A Shareware Life

FreeCell Plus

We have released a new version 4.0 of our game FreeCell Plus.  FreeCell Plus is a collection of 8 FreeCell type solitaire games.

What makes this release interesting is that version 3.0 was released in 1998.  Yes, it has been 12 years since we have updated this product.

Why the long gap?

I have discussed FreeCell Plus on this blog before in 2005 in Indie Game Case Study: The Story of a Modestly Successful Game.

In short, FreeCell Plus was the first game I developed after Pretty Good Solitaire.  I wrote it in December 1995 and released version 1.0 on January 25, 1996.  It was made completely from Pretty Good Solitaire code and was meant to be a smaller collection of solitaire games targeted at people who just like FreeCell type games and don't want anything else.  It was written as a 16 bit application for Windows 3.1, although of course it ran on Windows 95 and NT (which were the only 32 bit Windows at the time).

As I explained in the 2005 post, FreeCell Plus filled a specific market need for a Windows 3.1 FreeCell game.  I updated it with versions 2.0 in 1997 and 3.0 in 1998, but by this time Windows 3.1 was dying out.  In 1998 I released a new 32 bit product called FreeCell Wizard, which basically replaced FreeCell Plus.

And that's how things stood for 12 years.  FreeCell Plus continued to sell a few copies, because some people kept searching for "windows 3.1 freecell".  But of course the numbers kept dwindling over the years.  The game ran on Windows ME and XP, but when Windows Vista came along, as a 16 bit application it would no longer run (at least on the 64 bit OS).

At this point, it made sense to just retire the game.  But on the other hand, over the past couple of years we have been developing our new cross-platform solitaire engine, which makes products that run both on Windows and Mac OS X (the games Most Popular Solitaire, Goodsol Solitaire 101, and Pretty Good Solitaire Mac Edition are based on this engine).  Why not just make a new version of FreeCell Plus with this new engine?

And so FreeCell Plus version 4.0 was born on January 25, 2010, exactly 14 years after version 1.0.  It runs not only on Windows Vista and 7, but also on Mac OS X.  Users who buy it get both versions.  Also, since FreeCell Wizard is Windows only and we won't be making a Mac version of it for awhile, we are giving the Mac version of FreeCell Plus away free to FreeCell Wizard users.

We now have 4 products for Mac OS X: the $9.95 FreeCell Plus, the $16.95 Most Popular Solitaire with 30 games, the $19.95 Goodsol Solitaire 101 with 101 games, and the $24.95 Pretty Good Solitaire Mac Edition with 200 games (updating to 300 in a few months).

Pretty Good Solitaire Mac Edition v2.1

We have just released a new version of Pretty Good Solitaire Mac Edition.

Version 2.10 is a major update with 99 new games, bringing the total number of games to 200.  In addition, there are 45 bonus games in the full version.

The new trial version can be downloaded at http://www.goodsol.com/mac/download.html

Version 2.10 is a free update to all registered users of Pretty Good Solitaire Mac Edition.  Installing it will not affect your statistics.  Registered users should download the full version from the link in your receipt email.

Download the .dmg file and run it.  When the install window comes up, be sure to drag the game icon to your desktop, Application folder, or whatever folder you wish to install the game in.

If you have a previous full version installed with its registration code entered, the new version should pick up your registration code automatically.  If not, it will ask you for your code at startup.  If you have lost your code, you can have it sent to you again. However, normally you should not need to type your code in again.

Among the 99 new games are Double Canfield, Northwest Territory, Double Scorpion, Batsford, Monte Carlo, Accordion, Triple FreeCell, Triple Canfield,  Double SeaTowers, Crescent, Unlimited, Double Yukon, Triple Yukon, Kings in the Corners, and many, many more.

We are currently working on the 300 game version, which will also have many new features.  Look for the 300 game version sometime in 2010.

Friday CatBlogging

 

Inquisitor on the 10th anniversary of her adoption.

 

Status Report

It's been a long time since I last posted, it's time to update on what all is going on.

Here's where things stand with our games:

• Pretty Good Solitaire (Windows) - We released a new version 12.1 on February 24th.  Version 12.1 added 10 games, bringing the total number of games to 710.  Version 12.2 is in development, it will add 15 games for a total of 725.  Version 12.2 will be released this summer.

• Pretty Good Solitaire Mac Edition - We released the long awaited version 2.0 of the Mac Edition on March 24th. Version 2.0 added 71 new games, bringing the total number of games for the Mac version to 101.  It also added a whole bunch of new features, such as Climb Mode.  Version 2.0 had a couple of crashing bugs, so we updated it to version 2.01 on May 5.  Version 2.01 seems to be very stable and is becoming quite successful.  Version 2.1 is currently in development, it will add 99 new games bringing the total to 200.  Version 2.1 should be released in a few months.

• Pretty Good MahJongg - We released a bug fix version 2.33 yesterday (May 26th).  We are planning a major new version that will add some games and features, plus we expect to have this new release for Mac OS X as well as Windows.

