TinySol, a tiny solitaire game for DOS | ClassicBits.net

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TinySol (formerly MonoSol) is a free tiny Klondike Solitaire game designed for good playability on vintage computers, especially those with monochrome screens.

TinySol in 640×400 mode on the GRiDCase gas-plasma display.

Download TinySol v1.3 (5/25/2026)

Download 640 winnable savegame files (5/25/2026)

Upon launch the game begins and instructions are displayed until the first input is made.

Features

Fits anywhere (only 3KB)

Runs on any PC (8086 and up)

Runs on any graphics

(CGA, AT&T, EGA, VGA)

Change video modes on the fly

Play with keyboard or mouse

In-Game state Save/Restore (undo)

Save/Load game to disk

Auto-finish game when possible

Scoring (Microsoft style, sans timer)

Compatibility

TinySol should run on most DOS computers.  It has been tested on the following.

Real Hardware 8088, 640KB, CGA, MS-DOS 3.30 (IBM 5150)

Real Hardware 286, 640KB, CGA/ATT, MS-DOS 3.30 (GRiDCase 1520)

Real Hardware Pentium 233, MS-DOS 6.22, VGA

Emulation 8086, 64KB RAM, MS-DOS 2.0, CGA

Emulation DosBox (primary testing during development)

Supported Video Modes

Name<br>INT 10h mode<br>Resolution<br>Key

CGA<br>06h<br>640x200x2<br>F1

AT&T 6300<br>40h<br>640x400x2<br>F2

EGA<br>10h<br>640x350x16<br>F3

VGA<br>12h<br>640x480x16<br>F4

The video mode should be automatically detected except for 640×400 AT&T 6300 mode which will be automatically selected only for some GRiD computers. Modes can be switched on the fly using the F1-F4 keys.

NOTE: For DosBox users, DosBox doesn’t seem to support AT&T 6300 but the other modes work fine.

NOTE: CuteMouse, a popular DOS mouse driver, doesn’t seem to support the AT&T 6300 video mode.  The mouse functions but the cursor is not visible so I tested using the Microsoft Mouse driver v6.   DosBox doesn’t require a mouse driver (it’s integrated).

TinySol was written in x86 Assembly in early 2022, assembled with NASM, and was my first attempt at writing a tiny game.  The goal was a game that would look sharp in 640x400x2 mode on GRiD gas-plasma displays yet also be small enough to include in ROMs without much consequence.

NOTE: 640x400x2 mode is referenced by many different names.  AT&T 6300, Olivetti M24, Compaq Portable III, Doublescan CGA, and more.

Keyboard Controls (tinysol.com or tinysolm.com)

1-7<br>Tableau piles

A-D<br>Foundation piles

8/Space<br>Deck pile, deal 3 cards

9/Enter<br>Draw pile, select card

Tab<br>Auto-send selected card to a foundation pile

Up/Down<br>Modify card selection within a pile

+/-<br>Save/Restore game state

Auto-Finish, sends all cards home if possible

New game

Exit

Save current game to file named ‘save’

F1-F4<br>Change video mode (CGA, AT&T 6300, EGA, VGA)

Mouse Controls (tinysolm.com supports mouse)

Left Click<br>Select piles (source or destination)

Right Click<br>Auto-send selected card to a foundation pile

Click the N<br>New game

Click the X<br>Exit

Version History

v1.0<br>03/2022<br>Initial release

v1.1<br>11/2022<br>fixes, optimizations, performance, features (added ending screen)

v1.2<br>05/2024<br>fixes, optimizations, features (scoring, save to file, auto-finish)

v1.3<br>05/2026<br>fixes, optimizations, multiple builds (full, med, tiny, micro).  First distributed as hard copies at VCFSW 2026.

TinySol in the Wild

Here are some instances of TinySol out and about.

TinySol on Jerry Parker’s Zenith Heath/Z-110 (8088, 256KB, CGA) at VCF Southwest 2026.

https://www.jerrylparker.com/blogs/posts/z110.html

5/30/2026 (VCFSW) TinySol 1.3 ran wonderfully on Victoria Crenshaw’s decked out 286 running FreeDOS.  Executed from a 5.25″ 360KB floppy and with mouse support it performed great!

5/30/2026 (VCFSW) TinySol 1.3 ran on Jerry Parker’s beautifully restored Zenith Heath/Z-110 8088 with only 256KB of memory.  Executed from a 5.25″ 360KB floppy.

5/29/2026 TinySol 1.3 first premiered as hard copies at the Vintage Computer Festival Southwest 2026 in Texas before being published for download on 6/1/2026.  Sixteen copies were distributed on 360K, 1.2MB, 720K, and 1.44MB diskettes with hand drawn artwork and user’s manuals printed on vintage blue bar tractor feed paper using my dot matrix Panasonic KX-P1624 and IBM 5160.

2024-01-25 A user, Joseph, running version 1.1 emailed saying, "You have no idea how hard I have been looking for a DOS Klondike game that works with just the keyboard and draws 3 cards at a time."  He said VGA mode didn’t work on his BOOK 8088 but EGA does.  For improved compatibility TinySol 1.2 switched to color EGA and VGA modes instead of pure monochrome.

2022-10-11 . Press the Enter key to open the contact card.">Óscar Toledo G. (nanochess.org) demo’d an early version 1.0 in a Youtube video.  Óscar also helped identify a sprite rendering issue that manifested on his VirtualBox for Mac but not VirtualBox for Win/Linux, DosBox, VMWare, Parallels, or real hardware.  It was resolved by clearing the direction flag before calling Int 10h.

Vintage Technology