Hi Everyone,
My name is Agnes and I am the creator of SolitaireSpace. I have been a programmer for many, many years and have recently moved into retirement. I need a project to keep myself busy!
In the past, I have enjoyed playing many solitaire games, both on the computer and off, but I have always been a bit disappointed with limitations of games. I want to provide a SolitaireSpace where the games are flexible with many variations and options that the users can try out.
Right now I have 4 main game types: Klondike, FreeCell, Spider and Forty Thieves. There are currently many variations of each of these and many, many flexible options to choose from so that you can make your own custom Klondike variations.
The options include the number of decks used, layout changes, joker usage, and a variety of simple ways to cheat.... just a bit.
Please enjoy the games and please let me know if there is anything I can do to make the games better for you. I plan on adding more games soon.... You can send any comments or suggestions to me by clicking the Contact button.
Keep informed by following @SolitaireSpace on twitter. There you will find information on updates and bug fixes as well as links to interesting games to play.
Sincerely,
Agnes Freese
P.S. Thanks to my son, who is a web developer, for all of your help in getting me started a few years ago on a previous version of this web site. Thanks to my husband for all of your input and help in testing the games.
0. I have been playing on your site for quite a while, but now I am seeing a problem with the game appearing.
The website might have been recently updated. Click the refresh button to reload, if the problem continues, clear recent history with the browser cache and reload.
1. What browser do I need in order to use the SolitaireSpace games?
Your browser has to have HTML5 canvas support to use this site. We have done testing with the following browsers:
Chrome - any recent version of Chrome should function. You can download chrome here: Free Chrome Browser
Safari - version 6.0.2 on MacOS was tested, but most likely any recent version of safari will work
Internet Explorer - version 9 (this version has some issues with drag and drop), version 10 has not been tested, version 11 works well
Microsoft Edge - Windows 10, works well
FireFox - any recent version of FireFox should work well Free FireFox Browser
We have done some limited testing on phones and in general the site appears to be working. On iphones/ios there is currently an on-and-off problem where the page reloads if a game is selected that changes the size of the playing area. We are looking at that.
If you have any issues with these please let us know.
2. I am not seeing the game come up in Internet Explorer, why is that?
Internet Explorer seems to still have some issues loading all the images/files at the start. If you do not see the initial card animation at the top with the SolitaireSpace logo, click the browser reload button again (that's the little circular arrow on the right of the address field).
If the game does not load, try clicking the desired Play button again.
Both javascript and HTML5 canvas are required for play. Your browser must support the HTML5 canvas and have javascript turned on for the website to function correctly. I will not be supporting any browser versions that do not have these features. Internet Explorer 9 is the first Internet Explorer version to support the HTML5 canvas. If you are using Internet Explorer, you have to have version 9 or later to play.
3. What do you do with any email addresses you collect?
I do not collect, sell, or provide email addresses to anyone. When you use my contact form I will use your email address only for responding to your emails. I also do not have any automated mailing list. You will get a response from me personally and no spam or other mass mailings to your email account.
4. I am unable to drag and drop in the FreeCell game.
If you are using IE9 (and possibly 10, as we have not tested that yet), there is a problem with drag and drop when the screen is scrolled up. This happens most often with the FreeCell game, as this game is larger. The Drag position is offset by the amount that you have scrolled. You will find that if you do not scroll the screen, you will be able to drag and drop.... or you may note that if you try to drag above the intended place, you will see highlighting then and be able to drop. We do not intend to do any workaround for this issue. The problem is definitely fixed in IE11, we have not tested IE10 as yet.
5. What is your privacy policy?
We do not collect any user information such as IP addresses.
We do keep email addresses input through the contact form if you contact us directly. Email addresses are kept only for communication with you. We do not do any mass mailing to email addresses and we do not give out email addresses to any third parties.
We use Google Analytics to get anonymous tracking information. We use this to see what features are being used so that we can improve the website in the future. Google Analytics uses cookies for anonymous tracking.
We also use Google Adsense to serve ads to our game pages. Through Adsense, third parties may be placing and reading cookies in your browser, or using web beacons to collect information, in the course of ads being served on your website.
6. How can I contact you?
Please use the Contact button on the top toolbar to send an email to us. If for some reason this is not working for you, our email address is below. We do not include a link as we do not want the email address to be extracted from the page and used to generate automated mailings to us.
All of games below have been won and submitted by SolitaireSpace players. Can you win all of these games? Select one to play now!
| Game Id | Type/Variation | User Handle | Difficulty | Description | Options |
SolitaireSpace is a new free solitaire site. The main page can be reached by clicking the green "Play Solitaire" button above. On the main page you will find:
If you have suggestions for games, variations or options, please send us an email through the Contact button on the main page. You can also report problems/bugs using the Contact form.
To select a solitaire game, click one of the play buttons on the center of the main page...or, select the "Surprise Me!" button to select a random game for play!
All games have the following buttons. These are described below.
Rules for all the games along with descriptions of variations and options are below.
Klondike was the first solitaire game I ever learned, but I did not refer to it as Klondike. It was just called “Solitaire” or “Solitary” when it was taught to me. I can still remember my older sister teaching me when I was maybe 7 or 8 years old. Long before the advent of home computers I used to play this game on my bed as a child often figuring out inventive ways to cheat, just a little, according to my own special cheating rules.
Now it is commonly played on computers everywhere and the book “100 Best Solitaire Games” by Lee and Packard refers to it as “probably the most popular solitaire game of all time”. If you have played any solitaire games, you most likely have played this one.
The following instructions apply to my basic implementation of Klondike. This is the game that is setup by clicking the Play Klondike button. A tutorial is available for the basic game by clicking the Tutorial button on the upper-right of the game layout.
I also have many named Variations of the game that are described below and many individual options that can be turned on and off. To see the Variations and Options for Klondike, click the Play Klondike button and then click the Variations or Options buttons to the upper-right of the game layout.
The game is setup as shown in the following picture:
If you are playing with a real deck of cards, a single deck is used without Jokers. The cards are shuffled and laid out in the 7 Base Stacks shown above. The left-most Base Stack has one card, each successive Base Stack to the right has one more card in it. The top card of each Base stack is turned face-up. The remaining cards are placed face-down in the Stock at the top right. The Foundation Stacks at the top are initially empty and the Discard stack to the right of the Stock is also empty.
The goal of the game is to play all of the cards on the Foundation Stacks, the 4 empty stacks at the top of the setup. Cards that are played on the Foundation Stacks must be played in a special way…. Starting with the Ace of each suit (clubs, diamonds, hearts and spades), one for each stack, the cards must be played in sequence (Ace, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, Jack, Queen, King) on each stack and all cards on the same stack must be in the same suit.
