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View Full Version : My RAM is Here, Wall and High Score


Andy Sjostrom
03-31-2003, 08:31 AM
<a href="http://asia.cnet.com/reviews/hardware/notebooks/0,39001748,39008520p,00.htm">http://asia.cnet.com/reviews/hardware/notebooks/0,39001748,39008520p,00.htm</a><br /><br />Spring is on its way to Sweden bringing garden work and outdoor activities to the agenda. We started building a second stone wall, but it won't come anywhere near <a href="http://groups.msn.com/buildingastonewall/_homepage.msnw?pgmarket=en-us">our first</a> in size. The last six months have been a tough at work. Too little RAM in my laptop: 700 MHz, 512 MB RAM. Finally, I get to order a new: <a href="http://asia.cnet.com/reviews/hardware/notebooks/0,39001748,39008520p,00.htm">2 GHz, 1 GB RAM</a>. Ed recently asked: <a href="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=98101">"WIMR? (Where Is My Ram?)"</a>. Well, I know my RAM is heading this way!<br /><br />To end this rather off-topic beginning of this week I have two questions. The last couple of weeks I have played... Solitaire. I've set it to draw one card and keep a standard scoring.<br />Q1: My high score is 710 and it seems it can't get any higher. Can it?<br />Q2: Does anyone know the true story behind Solitaire and why this simple game has made it into almost every Windows version?

DrtyBlvd
03-31-2003, 09:11 AM
I'd say "Dude, you're getting a Dell"

Good question re Solitaire. I'm more impressed that you got 710 than puzzled by what it's possible to get. You must play a lot. 8O :lol:

Andy Sjostrom
03-31-2003, 09:13 AM
I'd say "Dude, you're getting a Dell"

Good question re Solitaire. I'm more impressed that you got 710 than puzzled by what it's possible to get. You must play a lot. 8O :lol:


Yes, it's a Dell. I've gone to Dell three times recently. My home PC, Pocket PC and now this...

It's been many Solitaire games lately! :oops:

jeffmd
03-31-2003, 11:15 AM
512 megs to LITTLE? id say its your cpu and video chipset thats keeping you down. I play the latest games on 512 megs pretty easily.

as for your 2nd solitare question, my guess is.. because theres nothing new to code! the solitare in winxp isnt all that different from what you got in windows 95. Its also not hard to code.. heck I could program the logic part of it right now... make up a flash version of the game even. ^^

I'll prolly get dell if I ever upgrade my toshiba in the next year or 2.. but the toshiba I baught does everything but gaming, so im very content with it. I baught the toshiba useing a kick butt rebate.

Pony99CA
03-31-2003, 12:02 PM
To end this rather off-topic beginning of this week I have two questions. The last couple of weeks I have played... Solitaire. I've set it to draw one card and keep a standard scoring.
Q1: My high score is 710 and it seems it can't get any higher. Can it?
Q2: Does anyone know the true story behind Solitaire and why this simple game has made it into almost every Windows version?
You should be able to calculate the highest possible score. Let's try. :-)

Assume a non-timed game; you lose 2 points every 10 seconds in a timed game. You get 10 points for each card moved to the home row, 5 points for each card moved onto the board from the draw pile and 5 points for each card on the board you turn over. There are 28 cards on the main board to start, 21 of which are covered. That leaves 24 cards in the draw pile.

So, the highest possible score = 21 * 5 + 24 * 5 + 52 * 10 = 105 + 120 + 520 = 745.

Steve

pocketpcdude1024
03-31-2003, 12:15 PM
Go for a timed game! If you complete the game you get a really big bonus at the end! My high score is something like 5200... :D

There was actually a topic a while back about the presence of solitare in every Windows machine to date:
http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=5074

sponge
03-31-2003, 12:46 PM
I agree, processor is holding you back not RAM. But you can't get much higher than 2GHz for laptops without cutting off several limbs, so it's a killer system 1GB ram or 512MB.

Mike Temporale
03-31-2003, 01:45 PM
Q2: Does anyone know the true story behind Solitaire and why this simple game has made it into almost every Windows version?

I thought everyone knew this. It's there because it teaches you how to use a mouse, click and drag, etc... It's there to help new users get familiar with the OS and mice. I know, mice are nothing new, but they were when windows first came out. This was designed for that reason. :D

lurch
03-31-2003, 02:24 PM
Best solitaire game/setup ever:

Vegas scoring, no timed game, draw one card. Each person plays 3 games all in a row and then compare scores at the end. :)

In college my roommate and I played this just about every night before we went to sleep.

