One Foundation
A desktop Patience Game by Mike Ironmonger.
Running the application installs an icon on the icon bar. Click on the icon bar icon and the playing window will appear. The main part of this window shows the tableau which consists of seven columns of cards face up. The rest of the pack forms the stock, and this is shown face down to the right of the tableau. The fist card from the stock is shown face up below the stock, and this is the one foundation card from which the game gets its name.
The One Foundation playing window
The aim of the game is to play the exposed cards from the tableau onto the foundation card until all the tableau has been played. You play a card simply by clicking on the appropriate column, and you can build consecutively upwards or downwards regardless of suit. You can also 'turn the corner', so you can put an ace onto a king and vice versa.
Two example sequences are:
four, five, six, five, four, three, two
�jack, queen, king, ace, two, ace, king, queen
If you can't play a card from the tableau, click on the stock and the next card is placed on the foundation and you can continue playing from the tableau.
If you can't play a card from the tableau and there are no cards left in the stock, the game is over. To start a new game click Menu over the window and choose the 'New deal' option from the menu.
The game has four levels of difficulty, determined by the number of cards in each column of the tableau. If you want to change the level of difficulty access the submenu of the 'New deal' option and choose the required level.
If you do complete the game you may get onto the high score table and be asked to enter your name. In this case the high score table appears automatically, but you can also see it by choosing the 'High scores' option from the main menu.
Clicking Menu over the high score window opens a menu with two options. The first is 'Auto save', and when this option is on (indicated by a tick), the high scores will automatically be saved whenever they change. If the option is off, you can save the high scores simply by choosing the 'Save' option in the menu.
Clicking Menu on the icon bar icon opens a menu with four options. As well as the usual 'Info' and 'Quit' options, 'Help' and 'Reset' options are provided. Choosing the 'Help' option will open a window that displays the help file you are reading now. The 'Reset' option allows the high scores to be zeroed, although you are asked for confirmation before this goes ahead.
One Foundation was first published in RISC User in 1992