Mike's Cards

This review took about 6 months too long to write and it's all Mike Sedore's fault!

Mike kindly donated a copy of Mike's Cards and Mike's Marbles for use in the AUSOM iMac Raffle.

In return for his donation, we agreed to write a review of the games. The only problem was every time I went to grab screen shots of Mike's Cards for use in the review, I'd get enticed in to playing actual games to their completion and then the time I'd allocated to actually spend on writing the review had disappeared.

Features

Mike's Cards feature over 100 different card games in five different categories - Contemporary, Casino, Kid's, One-Pack Solitaire and Two-Pack Solitaire, with my favourite games include FreeCell, Go Fish, and Klondike by Threes.

List of Kid's Games

Don't worry if you don't know how to play any of the games, there are full instructions included for each game and they can be printed if required.

Rules for FreeCell

You also have a set of Statistics recorded for each individual game that show your Score, the Average Score, the number of Games Played, the number Won and the number Lost.

Statistics

A feature I wished I had learnt about earlier (so I could write this review) is the ability to save and re-load games mid-play, so you can return to them later and one very useful feature is the Auto-Play mode, that plays any card automatically for you that is free to be play but no longer aids in the strategy of the game.

To make game play a little easier, if needed, you have unlimited undo's and redo's as well as an Easy mode that allows you to "bend" the rules a little.

A feature that I am yet to try, but sounds interesting is the ability to create your own games. This has a lot of potential. Even if you aren't interested in creating your own games, you can still customize the interface with your own graphics or sounds, or use the various supplied themes.

Themes

Requirements

Mike's Cards requires System 7.6.1 or higher, including OS X and the same version works on all Macs (68K and PPC).

However, 68K Macs require the CFM Extension to be installed and a few of you not quite up to date might find that you require InternetConfig to be installed as well.

There is also a Windows version available.

Purchasing Mike's Cards

Both the Macintosh and Windows versions of Mike's Cards are available for immediate download and cost only US$25.

purchase »

Other Games by Mike Sedore

Mike also offers a variety of other games packages.

Mike's Cards Lite

A free version, called Mike's Cards Lite, is available with 7 different card games, including;

• Arcade Poker
• Forty Thieves
• Go Fish
• Klondike
• La Belle Lucie
• Spider
• The Towers

download »

Mike's Marbles

Mike also donated a copy of Mike's Marbles as a prize in the AUSOM iMac Raffle.

Mike's Marbles is a collection of over many block-falling and marble-shooting puzzlers with style.

It too is available for Mac OS and Windows and costs US$25.

purchase »

Mike's Arcade

Since the AUSOM iMac Raffle, Mike has released a new product called Mike's Arcade.

Mike's Arcade is a collection of games based on previous Arcade Classics and includes;

• Maze Muncher (PacMan)
• Exterminator (Galaxian)
• Meteor Strike (Asteriods)
• Hover Racer
• Q-Bird

It too is available for Mac OS and Windows and again costs US$25.

purchase »

Special Offer

Purchase all three packages (Mike's Cards, Marbles and Arcade) together for the price of two. Just select the "Mike's 3-pack" option on the purchase screen.

Credits

AUSOM would like to thank Mike Sedore for donating licenced version of Mike's Cards and Mike's Marbles, as well as review copies, for use in the AUSOM iMac Raffle.

A copy of this article, with colour images, is available from my website, http://www.nicholaspyers.com.

Discussions about this article may also occur on the appropriate Australian Computer News Network (ACNN) mailing list(s). For more details, please visit http://www.zonian.net.au/lists.

Interested in reprinting this article? Any non-profit Apple Macintosh User Group (MUG) may re-print, free of charge, any of the articles written by Nicholas Pyers found at http://www.nicholaspyers.com/articles. There are just a couple of conditions, which basically boil down to letting us know - for the full terms and conditions, please visit http://www.nicholaspyers.com/reprints.

© March 2003, Nicholas Pyers