Solitaire (1979 video game)

Solitaire

Screenshot - Starting.

Developer Instant Software Publisher Instant Software Published 1979-??-?? Platforms Commodore PET Genres Cards, Passive puzzle, Puzzle, Single-screen Distribution Commercial

Solitaire is a video card game developed and published by Instant Software for Commodore PET in 1979. The game is programmed in Commodore BASIC.

The game is a bare-bones version of the card game Klondike solitaire.

Personal

Own?	No.
Won?	Yes.
Finished	2025-04-22.

I was looking for more Commodore PET games to play when I found this. I tried it out and quickly beat it.

Review

2	2	1	1	2

Best Version: Commodore PET

Good

• The game strictly enforces the rules of Klondike solitaire, including only letting kings move into blank columns, and not being able to retrieve cards from the ace foundations.

Bad

• The lack of color and text-only graphics make it difficult to visually process the cards. I frequently missed moves for several turns simply because I didn't notice them.
• Using number and letter commands makes you realize just how much better this game is with a mouse.
• The game doesn't support optional rules or variants.
• The game doesn't have a win condition check. When you win, you have to quit and are still told "better luck next time!"

Ugly

• There is a long delay between moves as the game redraws the playing field.
• The game doesn't auto-detect a victory, so you have to painstakingly move every card from the play field to the aces foundations which, if you have a lot of cards on the table, can take several minutes.
• The game is media challenged. It uses only monochrome text and there is no music.

Media

Screenshots

• 

  What passes for a title screen.

• 

  A new game.

• 

  Early into a game.

• 

  Late into a game.

• 

  It's gonna take 5 minutes to clear this. Seriously.

• 

  I've won, but the game doesn't end.

Videos

Longplay.

Play Online

Commodore PET

Representation

Strong female character?	Fail	There are no characters.
Bechdel test?	Fail	There are no characters.
Strong person of color character?	Fail	There are no characters.
Queer character?	Fail	There are no characters.