Review

ACIDSOLITAIRE / ACIDFREECELL

Overview:
Beginner and advanced solitaire players will enjoy the single-handed play mode and ultra smart auto-card movement. Users can easily create their own full color backgrounds. The game features 16-bit color JPEG backgrounds, fast animation, cards that leap out of the screen when they move and more. Even use JPEG images from internal RAM or a memory card as a background instantly.

Palm OS screen shots:

Hardware Requirements:
Palm OS 5 Enhanced
Palm OS 3.5 and up supported
Non-color devices supported

Company info:
Red Mercury has been making software longer than most other Palm OS developers, and endeavor to make their software the best thing you can have on your handheld. Their focus is to make premium software for Palm OS, the kind of software that you want to install right away and to beam to beam to your friends.

Red Mercury consistently utilizes the latest features of the newest Palm OS hardware and operating systems, as well as adding creative, unique elements to differentiate their products from everything else. In the card game category, there are a lot of products, but absolutely none that come close to the feature set of AcidSolitaire 3 or AcidFreecell 3. This company features some of the best software for Palm OS, by taking advantage of new technologies like larger screens, landscape mode, memory cards, and faster processors.

Control:
The game responds well and the procedure of simply tapping the screen for game effects make the game easy and intuitive. The game includes simple understandable instructions. Another somewhat radical innovation in the latest releases is the introduction of single-handed play, for people who really do play on the go, for example, if you're riding the train to work and have to stand and hang on a strap, you can still play. All of the functionality needed to play the game is available from the jog dial or 5-way navigator, and they went to great lengths to make it easy to play single-handedly - in fact, once you get used to single-handed play, it tends to become the favored way of playing, even when you have both hands free!

Other features include:
Standard Solitaire play (Klondike)
1-Card or 3-Card Deal
Auto-Turn and Auto-Move options
Excellent, intelligent Auto-Move
Single-Handed Play with Jog-Dial or 5-Way Navigator
Get Hint of Available Moves by Using Single-Handed Play
Unlimited Undo (or Choose Number of Undo Levels)
Undo Buffer Saved Automatically on Game Exit
Drag & Drop Card Movement
Single-Tap Card Movement
Double-Tap Card Movement
On-Screen Battery Meter
Left-Handed View Option
Double-Tap Auto-Move
Select Game By Number
Sequential Game Play

Sound Effects:
The game allows you to turn on WAV and sound effects to enhance game play on OS 5 devices.
Non-Annoying Sound Effects with On/Off Option

Graphics:
The graphically capability is truly unique.
In AcidSolitaire 3 and AcidFreecell 3 Red Mercury added quite a few new surprises that they discovered while developing the products, they enabled the JPEG background capability, that finally allows users to add any background they want while still keeping the image in an efficient format like JPEG. By adding alpha-blending they enabled the cards to be translucent, so the background image could show through while you are playing.

Other graphical capabilities:
Automatically Cycle Background Image When You Win
Backgrounds Scaled to Fit the Screen
Full-Screen 16-bit Color
Red Mercury JPEG Backgrounds Available for Free Download
High Resolution Plus (320x480)
Landscape Mode (480x320)
High Resolution (320x320)
Normal Resolution (160x160)
Color or Grayscale
Overall the graphics are clean, with good resolution, and wonderfully colorful.

Installation:
The installation was quick and easy

Playback Environment:
Palm Tungsten C

Pros:
As you can see Red Mercury really took out all the stops in developing this game
The game is easy to understand, it convenient, easy to play, and is a true-to-form solitary game that utilizes the full capabilities of your Palm OS 5. In the card game category, there are a lot of products, but absolutely none that come close to the feature set of AcidSolitaire 3 or AcidFreecell 3

Cons:
Unless you are a serious solitaire fan this game may not keep your attention very long.

Bottom Line:
If you are an avid solitaire game buff and are in the mood for great solitaire game action, you need AcidSolitaire and Acid Freecell on your PDA.

Purchase Information:
Cost $14.95 with free trial from our Handango software store.