One day, I decided on a whim that I wanted to play Yahtzee for the first time in years. Being the millennial that I am, of course I started off looking for an online version. That’s how I stumbled upon CardGames.io. Not only is that in itself ironic, but I didn’t remember Yahtzee being a multiplayer game (I’ve always been a withdrawn individual), so nowadays it’s far from my go-to on the website/app. Instead, I prefer to choose from a select few of the exceptionally many forms of Solitaire available.
Golf and Tri Peaks are easily the quickest ones; one game in either format takes me about one minute. It’s typically what I do during restroom breaks at work, unless I feel the need to rest my eyes. Both are driven by the same concept: to select a card, pair it with a number adjacent to it (e.g., 2 or 4 to 3) whenever possible, and flip a card if not. The difference is that Golf involves seven stacks of five face-up cards, while Tri Peaks involves three adjacent three-card-tall triangular formations of face-down cards (hence the name) beneath a line of ten face-up cards. (Each face-down card reveals itself when there is no face-up card atop it.) If in doubt, one can view the rules by scrolling down on PC or selecting the menu option on mobile.
If I have more time to spare, such as when I’m eating or when the time is not much less than I would typically spend playing a video game, that’s when I branch out to some of the other forms. Plain ol’ Solitaire, certainly among them, needs no introduction. I have won exactly one game of Spider Solitaire and am always reluctant to go back because of how much one little flip can throw everything out of whack. Pyramid is a format that I used to really like because I thought it was fresh at the time, but now not so much; it’s just making pairs that add up to 13 (or instantly removing a King because it’s already 13) in order to clear a seven-card-tall triangular formation of face-up cards. Scorpion, Addiction, and Canfield are the main other three formats that I like to play, although it usually takes me tens of minutes to get a win in the former. Note that the website keeps track of world records, so I like to keep Undo button usage to a minimum, specifically because each use of the button costs one move.* Kings in the Corners is a key exception to this rule; I am not above using the Undo button when I experience an odds-defying outcome at a point where I know for a fact that I can revert it. Yukon and Crescent are formats that maybe I don’t play enough, although the latter takes roughly 10 minutes per game. I’ve also played Freecell, and while I at least prefer it over Spider, I’d call it a sort of middle ground between that and Crescent. Then there’s Clock Solitaire, an entirely RNG-driven format that really only serves as an exercise for telling analog time.
*As much of a stickler as I am in this practice, I rarely ever get world record nowadays, let alone without a tie. Among the few times I have and gotten a screenshot, only one remains at the time of writing: a 98-move game of Addiction Solitaire #2735 on May 14, 2022. (Hint: I did this without using any shuffles.)
[Nice comma splice, BTW.]
(The other two UWRs with screenshots: 130-move Solitaire #9320 on April 14, 2021 (WR is now 116); 112-move Crescent #19721 on May 24, 2021 (WR is now 110) I skipped the 113; I am a hecking legend)
Side note: When playing Canfield, sometimes I get tempted to put an Ace atop a King on the “Tableau” as it’s called. The one way I remember otherwise is by making a mnemonic of an OC name common to both versions of Cinq du Soleil: Aka, the resident “Don’t think, feel” character of each story. She is the protagonist most likely to do anything idiotic, and that makes me remember that putting an Ace atop a King on the Tableau is idiotic. (Also brings to mind the Japanese term “baka,” meaning “idiot.”)
In summary, here is my Solitaire tier list. (Soli-tier list, if you will.)
A: Solitaire, Canfield, Golf, Tri Peaks, Addiction
B: Scorpion, Yukon, Crescent, Kings in the Corners
C: Pyramid, Freecell, Spider, Clock
Given that Solitaire is obviously not the only kind of card game in existence, it goes without saying that CardGames.io has plenty of multiplayer varieties in store. The ones I’ve played IRL are Crazy Eights, Cribbage, and Go Fish. I may have tried Hearts on MS-DOS a few times, but I could never make sense of it. In addition to those four, the website has Euchre, Gin Rummy, Idiot, Lockup, Manni, Oh Hell!, Pinochle, standard Rummy, Spades, Spit, Switch, Thirteen, War, and Whist.
Going back to the irony of how CardGames.io is a place for more than just card games, Yahtzee is not alone on that front. Better yet, the website/app has a fair few single-player, non-card games. I recommend the twelve Mahjong formats (Turtle, Pyramid, Monster, Stairs, Castle, Daniel, Ellen, Spider, Citadel, Tunnels, Lost City, and Well) and the three-difficulty Minesweeper (10-mine 8×8 [15.625% mines], 40-mine 16×16 [also 15.625%], and 99-mine 31×16 [~20% mines]), where on the latter front my experience with Conceptis Fill-a-Pix has worked wonders in helping me complete at least one round of every difficulty just recently. The site also has randomly generated Sudoku with 28/81 squares filled, but obviously Conceptis is my number-one source of Sudoku. Other available non-card games include Backgammon, Checkers, Chess, Farkle, Reversi, Sea Battle (Battleships), and Triangles.
I don’t know how long the website has been around, but the time I started using it was…maybe late 2020? Prior to the debut of Crescent Solitaire (and, by extension, Canfield), that’s for sure. The iOS app has been around for at least two years, if the version history is to be believed. At any rate, considering how randomly I found out about the website compared to how much I’ve gotten out of it (and the iOS app) as of late, I’ve been feeling inclined for a while to put in a good word for it, so…here we are. Putting aside the app (which, I will say, is not as ad-ridden as one might expect), I usually do one of two things with the website: using my PC mouse with one hand and eating with the other, or if I’m watching TV in a place where PC access is inconvenient if not impossible, putting my Chromebook in tablet mode to use the touch screen. Either way, it’s my go-to form of multitasking nowadays, and I’m tempted to say it’s not unlike reading manga or a light novel as a way to help put my brain to sleep.
À la prochaine! (Until next time!)
Vouiv-review 