Historie
FreeCell belongs to a family of patience games in which every card is dealt face up and the player's job is to untangle the columns with the help of a few spare places. Its direct ancestor is Baker's Game, in which the columns are built down by suit. The mathematics writer Martin Gardner described Baker's Game in his magazine column in 1968 and credited it to C. L. Baker.
In 1978 Paul Alfille changed one rule: the columns are built down in alternating colors, red on black and black on red. That gives most cards two possible places to go instead of one, which makes far more deals winnable. He programmed the game for an educational computer system at the University of Illinois and called it FreeCell, after the four single-card cells that make it work.
In the 1990s FreeCell came with popular home computers and became one of the best-known patience games. Its appeal is that luck plays almost no part once the cards are dealt: everything is visible, so a lost game is nearly always one that better planning could have won.
Ve světě
- Free Cell
- Baker's Game
- Eight Off
Strategie
FreeCell rewards planning more than any other common patience. These habits win most deals.
Study the Deal First
Before your first move, find the four Aces and the twos. Count how many cards cover each of them. The columns with low cards buried under few cards are where to start.
Keep the Cells Empty
A free cell is the easiest space to fill and the hardest to empty again. Every full cell also shortens the runs you can move. Park a card only when it frees something useful right away, and empty the cell as soon as you can.
Make an Empty Column
An empty column is worth more than any free cell: it takes a whole run, and each empty column doubles the length of run you can move. Clearing the shortest column early often opens up the whole game.
Fill Empty Columns Carefully
Putting a single card into an empty column wastes it. Prefer to move a long run or a high card, such as a King with cards to build on it, that will stay there for good.
Don't Rush to the Foundations
Low cards belong on the foundations, but a 5 or 6 can still be needed in a column to take a 4 or 5 of the other color. Before sending a card up, check that no card needs it as a place to land.
Watch the Kings
A King can only leave its column for a free cell or an empty column. A King buried near the top of a column, covering low cards, is the most common reason a deal gets stuck. Plan an empty column for it early.
Think in Sequences
Many moves only make sense as part of a plan: park two cards, move a run, bring the cards back. Before you start a sequence, count your spaces to be sure you can finish it, or you may end with full cells and no way back. Undo is there if you need it.
Varianty
FreeCell has a few close relatives. The first two are offered in the setup here.
Fewer Free Cells
Playing with three or two free cells makes every deal harder. Fewer cards can be parked, runs must move in smaller steps, and the game ends with no moves left far more often.
Baker's Game
The ancestor of FreeCell: the columns are built down by suit instead of in alternating colors. Each card has only one place to go in the columns, so deals are much harder and more of them can't be won.
Eight Off
A relative with eight free cells, four of them filled by the deal, and columns built down by suit. The extra cells make up for the stricter building rule.
Kings Only
Some players allow only a King, or a run starting with a King, into an empty column, as in Klondike. This house rule makes empty columns much less flexible.
Unlimited Runs
Some versions let any ordered run move at once, whatever free space is left. It makes the game easier and takes away much of its planning.
Často kladené otázky
Nearly every deal of standard FreeCell can be won with careful play; computer searches have found only a very small share of deals that cannot. With three or two free cells, or when building by suit, many more deals are lost.