To play a game, click on the underlined name of the game. Games are grouped in several ways: all the games are listed in the All tab, they are grouped by type in the next 3 tabs, and the Favorites Tab contains a customizable group of games.
If you can't decide what game to play, try the "Select Random Game" option from the Game menu on the main screen. It will select a game at random for you. This is a great way to learn new games.
To learn the rules while playing a game, select "How to Play" from the Help menu. If you have a toolbar you can click on the Help button. Or simply press the F1 key.
The solitaire game that comes with Windows is known as Klondike in Pretty Good Solitaire.
If you quit while in the middle of a game, Pretty Good Solitaire will remember the game position for you. The next time you play that game, Pretty Good Solitaire will replay the game up to the position where you left off. From there, you can either play on or play a new game. If you don't want Pretty Good Solitaire to save games for you, uncheck "Game Saving" in the Options menu on the main screen.
In most games that have Foundations, Pretty Good Solitaire has an "AutoPlay" option. This option will automatically play cards to the Foundations when possible. In games where you don't want one foundation pile to get too many more cards than the others, it will refrain from moving cards if this happens. You can turn AutoPlay on and off for each game in the Options menu of the game.
Pretty Good Solitaire will let you Undo back to the beginning of the game. Just select "Undo" from the Options menu to undo a move. If you have a toolbar, click the Undo button. Or simply press "Control-U". All moves that are undone can be redone with the "Redo" function.
To Redo a move after it has been undone, select "Redo" from the Options menu. If you have a toolbar, click the Redo button. Or simply press "Control-R".
Most games in Pretty Good Solitaire can have a Toolbar across the top of the screen. This toolbar contains shortcuts buttons for functions like undo, redo, New Game, etc. If you want this toolbar, check "Toolbar" in the Options menu of the main screen. To remove the toolbar, uncheck this option. The toolbar is not recommended in the 640x480 screen resolution, since it takes up valuable game space. However, you can use it if you wish to.
Don't want to drag and drop? You can use Pretty Good Solitaire's right click mouse shortcut to move cards. You can click on the right mouse button over a card or group of cards to have the computer automatically move the card(s) for you. Note that this right-click option works in most situations in most games, but does not necessarily work in all situations in all games. It also won't necessarily move the cards to the same place as you would, but, hey, you've got to do _some_ work here.
To replay the current game, select "ReStart Game" from the Game menu. If you have a toolbar, click on the ReStart button. Or simply press "Control-G".
If you get into a tough position with two or more likely choices of moves and you are not sure which to make, select "Snapshot Position" from the Options menu (or press "Control-P"). Then continue playing. If you discover that you made the wrong choice and want to go back to try something else, select "Undo to Snapshot" from the Options menu (or press "Control-Q). Pretty Good Solitaire will automatically return you to the position you were at when you selected a snapshot.
Each starting position of a Pretty Good Solitaire game has a game number (the number is displayed in parentheses in the title bar). You can select a game using this game number using the "Select Game" option in the Games menu. Typing in the same game number will always give you the same starting position. By using the up and down arrows in the select game box you can play consecutive game numbers. There are over two billion possible starting positions for each game!
You can choose from 6 different card back designs. To see them, select "Card Backs" from the Options menu on the main screen. To select a card back, simply click on it.
The games in the group "800x600 Games" can only be played in screen resolutions of 800x600 or higher. To change resolutions in Windows 3.x, click on "Windows Setup" in the Main program group. In Windows 95, you can change resolutions by right-clicking on the desktop and selecting Properties. In Windows 95, you can change resolutions quickly with the Microsoft PowerToys applet "QuickRes".
You can change the background color of a game by selecting "Background Color" from the Options menu of the main screen. Click on a game name, and click on "Change Color" to select a new color for it. By checking the "Fade Background" box, you can have the color fade away down the screen.
Pretty Good Solitaire supports multiple players. To add a player, select "Add Player" in the Game menu of the main screen. Statistics, games, and settings are saved for each player. To change players, select a new player name from the Player name box on the main screen. To delete a player, first select the player you want to delete and then select "Delete Current Player" from the Game menu of the main screen. Using multiple players can keep your spouse or friends from mucking about with your settings.
Pretty Good Solitaire keeps won/loss statistics for each game. To see your current statistics, select "Statistics" from the Options menu. If you don't want statistics kept (or if you want to turn them off because you're losing), uncheck the "Game Statistics" option in the Options menu of the main screen.
You can see your statistics for all games at once by selecting "Game Statistics" at the top of the Options menu of the main screen. Clicking on a column of the list will sort the list by that column.
Some games, such as Klondike, FreeCell, and Scorpion, have a KingOnly option. Normally, these games only allow empty Tableau spaces to be filled by Kings, or sequences of cards with a King on the bottom. But by unchecking the KingOnly option in the Options menu, you can move any card or legal sequence of cards to an empty Tableau pile.
Pretty Good Solitaire does not count a game as over until you either win the game, select "New Game", or select "Select Game". If you have a game saved because it is not complete, it won't be counted in your statistics until it is complete.
In FreeCell, you can only move one card at a time. However, as a shortcut, Pretty Good Solitaire allows you to move groups of cards in descending opposite colors if there are enough open cells that the cards could have been moved one at a time. This rule applies to Seahaven Towers as well.
The game Rouge et Noir has a special way of building Foundations. The leftmost 2 foundations begin with red Aces and are built up in color to Kings. The next 2 foundations begin with black Aces and are also built up in color. The rightmost 4 foundations, however, are not built up a card at a time at all. In these foundations, you must drop an entire 13-card sequence of cards. For the left 2 foundations, these sequences must be headed with a red King, the last two a black King. These sequences must be built in the tableau. Rouge et Noir is the author's favorite game.
Most of the games in Pretty Good Solitaire came from the two best books ever written on solitaire - "The Complete Book of Solitaire & Patience Games" by Albert H. Morehead & Geoffrey Mott-Smith (1949) and "Teach Yourself Card Games for One" by David Parlett (1994).
In games with Foundations, double-clicking on a card with the left mouse button will move the card to the foundation, if that move is legal.
Clicking on a card with the right mouse button is a good way to check to see if there are any legal moves for that card. If there is a legal move, clicking on the right mouse button will probably move the card. If there isn't, it won't.
Although in many games it is technically cheating, some games allow you to move a card from the foundations back to the tableau, if you wish. However, if AutoPlay is turned on, the AutoPlay feature will promptly play the card back to the foundation! Therefore, if you ever want to do this you will need to turn AutoPlay off.
In Windows 95, you can get more room to play by hiding the taskbar. This can be done by clicking on the start button, selecting Settings and then Taskbar, and setting AutoHide on.
Need more space? You can resize the game window to make it bigger. Pretty Good Solitaire will then adjust to the bigger window the first time you do a "New Game". This will spread out the piles.
If you switch resolutions and play a game that was previously played at another resolution, you will need to "New Game" to get Pretty Good Solitaire to adjust to the new resolution.