This is usually not an easy task, as the cards you need to play on the Foundation Stacks are not readily available. They are hidden in the Base and Stock stacks. We need some basic rules for how to manipulate these cards so that they can eventually be played on the Foundation Stacks.
Any card on the top of any stack is available for play.
The first card played on a Foundation Stack must be an Ace. Other cards of the same suit can then be played on that stack so long as they are the same suit as the Ace and are one higher in sequence than the previous card on the stack.
Cards may be played on the Base Stacks according to the following rules:
For instance, if the top card on a Base Stack is a Queen of clubs (black), then either the Jack of Diamonds (red) or Jack of Hearts (red) may play on the Queen.
If the top card on a Base Stack is a 9 of Diamonds (red), then either the 8 of Clubs (black) or the 8 of Spades (black) may be played on the 9.
At any time, you may turn over cards from the Stock onto the Discard Stack. There are many accepted variations in the way this is done in Klondike, but in my basic implementation of the game, the cards are turned over 3 at a time onto the discard and the display will show the top 3 cards in the Discard Stack at all times. You may play only the top card of the Discard Stack onto the Base or Foundation following the rules defined above. When you have turned over all the cards in the Stock onto the Discard Stack, you may then flip the Discard Stack back over onto the Stock and continue to play. There is no limit on the number of times you can pass through the cards in the Stock.
You may also move multiple cards around on the Base. Any group of face-up cards on the Base can be moved to another stack in the Base if the upper-most card (highest in sequence) can be played on another stack following the rules above. The upper-most card being moved does not have to be the top card of a sequence, it can be an intermediate card in a sequence also.
Let’s look at an example, supposed we have reached the following state in the game:
Let’s look at all the possible plays that could be made from here:
If the 4 of Spades on the Discard Stack were to be played on the 5 of Diamonds on the Base, as below:
Then:
Note that Kings can only be played on empty spaces. If perhaps we could get the Jack of Diamonds or the Jack of Hearts, either of those Jacks could be played on the Queen of Spades, allowing the 10 of Spades to play on that Jack. This would give us an open space where the King of Spades, along with all the cards above the King could be moved.
Click on the tutorial button after selecting Play Klondike, to see more information on how to play the cards in this computer version. The basic rules for moving cards in the computer version are:
As you play the game you will come up with your own ideas on how best to play, but here are some suggestions:
I have many named variations of the basic Klondike game. Some of these I have found defined in solitaire books... some I have found on-line. Some are my own variations.
To select a Klondike variation to play, first click the Play Klondike button, then select the Variations button to the upper-right of the card layout. A list of variations will be displayed with brief descriptions. Select the one you would like to play and click the play button.
Each variation is described below. Tutorials are not currently available for variations of Klondike. The Tutorial button will start a tutorial for the basic Klondike game.
When the Play Klondike button is clicked, this variation, the basic game is selected for play. The rules are described above.
Klassic Klondike is a popular Klondike (Solitaire) alternative. In this game only one pass through the Stock is allowed and cards are turned over from the Stock one at a time.
LifeBoat is an expanded version of Klondike (Solitaire). This game uses 2 decks and 11 Base Stacks. Otherwise, play is the same as the basic Klondike game.
Jenny is named after my sister's nickname "Jenny". This is the version of Klondike Jenny taught me when I was a child. This version turns cards over in 3's with unlimited passes through the Stock, but only the top card is visible in the Discard Stack. Players can't play cards from the foundation and sequences on the Base cannot be broken up.
Nine Across is a Klondike game with 9 base stacks, but only one deck of cards. Unlimited passes through the Stock are allowed, but cards are turned over one at a time.
The player can choose the starting card for the Foundation Stacks. The starting card for the Foundation Stacks is selected by playing any card to the Foundation while all the Foundation stacks are empty. The rank of the card played becomes the first card that must be played on the Foundation. For instance, if all the Foundation stacks are empty and the player plays a 5 of any suit on the Foundation, then all Foundation stacks must start at 5 and to win the game they must have 13 cards each: 5,6,7,8,9,10,Jack,Queen,King,Ace,2,3,4. When a card is played on the Foundation, selecting the starting card, empty base stacks also become limited to a specific card. In the example above, the player would have to play 4's on empty base stacks. Until a card is played on the foundation, you may play any card on an empty base stack.
Hint: Focus on getting empty base stacks to win and pile cards there. Don't play on the foundation until late in the game. Also, notice that cards can be sequenced continuously on the base, wrapping from Ace to King, etc. so that very long sequences can be created.
Thumb and Pouch is another Klondike-like solitaire game. The primary difference in this game is in the way cards are played on the Base. In this game you can play a card on a Base Stack if that card is ANY OTHER SUIT than the underlying card. In normal Klondike cards are restricted to alternating colors. You may also play ANY card on an empty base stack, it does not have to be a King. Cards are turned over from the Stock one at a time and you may pass through the Stock only once.
Batsford uses 2 decks of cards and 10 Base Stacks. It is played like Klassic Klondike allowing a single pass through the Stock, turning over one card at a time. However, the player gets access to a single free space where they can place a King until needed.
Gargantua is a larger version of Klassic Klondike. It has 2 decks and 9 base stacks. Cards are turned over from the Stock one at a time but only one pass is allowed through the Stock.
Jokers Wild is the basic Klondike (Solitaire) game with a reusable Joker. The Joker can be played in place of any hidden card that you are in need of. The joker is then switched with the hidden card. For example, if you are in need of the 2 of diamonds to play on the Foundation, play the joker on the Ace of Diamonds and the 2 will be pulled from wherever it may be, and played on the Ace. The joker will be placed where the 2 originally was.
In the picture below we have just uncovered a Joker as the bottom card of a base stack.
Playing the Joker to the other empty base stack will pull out the King of Spades from wherever it may be and play it in place of the Joker. The Joker is then put in the original location of the King of Spades.
Base Picker is the basic Klondike (Solitaire) game with a simple cheat. Double-click any face-down card on the Base and it will be pulled from its place and put on the top of the discard stack. You may do this 3 times during the game.
Last Chance is the basic Klondike (Solitaire) game with the ability to make a last pass through the Stock one card at a time. When you are sure the game is over, click the Last Pass button to allow one last pass through the stock, one card at a time. This gives you one last chance to play cards in the Stock that you may not have been able to get to.
Many options can be turned on and off for all of the Klondike Variations. To view and change options, click the Options button to the upper-right of the game layout. Currently, options cannot be changed in the middle of an existing game. Changing options will deal a new game out with the selected options.
If you have a specific set of options you like and would like to select those options again easily, save a game with those options using the Save button and when you load that game again later, your options will be reset. Click the Redeal button then, to get a new game with your saved options.
