Where Did Spider Solitaire Go
PreInstalled Spider Solitaire disappeared. Anonymous Aug 5, 2005, 12:46 PM. Go into Control Panel/Add or Remove Programs, then click the Add/Remove Windows Components in the left pane.
| Original author(s) | Wes Cherry |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Microsoft |
| Operating system | Microsoft Windows |
| Replaced by | Microsoft Solitaire Collection (Windows 10) |
Solitaire is a computer game included with Microsoft Windows, based on a card game of the same name, also known as Klondike.
History[edit]
Microsoft has included the game as part of its Windows product line since Windows 3.0, starting from 1990.[1] The game was developed in 1989 by the intern Wes Cherry.[2][3][4] The card deck itself was designed by Macintosh pioneer Susan Kare.[5]
Microsoft intended Solitaire 'to soothe people intimidated by the operating system,' and at a time where many users were still unfamiliar with graphical user interfaces, it proved useful in familiarizing them with the use of a mouse, such as the drag-and-drop technique required for moving cards.[1]
According to Microsoft telemetry, Solitaire was among the three most-used Windows programs and FreeCell was seventh, ahead of Word and Microsoft Excel.[6][6] Lost business productivity by employees playing Solitaire has become a common concern since it became standard on Microsoft Windows.[7] In 2006, a New York City worker was fired after Mayor Michael Bloomberg saw the Solitaire game on the man's office computer.[8]
In October 2012, along with the release of the Windows 8 operating system, Microsoft released a new version of Solitaire called Microsoft Solitaire Collection.[9] This version, designed by Microsoft Studios and developed by Arkadium, is advertisement supported, and introduced many new features to the game.
Microsoft Solitaire celebrated its 25th anniversary on May 18, 2015. To celebrate this event, Microsoft hosted a Solitaire tournament on the Microsoft campus and broadcast the main event on Twitch.[10]
Features[edit]
Since Windows 3.0, Solitaire allows selecting the design on the back of the cards, choosing whether one or three cards are drawn from the deck at a time, switching between Vegas scoring and Standard scoring, and disabling scoring entirely. The game can also be timed for additional points if the game is won. There is a cheat that will allow drawing one card at a time when 'draw three' is set.
In Windows 2000 and later versions of Solitaire, right-clicking on open spaces automatically moves available cards to the four foundations in the upper right-hand corner, as in Freecell. If the mouse pointer is on a card, a right click will move only that card to its foundation, provided that it is a possible move. Left double-clicking will also move the card to the proper foundation.
Until the Windows XP version, the card backs were the original works designed by Susan Kare, and many were animated.
The Windows Vista and Windows 7 versions of the game save statistics on the number and percentage of games won, and allow users to save incomplete games and to choose cards with different face styles.
On Windows 8, Windows 10, Windows Phone, Android, and online the game was issued as Microsoft Solitaire Collection, where in addition to Klondike four other game modes were featured, Spider, FreeCell (both of which had been previously featured in versions of Windows as Microsoft Spider Solitaire and Microsoft FreeCell), Pyramid, and TriPeaks (both of which were previously part of the Microsoft Entertainment Pack series, the former under the name Tut's Tomb).
References[edit]
- ^ abGarreau, Joel (March 9, 1994). 'Office Minefield'. The Washington Post.
- ^Farokhmanesh, Megan (13 April 2017). 'A bored intern created the original Windows Solitaire'. The Verge. Vox Media.
- ^Cherry, Wes. 'Interview with Wes Cherry - B3TA.com 2008'. B3ta.com. Retrieved 22 August 2014.
- ^'Wes Cherry on Reddit about Solitaire'.
- ^'Susan Kare personal website showing her design for Microsoft Solitaire'. Kare.com. Archived from the original on 28 August 2008. Retrieved 22 August 2014.
- ^ abDear, Brian (2017). '27. Leaving the Nest'. The Friendly Orange Glow. New York: Pantheon Books. pp. 502–503. ISBN9781101871560.
- ^Church, George J. (October 12, 1998). 'Quarterly Business Report: Do Computers Really Save Money?'. Time. Time Inc.
- ^Hu, Winnie (10 February 2006). 'Solitaire Costs Man His City Job After Bloomberg Sees Computer'. The New York Times Online. The New York Times Company.
- ^'Microsoft Solitaire Collection'. App Store. Microsoft.
- ^'Celebrating Microsoft Solitaire'. Blogging Windows. Microsoft. May 18, 2015.
External links[edit]
- Solitaire at MobyGames
- Kortspil at Curlie
Spider Solitaire Rules
Objective
Spider Solitaire is a solitaire game where the objective is to order all the cards in descending runs from King down to Ace in the same suit. Once a run has been completed, for example King of clubs down to Ace of clubs, then the whole run will be removed from the table. Once the table is completely empty the game has been won.
Setup
Spider Solitaire is played with two full decks, 104 cards. At the beginning 54 of the cards are divided between 10 tableaus, the first 4 tableaus have 6 cards each, the other 6 tableaus have 5 cards each. The top card of each tableau is turned face up, the others are face down. The remaining 50 cards are placed in a stock at the top of the screen.
Valid moves
A card can always be moved onto a card that is one higher in rank. You can for example move a 7 of clubs and put it on an 8 of clubs, or an 8 of hearts, diamonds or spades. However, even though you can move cards onto other cards in a different suit, the objective of the game is to create runs in the same suit, so a run will only be removed from the table if it's all in the same suit, a full run in different suits doesn't do anything for you. (Although it can be useful to move cards onto other suits just to get them out of the way).
You can move multiple cards together if they are all part of a run in the same suit. E.g. if you have 8 of clubs, 7 of clubs, 6 of clubs, then you can click the 8 and move them all together onto a 9 of any suit. However if you have 8 of clubs, 7 of hearts, 6 of diamonds, then you can't move them all together, only the top card.
If a tableau is empty then any card or partial run is allowed to be moved onto it.
A full run does not have to be the only thing on a tableau to be removed. For example, a tableau might have three facedown cards and then a full run from King to Ace in the same suit and then the run would disappear, and the three facedown cards would remain.
Adding cards from the stock
When there are no more moves that can be made in the tableaus then you can click on the stock in the upper left corner. That will move 10 cards from the stock onto the tableaus, one card onto each tableau. Try not to do this until you are sure you have no other moves to make. It is required that there is at least one card in each tableau when the stock is clicked. If there is an empty tableau on the table you must first move one or more cards onto it before you can click on the stock.
Scoring
You start with 500 points. For each move you make one point gets subtracted. For each run you remove from the table you'll get a 100 extra points. Example: if you've managed to make three full runs in 70 moves you'll have 500-70+3*100 = 730 points.
Difficulty
The game can be played in three different modes, beginner, intermediate and advanced. In beginner mode there is only one suit (spades), in intermediate mode there are two (spades and hearts) and in advanced mode there are all four suits. There are the same number of cards, 104, in all modes.