Patience Revisited

Patience is a solitaire game for Palm OS devices. It supports the latest Palm OS 5 devices all the way back to Palm OS 2.0! It has been upgraded to support useful features of the more recent devices: color, high resolution mode, and larger screens. It comes with a wide variety of one- and two-deck games, including FreeCell, Klondike, Canfield, Spider, Montana, and many more (see below for the full list).

All of the games have the same controls; most of the time tapping on a card will move it a useful manner. When that doesn’t do what you want, you can always drag a card where you want it to go. Helpful Hints and 1024-level undo are always available.

Download the latest from the SourceForge project download page. Also see the SourceForge project page and the SourceForge home page.

Visual features include:

New in 5.1: New in 5.0: New in 2.6.2: New in 2.6.1: Known problems: If you want to report problems or have suggestions for improvements, you can contact me at pdclose@yahoo.com. I can’t promise to respond very quickly, since this is all done in my spare time, and sometimes I have less spare time than others :-) If you have a favorite solitaire game that’s not here, let me know, it’s relatively easy to add new games….

Here are some screenshots to give you an idea of the new look. There are also high res screenshots on a separate page, due to their size.
 
Patience 2.52
Patience Revisited
Mono
Greyscale
Color
Tabby Cat
Spider
Montana

The Games

Note: The number following some of the games is the Patience Revisited version where that game was introduced.
Aces High
This is a very quick and simple solitaire, rarely winnable and generally driven by the deal rather than skill. Also known as Aces Up.

 
Baker’s Dozen (5.0)
A challenging game where empty stacks can’t be filled and there are no redeals.

 
Calculation
Keeps your mind working with modulo 13 arithmetic.

 
Canfield
Another classic. Foundations start at an arbitrary rank and empty tableaus are only filled from a reserve, which must be depleted to win. This doesn’t happen very often :-). Also known as Demon.

 
Eight Off
A precursor to FreeCell, but with eight tableaus and eight stocks. Almost always winnable.

 
Forty Thieves (2.6.2)
A two-deck game, somewhat similar to Eight Off without the stocks. It is difficult to win, and relies mostly on skill. Interesting at the end, as you hope there are enough spots to “unwind” the deck far enough to get the one card you need to continue. Also known as Napoleon at St. Helena.

 
FreeCell
Another classic. Make builds in alternating colors, with eight tableaus and four stocks to temporarily hold individual cards. 99.999% are winnable!

The game numbers in “Game Info” and “Select Game” are the same as used by Windows FreeCell (the so-called “Microsoft 32,000”). Only one of these (the famous 11982) is unwinnable. See http://www.solitairelaboratory.com/freecell.html for more information on individual FreeCell game numbers, including an excellent FAQ.


 
Golf
Count up and down, try to end with fewer than four cards showing. Patience supports two variants: choose between an initial deal of 4 or 5 rows. The 4 row variant is easier; the 5 row is the classic.

Because this is a very hard game to win (the 5-card variant has perhaps a 1% win rate), many people “play for par.” Count each game as a “hole,” and the number of cards left in the tableau at the end as the number of “strokes” you took to play the hole. Aim for 4 or fewer cards left over each game. Unfortunately, Patience does not have the means to track this “score” for you…
 

Gypsy (5.0)
Classic pile building game, somewhat like Spider with alternating color order instead of strict suit order. See Miss Milligan for a variant.

 
Klondike
The classic! In fact, Klondike is often what people mean when they say “solitaire”.

 
Miss Milligan (2.6.2)
Like Gypsy, but only Kings can fill empty spaces, and with an extra reserve stack that can be used to help finish up the end-game (after the dealing deck is empty). Using this reserve, called “weaving”, can often be used to win an otherwise lost game.

 
Montana
Line up all four suits from 2 to King. Tap empty spaces to highlight the card which goes there. Tap cards to highlight where they go. Plays nicely in landscape mode (on devices that support that).

