Spider Solitaire: Instructions
Spider Solitaire
Starting a new game / joining a game
There are two levels of difficulty presented to the player upon starting a new game;* 1 Suit (Spades) - Easy
* 2 Suits (Spades & Hearts) - Difficult
Players are also free to join a game that has already been opened by another player.
How to play
Spider solitaire is a card game which uses a 104-card deck. Our variation of the game pits two players against each other in a duel. Both players are given the same cards to start with and play a seperate game parallel to each other.
When both players have finished their respective games, the results are compared and the player with the most points wins.
The goal of Spider Solitaire is to first group the cards in rows and then stack them in ascending order in a seperate 'finished' pile in as few moves as possible. Each move attracts one minus point.
Rows are formed by adding cards in an uninterrupted descending sequence.
To begin with, players are presented with a playing field similar to that of solitaire. There are 10 stacks of cards (a total of 54 cards) lined up left to right, with the top card of each stack showing face-up. The player must build their rows of descending cards on these 10 stacks. The remaining 50 cards are split into 5 stacks and are located to the right of the playing field, near the "Deal Cards", "Undo" and "Done" buttons. The player can choose to deal himself (or expose) a stack of 10 cards by clicking on "Deal Cards" and then use these cards to complete rows of descending cards on the playing field. If the player cannot add any of the exposed cards to the rows, he/she can deal themself the next set of 10 cards by clicking on "Deal Cards" again. Note that any new cards dealt will block any previously dealt cards that the player did not manage to use.
Only the uppermost dealt card may be added to the descending rows. Rows of cards can also be added to other rows (or single cards) as long as the descending sequence of the cards is maintained.
Players can also turn over any cards face down by clicking on them. Other cards can be dragged over (mouse click and hold) to any empty spaces left after clearing any one of the 10 stacks which run left to right. Players can also drag cards over to a stack with its uppermost card still face-down.
Once the player has formed a complete row of cards in descending order, the cards contained in the row will be automatically moved to the 'finished' pile.
The game comes to an end when all of the playing cards have been moved to the 'finished' pile. The player can also end the game by clicking on "Done" if he/she doesn't believe that they can make any further progress.
Point system
Players can receive points and also have points deducted from their score.
* Turning over a covered card: 2 points
* Placing a matching card in a row (e.g. 6 of Spades on the 7 of Spades): 2 points
* Placing a complete row 'finished' pile: 50 points
* Completing the game (when all cards are on the 'finished' pile): 100 points
1 point is deducted for every move a player makes.
