Desperately Seeking Solitaire Update: Zachtronics Solitaire Collection on Mobile
Published on Aug 13, 2024
Last October, I blogged about my harrowing search for a good mobile solitaire game, which ended up being harder than I thought it would be. I dug through a lot of garbage until I eventually landed on Solitaire City, an excellent one-time purchase that runs well, and plays a staggering number of solitaire variants without showing any ads, pestering you for a monthly subscription, or stealing your personal information.
I'm happy to report that I'm still enjoying Solitaire City immensely! In fact, I'm currently hooked on one of its variants called Golf. However, I recently stumbled upon something that I missed in my initial search. Something so blatantly obvious, that I needed to blog about it both as penance, and to spread the news to any other solitaire seekers.
The Zachtronics Solitaire Collection is available on mobile.
I can't believe I missed this. I knew this game existed! I knew Zachtronics made quality solitaire games! It's in the very first paragraph of my original post! And I quote:
Earlier this year, I got back into Last Call BBS, Zachtronics' penultimate game release. Specifically, I got really into the most basic-ass game in the collection, Sawayama Solitaire, which is just 3-draw Klondike solitaire with some bangin' tunes.
Sawayama Solitaire was the whole reason I set out on this search in the first place! Also, "penultimate game release." I knew about the Zachtronics Solitaire Collection! In fact, I just dug back through my email, and I already owned the collection on PC by the time I wrote that blog!
For whatever reason, it never occurred to me that the game might come to mobile. It was even out on mobile when I wrote that blog, I just missed it.
I just got back into playing the ZSC on PC last week, and I was perusing the Zachtronics website for reasons I don't remember. When I saw the list of places the game is available, I sat up and said, "WHAT?" out loud, and then immediately bought it.
$4.99 on iOS and Android, you can't beat it. Eight impeccably designed, beautifully rendered solitaire variants plucked from Zachtronics history, there for the taking.
However, this revelation doesn't mean I've given up on Solitaire City, for one very good, very specific reason: the Zachtronics Solitaire Collection plays in landscape, whereas Solitaire City plays in portrait. I'm not a big fan of playing games horizontally on my phone. As a small phone owner, if I'm playing something on my phone, I'm usually in the middle of something else, and so I only want to use one hand.
The ZSC is also a little too tiny to squint at on my phone screen, especially since almost all of its games are rendered inside a little window atop a piece of background art. So Solitaire City is still safe on my phone.
On my iPad however, it's all Zachtronics all the time.