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The Origins of Solitaire.

Sep 24, 2016

In an article on their site, cardgameheaven.com opines that it may surprise many readers that the origins of solitaire are still debated today, and therefore are not comprehensively known fully. Many people have speculated that the layouts in solitaire came from the layouts of tarot cards, which have been long used for fortune telling and divination. The first we know of printed references were those that appeared in the late 16th Century in northern Europe, with the game arriving in France in the early 17th century. It was reported that Napolean Bonaparte was known to have spent time playing the solitaire during his exile at St. Helena in 1816, and the game of solitaire or patience as it is known in Europe, then became a popular pastime and hobby with the population of France not long after. Many of the terms that are still sometimes today used in the game (e.g. tableau) and many names of solitaire games there selves (e.g. Rouge et Noir, La Belle Lucia, Coquette, etc.) originate from France. Also many of the early books on the subject are also of French origin.

One of The earliest publications in England (1874) was Lady Codogan’s Illustrated Games of Patience, William Dick’s Games of Patience in 1883, and Professor Hoffman’s Illustrated Book of Patience Games which was published in 1892. Meanwhile in America, Lady Cadogan’s Illustrated Games of Solitaire or Patience only appeared as late as 1914. More recent publications include, The Complete book of Solitaire and Patience Games by Albert Morehead and Geoffrey Mott-Smith, which was first published in England (1949), which believe it or not is still in print to this day, also David Parlett’s Book of Patience (published by Penguin Books) are the most definitive and popular references to solitaire games, still today.

In the present, solitaire holds a stronghold as a beloved pastime for many people. Its requirements to play are simply a deck of cards, a flat surface, and a few rules; which are simple enough so that nearly anybody can play- novice or expert. Solitaire is but a simple pleasure that goes back to a time when the world was a great deal less complicated and rushed. Solitaire, whether played the original way by hand, or on the most up to date computer, is a great reliever of stress and a valuable mind exercise, more popular now than ever before through history.

The game Solitaire is of course now one of the most widely available card games in the world due to the presence of it on nearly every PC ever made. This game is therefore available to millions worldwide at the click of a button, and its worldwide presence on computers proves that this great game is simple, accessible and most importantly fun.

When the first personal computer (PC) appeared in our shops, solitaire was an obvious fit. Because the technological requirements for showing playing cards on a computer screen are relatively easy, solitaire games came to the forefront. In the early days of Microsoft, nearly all solitaire games were text-mode, and were single-game programs. When the state of computer software and technology advanced, the graphics started to make the games look a whole lot better. This combined with a larger memory capacity allowed computer programmers to begin to fit more than one solitaire game into a single program, this resulted in the ‘solitaire collection’.

Of these solitaire collections, the first commercial collection was “Solitaire Royale”, written by Brad Fregger. This collection was published by Spectrum Holobyte in 1987, and it was available for both PC (Microsoft) and Macintosh. At the time, the collection contained 8 different solitaire games, and featured 16-color EGA graphics - impressive at the time - plus mouse support rather than simple text input.

We then had to wait 5 years for our second notable collection. In 1992, Quantum Quality Productions published a commercial collection that was named “Solitaire’s Journey”, this was also for Microsoft-DOS, featuring a very impressive array of 105 different games and detailed user statistics on each game played. In this collection, players could build their own custom “journeys” by selecting a sub-set of the games. As well as this, they could compete in “quests” to find “treasure” by completing a set of solitaire games successfully.

If we stop to look at the shareware front, the most extensive shareware Microsoft - DOS solitaire collection of the time was” Solitaire Suite” by Randy Rasa, which was released in 1991. This collection was compiled of 7 solitaire games, with mouse support and EGA as before.

Solitaire on Microsoft Windows first appeared in 1990 in the version Windows 3.0. This was actually an implementation of the traditional “Klondike” solitaire game, though the name it was given “Windows Solitaire” has been a topic of confusion ever since. In 1995 to great anticipation, Microsoft released Windows 95; this version featured a solitaire game called “Freecell”, which did not take long to become very popular, spanning a wide number of enhanced shareware versions of the game. A few years later Microsoft XP finally introduced Spider Solitaire, which again inspired a number of enhancers and imitators.

Looking more recently, in the last few years, the size of the shareware solitaire collections for Microsoft Windows has in no uncertain terms exploded, being led by Pretty Good Solitaire, Funsol Solitaire, and SolSuite, all of which now feature not only a handful, but hundreds upon hundreds of different solitaire games. On the Macintosh (Apple) side, Solitaire Plus and Solitaire Till Dawn are the leading solitaire collections.

The games of solitaire are now widely available for every possible platform, including PocketPC, PalmOS, Linux, and mobile phones. Looking at the present, no matter where you go, you will find a solitaire game ready and waiting to entertain you and your friends. Even with the introduction of smart phones with the accessibility to millions of applications and games, solitaire still proves a traditional favorite and is popular as ever.


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