FreeCell

Original author(s)	Jim Horne
Developer(s)	Microsoft
Initial release	1991; 29 years ago
Operating system	Microsoft Windows
Platform	IA-32, x86-64 (and historically DEC Alpha, Itanium, MIPS, and PowerPC)
Successor	Microsoft Solitaire Collection (Windows 10)
Type	Computer game

So, for convenience the game allows you to move n+1 cards together, where n is the number of free cells. If you have an empty Tableau pile then you can move any card there. Move a single card onto a Free Cell. You can always move the top card of any Tableau Pile, Free Cell or Foundation onto a Free Cell if it's empty. Download this game from Microsoft Store for Windows 10, Windows 8.1, Windows 10 Mobile, Windows Phone 8.1, Windows Phone 8, Windows 10 Team (Surface Hub). See screenshots, read the latest customer reviews, and compare ratings for FreeCell Solitaire Free. There are three areas on the game board: the cells (upper left), the foundations (upper right), and the cascades. Click and drag a card (or a sequential stack of cards) to move it. To win the game, you must move all the cards, by suit, into the foundation, starting with the Aces.

FreeCell, also known as Microsoft FreeCell,^[1] is a computer game included in Microsoft Windows,^[2] based on a card game with the same name.

Development[edit]

Paul Alfille implemented Freecell in 1978 for the PLATO computer system at CERL; by the early 1980s Control Data Corporation had published it for all PLATO systems. Jim Horne, who enjoyed playing Freecell on the PLATO system at the University of Alberta, published a shareware $10 DOS version with color graphics in 1988. That year Horne joined Microsoft, and later ported the game to Windows.^[3]

The Windows version was first included in Microsoft Entertainment Pack Volume 2 and later the Best Of Microsoft Entertainment Pack.^[4] It was subsequently included with Win32s as an application that enabled the testing of the 32-bitthunking layer to ensure that it was installed properly.^[5] However, FreeCell remained relatively obscure until it was released as part of Windows 95.^[6] In Windows XP, FreeCell was extended to support a total of 1 million card deals.^[4]

Releases[edit]

Today, there are FreeCell implementations for nearly every modern operating system as it is one of the few games pre-installed with every copy of Windows. Prior to Windows Vista, the versions for Windows were limited in their player assistance features, such as retraction of moves. The Windows Vista FreeCell implementation contains basic hints and unlimited move retraction (via the Undo menu choice or command),^[7] and the option to restart the game. Some features have been removed, such as the flashing screen to warn the player of one move remaining. FreeCell is not included in the Windows 8 operating system but is available in the Windows Store as the free Microsoft Solitaire Collection, which is also bundled with Windows 10.

Legacy[edit]

Microsoft created the Entertainment Packs to encourage non-business use of Windows. According to company telemetry FreeCell was the seventh most-used Windows program, ahead of Word and Microsoft Excel.^[3]

Microsoft Cell Game Download

The original Microsoft FreeCell package supports 32,000 numbered deals, generated by a 15-bit, pseudorandom-numberseed. These deals are known as the 'Microsoft 32,000',^[4] and all but one of them have been completed.^[6] Later versions of FreeCell include more than one million deals.^[4] When Microsoft FreeCell became very popular during the 1990s, the Internet FreeCell Project attempted to solve all the deals by crowdsourcing consecutive games to specific people. The project ran from August 1994 to April 1995, and only #11982 proved unwinnable.^[8] Out of the current Microsoft Windows games, eight are unsolvable.^[9][10]

The significance of the 'Microsoft 32,000' to many FreeCell players is such that other computer implementations of FreeCell will often go out of their way to guarantee compatibility with these deals, rather than simply using the most readily available random number generator for their target platforms.^[4][11]

References[edit]

1. ^'FreeCell Stops Responding When You Click Undo'. Support. Microsoft. January 23, 2007. Archived from the original on February 6, 2007. Retrieved January 20, 2017.
2. ^Rubenking, Neil J. (March 4, 1997). 'User-to-User'. PC Magazine. p. 271. Retrieved January 20, 2017.
3. ^ ^abDear, Brian (2017). '27. Leaving the Nest'. The Friendly Orange Glow. New York: Pantheon Books. pp. 501–503. ISBN9781101871560.
4. ^ ^abcdeKeller, Michael (2005). 'FreeCell - Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)'. Solitaire Laboratory. Retrieved January 20, 2017.
5. ^'How to Troubleshoot Win32s Installation Problems'. Microsoft. May 21, 1998. Archived from the original on July 12, 2010. Retrieved July 12, 2010.
6. ^ ^abKaye, Ellen (October 17, 2002). 'One Down, 31,999 to Go: Surrendering to a Solitary Obsession'. New York Times. Retrieved January 20, 2017.
7. ^Rubenking, Neil J. (January 2008). 'Ask Neil'. PC Magazine. p. 124. Retrieved June 12, 2012.
8. ^O'Reilly, Tim; Mott, Troy; Glenn, Walter J. (September 2, 1999). Windows 98 in a Nutshell. O'Reilly Media, Inc. pp. 199–. ISBN9781565924864. Retrieved June 12, 2012.
9. ^Leonhard, Woody (September 15, 2009). Windows 7 All-In-One for Dummies. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 293–. ISBN9780470487631. Retrieved June 12, 2012.
10. ^'FreeCell lists of difficult (and extra easy) deals'. Solitaire Laboratory. March 13, 2010. Retrieved February 7, 2018.
11. ^'PySol - Rules for Freecell'. PySolFC documentation. Retrieved February 3, 2018.

FreeCell is a solitaire game that was made popular by Microsoft in the 1990s. One of its oldest ancestors is Eight Off. In the June 1968 edition of Scientific American Martin Gardner described in his 'Mathematical Games' column, a game by C. L. Baker that is similar to FreeCell, except that cards on the tableau are built by suit instead of by alternate colors. This variant is now called Baker's Game.

Paul Alfille changed Baker's Game by making cards build according to alternate colors, thus creating FreeCell. He implemented the first computerized version of it for the PLATO educational computer system in 1978. The game became popular mainly due to Jim Horne, who learned the game from the PLATO system and implemented the game as a full graphical version for Windows. This was eventually bundled along with several releases of Windows.

• Shuffle, then deal the 52 cards face up in 8 columns with each card visible but only the end card of each column fully exposed. Four columns will have 7 cards, the others only 6.
• Apart from the columns, there are four single card free cells and four suit piles (foundations). The objective is to get all the cards into the foundations.
• Single exposed cards may be moved:
  • Column to column, placing the card on a card of the next rank and different colour suit. (E.G. Place a red 3 on a black 4.) (Aces are low.). Empty columns may be filled with any suit or rank.
  • Column to FreeCell, any exposed card as long as there is an empty cell.
  • FreeCell to Column, as column to column.
  • Column to suit home pile. Next card in order, starting with the Ace, ending with the King. Each suit is completely independent.
  • FreeCell to suit home pile. As column to suit home pile.

To improve the game play, multiple cards may be dragged at once as long as there are enough empty FreeCells such that the move could be made by moving the cards individually.

Microsoft Cell Phones