# Freecell

## The Ace of Penguins

## `Freecell`

Copyright © 1998, 2001 by DJ Delorie `
http://www.delorie.com/`

Distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License, see http://www.gnu.org/ for details.

If you enjoy this game, please send a donation (any size) to DJ Delorie. See http://www.delorie.com/donations.html for details.

# Goal

## The Goal

The goal of `freecell` is to move all the cards to the four stacks in the upper right of the window.

My personal goal is to make money and have fun! `:-)`

# Play

## How to Play

You may move the bottom most card from any of the main stacks (the eight stacks of cards taking up most of the window) to any empty free cell (the four in the upper left). Free cells may only hold one card at a time.

You may move any card from another main stack or free cell onto one of the main stacks if the card you move is a different color than the bottom card on that stack and the next lower value (ace is one, king is 13). You may move stacks of cards in this sequence onto other cards to grow these stacks.

Note that you are limited in the number of cards you may move at once! The actual rules are that you may not move more than one card at a time; moving a stack involves temporarily storing cards in the free cells or empty main stacks. Moves that otherwise would be allowed may not be if there aren't enough temporary places to hold cards during the move. The computer figures all this out internally.

You may place one card at a time onto the output stacks in the upper right. Aces may go onto any empty output stack. Other cards must go onto the same suit and in ascending order (ace, 2, etc, king).

# Mouse

## Using the Mouse

The left button is used to move cards around. Move the mouse over the card, press and hold the left button, and move the mouse. The cards follow the mouse. Note that the number of cards you carry automatically varies as you move it over the various stacks; this indicates how many cards you may drop on that stack.

If you click the left mouse button twice quickly without moving the mouse (double clicking or space bar), the computer will make a (hopefully) useful move for you, if it can.

The right button can be used to "peek" at an obscured card.

# Keys

## Using the Keyboard

The `q` `Esc` and `Ctrl-C` keys quit the game. The `F2` key restarts the game. The `F1` key shows this help.

When viewing help, the space bar, `F1` or `Esc` return you to your game. Numbers show that section (0 for any pre-header section). Letters show section starting with that letter.

# Credits

The Ace of Penguins system was written by me, DJ Delorie, so that my wife Pat could play her favorite Windows 95 games on my Linux laptop. She gets credit for hours of testing `;-)`

Many thanks to the SGI, Linux, and GNU developers, for the tools and systems I use.

Special thanks to Rebecca, for showing that `test2` was a useful program.