Today, the gaming industry is very busy and you can play a lot of games in different genres, with graphics that simulate very well the real world. Thousands of different games to played these days.
However, this was not the case when I got my first computer, back in 1996. The selection of games available on my Windows 3.1 machine was very limited. There was no internet. To get a new game, I had to get a copy on a 3.5 inch floppy disk.
I had to settle and play the games that were coming with the operating system. I got my first PC in 1996, and, while I was very excited about all the games I can play on it, I found out that there are only 2 games on it: Solitaire and Minesweeper. Those were the only 2 games that was installed by default on any Windows 3.1 copy.
One year later I upgraded to Windows 95, and I waas very excited to see that a new card game was added: FreeCell, which I consider to be a much better alternative to the classic solitaire.
Few years later and a new computer, I got a fresh copy of Windows XP, with a new card game added: Spider Solitaire. Compared to their games previously added in Windows, it was a great upgrade.
I played a lot of computer games in my childhood, but there are the first ones that I cannot remember. Once I grew, I started to like more and more card games. Recently, I found this website where I can play online, on laptop or smartphone, all popular card games, without installing any app, so I can play it anywhere:
Here is a list with my favourite card games:
FreeCell
I like FreeCell because you need to think ahead many moves before you decide which card to move. If you make bad decisions, you will get stuck. Every move has to be planned. The more moves you plan ahead, better chances to succed.
All cards are distributed on 8 rows, visible but unmovable. The goal is to arrange the cards in order and colors on the right. The trick is that you cant move the stack unless you have enough free spots in the left. You get 4 free spots that you can use to move cards, so you have to make sure that you use those slots very carefully, in order to get to the end.
Spider Solitaire
I liked classic solitaire because it was the first card game I saw on a computer, but I think that Spider Solitaire is better and more entertaining.
You need to move cards around to assemble a full suit of thirteen cards in descending order, from king to ace. You can play with 1,2, or 4 suits. The game is not easy, you need luck and planning. You cant plan too moves ahead because the cards are not visible until you discover them. Sometimes it is more about luck, but you still need to take some good decisions, and not always the obvious ones, in order to finish the game.
Hearts
Hearts is a game very different from other solitaire like games. It is very dynamic, 4 players, and you need to trick others into taking more points.
Cards are divided to all players. Before the match begin, you can pass 3 cards to another player. The player that gets the two of club starts the game. You can only play a card from the same suite. If you dont have any card from that suite, you can play any card you want. The one with the highest card of the starting suite get all the cards. Each hearts card have 1 point, while the queen of spades has 13 points. This is making each match a rush to get rid of the queen of spades.
When all cards are gone, points are calculated and a new match begins. The player with the fewest points at the end of the game wins.
On Solitaire.org you can play directly in your browser many cool games, cards and board games, word and number games, etc. All the games are listed on the hompage so you can find them easily, and under each game you have instructions and many hints that will help you to figure out how to play each game.
