Atari 8-bit - Schebek, Darren - 1998

Death by Solitaire

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Genre: Cards - Solitaire
Year: 1998
Language: Machine Language
Publisher: Schebek, Darren
Controls: Keyboard
Developer: Schebek, Darren
Players: 1
Country
Programmer(s): Schebek, Darren
License: PD / Freeware / Shareware
Graphic Artist(s): Schebek, Darren
Medium
Sound: [n/a]
Rarity
Cover Artist(s): [n/a]
Serial: -
Dump: Download

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS

Updated on March 1st, 2026 with the following changes:
_ corrected author's nationality
_ modified file to .xex format
_ page now has complete information
_ better screenshots

VOTES / STATISTICS

Rating7.0/10

Hits: 4,741
Downloads: 1,481
Votes: 1

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COMMENTS (4)

rave.N1 Oct 2015
Shortcut to see more things: press to leave the instructions, press 'P' to pickup cards, then you will see a new pile at the bottom-left and see the backing pattern of the cards. How the bottom-left can share raster lines with the bottom-right feels like a trick. How the instructions go about scrolling on and off the screen is fancy looking too. Found two more strange bugs, in the latest Atari800 emulator, which this crazy little game agitates. Firstly, artifacting actually begins to occur if I switch into OS/A and there is never any artifacts seen when in OS/B or XL/XE modes. This is a new bug, in the atari emulator, because the OS has no bearing on how TV renders artifacting. 2nd new bug is: if you (go into high speed and) wait for the screensaver (color rotation) mode to begin, strange things happen relative to which artifact mode is in use. Sections of the screen become temporarily erased during screensaver, when they should not vanish. So many bugs, all having to do with "artifacting". tsk.
rave.N18 Sept 2015
Emulators choke on drawing this correctly. Emulator named "WACKE" v1.6.0 for Mac made 1997-1999 documentation says: such trickery as "the reuse of hardware objects like player/missile (changes made) on the fly" (like within DLI display list interrupts) might not work right. Since this program "Death By Solitaire" was made 1998, good bet it was intended to taunt or exploit bugs in emulators. WACKE correctly tries to do artifacting here, but in error draws an inverse-video box around every card because of player/missile interference. WACKE makes the same mistake on game "Vegas Poker", again player/missile. In contrast the better emulator Atari800MacX draws "Vegas Poker" perfectly, but spaces out when it comes to artifacting in "Death By Solitaire". This concludes that when player/missile overlaps artifacting, it is a mess (for emulators) that's never been resolved yet, witnessed in the game "Stellar Shuttle" on the latest MacX v4.6 . The other foggy issue is color obtained thru artifacting. Atarimania "Official FAQ" page, item 2.2 concerning artifacting, says/said it best when they named the color(s) you will see may be "fairly unpredictable". This game DBS expects either purple Hearts/Diamonds from the Green/Purple scheme or else the Red artifact offered by WACKE made also in 1998. My favorite Blue/Orange scheme, which draws "Ultima IV" using Blue water and Orange fire, shows Blue hearts/diamonds here instead of using the better Orange. Maddening. I think the secret behind why the mode which gives one of the most popular games ever (Ultima IV) orange fire, but here you get Blue hearts/diamonds, is in how this author spelled center "centre".
rave.N2 Sept 2015
Bugs in emulator artifacting keep causing me to say mistakes, argh. The small and large playing card suit images ARE aligned for the same color, it was the one very old emulator which tried to draw artifacts shows the small images wrongly as inverse-video and therefore the wrong color in this one particular case of mine.
rave.N2 Sept 2015
This program cannot be USA because it was never meant to be drawn with artifacting. Look how writer spells center "centre" in screenshot here, but more seriously the small hearts and diamonds vs the large hearts and diamonds they are shifted across odd and even pixel numbers so small and large images of the same thing would have differing colors. Not USA. Once more, I'm at a loss to explain how this is being drawn in hi resolution with seemingly impossible multicolor. A range of emulators behave differently, so player missile graphics is probably employed, but maybe for drawing the blue space between cards not the white cards themselves. One old emulator did try artifacting the cards. Many emulators show a variety of wrong colors. New emulators avoid artifacting even though you insist they try. Serious bugs, real USA Ataris and TVs could not get away with this. See other card game "Vegas Poker" for a similar situation.