Build 107: the mobility wave

SOLITAIRE.EXE build 107

eleven new programs, five new reviews, free cells that stack, and
the night finally tells you when the number has left the cards.

NEW PROGRAMS. The shop was long on ways to score and short on ways to MOVE, and
deep in a shift that is the only thing that matters: past a certain quota no
multiplier on earth reaches the number, and filing all four suits is the only
way out. Eleven programs answer that.

RANK_SKIP.VXD lets a column stack skip one rank on the way down, colors still
alternating. DOORSTOP.INF opens empty columns to the second-highest rank, not
just the King. MINIMIZE.EXE deals every column one card fewer, so the first
column starts empty and the spares wait in the deck. SORTDEMO.BAS sorts the
deck when you recycle it, low ranks first. SURGE.SYS gives the draw buffer two
more cards before DISK_FULL.ERR can burn one. CLIPBRD.EXE holds two: either of
the top two drawn cards can be played, and the pile fans so you can see both.
BOTTOM_DEAL.DRV lets you draw off the bottom of the deck instead, and the
machine looks away. QUIKVIEW.EXE shows the next card waiting in the deck.
XRAYSPEX.CPL shows every face-down card on the table, dimly.

FREE CELLS. CACHE.DLL used to be the only one and it held one card. Cells are a
real system now: SPARE_SIMM.RAM adds another, WIN386.SWP adds two more but
leaks chips off your score for every card parked while you draw, and a loaner
machine can still lend you one. Up to three, and the table makes room for them.

FIVE NEW REVIEWS. Every review until now bent the SCORING. These bend the
RULES. STICKY_KEYS.EXE moves cards one at a time. WRITE_FAULT.SYS refuses drawn
cards on the table, though the suit slots still take them. GUARD_PAGE.SYS
reserves every empty column, and not even a King gets in. HANG.EXE freezes the
window after a suit send, so your next play pays nothing while it catches up.
IRQ_CONFLICT.SYS takes columns 2, 4 and 6 off the bus: nothing lands there,
though you can still take cards off them. The review pool is 25 deep now.

THE NUMBER LEAVES THE CARDS. Deep in a shift there is an exact moment when no
ordinary play can reach the quota any more and only clearing the whole desk
still can. The game has been able to prove that moment for a while and said
nothing about it, which left people chasing points that could not add up. MGMT
sends a memo now, once a run, and the objective box starts counting the desk
instead of the number.

LEGENDARY FILES. Seven programs are found rather than sold, out of the slot
machine's top line, a lucky download or the black terminal. If your tray was
full when one turned up it used to evaporate in silence, and a full tray is
exactly what a player deep enough to reach those has. It waits on your desk
now, and you decide what to swap. If a save has never seen one, the odds climb.

CONTROLLER. On the desktop, in the shop and on the shift report, the right
stick moves a real mouse pointer and R2 clicks it, so every window is reachable
without walking the focus ring. The table is untouched: the card cursor and the
trigger grab work exactly as they always have, and no pointer appears there.
It can be turned off in KEYBINDS.CPL.

OVERCLOCK.SYS asked +10% on the quotas for the sixth slot, and losing the base
recycle costs far more than that. It pays a 10% discount now.

FIXES. A card parked in a free cell no longer disappears with the slot when
LOW_MEM.SYS takes the program dark; it stays until you take it back. Petting
BUDD-E with a controller hands the focus back to the shop. Your first Monday
never offers cash and a discount in the same breath, since one of them was
always just a smaller number. Spamming AUTO-FILE could send cards to the suit
slots still showing their backs. And a sealed download that will not fit in
C:\DOWNLOADS now says so on the receipt instead of going quiet.