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Contest is over. See below.
November, 2001In my book, Dan Gookin Teaches Windows 98, I state that all FreeCell games are solvable. And I believe that they are. Along the way, however, various readers have disagreed with me. First came Game #617, which a reader promised me was unsolvable. And I worked on that game for a week and a half, but eventually I cracked it. Most recently, a reader has informed me that Game #11982 is unsolvable — and I'm beginning to believe her! So rather than frustrate myself to death over solving this particular FreeCell puzzle, I'm willing to wager $25 of my hard-earned royalty money against solving this puzzle. If you can solve FreeCell Game #11982 and document that solution as proof, then I will give you a $25 gift certificate redeemable at Amazon.com. Think about it: You will get paid for playing FreeCell! Contest rules and details are provided below. So what are you waiting for? Update June 2002!One of my readers, Chris, has demonstrated the clever Ctrl+Shift+F10 solution, which while it does let you "win" the game, it does not qualify as a solution to win this contest.
If you press Ctrl+Alt+F10 for any FreeCell game, you get the User-Friend User Interface dialog box, as shown above. Click the Abort button to win the game; return to FreeCell and move any single card and — ta da! — you've won! But, alas, you still haven't solved the puzzle. So keep trying! Another update, again in June 2002!Reader Thierry of France discovered this interesting cheat: 1. Start game #11982. 2. Move the 2-of-hearts onto the 3-of-spades. 3. Press the F3 key to start a new game. 4. Quit the game, but type in 11982 as the new game to start. 5. Press the F10 (undo) key. For some reason, this flips the 3-of-spades over onto the 2-of-hearts, which is a bug, but one that you can exploit to win the game. Now this does not count as a solution, but it is definitely yet another interesting cheat! Thierry, Merci! Update, July 2002!Reader Doug has run game #11982 through a program called FreeCell Solver, which reports that it cannot solve the puzzle! So is #11982 really unbeatable? I don't know; FreeCell Solver doesn't guarantee its results, so there may still be hope! A slim chance! So I'm not calling off the contest just yet! FreeCell Solver link: http://fc-solve.berlios.de/ Final update, August 2002According to the FreeCell FAQ, Game #11982 is officially, utterly, proven to be, and undeniably unsolvable. Alas. |
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Playing FreeCell Game #119821. Start FreeCell. 2. Press the F3 key. 3. Enter 11982 as the game number and click OK. 4. Play the game. 5. Give up! |
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