The goal of AcidFreecell is to move all 52 cards to the home cells in the upper-right hand corner. You can move cards around according to the rules of Freecell (see below). There are four empty "Free Cells" in the upper-left that can be used to temporarily hold cards while you play. There are many convenience features. You can double-tap a card to move it automatically, and you can enter numbers (0-9, J, Q, K) in the Graffiti area to highlight cards - this can help you locate cards on the screen. There is even an Undo feature (press the Page-Up button). Statistics will be kept - try to keep your Win percentage up there!

Installation

To install AcidFreecell, just double-click on the file "AcidFree.prc". The Palm Install Tool will start, with AcidFree.prc listed in the window.

Click "Done". The next time you HotSync, AcidFreecell will be installed.

If double-clicking does not work, you can start Palm Desktop and click the "Install" icon to start the Palm Install Tool. You can then click "Add..." and select the AcidFree.prc file.

If you have trouble installing AcidFreecell, you can find help in the documentation that came with your Palm OS device. You can also send email to support@red-mercury.com with questions.

Registration

AcidFreecell will remind you from time to time that it is free to try for a short time. It will tell you how many days you have left to play for free. If you would like to purchase the fully registered version, simply visit Red Mercury to find instructions on how to purchase on-line. Once you have purchased the full version, you will receive an UnlockCode that will allow you to play unlimited AcidFreecell on one Palm OS device.

Playing

During the game, you can tap the Menu button in the lower-left hand corner of the Graffiti area to drop down the AcidFreecell menu. From this menu, you can restart the current game, start a new game, change options such as sound on/off, and read the online help that explains how to play.

To move a card, select it with your stylus, and drag it where you would like it to go. Or, tap a card to select it, then tap where you would like it to go. You can also double-tap a card to move it - if there's somewhere for it to go, it will go there when you double-tap.

To move a column of cards, tap or drag the highest card in the group you would like to move, then tap where you would like it to go or drag the group of cards to their destination. A group of cards can only be selected if all of the cards in the group are in proper alternating-color descending-value order (see below).

The Object of the Game

The goal of AcidFreecell is to move all 52 cards to the four home cells in the upper right of the playfield. Each home cell will hold a stack of one suit of cards. The stack must be made in order from lowest (Ace) to highest (King).

AcidFreecell follows standard Freecell solitaire rules. Your statistics will be based on how many games you win. Almost all games are winnable - some players have reported fifty wins in a row! If you lose a game, you can re-play it until you win, if you like. If you lose the same game twice in a row, the loss only counts once in your statistics.

Alternating-Color Descending-Value Order

Cards can be moved following certain rules. There are eight columns of cards in the playfield. To add a card to a column, the added cards must follow alternating-color and descending-value order. For example, you can add a black 3 to a column that ends with a red 4 (but not to a column that ends in a black 4). If a column is empty, any card can be placed there.

Free Cells

In the upper-left hand corner, you will see four empty cells called the Free Cells. These empty cells can be used as holding places for cards while you play, one card per cell. If you need to get a card out of the way, you can drag it to a Free Cell and leave it there for as long as you like.

Empty Columns

If a column has no cards in it, any card may be moved into the empty column.

Moving More Than One Card

You can move more than one card at a time if you have a set of cards arranged in alternating-color descending-value order (see above). Just tap the highest card in the group to highlight the entire group of cards. You can only move more than one card at a time if there are empty columns or empty free cells to hold the cards while they are being moved. If no free cells or empty columns are available, the maximum number of cards you can move is one. If one free cell is open, you can move two cards at once - just tap the higest of the two cards to highlight them both, and drag them to their destination. AcidFreecell will automatically route the first card to the empty free cell, then move the second card to its destination, followed by moving the first card to its destination. If a free cell and a column are empty, you can move four cards at once - AcidFreecell will route the cards to save two in the empty column and one in the empty free cell while it moves the highest card. If you have multiple free cells and multiple columns open, you can move large numbers of cards at one time.

