On this day (May 22nd) in 1990, Windows 3 was released, and with it, Solitaire by Wes Cherry, featuring illustrations by Susan Kare. While the idea of "Windows" Solitaire has since fallen from grace, into video-ad-supported, monthly-subscription-based nonsense, the original Solitaire will still work quite handily on a modern computer, either by way of the 32-bit Windows XP version, or by way of OTVDM that enables 16-bit Windows programs to run on 64-bit Windows. With some effort it can even run in Wine on Linux or (some versions of) macOS.
Solitaire's impact on the history of computing cannot be overstated. Although its intuitive click-and-drag interface had already existed for several years on the Macintosh (by way of the Apple Lisa), Wes Cherry's implementation had effectively snuck into hundreds of millions of workstation computers throughout the 1990s, not only wasting countless billions of hours of workplace productivity (to which I say, hell yeah, more power to you), but indirectly training users to get good at using the mouse.
And these days, you are absolutely spoiled for choice, as far as ways to continue to play solitaire on your modern device - to the point of it being a genuine minefield of awful monetized versions.
Want to play a solitaire game, right the hell now?
- Google search has a playable solitaire you can access by just searching for "solitaire."
- swc on itch.io made a solitaire that you can play in your web browser.
- Internet Archive has the Hoyle Book of Games Vol.2 that runs in a browser instance of DOSBox.
- The Microsoft versions from prior to the enshittification can also be had on Internet Archive, and ought to work just fine on modern Windows. (hat tip to @ahksworld )
- World of Solitaire is a pretty comprehensive online solitaire collection that has one single ad banner that is easily removed with a single button (or your adblock plugin of choice). (hat tip to @AstralikaCastle )
What if these aren't good enough? What's a solitaire worth paying money for?
- Alexei Anoshenko's 250+ Solitaire Collection is the most comprehensive, no-nonsense collection of solitaires for most mobile platforms. It is free with ads, but removing those ads permanently is a one-time purchase of $2.99 USD.
- Solitaire City for Windows, macOS, iOS and Android (and Blackberry, and PocketPC if you do some digging). It has fewer games than Alexei's, but it's a bit shinier and has leaderboards. (And, optionally, you can make the cards sound like various guns.) Windows version is $10; mobile versions are free with ads, with a $4.99 fee to remove ads permanently.
- Solitaire Expeditions, for Windows via Steam. 180+ versions of Solitaire, with optional Journey mode a la Solitaire's Journey.
- Pretty Good Solitaire, still being maintained and updated for over 28 years. One-time fee of $24.95.
Maybe you'd like solitaire with a wild stumper of a rule set?
- The Zachtronics Solitaire Collection collects the card minigames (and one marble-matching Mahjong-like game) from Zachtronics' various other programming and puzzle games into one program ($5 on mobile, $10 on desktop), in addition to a brand new one. Games in this collection are played with everything from tarot cards, to mahjong cards (yes, those are a real thing!), to kabufuda. They're extremely creative and they'll make you feel so smart for winning at them. (hat tip to @gravity-pike for reminding me it existed)
- A Solitaire Mystery is a collection of brand new card games from the creator of Baba Is You. And yes, they are exactly as brain-twisting as that game is. Ever wanted to play solitaire in binary? How about in unary? How about with cards that'll kill you? Cards that grow? Cards with absolutely nothing printed on them? Cards that alter reality and bend the rules? Well worth the $3.
- Cnidarian Solitaire - Freecell with an arcane aquatic bent, from @bruno , who clearly loves writing words at least as much as I do. Actually has a unique use for The Fool arcana, and comes with a lot of fascinating text about the nature (literal, and allegorical) of the imagery used on the cards, and several other things besides. Free (or pay what you want!).
Extra special bonus section for solitaires that defy all other categorization:
- Radical Solitaire and its sequels - (FLASHING LIGHTS WARNING!) - Solitaire from the point of view of an old IBM CGA machine with a few bad RAM chips. There is so much going on here. I don't even know the full depths of what these games are capable of. They're free and cross-platform, though! (hat tip to @goatlady02 )
- Burning Monkey Solitaire 4, probably only useful if you have a pre-Catalina Macintosh, but this is absolutely the wildest, most off-the-wall inexplicable solitaire I've ever played.
