Solitaire - Baker's Game

[Jeff O.]

(02-03-2014 09:41 PM)Tugdual Wrote:  Now I'm a bit surprised that you didn't get any comment so far, may be because (like me) we didn't understand how to play the game? I saw the help key but this didn't actually help me. Any chance to get a little bit more information?

I guess I should have commented as I loaded the game and play from time to time as a diversion. So, nice work Mark! If I could ask for additional features, the main one would be the ability to pause and restart a game.

As for how to play, it took me a bit of fiddling and internet searching to figure out how. Let’s define the board as follows. The top row consists of eight spots, labeled A-A-A-A-R-R-R-R when the game starts. The main playing board, as I will call it, starts with the cards arranged in eight columns, four with seven cards and four with 6 cards, totaling the customary 52 cards. The four spots on the top left, labeled A, will hold suits built up starting with the aces. So you must uncover the aces on the main board, place them in those spots, then build up each stack. Only an ace (of any suit) can be moved to an empty A-cell. Then only a 2 of hearts may be moved to an A cell holding the ace of hearts, etc.

The four spots on the upper right, labeled R can hold a single card. Any card may be moved to one of these spots provided it is open. A card in one of these spots may them be moved in one of three ways:
1. to the proper suit stack to the left, assuming the card next lowest in value of the suit is on top of one of those stacks.
2. back to the main playing board, below the card of the next higher value of that suit if and only if that card is at the bottom of one of the strings of cards.
3. to the top position of one of the card string columns, if all other cards have been cleared from that string.

As for the eight card strings on the main playing board, only the bottom card of each may be moved, to one of four possible locations:
1. to the proper suit stack on the upper left, assuming the card next lowest in value of its suit is on top of one of those stacks.
2. to one of the four holding spots on the upper right, assuming one is open.
3. to another of the card strings on the main playing board below the card of the next higher value of that suit if and only if that card is at the bottom of one of those strings
4. to the top position of one of the card string columns, if all other cards have been cleared from that string.

To move a card, tap it, which will invert its colors, then tap the position you want it to go. Only legal moves are allowed. A card which may be legally moved to one of the suit stacks may be double-tapped to move it there automatically. If you get stuck, you may press the 4 key (which has the alpha “U” for “undo”) to undo the previous move. You can only back-up so far, however, so if you made a strategy error early on, you may be stuck with it.

The above may not be the best description of how to play, but I hope it is clear enough to get you started. In figuring out how to play, I found some information at some source, maybe Wikipedia, that supposedly 70% of the possible deals in this game are solvable. I find that a little depressing, as my success rate is much, much lower, perhaps 10%.