SolSuite 2004

TreeCardGames have been releasing shareware solitaire games for many years, their 123 Free Solitaire was often tweaked and re-issued to promote the latest version of their full commercial game SolSuite. It seemed as though each year a new version of SolSuite was produced and sold with a different name, at the time of this submission SolSuite 2019 v19.1 is available for download with over 700 games.

SolSuite 2004 has many features including Sound; Window & Full Screen modes; Rules, Game Tutor and Win/Lose Statistics for each game; Players can mark preferred games as favourites; A 'Tip of the Day' feature; Multiplayer modes; Undo/Redo/Restart/Save/Load functions; etc. The look and feel of the game can be customised, there are options to alter the size of te buttons; toggle pop up menus; change card backs and faces; change the background; toggle shadows & animation, and customise the sounds.

In addition to playing single games SolSuite 2004 comes with nine 'Game Series' plus the option to create new ones. These are a bit like playing a solitaire pentathlon, or longer, in which the player's score is accumulated over a collection of games.

The game documentation states that there are three hundred and ninety games in SolSuite 2004. The games are grouped by type such as; Adding games; Baker's Dozen type games; FreeCell type games e.t.c. which allows players to quickly find games they like and others which are similar in nature, there's also a 'Fast Find' which lists all the games alphabetically. In addition to the grouping the games by type there are also options to select by;* Game Time: Quick (less than five minutes), Medium (five to ten minutes), Long (More than ten minutes)

• Difficulty: Easy, medium & Hard
• Skill level: Chance only - winning depends on the order the cards are dealt, Mostly Chance - occasional choice of moves will affect the outcome, Moderate - a roughly equal balance of skill and luck is needed to win, Mostly Skill - Forward planning is required but luck will still affect the outcome, Difficult - Success depends on forward planning, perseverance and luck plays only a small part
• Chance of Success: Very Low (1:50 - 1:250), Low (1:10 - 1:49), Medium (1:5 - 1:9), High (1:3 - 1:4) & Very High (9:10 - 1:2)

New features for SolSuiite 2004 are;* Six new games: Argos, Goldfield, Knight Catch All, Marsha, Peg Star Solitaire and Three Hills

• Skins: Three skins are included with the game - Golf, Sand and Sky
• Total Moves: A new statistic counts ALL moves made during a game

The documentation which lists the new features of SolSuite 2004 states that another of TreeCardGames' products SolSuite Plus! 4.0 contains more skins and is "freely downloadable for all customers purchasing SolSuite 2004.