This option controls how cards are auto-played to the Foundation.
This option controls whether the game automatically flips cards over on the base when they become available for play.
This option controls whether the player can refresh the Stock after passing through it.
This option controls whether the user can see tooltips on the screen showing the values of cards that are not at the top of a base stack.
This option controls the number of cards shown on the top of the Discard Stack
This option controls how cards may be played in sequences on the Base Stacks.
This option controls whether or not the player can play cards off the Foundation Stacks back onto the Base Stacks.
This option controls how many cards can be turned over from the Stock to the Discard Stack on a single play from the Stock.
This option controls whether or not the player may play cards from the center of a sequence of cards on a Base Stack.
This option controls what the first card must be on a Foundation Stack.
This option controls whether or not a reserve space (freecell) is allowed and for what purpose it can be used.
This option controls what cards may be played on an empty Base Stack
This option controls the ability of the user to pull out cards from the face-down cards on the Base for play.
This option controls reorganization options for the Stock, such as Shuffling the Stock during the game.
This option controls how Jokers may be used in the game.
This option controls the number of Base Stacks laid out at the start of the game.
This option controls number of decks used in the game.
FreeCell is an incredibly popular solitaire game. Just putting the word “freecell” into a Google search finds more than 3 million entries!
FreeCell is a more difficult game to play than Klondike (in my opinion). While the basic rules are quite simple, to play it well, you have to put a few more brain cells to work. I like to play Klondike when I just want to pass some time without thinking too hard. I like to play FreeCell when I am looking for more of a challenge.
The goals for both are the same…. play all the Aces to the Foundation Stacks with all of the cards of the same suit, in sequence, on top. How the cards are played, though, is significantly different.
To add to the challenge, it is generally accepted that all FreeCell games are winnable.
So, while I can blame a losing Klondike game on the deal of the cards, I cannot blame anyone but myself for a losing FreeCell game!
The game is setup as shown in the following picture.
If you are playing with a real deck of cards, a single deck is used without Jokers. The cards are shuffled and laid out in the 8 Base Stacks shown above. The 4 left-most Base Stacks have 7 cards, while the 4 right-most Base Stacks have 6 cards. There are no remaining cards after dealing, all cards are face-up on the table.
On the top left are 4 empty Foundation Stacks. On the top right are 4 empty Free Cells.
The goal of the game is to play all of the cards on the Foundation Stacks, the 4 empty stacks at the top left of the setup. Cards that are played on the Foundation Stacks must be played in a special way…. Starting with the Ace of each suit (clubs, diamonds, hearts and spades), one for each stack, the cards must be played in sequence (Ace, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, Jack, Queen, King) on each stack and all cards on the same stack must be in the same suit.
This is usually not an easy task, as the cards you need to play on the Foundation Stacks are not readily available for play. They are all visible to you in the Base stacks, but only the top card of any stack is available for play. We need some basic rules for how to manipulate these cards so that they can eventually be played on the Foundation Stacks.
Any card on the top of any stack is available for play.
The first card played on a Foundation Stack must be an Ace. Other cards of the same suit can then be played on that stack so long as they are the same suit as the Ace and are one higher in sequence than the previous card on the stack.
Each of the 4 Free Cells on the upper right can be used to hold one card temporarily during play. These are useful if you have a single card here or there that you need to move out of the way for a little while.
Cards may be played on the Base Stacks according to the following rules:
For instance, if the top card on a Base Stack is a Queen of clubs (black), then either the Jack of Diamonds (red) or Jack of Hearts (red) may play on the Queen.
If the top card on a Base Stack is a 9 of Diamonds (red), then either the 8 of Clubs (black) or the 8 of Spades (black) may be played on the 9.
If you are sitting at an actual table and playing the game, those are the only rules. All cards are moved one card at a time. You cannot play multiple sequences of cards on other cards in the base as you can in Klondike.
However, with the advent of computers, most FreeCell games allow the user to move sequences of cards at once. This is sometimes referred to as a “power move”.
If you are playing FreeCell for the first time on a computer, you will find that sometimes you can make a power move and sometimes you cannot. This will appear mysterious at first.
However, you have to remember that the basic rules of the game are that cards are actually moved one at a time. It is possible to move a sequence of cards only if there are enough empty Free Cells and/or empty Base Stacks on which to place all of the cards temporarily while they are being moved one at a time.
The computer can calculate the number of cards that can be moved in sequence, given the number of empty Free Cells and Base Stacks. In this way it can determine whether or not you can move a sequence of cards to a particular spot.
Click on the tutorial link to see more information on how to play the cards in this computer version. The basic rules for moving cards in the computer version are:
Let’s look at a couple of examples. In the first example, let’s look at the basic moves that can be made from a given point in the game. In the second example we’ll discuss how sequences of cards are moved.
First, suppose we have the cards as shown below:
In simpler games, you can start simply by freeing up all the Aces to play on the Foundation. In the example above, we have 3 of the Aces played, but need to get to the Ace of Hearts at the bottom of the 5th base stack. The Ace is buried under two jacks and a queen and at the moment all our free cells are filled.
But, we do have an empty Base Stack. Empty Base Stacks are especially valuable, as multiple cards can be played there if we can play the cards in a sequence. Knowing this, we can efficiently place the Queen of Diamonds, Jack of Spades and 10 of Hearts all into the empty Base Stack. If we do this, we reach the point in the game shown below:
Now we have 2 Free Cells open, but no more empty Base Stacks. Note that we can play the Jack of Hearts and Queen of Hearts on the 2 empty Free Cells and then be able to play the Ace of Hearts. However, it’s a good idea not to load all the Free Cells unless you have a plan for unloading them!
In this particular case, once the Ace of Hearts is played we will be able to offload the Queen of Clubs, Jack of Hearts and 10 of Clubs back into the empty Base Stack made by playing the Ace of Hearts.
In the following picture we have filled the Free Cells and played the Ace.
Now we can continue, by playing the sequence to the empty Base Stack: Queen of Clubs, Jack of Hearts and 10 of Clubs. This will leave us with 3 open Free Cells.
In the example below, we’ll look at moving complete sequences around on the base using power moves.
Remember, you can only move a sequence of cards if you can move those same cards by playing them one-by-one. Power moves to move sequences are an artifact of the computer age and the fact that the computer can easily calculate how many cards can be moved given the number of open Free Cells and open Base Stacks.
Let’s look at the example below. In this example, look at the 6th Base Stack from the left.
This stack goes from the 7 of Diamonds to the 3 of Hearts.