:rock on dude!:

Janak Parekh
03-31-2003, 02:30 PM
Q2: Does anyone know the true story behind Solitaire and why this simple game has made it into almost every Windows version?
FWIW, it didn't exist in Windows 1.x (Reversi was the only game back then). I think Windows 2.x was the first version to feature Solitaire (i.e., Solitaire and Reversi). v3.x replaced Reversi with Minesweeper.

--janak

Andy Sjostrom
03-31-2003, 02:34 PM
512 megs to LITTLE? id say its your cpu and video chipset thats keeping you down. I play the latest games on 512 megs pretty easily.

No, 512 MB is too little. My laptop is also my entire development environement running Internet Information Server, COM+ Services, MSMQ, Biztalk Server, SQL Server and all the dev tools (VS.NET etc). Right after booting, I have more than 250 MB RAM occupied. After a couple of hours of work, my laptop starts disk swapping!

trachy
03-31-2003, 02:37 PM
I agree, processor is holding you back not RAM. But you can't get much higher than 2GHz for laptops without cutting off several limbs, so it's a killer system 1GB ram or 512MB.

I agree that the processor is part of the problem, but the bigger issue is probably your hard drive. Laptop drives typically spin up to about 5400 RPMs (vs. 7200 for desktops), so their slow access times bog down everything else. Another factor is likely your system bus.

My 2 cents. Time to move this off topic? Oh, wait.... :-)

- Drew

Janak Parekh
03-31-2003, 02:45 PM
I agree that the processor is part of the problem, but the bigger issue is probably your hard drive. Laptop drives typically spin up to about 5400 RPMs (vs. 7200 for desktops)
Actually, a lot of the smaller laptops use even slower, 4200RPM, hard drives. I recently retrofitted a 5400RPM hard drive in my 700MHz Sony SR17K. It was amazingly fast.

Andy, why on earth are you doing all that development on your laptop? ;) I have a 2GHz P4 at home with a 15,000RPM SCSI drive to do that kind of stuff. :D

--janak

Pony99CA
03-31-2003, 02:56 PM
The last six months have been a tough at work. Too little RAM in my laptop: 700 MHz, 512 MB RAM. Finally, I get to order a new: 2 GHz, 1 GB RAM (http://asia.cnet.com/reviews/hardware/notebooks/0,39001748,39008520p,00.htm). Jason recently asked: "WIMR? (Where Is My Ram?)" (http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=98101). Well, I know my RAM is heading this way!
That laptop sounds a lot like my new Fujitsu C2210 (http://webshop.fujitsupc.com/fpc/Ecommerce/buildseriesbean.do?series=AC). If you visit that link, mine sounds like the middle configuration. I don't have the built-in WiFi, but I paid $200 less and got a $40 rebate. :-)

With the money I saved, I bought 512 MB of RAM, so I have 768 MB now (unfortunately, I can't get to 1 GB). So far, it's kicking some major butt. :way to go:

Steve

Andy Sjostrom
03-31-2003, 03:03 PM
Andy, why on earth are you doing all that development on your laptop? ;) I have a 2GHz P4 at home with a 15,000RPM SCSI drive to do that kind of stuff. :D
--janak


I like to stay mobile! :D I often move around a lot. Sometimes I am at home, sometimes at the office and sometimes at the client's site.

Andy Sjostrom
03-31-2003, 03:15 PM
Arrggh! I had hoped 710 would be the max. Now I have to keep trying. 0X

Pony99CA
03-31-2003, 03:29 PM
Arrggh! I had hoped 710 would be the max. Now I have to keep trying. 0X
One trick I've found to maximize your score is to never move cards from the draw pile to the home row if you can move them to the main board first. If you move them to the main board and then to the home row, you get 15 points; if you move them to the home row directly, you only get 10.

