December 2011: I have been testing the new Intel version myself some time now, and it is not perfect but playable. Statistics are incorrect, and sometimes it won't work. But usually, I can play the games just fine. I hesitate to upload an unstable version, but if you want to test it, you are welcome.
Quick facts
Solitaire card game for MacOS and MacOSX, featuring more than 30 different games, including all the most popular games. Classic version works on most versions of MacOS, including emulators.
The download is full-featured but will after a few games start remind you of the $20 shareware payment.
Downloads
Solitaire House for Intel (with scoring bugs otherwise working well).
Solitaire House 1.1.3 (Classic, MacOS 9 and older): Solitaire-House-113.hqx
Solitaire House 1.1.3x (OSX only, third beta, first version without known bugs!) SH-113x-beta3.hqx (Stuffit+BinHex) SH113x.dmg (disk image) Solitaire-House113x.zip (ZIP archive)
Solitaire House in swedish: Patiensstugan 1.1b (1.5M). (Translations to other languages are possible but I need help to do them.)
Registration information: Register-Solitaire-House.hqx
Grandfather's Clock in Solitaire House Solitaire House 1.0 release notes
This text descibes version 1.0, but is still quite accurate.
Solitaire House is my multi-game solitaire card game.
Solitaire House features 30 solitaire games, and perhaps more important, a scalable design that lets it fill just about any Mac screen. Most games only fill 640x480, but Solitaire House is just as happy in 800x600 or even more &endash; or less! It also has the largest cards of any Mac solitaire game, and one of the prettiest sets of honor cards (art by Susanne Ragnemalm).
Among the 30 included games are the well-known Klondike, Spider, Freecell (here named Napoleon), Montana, Canfield, 40 Thieves and Pyramid. You will also find games that you never played before.
While some competitors only aim to be as pretty as possible, or to have funny animations, Solitaire House is designed to be playable, with most of the helpful features you can think of. You see, I wrote it the way I wanted it for myself!
Features:
- The "inside" view lets you organize the games in "rooms", for example to put favourite games in one place, the ones you don't like in another place, and the ones you still havn't learned in yet another.
- Multi-step undo and redo.
- Key commands for highlighting legal moves or specific groups of cards (e.g. all spades or all 5's).
- On-line rules for all games.
- Auto-saves the game when you quit.
- 13 different music scores, composed and arranged by Niklas Hellgren. You can decide what music to play for each game.
- Supports individual user profiles for every user, including individual high scores as well as other settings.
- Fills just about any Mac screen, from 9" to modern high-res screens!
- 5 card sizes, from tiny to the largest you ever saw on a Mac.
- Works on any Mac. (68040 or PPC recommended. Not tested below System 6.0.7.)
- The download is modest, 1.5 megabytes.
The game is shareware, $20.
Support
I support all users the best I can, and registered users in particular.
I am using OSX without Classic. The game works but the Register program does not. How do I pay?
You can now register on-line here.
I have paid the $20 to Kagi! Where is my code?
I send all code as soon as possible. If you provided and E-mail address, you usually get it within one day after Kagi sends their message to me. However, it takes time at Kagi too, and it can be delayed here, by holidays etc. When in doubt, write an E-mail!
If you didn't provide an E-mail address, it takes much more time! Not only does it take 1-2 weeks from me to you, but snail-mail replies also takes more time for me, which means that they more often get delayed.
And, if you provided and incorrect address, what can I do? I have several registrations with incorrect addresses, waiting for you to write so I can send you the code to a working address.
I got the code, but it doesn't work! The OK button never activates!
Each and every time this has happened so far, the problem has been that the user has not entered the name and code exactly as in the E-mail I sent. Here's a few things to try:
Letters in name and code are case sensitive! If it is registered to "john", you can't type "John" or "JOHN".
Some letters and numbers are easily mistaken. Zero and "oh", ones and "ell" or "aye". If the font you use in the mail reader doesn't distinguish them, try changing font.
No extra spaces are allowed, not before, not after, not in -between. "John" is not the same as " John".
If possible, copy the code from the letter and paste in the dialog! The name is easier to get right.
If it still fails, write to me and I'll fix it somehow. Let me know if you can accept attachments with E-mail.
There's a bug in the program!
Sure there is. Most computer programs are a complex constructions that never seems to get 100% bug-free. But, the only way I can learn about bugs I havn't found is from you, who have.
When you report a bug, please include the following information:
- Describe the bug, of course. Can it be repeated at any time?
- Does the bug persist if you assign more memory to Solitaire House?
- What Mac model and system version do you use?
I want to select background patterns for each game!
That's one of the points with the "rooms". Place the game icon in the room with the pattern you like. Put all games that you never play in a room with a pattern you don't like. (You can't easily import patterns though, but I can add that if there is a demand.)
I'm writing my own card game. Can I use your card images?
The cards sure are pretty &endash; but they are also copyrighted! If you don't ask for permission beforehand, the answer is no. If you do ask, I'm willing to discuss it. It depends on what kind of game you make.
I'm writing my own game. Can I use your music? Can you make music for me? Do you know anyone who can make music for games?
The music was written by Niklas Hellgren, so I suggest that you ask him. He is interested in getting his music into other projects, and I am not the only one who likes his work!