Who plays FreeCell? Those hints?

[Marthe48]

I have won 110 in a row by doing the game over, if I need to. And sometimes my computer dies for reasons not related to frustration or the game.

I have tried using the hints, but they mostly lead right into game-ending dead ends. WHY!?

[PoliticAverse]

1. Are you playing the Microsoft Windows version of FreeCell?

Every game has a number and there are websites with online solutions to the games, for example:
http://freecellgamesolutions.com/
http://fc-solve.shlomifish.org/js-fc-solve/text/

[Marthe48]

2. Thanks-I looked at them

I was really hung up on a game, and I checked solutions, but before I got serious, the computer died. When I rebooted and got back into the game, I got a different game. That I won. Ha

[PoliticAverse]

3. Note that every game is solvable except for 8 deals (in the current version)...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_FreeCell

[Marthe48]

4. Good to know

I thought it was just me, and it probably is

[hunter]

5. The hints are worthless. They are for first-time players learning the rules, not about strategy.

The machine just shows an obvious move, not even a good move.

I play the game obsessively when I'm compiling code, waiting for deep search results, waiting on the telephone on hold, etc..

Here's a screen capture from an old machine:



My current machine has even more embarrassing numbers.

I don't carry my old freecell history to new machines, and I don't generally restart games that have gone wrong. I will occasionally undo moves if I can convincingly lie to myself and blame a stupid move on my twitchy fingers. The longest games are obviously those where I'm called away on other business.

My personal strategy has something to do with symmetry, and I generally finish games with a few flourishes related to that symmetry, but I haven't made any effort to analyze that. If I did my fingers would probably get all tangled up thinking about it and my game would suffer.

Most of all I don't want to think about Freecell analytically. That's precisely why I'm playing, to distract myself while other analytic processes are grinding away in the back of my mind.

This version of Freecell is from Gnome Aisleriot, running on Linux.

[Marthe48]

6. Hats off to you!

I don't know if I'll ever play that many. Like you, just playing to stay busy waiting for something else to finish or start.