I’m your typical SS addict (for many years now) and only play two suits. I also use the undo feature, but am not so ambitious to use it to length to solve a deck.
So I usually solve roundabout 80% of the games.
My high score however is 1384 and I guess this makes me the world record holder. At least I have not come across a score even remotely as high as this.
I have been playing 4 suits SS for several years now, always get them out, only question is how long it takes me. From an average of 20 mins to one which cumulatively took 8 hours over several days when you could save the game under XP version. Often have to undo, and in the Windows 7 version, sometimes my moves exceed 3000. Believe it is possible to get every game out, and so far I am proving that belief is correct.
It’s trivial to construct deals that are unwinable.
It is, but are the deals in the program random? Maybe they only use starting conditions that are winnable.
As mentioned previously it seems like the deals aren’t simply random. I see too many deals that are initially identical for the exposed cards and the ones that can be uncovered without dealing more cards. So it may be possible that the all deals you can get are solvable. I’m not spending the time to check out each one.
Quartz - I did not think all games were winnable, until I persisted, and now it is more of a case, of how do I win the game, not will I win the game. The change of attitude is surprising to me, at least
As I said, it’s trivial to construct unwinnable games - consider one where you are unable to move any cards at all - but they are clearly rare.
I’m a Spider addict and I only play 4 suits, the XP version which only allows you to undo the current deal, not the whole deal. Played 555,Losses:346, Wins: 209 percentage wins 37% (nearly 38), record 4 in a row.
one suit played 6 won 6… to easy
two suits played 7 won 7… still to easy
did not try three suits
four suits played 165, won 160 (96,97%), lost 5 (did not realize if you restart a game its a loss), wins without undo 11, high score 50862, winning streak 139, two games in the top 5 on the score board. love this game.
[quote=“Mixolydian, post:33, topic:90593”]
I’ll have to check at home to see what my record is, but I’ll admit that often when playing 2 suit (I don’t bother with one or 4 suit typically), I’ll deal again if I don’t like the way the cards look - I’ve noticed this doesn’t count as a loss - at least on the XP version.
Are all of you playing the hands as dealt?
I just play every hand. Seems they run in streaks, and sometimes there are a series of easily-won games, and sometimes . . . . well, a series of difficult ones is a pain.
I play only 2-suits. My win % is steady at 45%, longest win streak 1s 10.
My question concerns scoring: when I win I usually score about 1040 to 1070, sometimes under 1000 if it is a very convoluted game, very occasionally above 1070. But a couple of times when I played what seemed a rather convoluted game, my score was much higher: 1252 and 1238. Is there a bonus for something i didn’t realize or is the scoring program a bit screwy?
There is no way someone wins 100+ games in a row, with unlimited undo’s or not, in a 4 suit, 2 deck spider game. Why? Because often enough, you will get dealt a row THAT HAS NO POSSIBLE MOVES. (all odd numbers, for example). If this happens on the last deal, it’s game over.
Having said that, my winning percentage for 4 suit spider is 75%. My best over 100 games is 78%.
My longest winning streak is 13 games. I’ve done 10+ numerous times.
Absolutely in no way is every 4 suit spider game solvable. Neither is freecell for that matter, because sometimes the aces are so buried you just can’t get to them. Having said that, however, I have won well over 100 freecell games in a row a couple of times.
I believe #11982 is unwinnable in Freecell, and I suspect there may be others.
Regards,
Shodan
I’ve played the advanced four suit version with unlimited “undos” 97 times and have won 63 times . Despite losing occasionally, I feel fairly certain every game can be won, it might just mean trying every possible sequence of moves, and probably isn’t worth the time. I lost every time I played the first dozen or so times before realizing it generally couldn’t be won without hitting undo frequently, and later realizing that you couldn’t always win by making the most rational moves. Even in the case where none of the last cards dealt can be moved onto any of the other cards (eg all odd cards are dealt) there is a solution…hit undo until you get to a point that a stack of cards can be placed just before the last deal so that the card dealt on top of that stack is in proper sequence and suit so that the entire stack can be moved, not just the top card.
Also, I’m not sure high scores mean much unless you compare different players scores with the same deal, otherwise its luck of the draw and some of the most satisfying games seem impossible to win at first.
From the previous page of the thread:
From seeing other people’s winning percentages posted elsewhere, and from my own assessment of games that I could have won but didn’t, I believe that a winning percentage of at least 45% is achievable; perhaps more. (For what it’s worth, I did finally quit myself of the game…eventually.)
I think there is very much doubt of this. The flaw in your argument is the assumption that to end a game as quickly as possible, the optimal strategy for an undo player is necessarily the same as that of a nundo player. On the contrary, the ability to look ahead in the game and then backtrack if necessary will often afford a quicker way of ending a game (whether reckoned in minutes or moves) than the careful weighing of possibilities and relative likelihoods that is demanded by playing nundo when optimizing for winning percentage.
4 suit record
Games won: 143 (99.31%)
Games lost: 1
Shortest winning time: 08:25
Longest winning time: 193:46
Fewest winning moves: 201
Most winning moves: 5201
Wins without undo: 21
High score: 60878
Current winning streak: 142
Got new phone just before Christmas so stats only for last month or so. Wish I could go back to that 2nd game I played to see if I could find a way to get out 
Have started playing for a nundo game but if that doesn’t work just undo to best looking position (in terms of empty columns) or right back to start in some…
i only play 4 suits the others are too easy, i do use the undo but sometimes the number of undos and how far i can go back is limited, this feature seems to be random , there is no way to determine when this will start or how far back i can go, does any body else have this “problem”?
my record so far is 33% success
lowest moves to a win 125, this was exceptional and most of my wins are in the 200+ moves
Since this seems to be still going, I’d like to share my stats as well.
I play the MobilityWare Spider and I try mostly no-undo games.
4 suit record
Games won: 56 (6.02%)
Games lost: 875
Shortest winning time: 07:55
Longest winning time: 28:33
Average winning time: 15:03
Fewest winning moves: 163
Most winning moves: 358
Wins without undo: 42
High score: 72303
Longest winning streak: 3
I just got a one suit high score of 1213. My personal best. Can anyone beat that?
I am playing 4-suit solitaire. My current streak is 45 continuous wins, but I use the undo button.