MacWorld 1998 September/Macworld (1998-09).dmg/Games World/Shareware Games/Solitaire Till Dawn 3.3/Solitaire Till Dawn Games Guide/Solitaire Till Dawn Games Guide.rsrc/TEXT_12498_• Spiderette.txt

Text File | 1998-07-04 | 3KB | 26 lines

Spiderette

Spiderette is a miniature version of Spider, using only one deck and a smaller tableau. It is generally considered to be harder to win than Spider.

Layout Size: The tableaus in Spiderette can get long enough to require occasional scrolling on small, and sometimes even medium, screens.

Difficulty: Like Spider, Spiderette requires a lot of thought and is difficult (but very satisfying) to win. Skilled players may win as many as one game in ten.

Rules: Spiderette uses seven tableau piles and the hand, and nothing else. (Solitaire Till Dawn also offers four wastepiles to hold the King-to-Ace builds which the rules allow you to discard; but normally you’d just scoop up these builds and set them aside.)

Shuffle the deck, and lay out 28 cards as you would for Klondike: one card in the first tableau, two cards in the second, and so on, finishing with seven cards in the seventh. The tableaus are fanned down, with all cards face-down except the topmost in each pile. Keep the remaining 24 cards in your hand.

Tableaus build down, without regard for color or suit. The topmost card of each tableau is available; in addition, full or partial builds in suit  are also available. (Although you do not have to build in suit, there is an advantage in doing so because such builds can be moved while mixed-suit builds cannot.)

Empty spaces may be filled with any available card or build. Note however that Kings can only  be played into empty spaces because there’s no higher rank to build them on.

You may deal any time you wish, provided that no tableaus are empty. To deal, turn up seven cards from the hand and put one onto each tableau regardless of rank or suit. The final deal will have only three cards, which go on the first three tableau piles. Usually you’ll deal when you’ve run out of other moves.

Completed King-to-Ace builds in suit may be discarded. You are not required to discard such builds, and there may be an advantage to leaving them in the tableau for a time to help in untangling other tableau piles. When all cards have been discarded, the game is won.

(See picture: Spiderette. The 4 may be moved on to the 5; since they are in suit, the 5-4 build may then be moved to either 6. There is an advantage to placing them on the 6 of Spades, since then the entire 6-5-4 build will be in suit and could be moved later to a 7.)

On the Screen: Solitaire Till Dawn will deal seven cards for you when you click on the hand, except for the final deal which is three cards. The number displayed on the hand is the number of cards remaining to be dealt. The hand is dark and dealing is unavailable if any tableau piles are empty.

To discard a King-to-Ace build, click the King or drag it to any empty wastepile.