Re: AisleRiot fullscreen mode

["Callum McKenzie" <callum spooky-possum org>]

On Thu, September 6, 2007 10:47 am, Vincent Povirk wrote:
> Hi, Sean.
>
> Klondike is one of the better-coded games in aisleriot, and it's
> fairly simple, for programmers at least, to change the number of cards
> dealt and the number of redeals independently. So this is really a
> policy decision, not a technical one. I think having two options that
> could be set independently (1 or 3 card deals, 2 or unlimited redeals)
> was deemed too confusing for some reason.
>
The decision to use just two choices reflected the two traditional ways of
playing it - at least as I understood it.

The single-draw, limited redeal variant seems to be common among the
computerised versions while the three-card variant, unlimited redeal
variant is what my grandmother taught me. I have always thought of these
as "American" and "British" variants, although I have no hard evidence for
this assertion.

Having the limits makes the game more challenging than without. It turns
out that the three-card deal fails at about the same rate as the
single-card with a limited redeal version. So it's also nice that way -
neither option is significantly harder than the other.

So that's the reason things are the way they are, I'll leave it up to
other people to consider whether these are good reasons.

 - Callum

PS: My grandmother cheated too - I wouldn't take her as an authority on
klondike.