Solebon Solitaire - 50 Games Wiki

I have been playing Smallware's Solavant Solitaire for years, it's a wonderful implementation of "hard" solitaire games, that emphasises clarity and smooth, graceful animation over flashy, distracting graphics or effects. I'm delighted that their taste and style has transitioned so well to the iPhone's touch screen. In particular, the card faces are designed to be highly readable, and the animation effects are as smooth as anything I've seen on the iPhone. These aspects of Solebon are not just style/taste decisions, that you may or may not like. On a screen as small as the iPhone's, it's very hard to display a full deck of cards (or two!) and have them be readable and manipulable with your finger. Solebon's graphics are lovely, but readable even when you have all the cards on-screen. And the animations help you see the effects your moves are having on the playfield. Clean, subtle, graceful, playable. One hint to new players: You might think that you drag the cards with your finger tip, but that's too hard to manage, you can't see the card your finger is on, and your hand obstructs half the screen. So instead, you first tap the card you want to move, and it (and any "attached" cards) will glow. Then touch the destination, and watch the whole stack move over. (Also, if your stacks get really deep, you can drag the playfield up and down to see what's below.) OK, enough raving, back to my game of Yukon!

I’ve given a review and five stars before, but I’ve been enjoying this app even more now that we are in the Covid isolation. I’ve had certain favorite ones that I would play all the time, but now I’m trying to make sure I learn each game. I’ve found some initially quite challenging, but I keep at it until I win at it. Then I keep playing it and improving my skill and move onto the next one. I’ve found some I just cannot win...yet...ha ha ha. But then I go back to others I thought were hard and “Ace” them. Different leveled games for everyone. Different ways to challenge yourself. My fun thing I do on the side. Once I gain a long win streak, I take that particular game to an actual deck of cards to really challenge myself. No “undo” button. Oh, and I love the sounds of the game. The only thing I don’t like is the weird formations of the cards after you win. I’d rather just an explosion of cards, confetti and balloons.

The most annoying thing about this app or the ONLY annoying thing about this app is it constant desire for reassurance at the App Store for reviews. Otherwise there is not a Solitaire app in the store that comes close to this for ease of use and making a Solitaire interesting. Please stop asking me to tell everybody how great this app is. ********************* All complaints handled. Recommend without reservation. ******************👍👍 Still same complaint but very minor. I have use this for years and I guess my only complaints are relatively minor one complaint is sometimes I think I broke a high score and I'd like to be able to see whether or not I did ... the screen goes dim and you just can't see if you did ... anyway but does keep track of stuff ... I like it. I recommend with no hesitation. Updating my review. I am enjoying playing ever since the latest upgrades. Still have my minor complaint about not knowing if my last game broke a record. But like last time, I recommend with no hesitation. ———————————————— I don't think it's possible to improve this anymore and this app is complete please stop upgrading it and changing it and asking for more compliments. OK I get it it's a great app it does more than possible when other people could even think of yada yada yada.

Update: This developer is extremely responsive. I complained to them directly and they researched the problem. It turns out the update changed the card face which made it unplayable for me. They kindly guided me on how to get my old card face back. The cards have been slightly enlarged which I haven’t gotten used to yet but I’m back in business. I can’t say enough about how kind and responsive this folks were. They have set a high bar for others to follow. Original 1 star review and complaint: The solitaire I’ve been playing and enjoying for quite some time just became unplayable to me. Without warning the look and feel changed making it unusable. Can I get my old look back? Please?

Update: the glitch has been fixed. I'm changing my rating to 5 stars. I have used this app for years, almost daily. It’s a perfect game for killing a few minutes, and in play it at other times as well. My two favorite games in the app are Creepy Crawly and Yukon. Ignore this paragraph — the problem has been fixed. Since the most recent update, the items in the menu bar at the bottom of the game-in-progress screen do not work at all. This means, among other problems, that to start a new game I have to completely close the game and then restart it. The problem with those menu options does not clear up after a restart.

Update: As promised, I’m returning to my original 5 star rating now that the latest update 9.02 fixes the card face problem. I’ll be hesitant to do any automatic update again until you’ve earned back my trust, since you’ve repeatedly told complaining long-time users that the changes we saw weren’t actual. Previous: Serious downgrade with the latest version. Please return the former card face options to “classic.” The new options (I tried all of them) are much harder to see to play accurately. If you do this, I’ll return to my former 5-star rating. Been playing Solebon since the old Palm Pilot days. Always got paid versions. I see from other comments I’m not alone in my reaction. Usually I greet each new version enthusiastically. You’ve been responding to critics that we should use Classic and—as though we aren’t seeing what we’re seeing—that it’s the same as prior view. IT ISN’T!!!! Why are you telling dozens of prior devoted users that we aren’t seeing what’s clearly disturbing us? Please restore the classic “balanced” card faces as an option!