We have 2 open Free Cells and one empty Base Stack. How many of these cards could be moved to the empty Base Stack? With 2 Free Cells open, the answer would be 3 cards. We should be able to move the 5 of Hearts to the empty stack, but not the 6 of Clubs. Let’s think that through.
If we were moving the cards one-by-one, we would have to put the 3 of Hearts and the 4 of Clubs on the open Free Cells. At this point, there would only be the empty Base Stack to play on. So we can play the 5 of Hearts there and then play the 4 of Clubs and 3 of Hearts on the 5. Consequently, we can move the 5 of Hearts to the empty space, but not the 6 of Clubs.
Now, let’s look at playing the 7 of Diamonds on the 8 of Spades. At first, we might think that this shouldn’t be possible, since we found we could only play 3 cards to the empty space, how can we now move 5 cards onto the 8 of Spades.
Although it seems a bit surprising at first, given any particular setup, you can actually always play twice as many cards onto an existing card like the 8 of Spades, as you can play into an empty space.
Let’s think through how the cards would be moved one-by-one to play the 7 of Diamonds and all the cards in sequence above it on the 8 of Spades.
First, we would play the 3 of Hearts and 4 of Clubs to the Free Cells. Then play the 5 of Hearts on the empty space.
Now play the 4 of Clubs and 3 of Hearts back on the 5 of Hearts to free up the 2 Free Cells again.
Now play the 6 of Clubs on a Free Cell, play the 7 of Diamonds on the 8 of Spades, and the 6 back onto the 7 of Diamonds.
Now play the 3 of Hearts and 4 of Clubs on the Free Cells, move the 5 of Hearts onto the 6 of Clubs. Then you can playthe 4 of Clubs and 3 of Hearts back on the 6 and all the cards have been moved.
If you were playing with a real deck of cards at a table, this is how you would play. But, the computer can determine the number of cards that can be played in any given situation, and so, on the computer we have power moves and the illusion of playing an entire sequence of cards at one time!
In order to program the computer’s calculation in this case, I sat down one afternoon and figured the formula out at my dining room table with a deck of cards and a piece of paper and pen.
After I programmed the formula into the computer, my son pointed out that I could have Googled it! Oh well…. at least that provided a check on my calculations….. and actually I had a good time figuring the problem out anyway!
As you play the game you will come up with your own ideas on how best to play, but here are some suggestions:
For example, if I get stuck, I look through each stack on the board, trying to play the cards in my mind, in order to determine if I will end up with a good situation if I play through the cards in a particular stack. Often the goal is to empty a Base Stack so that I can load it up with several cards in a sequence. For instance, in the following example, let’s look closely at playing the cards in the first Base Stack on the left.
If I can play the cards in this stack, I could get to the 2 of Diamonds, which would play on the Foundation, and that would allow my 3 of Diamonds to play from a Free Cell.
Once the 2 of Diamonds is played, I would be able to play the Queen of Hearts from another Free Cell onto the remaining King of Spades, so that looks like a good deal if I can get to the 2 of Diamonds.
Starting with the 6 of Clubs on top, note that it is sitting on a 7 of Diamonds, so we have a sequence we can play. This can be played to the empty Base Stack, since there is a Free Cell to put the 6 on temporarily, play the 7 to the empty stack, then play the 6 on the 7.
Next is the 4 of Clubs. This could be played on the 5 of Hearts (or the 3 of Clubs on the Foundation).
Next is the 10 of Diamonds. This would have to be played on the remaining Free Cell.
Next is the 4 of Hearts. This could be played on the 5 of Clubs.
Next is the 9 of Clubs. This could be played on the 10 of Hearts.
And Hurrah! The 2 of Diamonds can be freed! So, even though my Free Cells will be filled at this point, I know I will be able to get rid of the 3 of Diamonds and Queen of Hearts from the Free Cells when I get there.
I have many named variations of the basic FreeCell game. Some of these I have found defined in solitaire books... some I have found on-line. Some are my own variations.
To select a FreeCell variation to play, first click the Play FreeCell button, then select the Variations button to the upper-right of the card layout. A list of variations will be displayed with brief descriptions. Select the one you would like to play and click the play button.
Each variation is described below. Tutorials are not currently available for variations of FreeCell. The Tutorial button will start a tutorial for the basic FreeCell game.
When the Play FreeCell button is clicked, this variation, the basic game, is selected for play. The rules are described above.
This is played just like the basic freecell game but with a 9th base stack where the last 4 cards that are dealt are played. This gives the player another base stack that can be more easily emptied, since it has only 4 cards in it.... the short stack!
This is played just like the basic freecell game, but with a Joker added to the deck. The Joker can be played to the foundation in place of another card. When the Joker is played, the card it represents is switched with the Joker, so that it is played on the foundation. The joker then appears where that card once existed and can be used three times. After the third use, the Joker is removed from the deck.
For example, in the pictures below, we have exposed the joker on the base and are playing it on the Ace or Hearts on the foundation. When it is played there, the 2 of Hearts will be pulled from its place and played on the Ace of Hearts. The Joker will then be put in the place of the 2 or Hearts on the 7th base stack.
After playing the Joker, the game looks like this, with the Joker switched for the 2 of Hearts.
In this FreeCell variation there are 8 freecells. The first 4 freecells are filled during the deal. Only Kings may be played on empty base stacks.
In this FreeCell variation there are 8 freecells. The first 4 freecells are filled during the deal. This is similar to Bonus Freecell, but in this game any card may be played on empty base stacks.
Also called Baker's Game, this game is played like the basic freecell game, but cards on the base that are built down in sequence must also be of the same suit.
In the picture above, note that the sequences that have been built-up on the base, are sequences of cards in the same suit.
Played like the basic FreeCell game, except that only the top 4 cards of each base stack are dealt faceup. This makes the game more challenging as the lower cards are facedown and you cannot see the placement of all cards.
Very challenging game with some cards facedown on the initial base. You have 8 freecells, but 4 are pre-populated at the beginning of the game. You may only play Kings on an empty base stack.
There are only 2 freecells in this game and they must be used only to place cards that are on their way to the foundation, i.e. any card on a freecell cannot be moved back to the base, they are one-way freecells. However, you have some freedom for how cards are played on the foundation.... you do not have to follow suit when playing on the foundation. The starting cards for the foundation are played for you and you may play up in sequence either by 1's or 2's. You may NOT move cards around on the Base.
For example, let's start with the game set-up below:
In this game the starting cards for the Foundation are played for you. You may then choose to build up the foundation in sequence by either 1's or 2's. This choice is made with the first card you choose to play on the Foundation.
