2010 April | Just Another Mobile Monday

Written by brian_houghton on Friday, April 30, 2010

PocketSol, a Brilliant Solitaire Collection for Windows Mobile

Pyramid Solitaire Variant as Found in PocketSol

Lena Pankratova of lenagames.com has a huge collection of games available for Windows, along with a few gems for Windows Mobile. PocketSol is a collection of 50 solitaire card games, some of them familiar classics like Klondike and Freecell, some of them more obscure. Recently updated to version 3.2, I stumbled across PocketSol by accident while researching another game. The title sounded interesting, since Klondike is one of my favorite ways to pass time, so I downloaded the demo and gave it a try on my Touch Pro. During the course of trying out the demo, I had a few questions that I sent to the developer. Lena was nothing short of quick, courteous and accommodating. For that, I just had to register PocketSol… $12 very well spent in my opinion.

The overall implementation of PocketSol results in one of the very best versions of the game I have ever come across for Windows Mobile. While I’m not going to get into the in’s and out’s of playing solitaire, I do want to share a few of the features that make PocketSol a true player’s game.

Quick Start Screen as Found in PocketSol

Upon launching the game (Start Menu / Programs / Games), the screen rotates and after showing you an initial “quick start” telling you how to play the game, places you in the familiar Klondike.

If Klondike is not your bag of tea, use the menu to jump to the selection screen. Here you find a list of games along with visual illustrations of the card arrangement.

Game Selector

For each of the included games you can choose to read a small tutorial explaining it’s nuances and variations.

Klondike Tutorial

Furthermore, you will also find that each game can be customized. For example, the Klondike game can be set to have been one and five cards dealt at a time, decreasing or increasing the difficulty.

Graphics in the game are superb. There are multiple card backs and faces to choose from, each very crisp and enriching the playing field. Upon registration, users will gain additional backs and faces to choose from, as well. The background color is also up for choosing.

Game sounds can be toggled on and off, depending upon your preference. After discussing some of the features found in PocketSol with the developer, she alerted me to a hidden option that would allow users to save their game state and then reload it upon relaunching the game. While this was initially a hidden feature that had to be reenabled upon each launch, upon request she quickly added the option so that it stays through exiting and launching once enabled. To enable it, simply go to the Help -> About menu and while the splash screen is visible, press the left and then right navigation keys. You’ll then find a new set of options on the Help menu that allow one to save and load in-progress games.

Overall, PocketSol is a brilliant solitaire collection for Windows Mobile. Graphics are top notch, the options for game play and customization are multiple and there are enough different variations of the game included to keep you intrigued for some time. All of this, and I’ve got to say, a very responsive and pleasant to communicate with developer. One cannot ask for much more. I highly recommend checking out PocketSol. Full specs and details are below.

PocketSol

Windows Mobile devices w/ Touch Screen
QVGA & VGA resolutions supported
Site: http://lenagames.com/pocketsol.htm
Developer: Lena Pankratova
Demo: Available
Price: $12.00

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Written by brian_houghton on Friday, April 30, 2010

Deal of the Day: Phatnotes for Outlook / Windows Mobile

Need a system for organizing your notes with Outlook? If so, you may want to check out Phatnotes for Outlook and Windows Mobile, available as today’s JAMM Store Deal of the Day. You can register for half off, so be sure to check it out here.