will move cards for you (to a legal pile) when you just click on them. If not checked, you always have to drag the cards. My stepdaughter Nora sometimes unchecks this!

Multiple Moves ...

Sets what automatic moves are done when you double click. Note that once started, the computer keeps making moves until it gets stuck, or until you click any button to interrupt it. See the next topic for more details.

Auto Face Up

If checked, the computer will always flip cards face up for you. If not checked, you have to click on a card to see it.

Auto To Foundation

If checked, the computer will automatically move cards to the foundation piles whenever it is legal. This is convenient and fun at the end of a game, but sometimes a bad strategy at the beginning.

Auto Deal

If checked, when you click on the deal pile, the computer will keep moving cards from the deal pile to the discard pile, until it either finds one to move to a layout pile, or the deal pile is empty. This speeds up Solitaire a lot! Note that if Auto To Foundation is also checked, some cards will move to the foundation piles while the computer is moving the deal pile to the discard pile. Clicking any button will stop the automatic moves.

Auto Speed ...

Allows you to set how fast the computer makes automatic moves; slow so you can watch, or fast to get it over with!

Animate

If checked, the computer will slide the cards across the screen when it makes a move for you. If not checked, the cards will just jump to the destination pile. Robin likes this not checked, I like it checked!

Animate Speed ...

Allows you to set how fast the computer slides cards; really slow to pretty fast.

Fast Win

If checked, the computer checks to see if you will easily win, before actually moving all cards to the foundation piles. You can easily win if all cards are face up and in the proper order. Sometimes it's boring to wait for all the cards to move, especially in Yukon, so I check Fast Win for Yukon.

Card Spacing ...

Allows you to set the spacing of cards in layout piles; scrunched up to fit on the screen, or spread out so you can see them. A faster way to do this is with Actions | Scrunch Cards and Actions | Spread Cards.

Sound ...

Allows you to enable/disable sound, and set the volume.

Card Deck ...

Allows you to choose the large or small card deck. Each game defaults to the deck that fills a standard VGA screen.

Card Back Design ...

Allows you to choose the card back design. Some of the card packs where drawn by my daughter Kate and step daughter Nora. The card decks are stored in .bmp files in the Robin's Cards directory; you can actually edit them with Windows Paintbrush if you want to make your own card backs! Just be careful not to change the size of the whole picture, and save to a different name to keep the original.

Background

Color ...

Choose a color for the playing background.

Wallpaper ...

Choose a picture for the background. This can be any .bmp file.


Help
Help Menu

Help Contents

Brings up this help file, at the Welcome page.

Game Rules

Brings up this help file, at the page for the current game. Hitting the F1 key also does this.

Pay

Starts the payment program, which asks for information and prints, faxes, or emails a form (with your credit card number or check) to Kagi. Kagi is a payment service; they take all kinds of money, and send me a monthly check.

About

Gives the game version number and date, and lets you enter your registration code.


Exit Without Saved
Exit Without Saved dialog box

This dialog box opens when you exit Robin's Cards without having saved the game to a file.

Your choices are:

Save and Exit

You will be prompted for a file name, and your game will be saved. Once you've saved a file, see how to automatically open a saved file when you start Robin's Cards.

Exit, no Save

Quits Robin's Cards, without saving your game.

Cancel Exit

Resumes playing Robin's Cards.


Creating Icons

You can create icons for your saved game files.

Game files have the extension .cds. When you run Robin's Cards the first time, it creates an association for .cds files. You can then create an icon for your file by dragging it from File Manager into your group in Program Manager in Windows 3.1, or by creating a shortcut in Windows 95 (see the Windows 95 help).

If you can't find your game files, the default installation directory for Robin's Cards is C:\Games\RobCards; you probably save game files there.

If you have another program that uses the .cds extension, Robin's Cards won't replace it, so creating icons doesn't work. You can either create icons manually, or replace the association for .cds. There are instructions below for both Windows 3.1 and Windows 95.

Create Icon (Windows 3.1)

In Program Manager, create a new program item, and set the command line to:

<robcard_dir>\robcards.exe <your_dir>\<your_file>.cds

where <robcard_dir> is the directory where you installed Robin's cards, <your_dir> is where you saved your file, and <your_file> is the name you saved it as.

You will need to do this once for each file you save.

Replace file association (Windows 3.1)

This changes the association for the .cds extension, so it works with Robin's Cards, instead of the other program you have.