If you try to move a column of cards to a destination and they just won't go, it means that there aren't enough free spaces open to accommodate that many cards moving at once. Try to get some free cells and columns opened up, then try to move the cards again.

It's a good idea to always try to have some free cells open - if all four free cells have cards in them, it limits the number of cards you can move at once.

Double-Tap to Auto-Move

When you see a card you would like to move, you can quickly move it by tapping it twice. The card will usually go where you wanted to put it. If there is more than one destination, AcidFreecell will put it in the first legal destination. If you want to move the card again, just double-tap it again and it will move to the next legal destination. This can be done with groups of cards as well.

Automatic Auto-Move

AcidFreecell will automatically move cards to home cells when it can. For example, if you have three Aces in their home cells and you come across the fourth Ace in the Deck Stack, that fourth Ace will automatically move to its home cell. In general, if a card isn't needed for strategic reasons, it will be automatically moved to its home cell.

Undo

AcidFreecell has a one-move Undo feature. You can Undo a move by selecting Undo from the drop-down menu, or by using the /U shortcut. You can also Undo a move by pressing the Page-Up button on your Palm OS device.

The Undo will go back to the last move that you made. If you made a move that triggered five auto-moves, those five auto-moves will be undone followed by the move that you made.

Auto-Play All

There are times during a game when cards could be legally moved to the home cells, but the relatively conservative Auto-Play feature does not move them. You can press the Page-Down button on your Palm OS device to move one card at a time to the home cells. The lowest-valued cards that can be legally moved to the home cells will be moved first. Each press of the Page-Down button will move another card to the home cells until no more cards can be moved.

Some Strategies

Try to keep some free cells open while you play. If there are no open free cells or empty columns, you will only be able to move one card at a time, and your game will probably be over pretty quickly.

Use Graffiti to find your Aces at the start of the game. Write the letter 'A' in Graffiti to highlight the Aces, and start working on getting them uncovered first.

Pay attention to where your Kings are. Since the King is the highest card in AcidFreecell, they can only be moved to free cells or empty columns. If you move a King to a free cell early on in the game, it might be stuck there for a while.

Statistics

You are playing for stats... win/loss record is everything! If you lose a game, it will be counted as a loss, but if you re-play that same game instead of starting a new game, you can try to win it as many times as you like without racking up more losses in your stats. If you finally win, you will be credited with a win!

Color Background Packs

If you are playing on a color Palm OS device, you can change the color and pattern of the background. The easiest way to change the background is to swipe the stylus from left to right across the screen. You can also swipe right to left to go back to a previous background. On the Sony CLIE, you can use the Jog Dial to switch backgrounds. If you install a Color Background Pack, such as BGPack2 (included), those backgrounds will automatically be added. Just cycle through the backgrounds to see them all.

Note that Color Backgrounds are not displayed on non-color devices, so there is no need to install them if you don't have a color screen.

If you have a high-resolution (320x320) screen, you should download the free high-resolution backgrounds from Red Mercury. You can display low-resolution backgrounds on your high-resolution screen, but they will be tiled four times.

You can delete Color Background Packs at any time by using the Delete function in the standard Palm OS program launcher. Look for the title of the Color Background Pack in the Delete list.

Additional Color Background Packs are available from Red Mercury.

PictureGear Pocket

If you have color pictures stored in Sony's PictureGear Pocket format, those pictures will automatically be added as backgrounds in AcidFreecell. Just use the Jog Dial to page through the backgrounds until you see the PictureGear Pocket photo that you want. If your PictureGear Pocket pictures are stored on a MemoryStick, copy them into the main memory of your CLIE to get them to show up in AcidFreecell. If your picture isn't showing up in AcidFreecell, try converting it to an 8-bit, 256 color picture with PictureGear.

Contacting Red Mercury

If you have questions or comments about AcidFreecell or Red Mercury, LLC, please visit our web site (http://www.red-mercury.com) for more information. If you have technical questions, you can always email us (support@red-mercury.com).


Red Mercury and AcidFreecell are trademarks of Red Mercury, LLC.