Need Cheat Code for Freecell

[Ben]

Unless someone can figure out how to win game #178!

It has to be possible, but everyone at work has been trying all day and no one got it.

Go ahead, I dare you to try it.

BTW, just kidding about the cheat code.

 

[MBJ]

Nope, I don't think that one is possible!

 

[Shazam]

Phew, I just finished it. Took me half an hour.

The trick is to not use any of the freecells until you absolutely have to....

 

[Ben]

So it is possible huh?

Hmmm...

I guess I know what I'm doing at work on Monday!

Uhh, sorry boss, I really need to finish this game first. What? Ouch! Hey, this is a good shirt! Ouch! My arm! OK! OK!

 

[AMB]

You just started to make me play freecell again

I think that game 11982 cannot be solved,

 

[Ben]

I heard that every game has a solution.

But your right. I just tried out 11982 and it's a bitch.

...and I still can't beat 178.

 

[Deeko]

It's possible. My mom is a bit obessed and is trying to beat every game, one by one. She is up to about 1500. So it is possible.

 

[corkyg]

Cheat codes? OK! F-10 lets you undo a move. Ctrl-Shift F-10 allows you to select ABORT, and then any subsequent good m,ove will give you a win. What's the point?

Play on-line at freecell.com and there's no cheat codes. <VBG>

 

[Shazam]

Here's some more info on Freecell... Including which game numbers are the hardest...

Text

 

[Ben]

That's a cool site.

AMB! They say on the site that every puzzle can be won except 11982! Thats the only one with no solution.

Oh, and I still can't beat 178.
I'm getting closer though.

Thanks for the link Shazam.

 

[Pretender]

Try games -1 and -2.....those are the only cheat codes I know of.

 

[Ben]

According to Shazam's link, that only works in Windows 95.

 

[Pretender]

I'm using Win98SE and just tried it...it works.

 

[Peter C.]

Yeeeeaaaahhh!!!!

Just finished #178!!!!!(after three tries)
The key to victory was gaining access to the third row from the left with the many red cards(both 7´s and 8´s). Most of the time, I had three cells occupied!

If anybody wants, i try to create a &quot;manual&quot; for #178.

Now I´m attacking #11982!! Let´s see if I can beat it!

 

[kuk]

WTF !!! I finished #178 in 15 minutes, on my first try. Very damn easy

I was expecting a terrible game, but I finished without much sweat. I have a screenshot for those who want's proof, but won't post it right now.

Moving on to #11982

 

[Shazam]

Looks like Freecell wins again! Who needs Q3A and UT?

 

[Ben]

OK, then I'm a moron. I tried all day today off and on at work. I still can't do it.

Maybe I should just stick to solitare.

Man that pisses me off. You guys really got it that fast? Grrrrrrrrr

BTW, you guys need to read the link that Shazam put up. Even a computer can't solve 11982. They've decided it's impossible.

Well, try if you want I guess. If you beat it you'll be the first!

I'm going to try it again with Peter's advise. Actually, I can uncover the third row. I usually get stumped because I can't uncover any of the Jacks. If I get this I'll be the hero at work. No one can beat it there either.

Here we go again....

 

[Shazam]

Ben, don't use any of the freecells until you positively have to. Just keep sorting the cards that are exposed until you HAVE to move a card.

The link I posted also has a link to a solution for all the freecell games, except for 11982.

 

[Peter C.]

Obvously, there is more than one solution.

I start with moving both king and Queen to free cells. Now it is possible to do a couple of moves, especially with row 4 and 3, without using another free cell(next card up to the fc ist the second red 7 of row 3).

And Ben, excuse me, speaking of gainig access to the third row, i meant moving the King up to the free cells. In my solution, actually the fourth row is the first that becomes eliminated-----> then you can build it new with K,D,J.

We had a lot of fun here with 178, it´s really tricky.

Ben if you get too frustrated, now I´ve got a written solution...

BTW, did anyone try #617??

 

[kuk]

Shazam: Actually, I had my freecells occupied most of the time with #178. There are various solutions.

OTOH, I guess I'm a genius

 

[Ben]

I know there's a solution on that web page Shazam. But after all you guys doing it, I have to solve it myself to be able to go out in public. LOL! (Oh look! There's that guys that couldn't solve #178! ha ha ha ha ha)

Maybe if I can't get it today I'll look at the solve.

I tried for an hour at work today. I got REAL close but I made a mistake that I couldn't take back. Now I can't figure out what I did to get so close.

I think I somehow developed my own personal method for solving freecell puzzles and my method just doesn't work for this game. Today I was trying new methods and I seemed to get closer.

I can't believe you guys solved it so quickly. I must have a wacked out way of doing it.

 

[kuk]

Lookie lookie:

http://www.genius2000.com/wtpcv.htmlScroll down to freecel



<< Freecell is a solitaire card game that comes free with Microsoft Windows (Start->Programs->Accessories->Games) so it is thus played by literally millions of people. Microsoft claim in their online help that they believe all 32000 games are winnable. In order to test this claim I wrote a program to solve each one (the games are generated by seeding a random number generator before shuffling so an independent program can produce games compatible with Microsoft's). Remarkably, all but one of the 32000 games are solvable - 11982 is impossible. My code verifies that 11982 is unsolvable and finds efficient solutions to virtually all the rest. (The solver isn't quite perfect though: for a tiny, tiny percentage of games the search drops into a position where it cannot seem dig itself out in a reasonable amount of time. A given example can be fixed by hand-tweaking the search algorithm but I lost interest before I was able to find an algorithm which is guaranteed to find a solution for each one of the trillions of possible shuffles if one exists. The code is still practical though.) >>



So I guess it's unsolvable. Dang it.

 

[Isaiah]

I guess I can stop trying then

Isaiah

 

[Ben]

I finally finished it. There's no celebration though because I cheated and looked at the solve.

Now that I see the solve, I would've never got it. I'm going to try to change my way of playing these from now on.