The BVS Solitaire Collection 5.3 for Windows
95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP is a collection of 385 solitaire
card
games including a lot of original variations.
The
collection has many useful features: "Show Next Move" command,
multi-level undo/redo, statistics for multiple players, selectable
backgrounds,
automatic card moving, restart feature, shuffle selection, load/save
feature, sound,
support for both Drag-and-Drop and Point-and-Click methods to move
cards,
and more...
There
are over 90 original solitaire variations. But it also includes all of
the most
popular solitaire card games such as Spider, Klondike, Freecell,
Carpet, Forty
Thieves, Monte Carlo, Russian Solitaire, Flower Garden, Golf, Cruel,
Accordion,
Pyramid... .
You
can modify rules of almost any of the included games, thus creating
your own
solitaire game variation.
Interface
is completely customizable. You can choose from lots of backgrounds and
card
backs, or you can use any .bmp or .jpg image files to create your own
backgrounds and card backs. (Registered
users can also download Plus
Pack with lots of additional card sets and backgrounds.) Handy
user-customizable toolbar can be dragged around and docked wherever
convenient.
The
collection offers a variety of statistical and scoring screens. You can
track
your performance and progress in playing solitaire to a degree most
people
would not use – but it is there if you want.
I
did not download a registered version for the review. The trial version
offers
22 “unlocked” games. For me that was enough to see it would be a very
satisfying collection for the solitaire addict and an interesting
relaxation
for the less regular player. I found a few of the unlocked games
difficult –
the selection panel warns of the degree of difficulty of each. An
occasional
game was dull, but others, most I had not seen before, were
challenging. Each
game has its own help file to explain the rules and method of play;
some of the
difficult games warn that “a win is rare” – now there’s a challenge!
The
free trial version is available at www.bvssolitaire.com/ and
registration for the unlock key is
US$19.95