In File Manager, find your saved file (it will have a .cds extension), and select it (single click). Then choose File | Associate ... to create a new file association. Note the current association, in case you want to restore it. Click Browse, and select <robcard_dir>\robcards.exe, where <robcard_dir> is the directory where you installed Robin's cards. Click OK to exit the Browse dialog, and OK again to exit the association dialog.

Now drag your saved game file to your program group, and you're all set! If you save games to other files, you only need to drag them to a program group; the association you created is permanent.

Create Icon (Windows 95)

On the desktop, right click to bring up a menu, and select New | Shortcut. Click Browse, and select <robcard_dir>\robcards.exe, where <robcard_dir> is the directory where you installed Robin's cards. Click Open to exit the Browse dialog. In the Create Shortcut dialog, add "<your_dir>\<your_file>.cds" to the command line, where <your_dir> is where you saved your file, and <your_file> is the name you saved it as. Click Next, and type a name for the icon. Click Finish. You can then move the icon to any folder, or leave it on the desktop.

You will need to do this once for each file you save.

Replace file association (Windows 95)

This changes the association for the .cds extension, so it works with Robin's Cards, instead of the other program you have.

In any folder, choose View | Options ..., and click the File Types tab. Find the file type that currently uses the .cds extension (this is not always easy!), and select it. Click EDIT, and change the Description to Robin's Cards . In the Actions box, select the bold action (normally Open), and click Edit. Click Browse, and select <robcard_dir>\robcards.exe, where <robcard_dir> is the directory where you installed Robin's cards. Click Open to exit the Browse dialog. Click OK to exit the Editing Action dialog. Click Close to exit the Edit File Type dialog, and Close to exit the Options dialog.

Now you can just double click your saved game files, or create shortcuts to them in the usual way (without any typing).


Patience

Initial Layout:

Four piles in the upper left are foundation piles,  four piles in the upper right are work piles,  ten stacks in center are layout piles.

50 cards are dealt to the layout piles, remaining two to work piles. All cards are always face up.

Rules:

See General Play for general rules; here we give the rules unique to Patience.

Cards are added to the layout piles in descending same suit order.

The top card of a layout pile may always be moved. In addition, any cards that form an in suit order stack on one pile may be moved together. For example, if you have the Jack, 10 and 9 of Hearts in that order on a pile, you can drag the Jack and the 10 and 9 will move with it.

However, a moveable stack may only have one more card than the number of empty work piles (this is just a short cut for moving all the cards to the work piles first, then to the destination pile). So if there are 2 empty work piles, you can move a stack of up to 3 cards.

Cheating:

The number of work piles starts at 4; it may be increased up to 6 by using Actions | Add Work Pile.

You can move stacks of any length by checking Actions | Unlimited Stack Moves.

You can move any card to an empty pile by checking Actions | Any Card to Empty.

Strategy:

This is the hardest game to play. You almost always need to start over a couple times, to find a strategy that works.

Whenever you're about to fill up the work piles, use Actions | Mark to save the game so you can go back and try something else.

Don't trap low cards of a suit behind more than 4 higher cards of the same suit; you'll never get them out without cheating!

Similarly, try not to trap low cards of several suits under a stack; you will probably need at least one of those suits to move the stack to the foundation.

The automatic move finder is too dumb for this game; use it when you think you are stuck, just to check.


Yukon

Initial Layout:

Four piles in the upper left are foundation piles, seven stacks in the center are layout piles. If cheating, work piles are along the right edge of the screen.

52 cards are dealt to the layout piles, some face down.

Rules:

See General Play for general rules; here we give the rules unique to Yukon.

All face up cards in a layout pile may always be moved.

Cards are added to the layout piles in descending alternate suit order. When moving a stack to a destination pile, the bottom card of a stack must be in descending alternate suit order with the top card of the destination pile; the rest of the cards in the moving stack don't matter.

Cheating:

The number of work piles starts at zero; it may be increased up to five by using Actions | Add Work Pile. Work piles are added down the right side of the screen.

If you simply have to get a card back, you can check Actions | Foundation Moveable.

To move any card to an empty pile, not just Kings, check Actions | Any Card To Empty.

If you get really stuck, you can see any card using Actions | Any Card Face Up.

Strategy:

Start with the rightmost pile, and try to move other cards to make it possible to uncover the face down cards. Then try the second rightmost pile. Of course, some games go better if you start from the left!

If you have a choice, uncover face down cards rather than moving cards to the foundation (sometimes this is bad advice).

