Patience - Columns

Patience - Columns is a freeware, single player, card game from an Australian developer.

The object of the game is to arrange all the cards into four suited, descending sequences from the king to the ace.

Cards are dealt in seven columns each of seven cards. Counting from the left the first four cards in columns one, two, and three are played face down, all other cards in these and all other columns are played face up. There remain three odd cards and these are placed to the right and separate from the main body of cards, face down.

Game-play is deceptively simple, a card and all cards below it can be moved onto a column where the top card of those being moved is one less and the same suit as the bottom card of the column you drop it onto. When a column is cleared completely only a king can be moved to the top of that column. The three cards placed separately to the main body can only be turned over and used when an ace appears at the bottom of a column, and the face down cards in columns one, two and three can only be accessed when the face-up cards have been moved elsewhere.

The game has no save/load function and no sound but it does keep statistics on games won and lost and it allows the player to change the card backs. It is played entirely with the mouse.