The Foundation has a Queen, 3, Jack and King. The first card that you play on the Foundation may be either 1 or 2 in rank higher than the card on the Foundation. That means you can play either a King or and Ace on the Queen. King is 1 higher in rank than the Queen, Ace is 2 higher in rank than the Queen (in this game rank wraps around from King to Ace, so Queen/King/Ace would be the order, making the Ace 2 higher in rank than the Queen.
On the 3, you could play a 4 or a 5 for the first card. On the Jack you could play a Queen or a King for the first card. On the King you could play an Ace or a 2 for the first card.
Once the first card is played, the sequence is set to either 1's or 2's for all Foundation stacks.
For example if we play a 5 on the 3, then all stacks must be built up in 2's until 13 cards are on the stack. When building in 2's this stack would contain the cards 3, 5, 7, 9, Jack, King, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, Queen, Ace. When building in 2's the last card on the stack would be 2 lower than the original card.
Other stacks would be built up in 2's also, using the same pattern. The bottom card is always visible as it is shown pulled out a little bit to the left of the stack.
You cannot move cards around on the base, you may only play them to the foundation or a freecell AND once you play them to a freecell they can ONLY be played to the foundation. The freecells are one-way stopping places for cards moving to the foundation.
In the example above, we are placing the 8 and 10 on the freecells in order to clear out the 6 on the 1st base stack so it can be played on the 4 on the foundation. Now we can play the 6 from the first base stack, then the 8 and 10 from the freecells. Don't load the freecells with cards that won't play soon!
Keep the flow going to the foundation and watch for which cards to uncover so you can continue playing. This is a challenging game!
Played just like Stalactites, but each foundation stack sequence is determined independently by the second card played to each stack.
So, some foundation stacks may be built in 1's and others built in 2's.
In the picture above, we have placed one card on each foundation stack. The first stack is being built up in 1's, the second stack is being built-up in 2's (Jack, King), the 3rd and 4th stacks are being built up in 1's.
See the documentation for Stalactites for more information. Stalactites
Similar to the basic freecell game but with 2 decks. Eight freecells are used and 4 Aces are played for you at the beginning of the game.
Many options can be turned on and off for all of the FreeCell Variations. To view and change options, click the Options button to the upper-right of the game layout. Currently, options cannot be changed in the middle of an existing game. Changing options will deal a new game out with the selected options.
If you have a specific set of options you like and would like to select those options again easily, save a game with those options using the Save button and when you load that game again later, your options will be reset. Click the Redeal button then, to get a new game with your saved options.
Controls options for autoplay of cards to the Foundation.
The last 4 cards dealt out can be placed on top of the left-most base stacks or can be played on freecells, on a shortstack (if using one deck), or as the foundation start.
Determines where cards on the freecells can be played.
Controls whether or not the player can play cards off the Foundation Stacks back onto the Base Stacks.
Determines how cards are built up on the foundation
Determines how a joker is used in the game
Controls whether the user can see tooltips on the screen showing the values of cards that are not at the top of a base stack.
Determines how cards in sequences can be played on the base depending upon suit.
Select the number of freecells to play with.
Controls what cards may be played on an empty Base Stack
Determines if the suit is ignored when playing on the Foundation
Pull out the most-deeply buried aces from the base and play them on the foundation to start. This option is ignored if "Last 4 Cards Position" is set to "OnFoundation".
Determines the number of cards dealt faceup on each base stack. When this option is not 'all' it makes the game more difficult, as the underlying cards will be facedown until they are uncovered.
Determines if the user can move cards around on the base.
Select the number of decks to play with.
Forty Thieves is one of the more difficult solitaire games. To win this game you need a pretty good starting layout and that involves some luck. Fortunately, when playing this on a computer, a redeal of the cards is just a button-click away.
I consider Forty Thieves to be significantly more difficult than FreeCell and FreeCell to be significantly more difficult than Klondike. While the basic rules are quite simple, to play it well, you really have to be thinking ahead. It is a definitely a challenging game.
The goals for all of these are the same…. play all the Aces to the Foundation Stacks with all of the cards of the same suit, in sequence, on top.
The game is setup as shown in the following picture.
Two decks are used without Jokers. The cards are shuffled and laid out in the 10 Base Stacks shown above. Each base stack has 4 cards and the cards are all face-up. The remaining cards are placed face-down on the Stock. There are 64 cards in the Stock after dealing out the cards. The number of cards left in the stock is tracked and shown next to the label "Cards Left" above the layout.
On the top left are 8 empty Foundation Stacks.
The goal of the game is to play all of the cards on the Foundation Stacks, the 8 empty stacks at the top left of the setup. Cards that are played on the Foundation Stacks must be played in a special way…. Starting with the Ace of each suit (clubs, diamonds, hearts and spades), one for each stack, the cards must be played in sequence (Ace, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, Jack, Queen, King) on each stack and all cards on the same stack must be in the same suit. There are 8 stacks since we are using two decks, so there will be 2 Aces of each suit.
This is usually not an easy task, as the cards you need to play on the Foundation Stacks are not readily available for play. Some are visible to you in the Base stacks, but only the top card of any stack is available for play at any time. We need some basic rules for how to manipulate these cards so that they can eventually be played on the Foundation Stacks.
Any card on the top of any base stack is available for play.
At any time you may also turn over the top card on the Stock to the Discard stack. The top of the discard stack is available for play also. You may pass through the Stock only once.
The first card played on a Foundation Stack must be an Ace. Other cards of the same suit can then be played on that stack so long as they are the same suit as the Ace and are one higher in sequence than the previous card on the stack.
Cards may be played on the Base Stacks according to the following rules:
For instance, in the picture above, the Jack of Diamonds can be moved on top of the Queen of Diamonds. It does not play on the Queen of Clubs or Queen of Spades. Also, the 7 of Spades can be played on the 8 of Spades.
If you are sitting at an actual table and playing the game, those are the only rules. All cards are moved one card at a time. You cannot play multiple sequences of cards on other cards in the base as you can in Klondike.
However, with the advent of computers, most Forty Thieves games allow the user to move sequences of cards at once. This is sometimes referred to as a “power move”.
If you are playing Forty Thieves for the first time on a computer, you will find that sometimes you can make a power move and sometimes you cannot. This will appear mysterious at first.
However, you have to remember that the basic rules of the game are that cards are actually moved one at a time. It is possible to move a sequence of cards only if there are enough empty Base Stacks on which to place all of the cards temporarily while they are being moved one at a time.
The computer can calculate the number of cards that can be moved in sequence, given the number of empty Base Stacks. In this way it can determine whether or not you can move a sequence of cards to a particular spot.
Click on the tutorial link to see more information on how to play the cards in this computer version. The basic rules for moving cards in the computer version are:
Winning the game basically hinges on clearing out Base stacks so that you can move larger sequences of cards around on the Base. You need empty base stacks to provide holding spaces for cards as they are moved.
