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Blazing Games - Ultimate Retro Project - Volume 3 - Episode 29

Ultimate Retro Project

Episode 29: Classic Pyramid Solitaire

Remove cards in pairs that total 13

Page Last Updated: April 1, 2006

Introduction

As most computers use Microsoft’s Windows Operating System, most people already have a copy of traditional Klondike Solitaire so the solitaire game that is part of the Ultimate Retro Project had to be a different version of solitaire. The version of solitaire that I am most familiar with is pyramid solitaire, so I picked that game to add to the collection.

Using the Console

Creating text games is interesting, but my goal was also to present the game in a way that would simulate a teletype machine as close as possible. This is why the game uses my console.

My Teletype Emulator is designed to simulate playing the game on an old teletype machine, down to the dot matrix output. Anybody who has used an old printer knows how slow they were. They were also noisy, but out of the goodness of my heart, I decided to leave the noise out.

For getting input from the user, I decided to go with a fancy LCD model, in which what you type will be send to a LCD display for your approval before being transmitted to the machine. Unlike real machines, my terminal is intelligent and will only let you enter something when the program is requesting input. Any other typing is ignored!

Playing the Game

The game is very simple to play. The cards are dealt out in a pyramid shape. This results in every card (other than the bottom row) having two cards covering it. Cards that are partially or fully covered are not playable. The goal of the game is then to remove all the cards.

Cards are removed in pairs by making a total of 13. Face cards are valued as follows:

• Ace worth 1
• Jack worth 11
• Queen worth 12
• King worth 13

Kings, being worth 13, may be removed by themselves.

In addition to the cards in play, the remaining 24 cards form a stack that can be flipped through to provide additional cards that can be used for pairing up cards. You may go through the stack an unlimited number of times.

Commands

? or HELP brings up these instructions.

D or DRAW draws next card in stack.

R or REMOVE removes pair of cards. You will be prompted for the ids of the card(s) to remove. The ids are the numbers under the cards.

RESTART resets all the cards to how they were when the game was started.

SHUFFLE re-deals the game.

V or VIEW displays card pyramid again.

Note: cards are not case sensitive.

System Requirements

This game is requires Java 1.1 or better to run. Browsers that support 1.1 tend to be 4.x or better versions. Windows XP users may have to download a Java plug in to use Java applets.

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PLAY Classic Pyramid Solitaire

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