Solitaire XL: It’s In The Cards

Solitaire XL IconSolitaire XL is one of the better Solitaire games you will ever find; it’s certainly the best on a Mac. If you were a Windows user before making the switch to the Mac platform, chances are you used to play Solitaire every now and then. On the whole, Windows Solitaire is well done, simple, and does no more than what’s needed. If you’re looking for a Solitaire game that could rival the Windows version, look no further, because this is it.

One of my favorite features is the transparency effect; it doesn’t need a window behind it, but you can still resize it based on your preference. You can put an image on the back of the cards if the default blue gradient doesn’t float your boat. Overall, the game is very well done, and should be packaged with Mac OS X. Add this to your list of freeware Mac games.

Unfortunately, it does come with a couple of faults. While playing sometimes, a bug in the game will prevent you from moving a card somewhere, or clicking on something. You can usually get rid of the problem by clicking another card or something else. This is somewhat annoying because there’s no proper fix for it, especially when you’re close to winning.

Solitaire XL Window

A couple of other gripes are that when making the game very small, the cards seem to be cut off, making it look unnatural. Also, I wished it would come with more choices for the backs of the cards; there’s only one option, although you can also add your own images.

But do not let any of these things get you down, it’s still a game of Solitaire that’s very well done, and definitely something you will continue to use in your spare time. There’s no reason not to check out Solitaire XL.

Comments

9 Responses to “Solitaire XL: It’s In The Cards”

  1. Peter on July 18th, 2007 10:58 am

    The best Klondike solitaire implementation on any OS is Klondike Forever :
    http://www.solitaireforever.com/klondike/

  2. Cat on July 18th, 2007 11:30 am

    Solitaire XL is a great little app, for all the reasons you gave. I haven’t run into that mouse click bug myself.

    But, Gerald, please tell me: what is that desktop wallpaper you’re using and where can I get it? :)

  3. steve on July 18th, 2007 12:32 pm

    good app, is there anything good for hearts?

  4. Gerald Llorence on July 18th, 2007 1:41 pm

    @Cat,
    here’s my wallpaper. Its in this huge pack, along with lots of others, I have it set to change every day.
    http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/59431465/

  5. Captain on July 25th, 2007 9:05 am

    Solitaire is fine, but what I’d really like is a good Freecell game for Mac. The only good Freecell game I’ve found is the one that comes with Linux running Gnome. It’s fantastic.

  6. slark on July 27th, 2007 10:37 am

    Captain, check out PySol (http://pysol-osx.sourceforge.net/), it’s got 12 different types of FreeCell.

  7. Pat on October 26th, 2008 9:56 am

    Like the game but can not figure out why you can cheat and see “under” the card. It usually lets you know where the card originally came from, what purpose is that?

  8. Sarah on December 20th, 2008 4:02 pm

    My favorite solitaire for the mac is http://www.freemacware.com/mac-solitaire.

    The window is smaller, non-transparent, and you can choose your card backs. It floated my boat more than this application. :)

  9. Erin on April 10th, 2009 12:14 am

    in order to get the game to unfreeze click on the deck and it will work [:

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