• Action Solitaire - we haven't released a new version of this game for some time.  We will have a bug fix update available quite soon.

• Goodsol Solitaire 101 - we released a bug fix version 1.01 in April.

• Most Popular Solitaire - we released a new version 2.0 on May 19th.  This version fixed some bugs and added Climb Mode, but the major thing about this release was that this new version is for both Windows and Mac OS X.  Most Popular Solitaire becomes our second product that runs on Mac OS X.

Pretty Good Solitaire v12.1

A new version of Pretty Good Solitaire is now available (for Windows 98/Me/XP/Vista).

Version 12.1 can be downloaded from http://www.goodsol.com/download.html

Version 12.1 adds 10 new games for a total of 710 games.

The new games are Chinese FreeCell, Double Limited, Endless Harp, Jacks in the Box, Private Lane, Quadrennial, Rueil, Sixteen Piles, Succession, and Trigon Left.

Version 12 is a free upgrade for users who originally ordered versions 10, 11, or 12.0 (2005 or later). It is not a free upgrade for users who originally ordered version 9 or below. Users of older versions can upgrade for $11.95 at http://www.goodsol.com/upgrade.html

The quick way to determine whether you need to upgrade to use version 12 is to look at your registration code. If your registration code starts with "24", "2p", or "2m", the upgrade is free and your registration code will work in version 12. Otherwise, you need to upgrade. If you registration code starts with "22" or "2u", version 11 was a free upgrade but version 12 is not.

This is the first update to the Windows Pretty Good Solitaire in a year.  My plan is to do 4 new releases in the next 12 months, including this one.  The next version 12.2 is planned for the May/June timeframe and will contain 720, 725, or 730 games.

$600,000 in a Month

Here is a Wired story about an iPhone game developer who made $600,000 in a month.

My reactions:

1) Good news!  Now maybe all the people who want to get rich quick will stop making clones to sell on the portals and start developing for the iPhone instead.

2)  He quit his day job before he ever received his first check.  In fact, the article indicates that he still hasn't gotten his first check yet.  Yikes!

3) Perhaps the guy should read what this guy wrote: Why I write software.  This is how things are done over the long term.

Amazon, Lincoln, and More

Some thoughts for the day:

1)  Amazon.com has recently entered the casual games market with a new Games Download store.

This has caused some controversy as the store sells games for $9.99 or less.

That this would happen sometime has been entirely predictable for years - the entire portal model has devolved into simply competition on price - which means prices were bound to just go lower and lower.   Most of the games on portals are completely derivative and have no way to compete on quality or as a brand - so that leaves only price.

The result will be that margins of the portal companies will just go down and down until the weakest have to either sell out to some big company who won't care or go bankrupt. 


2) Today is the 200th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's birth, which is a pretty big deal here in Springfield IL.  There are lots of events going on in town today to celebrate and the President will be here tonight to give a speech.  The location is not very far from where we live and the security is out in force.  When I went out earlier I saw security people with dogs roaming around.

3) Our neighbors across the street still have their Christmas tree up.

Amazon Kindle 2

Amazon has released the Kindle 2, their new eBook reader.  We thought about buying the original Kindle, but passed as it seemed not quite ready.  But this version looks a lot better, so we decided to try it.  It doesn't actually ship until February 24th.  When we get it, I'll post a review of it here. 

In the meantime, if you want to buy one, click on the link below (it gives us a percentage).  It's $359, so it's not cheap, but eventually something like this is going to replace books.

Tropical Card Set

We have released a new card set for Pretty Good Solitaire and our other games:

 

Download the Tropical Card Set here.

2009

Hi everybody, it's 2009.  Happy New Year!

I've been meaning to get back into posting somewhat regularly in 2009, however I've been hit by a bad cold/flu bug since New Year's and haven't had much chance.

Anyway:

1) We are currently beta testing a new Mac OS X version.  We could definitely use more Mac beta testers.  If you are interesting in beta testing a Mac solitaire game for Mac OS X, shoot me an email at support@goodsol.com

2) Speaking of the Mac, does anyone know a good web page that simply explains the installation process on a Mac from a .dmg file?.  You would think that Apple would have something like this on their site, but I cannot find it.  It seems that Apple thinks that installation is so easy that it requires no explanation, but the emails I get from users says otherwise.

The Entire Sub-Prime Crisis Explained in One Comic

Note: Click to see full strip.

I Voted

Man Gets Windows Vista to Work with Printer

No, this isn't a headline from The Onion.  It's a real headline!

Man gets Windows Vista to work with printer

Interesting Article about Solitaire

Why We Can't Stop Playing Computer Solitaire

And a related page: On the Profundity of Solitaire

Aftershock

10:15 am:

Another one.  The whole house suddenly just shrieked.  For about one second, this one felt stronger than the first one, but it was much, much shorter.