If we start with the cards set up as shown above, we have several Aces and a few other cards we can play to the Foundation.
Nothing else plays on the base, so we begin turning over cards from the Stock to the Discard stack. In the picture below we can play the 5 of Clubs on a 6 of Clubs on the Base.
We continue to turn cards over from the Stock and play what we can on the Base. Eventually, we end up in the situation below.
Here we have played several clubs to the Base and now we have a 3 of Clubs that we can play on the Foundation. After we play the 3 of Clubs the 4/5/6 of Clubs will all play. We play the 4 off of the third base stack and the 5 and 6 off of the 4th Base stack, exposing another 4 that can then be moved to the 3rd base stack.
The 4 of Clubs can now be played on the 5 of Clubs, the 7 of Clubs can play on the Foundation and the 10 of Diamonds can be played on the Jack of Diamonds. Then we will have cleared out a Base stack as below.
It's a good idea to try and move cards on the base to try and maintain empty spaces. For instance, we can move the 6 of Hearts from the Discard stack to the empty base stack and then place the 5 of Hearts on it. This preserves our one empty space.
Now the 4/3 of Hearts will play on the 5 of Hearts. If we were playing with a real deck of cards, these would have to be moved one card at a time. We would move the 3 of Hearts to the empty stack, then move the 4 of Hearts to the 5 of Hearts, and then move the 3 of Hearts back on the 4 of Hearts. Without an empty stack, the 4 and 3 would not be able to be moved. The more empty base stacks we have, the more freedom there is to power move around larger sequences.
It would be nice to rearrange the spades in the 6th base stack as the 9 and 8 are sitting on top of the 7. But we cannot move the 9/8 to the empty space as shown below. We would need to have second empty base stack where we could put the 8 temporarily while we move the 9 to the first empty space. The computer can determine how many cards can be power moved at one time based on the number of empty base stacks. For now, we can't move the spades.
Turning over more cards from the Stock and continuing to play allows us to play several clubs on the Foundation so that we have now cleared out 2 empty base stacks. We can now arrange the spades in order.
The 2 of Hearts luckily appears from the Stock and we can clear out another base stack. Note that when cards in sequence can be played to the Foundation, they can be played altogether as shown below.
We can now rearrange some cards on the base. Sometimes you must be creative in how you move the cards to get it done. In the picture below we want to move the 6/5/4 of clubs onto the 7 of Clubs under the Jack of Spades.
If we move the Jack of Spades first, then we will have only one empty space to work with and we will not be able to move 3 cards in sequence to the 7 of Clubs. So we separate the clubs first, placing the 5/4 of clubs on an empty space, then move the Jack of Spades to another empty space.
Now we move the 6 of Clubs to the 7. That will create an empty space so that we can then move the 5/4 of clubs to the 6. Consolidating the clubs and losing no empty spaces overall.
We continue to play and shuffle cards around on the base, straightening out sequences as we go. Then we get a breakthrough. The 3 of Diamonds is turned over from the Stock. This will allow us to play all the Diamonds highlighted below and will free the 6 of Spades, allowing us to play a sequence of spades on the 5 of Spades on the Foundation.
Moving a few more cards around we now have 4 open base stacks.
At this point we need to start worrying about the number of cards we have placed on the Discard stack. It is usually necessary at some point in the game to start to play the cards on the Discard stack into the open places in the base. Since we now have several open spaces, we'll try to do that with any cards that we think might play soon.
Luckily the cards in the discard tend to play on each other and we can play quite of few of them on the base. We now have the situation below where we have turned up a 2 of Hearts and can clear out 2 base stacks that contain Heart sequences.
At this point in the game I tend to fully load the base stacks. Whether or not this works will depend on where the remaining smaller cards are. If the 3 of Diamonds, 3 of Clubs or 5 of Spades are still left in the 9 cards in the Stock, then base stacks will clear out when they are played. If those smaller cards went by earlier in the game, then it may be difficult to win.
Luckily, we were able to play the 4 of Diamonds and the 5 of Spades, allowing us to free up stacks on the base and play more cards off of the Discard stack. If you are lucky enough to reach this stage of the game, cards on the base will start to play easily on each other. Below, we can straighten out the sequences further by consolidating the Clubs and Diamonds.
Now everything starts to play and the game is easily won from this point.
As you play the game you will come up with your own ideas on how best to play, but here are some suggestions:
I have many named variations of the basic FortyThieves game. Some of these I have found defined in solitaire books... some I have found on-line. Some are my own variations.
To select a FortyThieves variation to play, first click the Play FortyThieves button, then select the Variations button to the upper-right of the card layout. A list of variations will be displayed with brief descriptions. Select the one you would like to play and click the play button.
Each variation is described below. Tutorials are not currently available for variations of FortyThieves. The Tutorial button will start a tutorial for the basic FortyThieves game.
When the Play FortyThieves button is clicked, this variation, the basic game, is selected for play. The rules are described above.
Played like FortyThieves but there are 13 base stacks instead of 10 and only 3 cards per stack, making it a little easier to move cards around the base. In addition all the aces are played at the start of the game.
In this game cards are played on the base in descending sequence and alternating colors rather than following suit as in the basic FortyThieves game. Only 9 base stacks are used.
Played like FortyThieves but there 12 base stacks instead of 10 and only 3 cards per stack, making it a little easier to move cards around the base.
This game uses only 3 cards on each base stack, with only the top 2 cards faceup. Moving cards on the base is easier than in the basic FortyThieves games, as cards in descending sequence no longer have to follow suit. Instead you may play any card, one lesser in rank, on another card in the base if it is any other suit than the card underneath. For example, if a Queen of Clubs exists on the base, then any of the Jack of Diamonds, Jack of Hearts or Jack of Spades may play on the Queen. The Jack of Clubs would NOT play on the Queen of Clubs.
A FortyThieves game with easier movement of sequences on the base. Only 2 cards are shown faceup on the base. Cards on the base are placed in descending sequence and alternating colors. Also, sequences of cards can be moved around on the base without any attention to the number of open base stacks. This makes movement on the base significantly easier and much like movement of sequences in Klondike.
Just like NumberTen, but only 1 card is turned faceup on each base stack.
See the documentation for NumberTen for more information. NumberTen
Just like RankAndFile, but cards may be played from the Foundation back onto the base.
See the documentation for RankAndFile for more information. RankAndFile
Just like Emperor, except 2 cards are placed faceup on each base stack and only 9 base stacks are used.
See the documentation for Emperor for more information. Emperor
Octave is quite different as it uses a set of 8 Reserve spaces to place cards on from the Stock. There is a Discard stack but it can only contain a single card at a time. Cards on the base are placed in descending order with alternating colors. Only 8 base stacks are used, only 3 cards in each stack, with only 1 card turned faceup.