The Options | Move Multiple menu gives you the option of Layout Full Stack and Layout Part Stack. Layout Full Stack means moving all of the face up cards on one pile; this is almost always a good idea, so this is enabled by default. Then double clicking gives a pretty good start on a game (not always the best start!).

Near the end of the game, it may be useful to check Layout Part Stack; then double clicking can finish the game for you.


Solitaire

Initial Layout:

Two piles in the upper left are a deal pile and a discard pile. Four piles in the upper right are foundation piles, seven stacks in the center are layout piles.

28 cards are dealt to the layout piles, some face down; the rest are in the deal pile.

Rules:

See General Play for general rules; here we give the rules unique to Solitaire.

All face up cards in a layout pile may always be moved.

Cards are added to the layout piles in descending alternate suit order. Note that the face up cards in a pile will always be in descending alternate suit order, unless cheating with Any Card Face Up.

Cheating:

If you simply have to get a card back, you can check Actions | Foundation Moveable.

To move any card to an empty pile, not just Kings, check Actions | Any Card To Empty.

To get to blocked face down layout cards, check Actions | Layout to Discard; then you can move layout cards to the discard pile.

If you get really impatient, you can see any card using Actions | Any Card Face Up.

Strategy:

If you have a choice, uncover face down cards rather than moving cards to the foundation (sometimes this is bad advice).

The automatic moves found by Options | Multiple Moves ... are pretty good for this game. One way to play is to enable all automatic moves, do a double click, and wait until the computer gets stuck. The computer is stuck when it keeps refilling the deal pile; click anywhere to stop it. Then, look for places where the computer had a choice; say there's a black seven in a pile, and the other black seven blocking some face down cards. Restart from the beginning, double click, and click to stop when the first black seven is moved (you may have to Undo a couple moves). Move the other black seven manually, then double click again. This often lets the computer win the game!


General Play

There are five types of piles in these card games; foundation piles, layout piles, work piles, discard piles, and deal piles. All games have some layout piles and either one or four foundation piles; each game adds other piles according to its own rules.

Cards are dealt to the layout piles initially; the goal in each game is to move all cards to the foundation piles. Cards are added to the foundation piles in ascending same suit order. You move cards by dragging, clicking, or letting the computer move them automatically.

Any face up card on top of a deal, layout, work or discard pile is moveable. Each game has its own rules on when more cards in layout piles are moveable. Foundation cards are not moveable unless you're cheating.

Only Kings may be moved to empty layout piles (unless you're cheating!).

Dragging

You can drag a moveable card from one pile to another with the left mouse button. To drop it on a pile, the middle of the card you are dragging must be over a card in the pile. If the move is legal, the card will move to the new pile. If it is not legal, the card will return to the original pile.

To drag more than one card, place the cursor on the visible part of the bottommost card (highest on the screen), then drag.

To cancel a drag, just release the mouse button with the cards anywhere; they will return to their original pile.

Clicking

If a card is face down, you turn it face up by clicking it with the left mouse button. You can have the computer do this for you by checking Options | Auto Face Up.

If a deal pile is empty, you refill it from the discard by clicking the deal pile with the left mouse button.

If Options | Click Move is checked, you can move a moveable card by clicking on it with the left mouse button. The computer will search thru foundation, layout, work, and discard piles - in that order - looking for a legal move. If a legal move is found, the card is moved. If no legal move is found, nothing happens (not even a little beep; it got very annoying when I had it do that).

If Options | Click Move is checked, and you left click on an empty pile or on the screen background, the computer will find a card in a layout pile to move for you. If you don't like it, use Actions | Undo, and left click again to see another possible move (if the same move is made, there are no other legal moves).

Clicking the right mouse button brings up the Actions menu as a popup.

If one or more of the Options | Multiple Moves options are checked, double clicking the left mouse button (or single clicking the middle mouse button, if you have one) moves some cards automatically. These moves can also be made via the Actions menu.

Automatic

Automatic moves are enabled in two ways. If any of the Auto options on the Options menu are checked, the computer makes the corresponding moves whenever it can. If the Multiple Moves options are checked, the moves are made whenever you double click the left mouse button on the background.

Option | Auto Speed controls how fast the computer finds cards to move.

Clicking any mouse button stops automatic moves, so you can take over. However, automatic moves enabled by Auto options will start again as soon as you move any card; you might want to disable them first.

The following automatic moves are available (see Options and Options | Multiple Moves for more details):

Face Up : the computer turns cards face up for you.

To Foundation : the computer moves all eligible cards  to the foundation piles for you.