Scared the crap out of me when it updated. I expected that non-essential junk detracting from the pure simplicity of the interface and the plumbing would be added. Not so, really. Thank God. Basic Klondike, like we played growing up in the pre-computer dark ages, is my sanity. When I listen to NPR, for example, or just want to do some thinking - and I do both much of the time when I'm not earning a living - I occupy my fingers with this beautiful little game. As I write this, I've played 45,040 times over the years. High time I submit a review, wouldn't you say? And now that I've finally done that, if you'll excuse me, I have a game to get back to.

In La Belle Lucie, I was very proud of myself for getting a game done in 9 seconds, only to see that it was not recorded at all. None of the stats (points, time, undos, etc.) are recorded at all. I have screenshots. I thought it was a glitch so I replayed that game several times and found that 12, 13, and 14 seconds were not recorded. But 15 seconds was put to the back of the 15 second line- which put me at 551 since there were already 550 folks who got that. Please lift that ridiculous gate that blocks users who finish before 15 seconds. This takes away from the game.

Recently I reported a freezing problem that I had hoped was annoying everyone as much as it bothered me. This version fixed the freezing problem that caused me to downgrade my usual high ratings. The developers said I was the only one who complained about this problem but they were very communicative with possible solutions. This is the best solitaire app out there. I’ve tried them all. I love how customizable the settings are. I hate animation and sounds. Most apps think we want to be entertained by cheers and watching cards shuffle. I find that annoying.

I’m still happily sitting on the last 8.x version of this game and watching the reviews in horror. Seems like the vast majority of people here hate the new version and would gladly revert to v8 if they could. Obviously, virtually nobody is happy with “Classic” mode which is nothing like the classic version of the game. You’re not going to get around that by pasting the same tired “use classic mode; it’s the same” response. There’s an easy fix for this that should make everyone happy. Re-release the old 8.x version as the last version. Then release the modern version as a separate app with an new identifier. Create a bundle of the two with the bundle price being the same as the single game price, and you’ve got a free upgrade path for the people who want it. Meanwhile the other 90% of us can keep the game we bought and actually enjoy playing. Win-win! Developer response: Apple says you’re on the current version, so I can ignore the rest of what you said *la la la I’m not listening* Or maybe my kids’ iPad auto updated, and Apple only shows the latest version installed. I’m not sure how that invalidates the rest of what is being said by so many people. Original 5-star review: I play thousands of hands per year in this app. Simple and perfect.

I’ve had this app for ages, and I love the games. When you get tired of one, it’s easy to switch and challenge yourself as you get used to the new rules. (Wait, this one doesn’t build b/r/b, it’s only within the suit...) However, opened it this evening to a notice they’ve added a more modern look, and while they’ve left mine on classic view, I can change that in the settings. Well, even classic view has changed, and the cards look childish and a little out of proportion. The way the symbols and numbers/letters line up just isn’t quite right. I expect I’ll get used to it, but it’s really frustrating the this “update” has made the app uglier in my opinion.

I have played over half of the games that are offered and there are games in which it seems impossible to win. I’ll try and try and then will give up and go to how to win. I will watch step-by-step the game progress and then it’ll show an illegal move I.e. a whole stack of cars being moved to tabloid column for no rhyme or reason. I didn’t go and try to replicate the move and of course it won’t let me because it’s against the rules. It only happens in certain games but it is very frustrating after having a streak end because you can’t follow what the rules are. Other than that I enjoy it a lot and they’re very creative games.

I’ve had the Solebon solitaire app installed since my first iPhone 3GS over a decade ago. It’s a great set of games, and well worth the cost. My only complaint is that the app was originally marketed with the slogan “no easy solitaire” - and then Solebon added a “winning deal” mode allowing easy solitaire. That’s fine if you want to play in easy mode, but the leaderboards don’t differentiate. It’s frustrating to see a player with 90,000+ wins in a row for a game that statistically would only allow a 5% win rate. It’s impossible unless the player is “cheating” by using winning deal. Those playing in true random deal mode should have separate leader boards.

UPDATE 2: Great, so you are finally admitting that the cards are not the “exact same.” Why have you been gaslighting your users? Frankly, it’s unbelievable. And still no comment on the bloat or slowness. I’m taking a star away for the poor response from the developer. UPDATE: Firstly, the cards are NOT the same and if you need screenshots to prove it, I will happily provide them. I do not understand why you will not accept that your long-term users have an issue with this release. I would be willing to bet that most of us spend more time in you app than you do. Secondly, you did not address my other two issues: bloat and slowness. This update is a huge step back and a correction is needed. The 9.0 update is very disappointing. The app grew from 46MB to 145MB just to add many unnecessary features. Cards are uglier now, and the app takes significantly longer to load. Gameplay is still OK, I guess, but the experience is aggravating now. Another example of a developer ‘improving’ an app that didn’t need to be improved.