Spider Solitaire was an obscure "patience" card game when it was introduced to the world in 1998 as a free addition to Windows 98. A few years later, Bill Gates said it was the most played game on PCs (Wikipedia). Not the most played card game, the most played of ANY game.

Why did this happen? Spider is fun, sure, but it's also notoriously awkward to deal. It uses 104 cards, not 52, and 54 of those have to be dealt out precisely for each hand. During play, up to a dozen cards have to be moved at a time, and this can go on for up to an hour. And then you lose. All that brain power used to figure out this card puzzle goes up in smoke. But you expect to lose since average players only win Spider hands about 2% of the time. What a depressing game! What kind of idiot in 2005 would prefer such self-abuse to playing FreeCell, Minesweeper, or the granddaddy of all solitaire games, Klondike? Not to mention Doom, The Sims, Grand Theft Auto 4, and Civilization?

The answer is that computers transformed the game. Dealing became easy and precise, moving cards became a mouse click, and a long game could be saved and resumed later. With the hassles gone, that only left enjoyment. But the real kicker was the introduction of the Undo button. A typical game of Spider might involve 300 decisions. If (after losing), you might wonder what would have happened if you played that ace instead of the six about a hundred moves back. Now, you could find out, something that was impossibly difficult with real cards. Suddenly, players had extra lives when they hit a dead end, and a hand that the player had become very familiar with could be replayed from a particular place. This increased both the enjoyment and the winning percentage. Computers supported variations, such as playing with just one suit, that also made the game easier for beginners. Once players got the hang of it, a good game of Spider became a daily activity.

RULES

Game Setup

Standard Spider uses two decks of 52 cards shuffled together. (The Ace is played "low" in Solitaire with a Rank (pip value) below the "2".) The first 54 cards are dealt left-to-right face down in 10 columns -- called the "Tableau" (literally the "table") -- leaving six cards in the first 4 columns, and five cards in the remaining 6 columns. The cards can significantly overlap to help keep the tableau small. The top card of each column is turned face up.

The remaining 50 cards are called the Stock, and they remain face down. You are now ready to play.

The Goal

The goal is to clear both the Stock and Tableau of cards by moving them to the "Foundation," an area set aside for "winning" cards. All 13 cards consisting of an entire suit and arranged from King (lowest in the Tableau) to Ace (highest) (a "Series") can be moved to the Foundation. If all eight Series are moved to the Foundation, the Player wins.

Game Rules

1. 1)Cards are moved between columns to form a Series. When a Series is complete, all 13 cards are moved to the Foundation at a time.
2. 2)Only face-up cards can be moved.
3. 3)Any single top-most card in a column can be moved onto the top card of another column if that other card has a Rank one higher than the card being moved. In other words, a 6 can be placed on a 7, a 10 on a jack, but not the other way around. Thus, Kings cannot be moved onto other cards (there is nothing high enough), and no cards can be moved onto an Ace (there is nothing low enough).
4. 4)Any single card (including kings) can be placed into an Empty column without regard to Rank.
5. 5)More than one card can be moved at a time as a Group. A Group has the following conditions:
   1. a)All of the cards are face-up
   2. b)They are the same suit
   3. c)They are "physically" next to each other in the same column
   4. d)The Ranks are consecutive from high (in the bottom-most position) to low
   5. e)The top-most card is included -- cards cannot be lifted out of the middle of a column

   The rules for moving a Group are the same as for a single card:

   1. f)The destination card must have a Rank one higher than the highest-Ranked card in the Group, or
   2. 6)The destination is a blank column

   Moving Groups to cards of the same suit is the main way that Groups are grown into complete Series and moved to the Foundation

6. 6)At any time, the Player can elect to deal a fresh set of 10 cards from the Stock onto the Tableau. The cards are dealth 10 at a time, one on each column face-up. This is often done when there are no more legal moves, but it can be done at any time.

End of Game

The Game ends when the Stock is exhausted and there are no more moves available in the Tableau.

STARTING OUT

For your first game, select the Game tab on the Menus. Select "One Suit") and turn on Instant hints. Click the New Deal button when you're ready to dive in.