Re: [piecepack] Notes and Comments on Solitaires

["Mike Schoessow" <mikeschoessow@...>]

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Electronicwaffle 
  To: piecepack@yahoogroups.com 
  Sent: Saturday, September 13, 2003 12:18 PM
  Subject: [piecepack] Notes and Comments on Solitaires



  >I like to get the ball rolling when comps come out. (I had the main 
  >game of berlin done within 24 hours of the Announcement for History 
  >Rpeats). I tried playing with the bits of my paper piecepack for 
  >this comp I and got to thinking.


  I'm trying to get an early start this time. I have the beginnings of a new solitaire game worked out that I feel can be molded into a good polished game within the next few weeks.


  >I love Playing Card Solitaires/Patience (is their a plural to this 
  >GB phrase?). 


  The following is a bit off-topic but what the heck: I enjoy playing card solitaire games, and have always felt that they would be a great thing for passing the time on long airline flights. Unfortunately, most card solitaires take up more space than an airliner tray-table provides. This led to an idea; how about trying to design a challenging, fun solitaire game that is also very compact. I think I accomplished this with a game called Sixes, and I've subsequently played this game alot. But there was another niggling problem; solitaire games, even more than multi-player card games, are very sensitive to insufficient shuffling, and it was a real pain doing all that shuffling between games on the airplane. My solution was to design  a second compact solitaire game based on a completely different mechanic. This game is called Even & Odd. Now I can alternate between the two games, and one game largely shuffles the cards for the other. The result is that only a small amount of shuffling is required between games. Both of these games were designed a few years ago. More recently, I've come up with another game (tentatively entitled Fargo) that effectively shuffles its own cards as you play, such that little or no shuffling is required between games. If anyone is interested in receiving copies of the rules for these games, e-mail me at mjs@pobox.


  >What I like to get cought up in is the sheer amount of 
  >card movement. Freecell and Clock seem to do this alot, It gives a 
  >sense that the game is moving along. I also love the "Eureka" effect 
  >(or "cleaning up" phase) in Solitiares where you know you have won, 
  >but you have to still complete the play.

  >Taking this into effect, I sense that this comp will challenge the 
  >Piecepack in new ways. I was not around for Time Marches On, however 
  >I assume the theme was to have things done by a certain time...  


  Not exactly. See piecepack post #216.



  >I 
  >feel the solitares will need some timing mechanism... the overall 
  >thing or objective to beat. In multiplayer games where repitition is 
  >allowed.. a game could last for ever. Limiting the players to one 
  >allows for all the bits to be "owned" by that player...  As 
  >mentioned in other posts, I think the dice will see new methods of 
  >use. 

  >It would seem that a board being premade could help differeniate the 
  >solitares here with playing card solitaires. Im sure some people 
  >here have experimented with the "near complete" playing card deck 
  >the tiles and coins approximate. (I think Multzo does this... I 
  >havent played it, but I recall it was billed as a poker game??)

  >I also wonder if this comp will introduce puzzles instead of 
  >games... solitaire seems to blur this line. Sam Lloyd and Ernesto 
  >(?) Rubik made puzzles... but some call these games. 


  Actually, ALL solitaires are, by formal definition, puzzles rather than games. Games are played between two or more thinking beings. Puzzles are exercises in which one person attempts to beat a system.


  >One thing seems to be common to solitaires....  I would assume more 
  >than just one piecepack stack (exactly one fourth of a PP) will be 
  >used in all of the games submitted....  


  That's a good bet.

  -Mike Schoessow




  >so piece movement will be 
  >heavy. Once we can step outside the challenges of multi-player 
  >gaming for this comp, the ideas will come...    The step is a long 
  >and difficult one to make in short time. For me at least. Then 
  >again,, its 3 months off.