The initial setup is shown above. Eight cards are initially placed on the Reserve. Each Reserve space can hold only one card.
Cards on the reserve can be played either to the base or the foundation.
When desired, click the Stock to turn-over more cards for play. The Stock plays to the Discard stack and the Reserve, if there is already a card on the Discard.
If the Reserve and Discard stacks are full, then no more cards can be turned over from the Stock.
This is the basic FortyThieves game with a reusable Joker that can be played on any Foundation Stack. When played it will be automatically switched with the needed card. That card will be played on the Foundation where the Joker was played and the Joker will then be in the original position of the card that was needed. The Joker can be used as many times as needed.
In the picture above we are playing the Joker on the foundation. The computer will select the Ace of Spades to switch with it. In the picture below, the Ace of Spades has been pulled from its resting place and played on the foundation. The Joker is then visible in the original position of the Ace of Spades.
This is the basic FortyThieves game with twice the number of cards.... 4 decks. Fourteen base stacks are used with 6 cards on each.
Many options can be turned on and off for all of the FortyThieves Variations. To view and change options, click the Options button to the upper-right of the game layout. Currently, options cannot be changed in the middle of an existing game. Changing options will deal a new game out with the selected options.
If you have a specific set of options you like and would like to select those options again easily, save a game with those options using the Save button and when you load that game again later, your options will be reset. Click the Redeal button then, to get a new game with your saved options.
Controls options for autoplay of cards to the Foundation.
Controls whether or not the player can play cards off the Foundation Stacks back onto the Base Stacks.
Determines how a joker is used in the game
Controls whether the user can see tooltips on the screen showing the values of cards that are not at the top of a base stack.
Determines how cards in sequences can be played on the base depending upon suit.
Pull out the most-deeply buried aces from the base and play them on the foundation to start. This option is ignored if "Last 4 Cards Position" is set to "OnFoundation".
Determines the number of cards dealt faceup on each base stack. When this option is not 'all' it makes the game more difficult, as the underlying cards will be facedown until they are uncovered.
Determines how the user can move cards around on the base.
Select the number of decks to play with.
Select the number of base stacks to use.
Select the number of cards to deal onto each base stack.
Controls whether the user has an additional reserve to play on. Number of reserve stacks is the same as the number of base stacks, one card may be stored on each reserve stack. For example, a reserve is used in the game Variation Octave.
I find Spider to be an exceptionally difficult solitaire game. To win this game you need a good deal of patience and a good setup. Fortunately, when playing this on a computer, a redeal of the cards is just a button-click away and undo/redo is really nice to have around.
Many people like to start out with a simplified game until they get the hang of it. I provide OneSuit and TwoSuit games in the Variations list that are good starter games for the first-time player.
The goal for Spider (and for all of its variations) is to rearrange the cards on the base until a complete sequence from King down-to Ace, where all cards are the same suit, is created. This sequence is then removed from the base and discarded to the foundation. When all possible King-to-Ace suit sequences have been created and discarded, the game is won.
Consequently, the entire game is about rearranging the cards on the base and understanding the rules of how cards there are moved.
The game is setup as shown in the following picture.
Two decks are used without Jokers. The cards are shuffled and laid out in the 10 Base Stacks shown above. There are 6 cards on the stacks to the left and 5 cards on the stacks to the right. The remaining cards are placed face-down on the Stock. There are 50 cards in the Stock after dealing out the cards. The number of cards left in the stock is tracked and shown next to the label "Cards Left" above the layout.
On the top left are 8 empty Foundation Stacks.
The goal of the game is to play all of the cards on the Foundation Stacks, the 8 empty stacks at the top left of the setup. But there's a catch, the complete 13-card sequence from King to Ace for a specific suit must be entirely assembled on the base. Once assembled, it can be moved/discarded to the foundation stacks. The game is won when all 8 King to Ace suit sequences have been assembled and discarded to the foundation.
This is not an easy task. We need some basic rules for how to manipulate these cards so that sequences can eventually be assembled and discarded to the Foundation Stacks.
At any time you may play cards from the Stock. When playing from the Stock, 10 cards are played on top of the base stacks, one on each stack. Before playing from the Stock, all empty spaces in the base must be filled.
Cards may be rearranged on the Base Stacks according to the following rules:
Because sequences of cards that are the same suit can be moved around easily, it's a good idea to try to play cards of the same suit on each other.
For example, in the setup above, we could play the Queen of Hearts on either the King of Spades or King of Hearts. Choosing the King of Hearts to play on will allow the King/Queen of Hearts to be moved as a single object later. The Queen of Diamonds can be played on the King of Spades and after that we can add the Jack of Spades on top of it. Moving cards in this way, even though they do not match in suit, frees up cards underneath for play.
As cards are played, the cards underneath that are FaceDown become available. It's a good idea to try to create empty spaces in the base also. I usually try to play the cards on the right as much as possible, as there are fewer cards in each stack there and a better chance of opening up an empty space when playing from there. After playing a few cards we end up as below.
Here we have been able to keep several clubs together and also some hearts. Otherwise, we have sequences of mixed suits.
Making a few more moves, we are able to clear out an empty space, as below.
Empty spaces give us flexibility to move sequences of cards that are not all of the same suit. One empty base stack would allow us to move a sequence of cards containing two different suits by placing the cards of one suit (group1) temporarily in the empty space while moving the cards of the other suit (group2) as desired. Then we can move the cards placed in the empty space (group1) back onto the cards just moved (group2).
We provide a power-move for this type of move that uses empty base stacks. The computer calculates the number of empty base stacks needed for a move and will popup an error message telling you if a move is not possible.
Along the way, the 50 cards that are in the Stock at the beginning of the game must be played. In order to play these cards, all base stacks must filled with at least one card.
In the picture above we are preparing to play from the Stock. When we play from the Stock, ten cards are played, one on top of each base stack. After playing from the stock, the game looks like below.
After playing from the stock some rearrangement is necessary, as it's easy to become buried under cards that do not fit into sequence anywhere. If you can successfully rearrange the cards, you eventually will be able to assemble suit segments together to create a complete sequence. In the picture below we are very close to assembling a sequence of Hearts.
We have tried to keep a space clear and this allows us to move the 7-4 of Clubs from the far left to the empty space. Then the sequence of Hearts 10-Ace can be moved onto the Jack of Hearts completing the sequence.
When the sequence is completed, it is automatically discarded from the base. This automatic discard of completed sequences can be turned off by selecting Options and switching the auto play off.
