Proto:Solitaire (Windows, 1990)

This page details one or more prototype versions of Solitaire (Windows, 1990).

Download Solitaire Prototypes File: solitaireprototypes.zip (108 KB) (info)

This article is a work in progress. ...Well, all the articles here are, in a way. But this one moreso, and the article may contain incomplete information and editor's notes.

Three prototypes of Solitaire have been found in prototype builds of Windows 3.0. Two of them are from very late in the game's development and have very few differences rather than the December 1989 build which has some more differences despite being nearly similar to the final product.

December 1989

To do: Document this proto and compare it with the other Solitaire builds from 1990

Although the year 1990 is credited in the about dialog, this is probably due to the said year getting closer. Some differences from the January 1990 build can be observed. It also appears to be nearly impossible to win and the whole executable is 202 kilobytes (actually, this is due to some bug with the application as restarting may lead to a completely normal game). The deck of cards is almost the same as the final game but with less animation. The winning animation is the same as the final one but after it completes, the "Deal Again?" message does not appear.

January 1990

The only known difference between the January 1990 prototype and the final version is the wording of a few error messages. No other differences are known.

Prototype	Insufficient Memory
Final	Out of memory

Prototype	Can't load Windows Help application
Final	Unable load Windows Help application

Prototype	Unable to load bitmap, use green background?
Final	Unable to load bitmap; do you want to use a green background?

Prototype	Not enough memory for bitmap dragging
Final	Insufficient memory to display card faces when cards move; select the Outline dragging box from the Options menu.

February 1990

This build is nearly identical to the final, only 3 bytes differ.