Pyramid Solitaire Instructions

Overview

Note: Due to an inconsistency in the way Java 1.0 handles overlapping, some older browsers might display the pyramid incorrectly. If the bottom halves of the cards are visible with only the top card seen in its entirety, click on the Options button, then click the checkbox labeled reverse layering and then click OK to layer the cards in the pyramid correctly.

The goal of Pyramid solitaire is to eliminate the entire deck by finding pairs of cards which total thirteen (Kings are eliminated singly). At the start of the game, only the cards in bottom row of the pyramid are available. The other rows in the pyramid become accessible as the cards below them are removed. The cards which are not in the pyramid are cycled throught one at a time.

Layout

There are three areas of the screen:

Pyramid The pyramid initially contains 28 cards arranged in seven rows. A card cannot be removed from the pyramid if it is covered by another card. Two cards must be removed to access the cards in the upper rows in the middle of the pyramid, but the cards in the sides of the pyramid only need one removal to become available.

Stock/Waste Pile The stock is located in the upper left corner of the screen with the waste pile below it. Rightclicking anywhere on the screen or clicking twice on the stock will move the card on top of the stock to the waste pile and display the next card in the stock. The card on top of the waste pile is available.

Discard Pile The discard pile is located on the right side of the screen below the button panel. Pairs of cards which total 13 (and kings) are moved to this stack. The game is won when all 52 cards are in this pile.

Game Play

The following actions represent valid moves:

Clicking on a king (rank == 13) will move it to the discard pile.

To remove a pair of cards whose rank totals 13, click on the first card, then the second card and both cards will be moved to the discard pile. (Jacks have a rank of 11, Queens 12).

Rightclicking anywhere on the screen or clicking twice on the stock will move the card currently on top of the stock to the waste pile. If the stock is empty, the cards in the waste pile will be transferred to the stock and another pass through the cards will be made if a redeal is available.

Buttons

Clicking on these buttons will perform the following actions:

New Game

Begin a new game after shuffling the deck

Restart

Return to the original state of the current game

Undo

Return to the condition before the previous move was made

Options

Bring up a window with the following options:

This option determines the number of times the cards outside the pyramid and discard pile can be cycled through after the intial pass. A redeal occurs when the stock is empty and all the cards in the waste pile are moved to the stock, beginning another pass through the cards. The default is no redeals.
Reverse Layering: This checkbox does not affect gameplay but is used to fix a problem which might be encountered in older browsers as explained in the note above. This option should not be set if the pyramid is displayed properly.