Simple 1500 Series Vol. 8

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Simple 1500 Series Vol. 8
The Solitaire

FAQ
PS 1998

Version: 1.0 released on the 23rd of July 2009
Author: odino http://www.gamefaqs.com/features/recognition/47976.html
This guide is EXCLUSIVELY available at GameFAQs.

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| .========================================================================. |
| | TABLE OF CONTENTS | |
| '========================================================================' |
|============================================================================|
| 01.) Introduction | G0100 |
| 02.) Basics | G0200 |
|----------------------------------------------------------------+-----------|
| 03.) Game Modes | G0300 |
|----------------------------------------------------------------+-----------|
| YY.) Version History | GYY00 |
| ZZ.) Credits & Thanks | GZZ00 |
'=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-'

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01.) INTRODUCTION G0100
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Welcome to 'Simple 1500 Series Vol. 8: The Solitaire' for the PlayStation.

The Simple 1500 series is a budget range by D3 with several games often
released previously and even in the US or Europe. This game was only released
in Japan, first by Chat Noir and later by D3 when they took over the publishing
job.

Although you may think of the card game called Solitaire, the board game is
actually called "Peg Solitaire" in full. I am not sure if the game is called
Solitaire in Japan, but I think the main reason the release is titled as such
is because the Super 1500 series picks strange titles for all their games.

Suggestions, comments or errors - tell me about it. Enjoy!

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02.) BASICS G0200
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Menu:
`````
Select one of the regions to play the game or you can pick 'Title' to return to
the main screen (although there is little point in doing that). The 'Ranking'
option shows you not only the top scores for the England, France, Galapagos and
America game but also has the game's credits as well as a save and load
function for those scores to keep around longer. If you leave the game running
on the main title it will show you a demo of the Galapagos and America mode.

Goal:
`````
The aim of the traditional peg solitaire puzzle is to clear all the board but
one piece. Pieces are removed by being jumped over by another piece. This may
sound easy, but keep in mind that hopping over will often create gaps larger
than desired. The two pieces must be adjacent to each other for it to work. Of
course there are also other modes that have different requirements to complete,
all of which will be discussed in the individual sections.

Controls:
`````````
In-game you can press SELECT to see the current time. Press SELECT again to
make it vanish again. This only works for modes that actually use time.

Pressing START shows an in-game menu. The top option resumes the game, the
middle option restarts the puzzle and the final option returns to the main
menu.

Throughout the game only the O button is used. Select the piece you want to
move and use the direction button to move to that location. It is really that
simple.

Display:
````````
The common display has a hiscore in the top left corner, your current score in
the top right and the number of steps in the bottom right. If you press SELECT
the time will be displayed in the bottom left. Keep in mind that some modes
do not make use of all these visuals.

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03.) GAME MODES G0300
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England:
````````
This is one of two traditional modes. The layout is as follows:

ABCDEFG
1 ***
2 ***
3 *******
4 ***.***
5 *******
6 ***
7 ***

This being a very traditional puzzle, there are already books and solutions
about this particular one. This is the quickest way to solve it:

Step 1: D2->D4
Step 2: F3->D3
Step 3: E1->E3
Step 4: E4->E2
Step 5: E6->E4
Step 6: G5->E5
Step 7: G3->G5
Step 8: G5->E5
Step 9: C3->E3
Step 10: A3->C3
Step 11: B5->D5
Step 12: D5->F5
Step 13: F5->F3
Step 14: F3->D3
Step 15: C7->C5
Step 16: C4->C6
Step 17: E7->C7
Step 18: C7->C5
Step 19: A5->A3
Step 20: A3->C3
Step 21: C1->E1
Step 22: E1->E3
Step 23: E3->E5
Step 24: C2->C4
Step 25: C4->E4
Step 26: E4->E6
Step 27: E6->C6
Step 28: C6->C4
Step 29: B4->C4

Hang on! Why is this solution taking more steps than the official record? The
real game allows you to jump over several pieces with the same one, in other
words building a chain, but in this game you can only go one step at at a time.
This results in more steps than the 18 it is supposed to be. This solution ends
up in the center piece yet you actually do not have to solve it like that in
this game. It could possibly lead to a shorter solution.

France:
```````
This is one of two traditional modes. It is often refered to as European but
its origins come from France. The layout is as follows:

ABCDEFG
1 ***
2 *****
3 *******
4 ***.***
5 *******
6 *****
7 ***

Compared to the English one it has four more pegs. It has been proven that it
is not possible to solve this puzzle when the starting point is the center. The
developers really should have known this when designing the game. Your best
chance to score high is to use as few moves as possible in little time to get
down to a

Galapagos:
``````````
The layout is as follows:

ABCDEFG
1 *****
2 *******
3 *******
4 ***.***
5 *******
6 *******
7 *****

The main feature in this mode is that you play with lizard eggs. These lizards
may hatch and return to egg form. This is completely at random and there is no
way to control this. The only constant about this feature is that once a lizard
has hatched and starts crawling into one direction, it will only stop when
hitting another egg or the end of the playing field. This mode is very hard
and frustrating, and with the random factor there is obviously no solution or
hiscore to it.

America:
````````
The layout is as follows:

ABCDEFGHIJK
1 *********
2 ***********
3 ***********
4 ***********
5 ***********
6 *****.*****
7 ***********
8 ***********
9 ***********
0 ***********
! *********

This almost looks just like a extreme version of the traditional modes, but
there is one more twist. When you hop over another piece, the piece will
automatically continue jumping if possible. The twist is that it will leave a
copy at the previous position and also duplicate or triplicate if there are
more than one jump possibilities.

It would take a lot of effort to create a solution for this, and it feels more
arcadey with less chance of failure for a long time. You can easily rake up
points for this and only when you run low on pieces will it be more tricky to
get the strategy right.

Instead of keeping track of the number of steps you take, this mode is more
interested in how many chains you manage to build by jumping over several
pieces at the same time. Splitting the chain does not allow for a quicker chain
build as you really need to jump that much with one piece alone.

Bronx:
``````
This is a 2 player mode. The layout is as follows:

ABCDEFGHIJK
1 ........
2 .****.****.
3 .****.****.
4 .****.****.
5 .****.****.
6 ...........
7 .****.****.
8 .****.****.
9 .****.****.
0 .****.****.
! ........

The playing area is the same size as the American version but with less tiles
and a totally different playing style. Why it is called Bronx is your guess.

Player 1 controls the blue pieces and Player 2 controls the red ones. Your aim
is to eliminate the other player's pieces by hopping over them as usual. The
rules are based on the American Version in that you create copies of yours
when making multiple jumps.

Bermuda:
````````
This is a 2 player mode. The layout is as follows:

ABCDEFGHIJK
1 ........
2 .****.****.
3 .****.****.
4 .****.****.
5 .****.****.
6 ...........
7 .****.****.
8 .****.****.
9 .****.****.
0 .****.****.
! ........

Each player starts with 2050 points. The goal is to raise your points into the
top of the bar or reduce the other player's to the bottom of the bar. The rules
are based on the American version. The points are determined by the circles on
the playing field. Each one is allocated different amounts of points. Your aim
is to have your pieces in the higher ones while the opponent should have fewer
balls in play and/or in just low-level circles.

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YY.) VERSION HISTORY GYY00
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v1.0 First release (23rd of July 2009)

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ZZ.) CREDITS & THANKS GZZ00
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GameFAQs for hosting this file.

F2 Company for the game.

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