After moving several sequences to the foundation, the base begins to clear and we can see that the game is winnable.
Click on the tutorial link to see more information on how to play the cards in this computer version. The basic rules for moving cards in the computer version are:
As you play the game you will come up with your own ideas on how best to play, but here are some suggestions:
I have many named variations of the basic Spider game. Some of these I have found defined in solitaire books... some I have found on-line. Some are my own variations. Many of these have been created to make the game easier to win.
To select a Spider variation to play, first click the Play Spider button, then select the Variations button to the upper-right of the card layout. A list of variations will be displayed with brief descriptions. Select the one you would like to play and click the play button.
Each variation is described below. Tutorials are not currently available for variations of Spider. The Tutorial button will start a tutorial for the basic Spider game.
There are two flavors of Spider variations based on how cards are moved on the base. Both flavors have the same goal, to build King-to-Ace sequences of the cards in the same suit on the base, then discard each sequence to the foundation when completed.
Movement rules for the base fall into two groups: SpiderStyle movement and ScorpionStyle movement.
In SpiderStyle movement cards may be placed on top of other cards in the base, so long as they are in descending sequence. So a 10 may be played on a Jack, a 3 may be played on a 4, etc. They may continue down in sequence until reaching the Ace. Nothing can be placed on an Ace. Kings can only be played to empty base stacks.
Two types of sequences can be created: sequences that follow suit and sequences that do NOT follow suit. Sequences that follow suit are special in that they can be moved around, in whole or in-part, anywhere on the base as easily as single cards can be moved. Sequences that do not follow suit can only be moved if there are empty base stacks on which to play each contiguous section of the same suit. For an example of this see the Tutorial for Spider or read the main Spider game description above. I provide a power-move for moving sequences that do not follow suit. This computes the number of suit sections that can be moved, given the number of base stacks, so you don't have to manually move all those cards around. This is very similar to the power-move used in FreeCell.
In ScorpionStyle movement sections of cards do not have to be in sequence at all to be moved. In Scorpion games you move any card, along with any cards on top of it, as a single section, as easily as moving a single card. However, the top card you move can be played only on a card one-higher in rank than it, and of the same suit. So, for example, you can pull out a 2 of clubs that might have any random cards above it and play it on the 3 of Clubs, so long as the 3 of Clubs is the top card of its base stack. All cards that were on top of the 2, are brought along for the ride.
Nothing can be played on an Ace. In addition, empty base stacks must be filled with a King.
Variations using ScorpionStyle movement all have Scorpion in the name. All other variations use SpiderStyle movement. You can invent your own game and set the movement style option to SpiderStyle or ScorpionStyle. See the options section below for all the options you can set.
When the Play Spider button is clicked, this variation, the basic game, is selected for play. The rules are described above.
An easier version of Spider, only two suits exist in the deck. Four aces of each suit.
An even easier version of Spider, only one suit exists in the deck. Eight aces of the same suit.
The basic Spider game with an extra empty base stack, to give a little more space for rearranging cards.
Played the same as the basic Spider game with one difference. A set of reserve spaces is provided, one for each base stack. When cards are dealt from the Stock they are placed on the reserve spaces, rather than over the existing base stacks.
A modified Spider game for a single deck of cards. Only 7 base stacks exist in this game, set up as in Klondike. The goal is the same, but only 4 Ace-to-King sequences exist.
A modified Spider game for a single deck of cards. Only 8 base stacks exist in this game, with the first 7 set up as in Klondike. Goal is the same, but only 4 Ace-to-King sequences exist.
A modified Spider game for a single deck of cards. Only 7 base stacks exist in this game, setup with 3 cards on each stack. Goal is the same, but only 4 Ace-to-King sequences exist.
A modified Spider game for a single deck of cards. Only 8 base stacks exist in this game, with the first 7 setup with 3 cards on each stack. Goal is the same, but only 4 Ace-to-King sequences exist.
A modified Spider game for a single deck of cards. Only 7 base stacks exist in this game, setup in Klondike style, but all cards FaceUp. Goal is the same, but only 4 Ace-to-King sequences exist.
A modified Spider game for a single deck of cards. Only 8 base stacks exist in this game, with the first 7 setup in Klondike formation, all FaceUp. Goal is the same, but only 4 Ace-to-King sequences exist.
Scorpion has the same goal as Spider, build all of the Ace-King sequences on the base and then discard each. However, movement of cards on the base is very different. Any FaceUp card from anywhere in the base can be picked up and moved onto any top card that is the same suit and one higher in rank. Kings may only be played on empty spaces in the base AND only Kings may be played on an empty base stack.
For example, in the picture above the 10 of Clubs on the far right stack can be played on the Jack of Clubs. When the 10 is played, the Ace/8/Ace that are on top of the 10 are also moved along with the 10, even though they are not part of a sequence.
Scorpion is a difficult game to win.... focus on freeing up the FaceDown cards to win. There are only 3 cards in the Stock that can be played anytime you wish.
Try Scorpion Plus or Scorpion-ette for easier variations.
Same as Scorpion, but with only 2 suits.
See the documentation for Scorpion for more information. Scorpion
Scorpion with an additional empty base stack for a little more space for movement.
See the documentation for Scorpion for more information. Scorpion
Scorpion with fewer cards laid on the initial base. Easier than the original, as you can arrange cards before you add more from the Stock.
See the documentation for Scorpion for more information. Scorpion
Many options can be turned on and off for all of the Spider Variations. To view and change options, click the Options button to the upper-right of the game layout. Currently, options cannot be changed in the middle of an existing game. Changing options will deal a new game out with the selected options.
If you have a specific set of options you like and would like to select those options again easily, save a game with those options using the Save button and when you load that game again later, your options will be reset. Click the Redeal button then, to get a new game with your saved options.
Controls whether a stack of Ace, 2, 3.... King is automatically discarded to the foundation when completed.
Determines how a joker is used in the game. When a Joker is in use it may be played on any card in the base. When played, the game will locate a card of the same suit as the card the Joker is played on and one less in rank. It will search only for cards that are in the Stock or are facedown on the base. If a card is found, then the Joker is switched with that card.
Controls whether the user can see tooltips on the screen showing the values of cards that are not at the top of a base stack.
Determines the number of cards dealt faceup on each base stack. Increasing this number can make the game easier.
Determines the number of stacks to apply the Number of Cards FaceUp to.
Controls what cards may be played on an empty Base Stack. When the King option is selected, cards may be dealt to empty base stacks.
Determines how the user can move cards around on the base.
Select the number of decks to play with.
Select the number of suits to play with. The more suits used, the more difficult the game.
Select the number of cards to deal onto each base stack and the number of base stacks.
Controls whether the user has an additional reserve to play on.
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