FreeCell

I read somewhere that there is a theorem that states that
ALL initial layouts of FreeCell (the MS game) can be won.
Anybody know anything about this?

[HarryW]

I read that too. No idea if it's true though. Have fun proving it

[parksie]

65 thousand games of FreeCell later...

aer rthrtw [09u34 oihr ger [08y oe hij gdslh weilwe

...my bRaIN's BeEEN FrrriieeEEDDD

I think the theorem is probably true. I'm notoriously bad
at things like this, and I'm running 65% of winning. Which
means it has to be easy.

[PJB]

It is believed (although not proven) that every game is winnable.

That's from the help function for freecell, i've only tried playing it once or twice and have no idea what the rules even are

[rekcus]

Every should have a solution, I hope.

I've always had the impression that the game is set up
by arranging the cards in a random manner while making
full use of the four free slots. Our solution to the
game then should be the reverse of the earlier process.

BTW, I think you guys know about the end task trick to
keep your scores, rite?

[alex_read]

Yep! it's possible alright. My mum discovered freecell unfortunatly on my home PC & it took ages to get her off as she was hooked on it. You have an option under one of the menus to select which game you play, 1, 2 etc & she got upto about game 1200 over a couple of months, winning each one before moving to the next.

quick not - on Solitaire, vegas 3 card hard game, hold shift + Alt + Ctrl (might just be Shift + Ctrl) & rather than drawing 3 cards, you draw 1 (so go through the pack more before it kicks you out

[HarryW]

My mum's the same, a FreeCell junkie

[tumblingdown]

Alex, what does that solitaire thing do?


td.

[alex_read]

On a vegas game, your only allowed to go through the pack once on a single card drawing game, and I think its 3 times on a 3 card drawing game.

If you hold (I think it's) Shift + Ctrl whilst drawing a card in a 3 card drawing game, it will draw only 1 card, but still let you go through the pack 3 times - 156 cards as opposed to 52 cards allowed to be drawn.

[marnitzg]

Start a new freecell game. Hold ctrl and shift and press F10. Then press abort and double click any card. I don't see how this proves that all games can be won (look at the card configuration - its wrong!)

Well, I'll go back and play freecell now!

[alex_read]

Aren't we all a little bit out of date here ???

While the rest of the world plays Quake III & Unreal Tournament, we're writing a post on how fast we've completed freecell & minesweep !

[tumblingdown]

What with that control shift F10 doofery above, you could write a proggy that send keys to free cell, and you could then itterate thru all 32k games. That would answer your question FarmBoy.


td.

[tumblingdown]

hehe, no, i was talking complete arse. marnitzg is absolutlely correct. It doesn't help at all.



td.

nah, if there is a solution (and there doesn't have to be,
it could be NP Incomplete) the proof will probably be in
some form of a Turing machine.