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Tired of plain old Windows solitaire? Well, then it's time you played Klondike Pro! A game developed by Brooke W. Boering from 1996 to 2002, made in his own CEEMAC programming language, and probably the last project made in it, Klondike Pro is an experiment in 'Duplicate Solitaire'.
Klondike Pro has a storyline about being in the Gold Rush of the Old West. You compete against 9 other opponents, in an attempt to be the best Klondike player in the West. Each match consists of 6 hands. You earn 500 points for getting all the cards up to the top in a hand, but any draws past the first deck deal costs you points. You earn gold nuggets for 1st, 2nd, or 3rd, and lose some for any other place. But, solitaire is heavily based on luck. How does that work?
This is where the 'Duplicate' part comes in. Each person is given the same hand when they compete. This way, the luck is mostly eliminated. As you move up in rank, the opponents get smarter, using more advanced tactics, and your winnings get slimmer, forcing you to be more skillful and more consistent if you hope to get anywhere.
Klondike Pro is an amazingly addictive game, unfortunately, the current version only lets you get to Gold Fellow rank before it asks you to pay the $20 that had been previously charged for it. Even though the 2.5.3 version is supposed to be a freeware version, and says so on the title screen. I'd say this game is a prime challenge for any hackers out there. Hint, hint.
Summary of my opinion on this, if you like solitaire, Klondike Pro will tie you to your computer like nothing else, because there's nothing else like this out there! It's just a shame it only lets you get so far.
The website for Klondike Pro is here: http://www.baymoon.com/~solitare/KlonPro2.html
If you think you can get a hold of the author (I tried, but with no luck), then go ahead!
The main download is the latest version, straight from the official website (with the addition of TEXTTEXT.TXT from version 2.1), whereas Klonpro2.zip is from the archive I found, which, I think, is version 2.1, but I don't know how reliable that source is.
discuss this game! (3 posts)