Deal : if you left click on the deal pile to move a card, the computer moves more cards from the deal pile, until a card is moved to a layout pile or the deal pile is empty. (This makes it more fun to play Solitaire).

Layout : the computer moves cards from one layout pile to another. This option is only on the Options | Multiple Moves menu.

Enabling all the automatic moves and double clicking the left button lets the computer play the game for you. Robin doesn't like this mode, but sometimes I think it's kind of fun. The computer isn't very smart, so it never wins Patience, but it can sometimes win Solitaire and Yukon.

Each game defaults the automatic moves to give the user the most control, while removing some of the tedium of playing. Face Up is always enabled by default; To Foundation is enabled in Patience, and Deal is enabled in Solitaire.

Undo

The last 15 moves can be undone using Actions | Undo. The undo history is forgotten after Actions | Restart From Mark, Actions | Restart from Beginning, and refilling a deal pile. The undo history is not saved in the game file.

Marking

Actions | Mark saves the current game. You can then try an approach, and if it doesn't work, Actions | Restart From Mark restores the saved game. All cheating options are restored also; there is no penalty for using this feature.

Cheating

In general, you can win each of the games about half the time without cheating. With all cheating turned on, you can win all the games all the time, although you may still have to use some strategy to avoid getting stuck. See the rules for each game to see how to cheat.

Files

A game file stores your current games, your win/lose statistics, and all the options settings. You can create game files for each person that uses your computer; the name of the file appears in the caption as you play, so you can tell who is playing.

Game files have the extension .cds. When you run Robin's Cards the first time, it creates an association for .cds files, so you can play your file by double clicking it. You can also create an icon for your file by dragging it into your group in Program Manager (in Windows 3.1), or by creating a shortcut (in Windows 95).

If some other program already uses the .cds extension, Robin's Cards wont replace it. See Creating Icons for instructions on creating icons to play a saved game file in this case.


Introduction

I wrote this game as a present for my wife Robin. She always gets frustrated with computer card games; sometimes after a hard day, she just wants to win a game! So this game lets you cheat, to make it easier to win. But it also keeps track of how many games you win without cheating, so you can still feel challenged.

You can play four different card games: Patience, Solitaire, Spider, and Yukon,  Games are chosen from the Actions | Choose Game menu. All the games start with the normal set of rules, but there are options to bend some of the rules to make it easier to win.

You can drag cards around to play the game, or just click on a card and the computer will move it for you. Sometimes near the end of a game, you know you're going to win, and it's boring to have to move all the cards to the foundation. Robin hates being bored by a computer, so I programmed the computer do this for her; at the end of the game, all the remaining cards jump up to the foundation piles like magic! On the other hand, my stepdaughter Nora doesn't like just clicking cards to move them; she says it's too boring because the computer is doing everything. So there are options to control how much the computer does for you. See General Play for more information on how to play.

You can save a game at any point; when you start the program again, the cards will be just where you left them. You can even switch to another game (say from Patience to Yukon), and the first game will be remembered.

If the computer moves cards too slowly for you, try increasing the Animation Speed on the Options menu. Or, turn off animation entirely, by unchecking Animate. Then the cards will just jump to their destination.

If you have a Windows compatible sound card installed, you will hear clicks as each card is moved, and applause when you win a game. The clicks are a recording of actual cards being played, and the applause is my stepdaughter  Nora and me clapping for Robin.

I hope you enjoy this game as much as we do. Please send me email if you have any suggestions for improvements; I like making this game more fun to play. If you have other card games you'd like to be able to win more easily, send me the rules; maybe I'll find time to add them!


Auto Multiple
Options | Multiple Moves

These are the various moves the computer can make when you double click the left button on the screen background. These will be repeated until there are no legal moves.

Face Up

Turns any face down cards at the top of a pile face up. I'm not sure why you wouldn't check this, but it's up to you!

To Foundation

Looks for cards to move to the foundation piles. In some games, this is not always a good idea in the beginning of the game.

Deal

Moves cards from the deal pile. You might leave this unchecked if you only want the computer to do a little moving for you.

Layout Full Stack

Only move the entire stack of face up cards on a layout pile.

Layout Part Stack

After checking for full stack moves, also check for partial stack moves. This option is only available in games where partial stack moves make sense. When Layout Part Stack is not available, Layout Full Stack is shortened to Layout Stack.

Left First

Look for moves from the left layout pile first. This can have an affect on how many moves the computer can make.

Right First

Look for moves from the right layout pile first. If neither Right First nor Left First is checked, the layout piles are checked in round robin order.


