Solitaire Games Reviewed and Venturing Into Auctions on the Net August 11th If you are a solitaire fan, there are a couple of rather unique games for Macs now on the market. One has recently been revised. The other has been available since 1997. I am going to review them for you. Then I am going to talk about venturing into the world of auctions on the Internet. What are they? How do they work? Are they legit? What can you find there? Games Dragon 2.5 Both of these games can be downloaded from www.download.com. The first one is Beat the Dragon 2.5. This is a newly revised version of the game that fixes some problems that were in the original. It was created by Tom Lakovic of GRAPHICAindustra (http://www.graphicaindustria.com/interactive) and is shareware. The file size is 382K and it downloads quickly. The shareware fee is only $10, but you can download a trial copy to see if you like it. This game really is different (actually, I think it is evil, but that is just me!) This is an original, addictive and incredibly frustrating version of solitaire that was created just for the Macintosh. The goal of the game is to build all four foundation piles before this dragon with an attitude problem pops out and you loose. He only pops out where there are no more moves. Basically, you move a card or a pile of cards onto the top of another pile. For example, if a King of Hearts is exposed--i.e., if it's the top- most card in a pile--you can move a card or a pile of cards onto it only if the card you click on is the Queen of Hearts. All you have to do is click on the Queen and it (along with any cards that may be resting on it) will be moved automatically to the destination pile (i.e., the pile with the King on top). There are also a number of face-down piles, the cards of which can only be brought into play once there are no cards remaining on top of that face-down pile. So, bringing all the face-down cards into play constitutes the main strategy of the game, and any important decisions you make will probably be based on bringing the maximum number of cards into the tableau. Eventually you will create an empty pile: you can play any King (along with any cards that may be resting on that King) into an empty space, again, by simply clicking on the King to be moved. To build onto foundation piles, start by clicking a lone Ace of any suit and then build up and in suit, one card at a time. There are sound effects, but they can be turned off and they are not irritating. This version of the game is well designed and it works wonderfully well on my 68030 Mac. I think this game is fun and it is definitely different. Absolute Solitaire The second game is Absolute Solitaire, created by MacSoft. It is available as a demo and the file size is 341K. The demo downloaded very quickly on my machine. This game offers 24 different versions of solitaire and is not dissimilar to other ersions of solitaire games available, but it does offer some great features that make playing it more fun. It is well designed and there is automatic flipping of cards. You can move cards with a click o the mouse rather than having to drag and drop from one pile to another. You have a choice of card faces and backgrounds so you can create a combination that is both visually pleasing to you and easy on your eyes. There are built in instructions for each game and you can find out what moves are available by holding down the option key. Another feature that I like is that you can replay the game and/or undo moves. You know how it is when you loose a game and say to yourself "if only I had........" Well now you can. Since this is a demo and not shareware, you can't simply pay over the net. It is available as part of a package of 4 games called the Fun Pack at computer stores that carry Mac software, or you can order it through the 800 number included with the demo. The price quoted to me by the company is $19.95 for the package. Auctions About those Internet auctions. I first heard about them several months ago, although the one I am covering today has been in operation since September of 1995. In a nutshell, people who are registered can advertise products of any kind. Customers can view the information available and place a bid. There are start and end times on each item and whoever has the highest bid at the close is able to purchase the item. Items are purchased directly from the seller. There are many other options when it comes to selling your items or placing bids on someone else's items depending on the auction site. eBay eBay was easy to use. There are 1600 categories divided into divisions and subdivisions. For instance, under antiques there are 17 subdivisions for things like ancient world, folk art, medical, and furniture. If you don't want to look through categories, you can always perform a search for keywords. The site will not allow firearms, weapons, pirated software, pirated movies, police badges, skulls, live animals, illegal drugs, drug paraphernalia, false ID documents, cable or satellite dish descramblers, and embargoed items such as Cuban cigars. You must register to use this system, but there is no charge to register. Registration includes the normal questions plus address and phone. This information is necessary because of the operations of the auction site. There are no charges related to purchasing through eBay. There are a number of fees related to selling. The site contains a great deal of information about the officers of the company and how the company operates; including an extensive list of awards they have received. When Purchasing You will get a description of the merchandise, sometimes accompanied by a photo. You will be told what payment methods are accepted (credit, check, COD) and who pays for the shipping. The start and end date and time for the item to be available for bid is noted. A minimum bid amount is also included. You will be given information about the seller. This site maintains a Feedback Forum that allows you, as a buyer, to check up on the reputation and reliability of sellers. There is a Bidding Tutorial available for first time users who are not sure how the system of bidding works. There are sales of individual items and sales of multiple items. Multiple items are sold as a Dutch Auction. Dutch Auctions are used when a seller has multiple identical items to sell and all winning bidders pay the same price, which is the lowest successful bid. Once you win, contact must be made between the buyer and seller. As a general practice, sellers are supposed to contact winning bidders within 3 business days after the auction ends. However, it can work the other way as well. According to the terms of participation on the site, a high bid becomes a contract. When Selling It is very easy to access and provide information when selling. You provide a category, a description of the item(s), the payments methods you will accept, how many days you want the auction to last, who pays for the shipping, number of items, and what you consider to be a minimum bid. You pay a small fee when the item is first posted. There are additional advertising options available for additional fees. These include boldface type, featured item category, and icons. When the sale is successfully concluded the seller pays a final value fee to eBay based on the final selling price. All of this is explained in great detail so that the seller knows exactly what is involved. You are required to have some funds on deposit before you list items. This is a very brief overview of a complex site. It is quite easy to use and is well organized. They certainly give the impression of being a well established business (they are traded as a public company on the stock market) and one in which there are no second chances for anyone who doesn’t represent him or her self accurately or who doesn’t supply the goods as promised. I only personally know two individuals who have used eBay extensively and both report that they have been very pleased with the site. I recommend that you check it out if you are interested in hunting for bargains or for unusual items. If you have any tips, hints, or thoughts on these topics, make sure you write me so that I can share your thoughts with other readers.