Spider Solitaire

[Steven Vollom]

Derek Broughton wrote:
> Steven Vollom wrote:
>
>   
>>>>>>>> It's available in the KDE card games :) (KPath I seem to
>>>>>>>> remember?)
>>>>>>>>             
>>>>>>>>                 
>>>>>> kpat
>>>>>>         
>>>>>>             
>>>> That's KPatience, one of the first few things I looked for, it looks
>>>> like the same set Vista's got, prefer freecell myself
>>>> brian
>>>>         
>
>   
>> I couldn't find KPatience in apt-get or Adept Package Manager
>>
>>     
>
> As I said, "kpat".  kpat is the package,  KPatience may be the actual 
> game.  You really need to learn to use the basic commands of your 
> system.  Searching for kpatience with "apt-cache search" finds kpat.
>   
I would give anything to be able to do that.  I have so many things that 
I am resolving right now, I can't find the time to find the source for 
that tutorial.  Let me ask you this, do I type into the terminal the 
following:  *sudo apt-cashe search kpatience *to get that result.  I 
don't know when to use sudo and when it isn't necessary.  Additionally, 
I will have to practice many times before I am able to remember what I 
am doing and what the anticipated result will be.  (Old w/fading memory).

I already had Kpat installed.  Never had time to look into its 
workings.  I played a couple of games of patience, however you always 
win when you play that.

When I found Spider Solitaire as an alternative, with mid-lever playing, 
I was happy.  It had been so long since I played it, it took a while to 
get familiar with it again.  I mentioned in an email recently that I 
used to play it winning about 80% of the time.  This time I could hardly 
win.  When I figured out why, I had already embarrassed myself with the 
80% comment.

I hate games where you only can win one out of ten.  I don't like the 
losing experience that much.  Additionally, I wasn't playing the game so 
much for fun as I was playing in under extreme conditions trying to 
exercise my mind and hopefully restore my memory a little.  Consequently 
it took me several games to figure how I could have had such a winning 
percentage.  When I finally figured it out, it would make a great new 
game that people would enjoy much more.  The reason being, when playing 
in competition with others, the winner only would finish to take the 
prize.  However when playing as a single, a person would never finish 
playing the game until all the cards were recovered and a victory was 
apparent. 

I just threw away all the rules and made my own.  Since the rules apply 
to everyone, 80% winning success for an individual make the play more 
fun and exciting.  I made the game not end until all cards had been 
recovered.  Next, I would deal.  If I didn't like the deal, I would 
redeal, and again and again until I liked the starting hand.  At a 
certain point in the shuffle, a combination of cards appears as 
winnable.  Then you play.  At this point you will win about 80% of the 
games, which is fun.  Nonetheless, since the first one to completely 
finish is the winner, time becomes the determining factor.  As a result 
every minute you use up looking for that ideal starting point has the 
clock running.

If you are competing with someone else, they may start playing the first 
deal.  If it defeats them, the game is not over.  They have to redeal 
and start again, over and over until they win.  If you finish before 
them, you win; if they complete before you they win.  You could have 
1,000,000 players, and if they started at the selfsame time, there still 
would be only one winner.

Lets say you make a play, and a few plays later you think it was a 
mistake; you simply back up and try the alternative that you didn't play 
the first time.  Is it cheating, No.. It cost you valuable time, because 
everyone will ultimately finish the entire game, because it never stops 
going until one person finishes.

When you are playing by yourself, you still have the joy of victory, 
because eventually you retire all the cards.  Then all you have to do is 
check your time against your best previous time to know if you really 
won.  You still have the feeling of victory, when you don't beat your 
best time, because you finish.  Every time you do something that players 
of the original game would consider cheating, you aren't cheating 
because it isn't against the rules.  There is always the penalty of 
having to redo your mistakes though.  I think if you try it, you will be 
addicted at some point because the game always lets you feel like you 
succeeded.  You don't even feel a failure when you don't meet you best 
time, you just try again.

I have finished the Two-suit game in 98 moves.  That is my best.  I 
don't know how long it took, but it had to be faster than any other time 
I played the game.  If you play and get close to that mark, you will 
understand how right your moves have to be to retire all the cards in 98 
moves.

I made a copy of my rules, in case anyone wanted them.  It is way more 
fun than playing Spider Solitaire.  Considerably more complex too.  When 
I play I don't hesitate between moves.  I force things to happen fast.  
My goal is to retrain my mind to accept and hold memory, including 
snap-decisions.  I am going to beat some of this old stuff.

Steven