Steve

Fitch
03-31-2003, 05:26 PM
The last six months have been a tough at work. Too little RAM in my laptop: 700 MHz, 512 MB RAM. Finally, I get to order a new: 2 GHz, 1 GB RAM (http://asia.cnet.com/reviews/hardware/notebooks/0,39001748,39008520p,00.htm). Jason recently asked: "WIMR? (Where Is My Ram?)" (http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=98101). Well, I know my RAM is heading this way!
That laptop sounds a lot like my new Fujitsu C2210 (http://webshop.fujitsupc.com/fpc/Ecommerce/buildseriesbean.do?series=AC)

I got the C2111. Those Fujitsu's are gorgeous and you can find good deals on them through pricewatch. With all the stuff that comes built in, I couldn't build a Dell for any cheaper.

jeffmd
03-31-2003, 06:48 PM
janak is right, most laptops use slower rpm drives for power and heat reasons. considering your useing your laptop as a full fledged workstation, im surprised you lived with 700mhz up to now. me on the other hand, I just keep building more PCs to handel different things. &lt;g>

Hx4700
03-31-2003, 07:02 PM
Hi,
I didn't know the max score was 745 - I had figured about 780, but I see you are correct.
I play the simple untimed, one-card game.
I have gotten 730 and 735 a few times. They seem to run in spurts. One trick of course is to move as many as you can to the board instead of straight to the home boxes, even the Aces.
Ron...

ctmagnus
04-01-2003, 06:10 AM
And does everyone know how to "cheat" at solitaire :D ? This works on every version of Windows Solitaire I've ever played (3.x+, including Pocket PC)

pocketpcdude1024
04-01-2003, 12:20 PM
And does everyone know how to "cheat" at solitaire :D ? This works on every version of Windows Solitaire I've ever played (3.x+, including Pocket PC)
I'm listening... 8) I would be very interested if there is really a cheat for solitaire...

Pony99CA
04-01-2003, 12:32 PM
And does everyone know how to "cheat" at solitaire :D ? This works on every version of Windows Solitaire I've ever played (3.x+, including Pocket PC)
I'm listening... 8) I would be very interested if there is really a cheat for solitaire...
Check out these Solitaire cheats (http://www.buy4pocketpc.co.uk/howto/default.asp?HOWTO_ID=35), courtesy of a :google: search using Pocket PC Solitaire cheat.

I'd heard of the perfect hand cheat before, but not the draw-one cheat.

By the way, the perfect hand cheat does allow you to get a score of 745, so my math was correct. :-D

Steve

pocketpcdude1024
04-01-2003, 01:54 PM
:google: is awesome! However, I don't play 3 cards; I only play 1 so the cheat doesn't apply...

Pony99CA
04-01-2003, 08:06 PM
:google: is awesome! However, I don't play 3 cards; I only play 1 so the cheat doesn't apply...
The perfect hand cheat works in one-card mode. Did you try it?

Yeah, it's not useful during a real game, but it's still fun to know about -- and to try once.

Steve

pocketpcdude1024
04-01-2003, 09:01 PM
:google: is awesome! However, I don't play 3 cards; I only play 1 so the cheat doesn't apply...
The perfect hand cheat works in one-card mode. Did you try it?

Yeah, it's not useful during a real game, but it's still fun to know about -- and to try once.

Steve

Standard Scoring, 1 card, timed game
Time: 124
Score: 6344

cherring
04-02-2003, 11:12 PM
Hi there,
timed game, over 12000. I can't beat the lady that sits at the switchboard, though, she hits 14500 often.

pocketpcdude1024
04-02-2003, 11:28 PM
Hi there,
timed game, over 12000. I can't beat the lady that sits at the switchboard, though, she hits 14500 often.
8O

What settings do you have it on? 3-card/1-card, Standard/Vegas/None scoring? Timed game? The settings I have mine on it's physically impossibe to get any score like that!

cherring
04-03-2003, 09:32 PM
Timed game, standard, draw one. My apologies, the top score I've achieved is 11704. I keep screenshots if you would like to see it.

pocketpcdude1024
04-03-2003, 10:23 PM
Hmm. Those are the settings that I have. Not that I doubt you, but... could I see those screenshots? :D

cherring
04-03-2003, 11:14 PM
They're at http://www.abvest.com/images/score41.jpg and http://www.abvest.com/images/score42.jpg as soon as they're uploaded.

I have a habit of playing a game everytime I wait for a site or page to load or generally if I'm waiting for something to happen. So you can see I get a fair amount of practice. Non more than the lady at reception. I stopped competing when she hit 13000. I knew I couldn't beat her and now she's way out my league.

pocketpcdude1024
04-04-2003, 12:49 AM
Your time is 61! Incredible!

You'd better not let Foo see those pics- there's a song entitled "Foo Fighter's All My Life" :lol:

ctmagnus
12-10-2003, 01:34 AM
I just found this out, and it works only on the desktop version:

ctrl-shift-right click will throw up all available cards onto the suit stacks. Ie, if you have all four aces and a two on the row stacks, this action will move those five cards up in the correct order.