Baker's Game
Encyclopedia
Baker's Game is a Patience
game (or card Solitaire
game) similar to FreeCell
(and predating it) which differs in the fact that sequences are built by suit, instead of by alternate color.
. In the June 1968 edition of Scientific American
, Martin Gardner
described in his "Mathematical Games" column a game by C. L. Baker, that is now known as Baker's Game. Gardner wrote "The game was taught to Baker by his father, who in turn learned it from an Englishman during the 1920's".
The description of Baker's Game in the "Mathematical Games" column inspired Paul Alfille to create FreeCell
and he coding it for the PLATO
educational computer system, which ended up becoming more popular than Baker's Game.
Construction and layout:
Building during play:
Moves:
Victory:
, in order to collect statistics.. The solver was ran using a preset that guarantees an accurate verdict. Out of the 10 million deals, 7,431,962 were solvable (making for an average win rate of 74.3%), with a maximal iterations count of 893,777 iterations. The remaining unsolved deals yielded a maximal iterations count of 2,568,038 iterations.
Patience (game)
Patience is a genre of tabletop games, consisting of card games that can be played by a single player. Patience games can also be played in a multiplayer fashion....
game (or card Solitaire
Solitaire
Solitaire is any tabletop game which one can play by oneself or with other people. The solitaire card game Klondike is often known as simply Solitaire....
game) similar to FreeCell
FreeCell
FreeCell is a solitaire-based card game played with a 52-card standard deck. It is fundamentally different from most solitaire games in that nearly all deals can be solved...
(and predating it) which differs in the fact that sequences are built by suit, instead of by alternate color.
History
One of the oldest ancestors of Baker's Game is Eight OffEight Off
Eight Off is a form of Patience, named after its employment of eight cells, played with one deck of playing cards. The object of the game is to move all the cards into the foundations.-Rules:...
. In the June 1968 edition of Scientific American
Scientific American
Scientific American is a popular science magazine. It is notable for its long history of presenting science monthly to an educated but not necessarily scientific public, through its careful attention to the clarity of its text as well as the quality of its specially commissioned color graphics...
, Martin Gardner
Martin Gardner
Martin Gardner was an American mathematics and science writer specializing in recreational mathematics, but with interests encompassing micromagic, stage magic, literature , philosophy, scientific skepticism, and religion...
described in his "Mathematical Games" column a game by C. L. Baker, that is now known as Baker's Game. Gardner wrote "The game was taught to Baker by his father, who in turn learned it from an Englishman during the 1920's".
The description of Baker's Game in the "Mathematical Games" column inspired Paul Alfille to create FreeCell
FreeCell
FreeCell is a solitaire-based card game played with a 52-card standard deck. It is fundamentally different from most solitaire games in that nearly all deals can be solved...
and he coding it for the PLATO
PLATO
PLATO was the first generalized computer assisted instruction system, and, by the late 1970s, comprised several thousand terminals worldwide on nearly a dozen different networked mainframe computers...
educational computer system, which ended up becoming more popular than Baker's Game.
Rules
(Adapted from the FreeCell's article Rules.).Construction and layout:
- One standard 52-card deck is used.
- There are four open cells and four open foundations. Some alternate rules use between one to ten cells.
- Cards are dealt into eight cascades, four of which comprise seven cards and four of which comprise six. Some alternate rules will use between four to ten cascades.
Building during play:
- The top card of each cascade begins a tableau.
- Tableaux must be built down by the same suit.
- Foundations are built up by suit.
Moves:
- Any cell card or top card of any cascade may be moved to build on a tableau, or moved to an empty cell, an empty cascade, or its foundation.
- Complete or partial tableaus may be moved to build on existing tableaus, or moved to empty cascades, by recursively placing and removing cards through intermediate locations. While computer implementations often show this motion, players using physical decks typically move the tableau at once.
Victory:
- The game is won after all cards are moved to their foundation piles.
Statistics
Freecell Solver, a solver for some variants of Patience game, including Baker's Game, was ran on the first 10 million deals of 4 freecell Baker's Game based on the Microsoft FreeCell dealsFreeCell (Windows)
FreeCell, as included in Microsoft Windows, is a computer implementation of the card game FreeCell.-History:The first computer version of the game is believed to have been created by Paul Alfille in 1978 for the PLATO system. Microsoft developer Jim Horne, who learned the game from the PLATO...
, in order to collect statistics.. The solver was ran using a preset that guarantees an accurate verdict. Out of the 10 million deals, 7,431,962 were solvable (making for an average win rate of 74.3%), with a maximal iterations count of 893,777 iterations. The remaining unsolved deals yielded a maximal iterations count of 2,568,038 iterations.
Implementations
- Brain Jam - a freewareFreewareFreeware is computer software that is available for use at no cost or for an optional fee, but usually with one or more restricted usage rights. Freeware is in contrast to commercial software, which is typically sold for profit, but might be distributed for a business or commercial purpose in the...
version of Baker's Game for Windows. - GNOME AisleRiot from GNOME GamesGNOME GamesGNOME Games is a collection of computer games that is part of the standard open-source GNOME desktop environment. It includes the following games:* AisleRiot - - a suite of Solitaire card games....
- open-source for the GNOMEGNOMEGNOME is a desktop environment and graphical user interface that runs on top of a computer operating system. It is composed entirely of free and open source software...
desktop.. - Pretty Good SolitairePretty Good SolitairePretty Good Solitaire is a game for Microsoft Windows which includes over 600 varieties of the card game solitaire. The most recent version, 12.4.0, was released on August 17, 2010, contains 750 games and uses 24-bit graphics...
- a suite of Patience games that contains Baker's Game. - PySolPySolPySol is an open source and platform independent computer game that incorporates around 1,000 solitaire games, including card games and other types of single-player games.. It is written in the Python programming language. PySol was originated by Markus F.X.J...
- an open source Solitaire suite that implements Baker's Game.. - World of Solitaire..
Automated Solvers
Some automated solvers of card solitaire are capable of solving Baker's Games:- Don Woods's solver.
- Freecell Solver by Shlomi Fish.
- Brain Jam Assistant by “Berto”.