Advanced SearchUser Name dsrussell
Member Since 2000-08-17
Total number of Feedback Posts: 5
Total number of comments: 1
Last 10 Feedback Posts by dsrussell [ Search for All ]
Klondike Forever 1.1.1 (Mac OS X)
Well designed and thought out. 
Klondike Forever is an extremely attractive (almost beautiful) and well-designed game. What's most surprising is that this is freeware, not shareware. This game also gives you a taste of what their shareware product, "Solitaire Forever" would be like (an almost endless supply of solitaire games). Yes, I plan on purchasing Solitaire Forever very soon. The board and card layout is nothing less than outstanding. Large, natural and easy to read card faces (the same as the Bicycle decks that you'd buy -- familiar and drawn to perfection). I can't tell you how many solitaire games I've trashed just because the card faces are silly, or busy, or they try to be unique and fancy, only to be difficult to read. Another big plus are the sound effects. They seem spot on (most never get this quite right). I play with all of the wiz-bang animated effects turned off (far too busy and distracting for my tastes). However, I do like the way the cards flip. Not only does it perform this smoothly, it is also entertaining to watch. The game layout (looks like the cards are placed on a piece of glass that is leaned against a green background) is shown at a slight angle and perspective (similar to the view one gets from actually playing a real game of solitaire). This enhances the entire look and feel. I immediately fell in love with the looks and felt right at home. And as one adds cards to a growing pile, the pile adjusts smoothly and nicely to keep all the cards on the game (glass) board. For a very fluid and quick game of Solitaire (on my G4 running Tiger, no less), this one just can't be beat. The designers knew what they were doing and what was important (once one turns off the additional effects -- of course, many may like these effects). I do have a minor complaint or two. While the preferences are beautifully designed as well, it is accessed by one button (the only button icon on the playing screen) that takes you to a separate preference screen. I would have liked to have seen a few basic control icons at the game level (although there are adjustments one can make in the menu bar). More significantly, while it does play very smoothly, it does so without anything else activating or working in the background. It seems to suck up all the computing cycles. One additional note: I've looked and tried out dozens of solitaire games (yeah, all the big ones), and the only other one I've found that compares to Klondike and / or Solitaire Forever is the beautiful shareware game, "Hardwood Solitaire III". It has soothing, beautiful background music that you just won't find anywhere else (that enhances an already gorgeous background and visual effects). Both games are must haves for me. [alert admin]
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Sunday, March 09 2008 @ 05:17 PM PDT
SparkME 2.5 (Mac OS X)
know squat about audio software. And like many, I burn cd's from my music library in order to have my favorite songs on the go. Problem? Turning the volume up on some cuts and then be blasted by others. I've tried several programs and all were over my head. While they may be powerful (or not, I wouldn't have a clue), nothing seemed simple. I read pages of instructions, yet couldn't find out how do this seemingly simple procedure, that is, until I downloaded SPARKme by TC Works. Here’s a program that even a simpleton like me can operate. It's professional looking (elegant) and does exactly what I want it to do. No muss, no fuss. I want to express my sincere gratitude to the engineers at TC Works for providing people such as me a first-rate piece of software that is a joy to use. And that TC Works does NOT charge a nominal fee for this little beauty is amazing. As Roger Waters would say, "It's A Miracle". [alert admin]
Wednesday, May 08 2002 @ 09:33 PM PDT
Greg's Browser 2.7 (Mac OS 9)
a half dozen shareware programs that I find indispensible, and Greg's Browser is one of them. This product has been on the market for some time and it won a deserving award in MacWorld magazine a few years ago. This is a terrific interface (like NeXT and prior to OS X) that allows you to view your entire hard drive. I wish, however, that Greg would incorporate more room on the launcher via a scroll bar so I could add more applications. [alert admin]
Saturday, June 23 2001 @ 10:51 AM PDT
Escape Velocity 1.0.5 (Mac OS 9)
SW, and thank you Matt Birch for this incredible game. I've had one version or another since 1.0 and even to this day it is immensely enjoyable. This is the game that started a revolution (the plug revolution). While EV Override was a nice follow up, I'm looking forward to version 3.0 of the original Escape Velocity. Games don't come any better than this space adventure. [alert admin]
Saturday, June 23 2001 @ 10:51 AM PDT
Boogle 2.0 (Mac OS 9)
the author: I really don't know if this game is any good or not. I downloaded it to see if this might be a fun exercise for the kids, but ended up being so frustrated at its time-delay protection feature, I gave up. Hey, this is shareware, and that should mean that I should get at least one day or a dozen plays before being hit with your "protection" scheme. It may have had potential, but it went into the trash after 4 plays. From the little I could see, this is only a one-player game. [alert admin]
Saturday, June 23 2001 @ 10:51 AM PDT
Last 10 Comments by dsrussell [ Search for All ]
Well designed and thought out. 
I ended up purchasing their shareware version (Solitaire Forever), but I must say that you simply cannot do anything else in the background (at least, not on my G4). This thing hogs ALL the resources (reminds me of the pre-OS X days). Because of this major bug, I really should have rated this 3 stars instead of 5. My mistake. I let the look and feel go to my head, so…
Original feedback item : Read More(1 words)
Wednesday, March 19 2008 @ 01:52 AM PDT