 
Picture Gallery (2.6.2)
A two-deck game with three rows that build by threes (2,5,8,J; 3,6,9,Q; and 4,7,10,K). The payoff is a collection of all the face (picture) cards, thus the name. Patricularly nice on a high-res device, where the face cards have a little picture.

 
Royal Cotillion (2.6.2)
If you play your cards right, the royal couples will line up in a dance formation for you.

A Cotillion is an 18th century dance performed by eight people; a winning game will end with eight Queens and Kings paired up, thus the name.


 
Spider
One of the most popular two-deck solitaires. Very challenging; it’s estimated that 1 in 3 are winnable, but my win percentage hovers closer to half that (15%).

 
Spiderette
A single-deck version of Spider. It seems to be less affected by skill than spider.

 
Stalactites (2.6.2)
Build four piles in order regardless of suit, but each pile only holds 13 cards.

 
Tabby Cat
Something like a combination of a one-deck spider and FreeCell. Four tableaus and one “tail” (stock). This is my favorite single-deck game, and around 60% are winnable once you get the hang of it.

 
Tarantula (2.6.2)
A variant of spider. It’s identical regarding rules and layout, but only two suits are used, so it is easier to create builds in suit order. This is a good game to learn and practice spider.

 
Terrace (5.0)
Choose your “starter” foundation card carefully, then build the foundations, both from the deck and a supplemental row. Also known as Queen of Italy.

 
Towers
Similar to FreeCell, but with ten tableaus, and more difficult since empty tableaus can only be filled with Kings, and tableaus build in suit order (instead of rank order with alternating color). More than 10% of deals are unwinnable. Also known as “Seahaven Towers™”, a trademark of Art Cabral.

 
Vegas
Klondike solitaire using Vegas rules (draw one card).

 
Wish
A very easy game, pairs of cards matching in rank are discarded until no cards are left. Approximately 25% of deals are winnable.

 
Yukon
Yukon is somewhat similar to Klondike, with a significant difference in that a (face up) stack of cards can be moved without being in any order, so long as the starting and target cards are in rank order and alternating color. Also, there is no deck; all cards are dealt at the beginning.

Copyright © 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 Paul Close

This software is released as OSI Certified Open Source under the Artistic License (see LICENSE.txt). http://www.opensource.org/

THIS PACKAGE IS PROVIDED “AS IS” AND WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

Source code derived from Patience 2.5.2 by Keith Packard, modified under the terms (below) of the source code as he released it. Note: Keith is not responsible for this version—please don’t contact him with problems.

Palm, LifeDrive, Treo, Tungsten and Zire are among the trademarks or registered trademarks owned by or licensed to Palm, Inc.

Copyright © 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999 Keith Packard

Permission to use, copy, modify, distribute, and sell this software and its documentation for any purpose is hereby granted without fee, provided that the above copyright notice appear in all copies and that both that copyright notice and this permission notice appear in supporting documentation, and that the name of Keith Packard not be used in advertising or publicity pertaining to distribution of the software without specific, written prior permission. Keith Packard makes no representations about the suitability of this software for any purpose. It is provided “as is” without express or implied warranty.

KEITH PACKARD DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES WITH REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE, INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS, IN NO EVENT SHALL KEITH PACKARD BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, INDIRECT OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.

Face cards derived from the PySol standard cardset, modified under the terms of the GNU General Public License. Originals included with this distribution. The originals are copyrighted under the GPL as follows:
Copyright (C) 1997 John Fitzgibbon
Copyright (C) 1997 Jochen Tuchbreiter <whynot@mabi.de>
Copyright (C) 1998 Markus F.X.J. Oberhumer <markus.oberhumer@jk.uni-linz.ac.at>
 
This code makes use of PalmResize: http://sourceforge.net/projects/palmresize

Copyright (c) 2004, Alexander R. Pruss
All rights reserved.

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT OWNER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.