Solitaire Alone Together

1 day ago (solitairealonetogether.com)

I can't suggest moves, though! >smile<

Always carry a deck of cards when hiking in the wilderness. If you become lost deal a game of solitaire. In a few minutes someone will come up and start suggesting moves.

Neat concept - a web remake of a classic Windows game. I found it very hard to win though, due to the "draw three" rule. I finally won on my 12th shuffle.

Aside from this web game implementation, in past decades I grew tired of solitaire and its constrained nature. I found myself enjoying spider solitaire a bit more, where you have to be more strategic about building stuff. I discovered spider because it's bundled with Windows. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spider_(solitaire)

For "Solitaire Together" instead, I recommend the game NERTS (https://store.steampowered.com/app/1131190/NERTS_Online/). It's a multiplayer competitive solitaire game by Zachtronics. Out of all the games I've played, it's the one that stresses me out and takes me through emotional rollercoasters the most.

  • Oh this is fun! I'm a big Zachtronics fan but didn't know about NERTS.

    I grew up playing "double solitaire" (basically multiplayer competitive solitaire where you play on each others' aces) with my family and love it, and it definitely contributed to me making this site. So I'm excited to play some Solitaire Together!

Beautiful. I've always loved the aesthetic of Windows Solitaire [a] but felt strangely alone when playing it (figures). I'm reminded of a non-solitary solitaire, Nerts Online:

https://www.zachtronics.com/nerts-online/

a. And this version too, the backs of the cards are very pretty.

  • NERTS is fun, we play it with a group of our friends (fiends?) semi-regularly. But part of its charm is the inherent physical and verbal chaos... you can never reach all the piles, people's hands/arms collide with each other, drinks get spilled, names get called, alliances forged and quickly betrayed. It's a hoot.

    • I tried the online one but I'm not too experienced with cards so I just got destroyed. Another fun, chaotic one that I used to play in person a lot is Egyptian Ratscrew, a game where you have to slap the pile first if certain criteria are met. I don't think I've won a single match of that, I'm usually still processing what card was put down long after someone already slapped the pile. I had fun regardless. Make sure everyone removes their rings!

      1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_Ratscrew

      2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2UMv5Jk8JQ

If you click Start > Shut Down and click OK, it’ll say “it is now safe to close this tab”, which I thought was a nice touch.

  • And if you leave the tab alone for a while there's one of the classic Windows screensavers

There is something weirdly fascinating about this. I think the combination of nostalgia, seeing others play without interacting and just the whole idea of it. Rather mesmerizing. Well done.

Was solitaire always this hard, or have I forgotten how to play this game? I tried a few games and failed every time :)

  • Many solitaire games will not give you an unsolvable puzzle to play. I think freecell only had one (by accident)

    • Can't remember if I saw it on HN or searched for it, but you can search for the hardest solvable freecell games. I drove myself partially insane trying to solve one. Only got about halfway before I caved

      (If you don't have access to windows you can run one of those web based windows desktop lookalikes written in JS).

This is fun! I like the vibe of doing solitary activities in the “company” of other strangers. It’s neat. I like the screen saver

Oh boy, this is sooooo addictive.

Look, I don’t mind it but let us know - are you training some model on our inputs ? :)

  • (creator here!)

    lol, no, I am not training a model!

    But I DO record some games so that I can replay them later. That way if you log on and you're the only person, you can still watch the ghost of a past game. This isn't relevant right now (there are 500ish people playing! wow!)- I only show past games if there aren't active ones to show.