Are there any Spider Solitaire fans out there?

[tyro]

Eh?

[Sean]

I have been known to play it occasionally but prefer Freecell...

[Crackpot]

I often play it at lunch why?

[tyro]

I started playing it relatively recently and found that I was somewhat addicted. Prior to that, I was addicted to Freecell.

But Freecell is pretty much a card game that has a minimum of luck involved. Some games are harder than others, but all of them are solvable.

Spider hides cards and makes the element of luck more important than it needs to be. Furthermore, it would seem at even the medium skill level, most games are not solvable.

So I decided to write my own game and began with the premise that ALL cards should be visible from the beginning – just like Freecell.

I have almost completed the game, but I’m left with some questions for which I need some input.

For example: Why is there a rule that you cannot deal a new deck of 10 cards if one or more of the columns are blank? I don’t see the rationale behind that. It isn’t as though the game is too easy to win.

I don’t understand why we can’t choose to play games by their number (like Freecell).

Most of my other quibbles are far more minor, but I would like to get a sense of what other people thought about the above.

[Sean]

'Tis a silly rule. All you can do is fill the blanks with cards that will do the least damage and hope for the best.

I'm the opposite to you Tyro. I like the fact that Freecell involves much more tactics than luck. I like that I can sit and work out at least a dozen moves ahead before I touch the mouse. Way back when Win 95 came out and I discovered Freecell a colleague and I decided to test that all 36,000 (I think) levels are solvable. Over the next couple of years we did about the first 8,000 levels between us before we lost the piece of paper we were using to keep track...

Bugger!

[Crackpot]

dealing on an empty space depends on the version of the game you have.

[Crackpot]

and I've found that about 1 in 4 are solvable if you're willing to work out all permutations.

[tyro]

Sean, I don’t think you are opposite to me. I too prefer the element of skill over the element of luck. This is why I have programmed a version in which all cards are overturned from the very beginning of the game.

Crackpot, how can you work out the permutations if you can’t specify which game you want to play? Or are you using the Undo to check out where the cards are?

[Crackpot]

Undo

(I go by score)

[loCAtek]

I'm a Reversi/Othello/Go player myself- more strategy involved.

[Rick]

I play Russian Roulette.

I hate losing though...

[rubato]

Free Cell and Solitaire are sorting games. You are given a randomly determined set of cards and required to sort them in some fashion.

Ok as a diversion but hard to get really worked up over, 'eh? The role of strategy is limited.

yrs,
rubato

[tyro]

Any activity that involves getting worked up over, may have left the arena of “game” and entered the dark recesses of was a good idea before the air-horn people arrived.

[loCAtek]

well, no body ever complains about the Cheerleaders.

[Lord Jim]

I have never heard of "Spider Solitaire" or "Freecell"....(I guess you have to be working in an office environment to keep up with the latest online time wasters )


I sometimes play Seven Card Stud or Texas Hold 'em online...

I don't play for real money, (I would never trust one of these on line gambling ops to be trustworthy enough to give them my bank info.) but sometimes I wish I had....

I started out with $1000 in play money a little over a year ago, and now I have a little over 11 grand....

It seems to be pretty popular...No matter when I log in, there are always lots of players with multiple tables going, both for real and play money, at a variety of bet levels...

[Blueyes]

I play spider solitaire all the time and have it on my phone too.

[oldr_n_wsr]

What are these "computer games"? One can play games on the computer????

Will wonders never cease.

[loCAtek]

Sure, but playing games on a table is sturdier.