Klondike

Controls

Gamplay has mouse control, and touchscreens are also supported, however mouse cursor is always visible. Standard Pico-8 controls are 🅾️ = z-key, and ❎ = x-key on keyboard. ➡️⬅️⬆️⬇️ are arrow keys. Press Enter to pause the game and access the settings like sound and volume.

Classic Klondike

This is the classic card solitaire game, often simply referred to as "Solitaire"—though its true name is actually Klondike. It's probably the most famous card solitaire game, thanks in part to its inclusion in Windows 3.0 alongside Reversi back in 1990.

Creating such an iconic game is a bit daunting, as almost everyone has played some version of it. My version doesn't differ from the basic Klondike. Only thing really to note is that if you set the "draw" to three cards you get infinite redeals of the stockpile, and if you set "draw" to one card, you get only two stockpile redeals (three overall).

In later Windows versions, players could double-click a card to move it to the foundation, a feature that has since become widely used. However, modern versions of the game have overused this mechanic, letting players click or double-click to send cards to any allowed position. This ease of movement removes big part of the game's strategic depth. In my version, you have to manually move each card to where you think it belongs. And there is no "undo", so think ahead.

Fun fact

When Microsoft included Solitaire in Windows 3.0 (written by former Microsoft intern Wes Cherry in 1988 for Windows 2.1), it wasn’t just for fun— according to the Microsoft, it was intended to help users get accustomed to using a mouse and learning how to click, drag and drop items on the screen.

Thank you for scrolling all the way down here. Now I can tell you a secret: If you start this game from title screen while keeping ⬆️ up-key pressed, you can play half deck (26 card) mini klondike.