Suit Order

There are three suit orders used in these games; alternating colors, same suit, and ignore suit. In addition, cards can be added in descending or ascending order.

Alternating Colors

Cards of either black suit (Spades, Clubs) go on cards of either red suit (Hearts, Diamonds), and cards of either red suit go on cards of either black suit.

Same Suit

Cards only go on cards of the same suit.

Ignore Suit

Cards go on cards of any suit.

Descending Order

 Lower cards go on top of higher cards; 2 goes on 3.

Ascending Order

Higher cards go on top of lower cards; 4 goes on 3.


Spider

Initial Layout:

The pile in the upper left is the deal pile; the pile in the lower left is the foundation pile. The six stacks in the center are layout piles.

24 cards are dealt face down to the layout piles, then 6 face up; the rest are in the deal pile.

Rules:

See General Play for general rules; here we give the rules unique to Spider.

All face up cards in a layout pile may always be moved.

Cards are added to the layout piles in descending order (ignoring suit). Note that some stacks will be out of order because of deals; they can still be moved as a stack. When moving a stack to a destination pile, the bottom card of a stack must be in descending alternate suit order with the top card of the destination pile; the rest of the cards in the moving stack don't matter.

Cards are moved from the Deal pile six at a time; one to each layout pile. This is done by clicking the deal pile; cards on the deal pile cannot be dragged.

Cards move to the foundation pile only when a complete suit is assembled on one layout pile, in descending suit order.

Cheating:

Two work piles may be added, to help get at blocked cards.

To move any card to an empty pile, not just Kings, check Actions | Any Card To Empty.

If you get really impatient, you can see any card using Actions | Any Card Face Up.

Strategy:

Whenever you can, place cards in descending same suit order.

If all four 4's are showing, and three of them have 3's on them, make sure the suits match before placing the last 3. Otherwise, you will have to cheat to sort out the suits.

The automatic moves found by Options | Multiple Moves are pretty good for this game.


Register

Registration gets you three benefits; the weekly reminders to register go away, you get different deals every time you play, and I'll be able to write more games for you to play!

The registration fee is $10.

To register on line, go to http://order.kagi.com/?9Q&S, (the ?9Q identifies Robin's Cards, the &S means it's a secure link) and enter your credit card number.

To register by paper mail, email or fax, use Help | Pay to run the payment program, which asks for information and prints, faxes, or emails a form (with your credit card number or check) to Kagi. Kagi is a payment service; they take all kinds of money, and send me a monthly check.

When you get the registration key, go to Help | About, click on Register, and enter your name and registration key exactly as given; case is important!


Uninstall

To Uninstall Robin's Cards, simply delete the directory you installed it in. You can also delete the association for .cds in win.ini, but this is not necessary.


Bugs

Robin has done a lot of testing, but there may be some bugs left. You may get an error dialog box with the message "An internal error occurred; see error log file <path>/error.log". It is usually safe to continue at this point; you may need to use Actions | Refresh to clean the screen. If you get the error dialog twice in a row, hit Cancel. Your game file will be ok (it may not remember your current game).

Please send me email, including the error log file, when you see the error dialog. If you can, tell me what you were doing when the error happened, especially if you can cause it to happen again. I'll try to fix it; if I do, I'll send you an update.


Contact Me

You can contact me via email, at "Stephen_Leake@acm.org" or "stephe@kagi.com"

Both of these email addresses are permanent (as long as I keep paying my dues!).

My web page is at http://www.erols.com/leakstan/stephe. Check there for other stuff I'm up to!


D

deal pile

discard pile

F

foundation pile

L

layout pile

W

work pile


deal pile

These hold cards not yet dealt, face down. The top card is turned face up by clicking it; then it is moveable. Cards may not be added to deal piles.


discard pile

These hold many cards, all face up; only the top card is visible. Cards may be added in any order; only the top card may be moved.


foundation pile

The goal of all the games is to move all cards to the foundation piles. Cards are added in ascending same suit order (Ace to King). You can only see the top card, which cannot be moved (unless you're cheating). If there is only one foundation pile, all four suits go on it, one at a time.


layout pile

This is where most of the game play takes place. You can see all the face up cards in these piles; some at the bottom may be face down. Cards are added in descending order. For some games, the card color must alternate; for others, the suits must match. The top card on a layout pile is always moveable, if it is face up. Each game has its own rules about when more than one card can be moved to or from a layout pile.


work pile

These hold one card each, face up. They are used for temporary storage. One of the ways to cheat is to add more work piles.