Solitaire (Windows, 2007)

The 2007 version of Solitaire included with Windows Vista and 7 is a reworked version of the 1990 original with enhanced HD graphics, some new features, and a cool ending animation. Other than that, though, it plays exactly the same.

To do: See if more of the options work in the Vista version. This was tested with the Windows 7 version. There's much more to document. A good place to start would be to use Resource Hacker on the game executable and DLLs. Add subpage for Media Center Solitaire, a full-screen version of the game embedded into the game's executable which, while technically used since it can be launched from Windows Media Center, is not documented in any Help menus and contains a whole bunch of unused content the normal game doesn't. Multiple prototypes exist in various Windows Longhorn/Vista prototypes. Collect all of them and create a Prototype page. Win8 DP1 (6.2.8102.0 (winmain_win8m3.110823-1455)) saw the removal of the built-in Windows games from the edition manifest for Prerelease(ARM); this change would be later expanded through the removal of most Win7 client editions (excluding Starter(N), Professional(N) and Enterprise(N)) from the source tree during early 830x, orphaning the games entirely. The only catch to this, however, is that the Win7 games were still compiled from until as late as Win10 v1703, which is when MS decided to ditch the rest of the older editions entirely. The binaries were included in the provided repair content sources for the following builds: 8250 (Win8 Consumer Preview), 8400 (Win8 Release Preview), 9200 (Win8 RTM), 9431 (Win8.1 BlueMP), 9600 (Blue RTM), 10586 (Win10 v1511) and 14393 x86 (Win10 v1607). As the enablement flags for the games are still present in every SKU's product policies, it'd be a good idea if someone were to re-enable them through ProductPolicyEditor and look through any noticeable code changes from within their binaries.

Cheat Code#

Holding Ctrl + Alt + Shift while clicking on the deck causes only one card to be drawn regardless of the Draw Three options. It also enables you to move any card or bunch to any other stack irrespective of card color or number.

Debug Mode#

By setting the internal g_bDebugEnabled variable to a nonzero value, various debugging features are enabled. This value isn't written to by the game, so it must be set manually.

Menu#

Instead of the normal menu (resource 102), the game loads this alternative one (resource 103) from Solitaire.exe.mui. Most of it is self-explanatory, but "Toggle Deck Lock" appears to have no effect.

Block Mode#

Holding F6 causes the playfield to be rendered in gray with ever grayer boxes representing the cards.

Pause Mode#

Pressing Home causes the display to freeze. Nothing else stops, so the time continues in timed games and sound effects still play, but with no visual feedback. Pressing End resumes the display. Insert can be used to toggle this on and off.

Solver Debugging#

A different debugging option can be enabled by launching the executable with the -solverdebug argument. This is also present in Spider Solitaire.

Logging#

Like with debugging, there are two internal variables that control UTF-16 logging either to log.txt in the current directory (g_uiFileMask) or redirected standard output (g_uiConsoleMask). Also like debugging, they are not written to by the game so it must be enabled manually.

A sample log:

SolLogGeneral: (673) SolitaireGame::FindHigherCardToPutOnStack() - Not a main stack, don't bother checking.
CardLibLogGeneral: (674) CardStack::SetHighlight()::bHighlight == false
CardLibLogGeneral: (675) Card::SetHighlight()::bHighlight == false
0x00002000: (676) Hide tip
Rendering: (884) SetState: 260
Rendering: (885) (RenderManager.cpp:2156) Present Failed: 88760868(D3DERR_DEVICELOST)
Rendering: (886) (RenderManager.cpp:1704) Resuming after lost device
Rendering: (887) (Font.cpp:691) Invalidating a font cache
Rendering: (888) (Font.cpp:691) Invalidating a font cache
Rendering: (889) (RenderManager.cpp:2253) Reset: 800 x 496 format 22
Rendering: (890) (RenderManager.cpp:1465) RecreateDefaultResources()
UI: (891) Recreating font: Segoe UI
UI: (892) Recreating font: Segoe UI
Rendering: (893) (RenderManager.cpp:150) CreateCachedBackBuffer()
Rendering: (894) SetState: 4096
Core: (909) Engine_GotFocus()
Timekeeping: (910) Reset timers
Core: (911) Engine_LostFocus()
Core: (912) Engine_GotFocus()
Timekeeping: (913) Reset timers
Rendering: (914) (RenderManager.cpp:2369) Saved the back buffer for cached presentation
CardLibLogGeneral: (915) CardStack::SetEnabled()::bAccess == true
Core: (916) Engine_LostFocus()

With logging and debug mode enabled, pressing F11 dumps the in-use images and sounds to the log.

XInput Support#

An interesting feature that isn't documented officially is XInput (gamepad) support—if the game detects an Xbox 360 controller plugged into one of the PC's USB ports, the P1 corner on the controller will light up, signifying the controller can be used.

Possibly left undocumented due because Microsoft thought people were too used to the traditional controls, and a gamepad wouldn't work well for a card game. It's a neat little feature, nonetheless.

Controls#