This article explains how to use the sample games files with Solitaire Till Dawn.
Brought to you by Semicolon Software, makers of Solitaire Till Dawn.
To follow our articles on Winning at Solitaire, you'll need a copy of Solitaire Till Dawn (available only for Macintosh computers). Make sure you have version 2.1 or later, because earlier versions don't have a move counter. The latest release is version 3.2. You can download it from here if you don't have it. The upgrade is free if you've purchased any earlier version of Solitaire Till Dawn. If you haven't purchased yet, go ahead and download it anyway. It's shareware, and you're welcome to try it out for a couple of weeks free of charge. If you like it, send in your payment; if not, just remove it from your system. Thanks!
You will also need a copy of the sample game for the particular article you're reading; you can download it from the article. When you've got the sample game file, double-click it to open it in Solitaire Till Dawn.
"Playing" a sample game is different from playing a game yourself. Normally you make your own decisions about what moves to make, and you click or drag the cards yourself to make those moves. But the sample games have already been played, all the way to a successful win; then they were "rewound" back to the beginning (like rewinding a tape) and saved that way. Just like a tape, rewinding doesn't erase any of the moves, and you can still play them back and see the moves that the original player made.
So when you first open the sample game, you'll see the start of the game -- the initial layout. To see the first move that the original player made, select Redo from the Edit menu, or type command-R, or press the space bar. To see the next move, just Redo again. You can keep Redoing all the way to the end of the game.
As you play, the move counter (at the lower-left of the window) will show you how many moves have been made. At the start of a game, it will read zero, because no moves have been made yet. Every time you Redo, it will increase by one. The articles will tell you about particular moves by giving you the move counter reading. For example, if the article says "At move 32..." you should make sure that the move counter says "32" while you read that part of the article, so you can see the part of the game that the article is discussing.
You can also back up, if you've gone too far forward or if you want to see a sequence of moves again. Just select Undo from the Edit menu or type command-Z or press ESC or F1, to back up one move and decrease the move counter by one. You can use Redo and Undo to go forward and back as much as you like.
If you need to go forward or back a long ways, select Undo All or Redo All from the Edit menu. The game will start to Undo or Redo moves continuously. It will stop by itself when it reaches the beginning or end of the game; or you can stop it in the middle just by clicking the mouse or pressing any key.
Important: Don't click or drag any cards yourself when you're watching a sample game; that will make the program forget all the moves that come after that point, and then you won't be able to follow the article any more. If you do it by accident, just close the window without saving, and then open the sample game again. You'll be at the start of a game again; use Redo All to quickly get back to where you left off.