Where to find Windows Spider Solitaire on a Mac

February 7, 2008 7:29 PM

"I need Spider Solitaire exactly the same as on the old computer", said mom. Anyone able to point me in the direction of an EXACT (The purchased one from Apple, apparently isn't close enough) copy of the windows version for MAC? Or does she have to buy a copy of Windows and run it on their mac?
posted by dripped to sports, hobbies, & recreation (9 comments total)

Tell her that she'll get used to it.
posted by Electrius at 7:38 PM on February 7, 2008 [2 favorites has favorites]

This is a good project for someone who wants to learn Cocoa programming. Both my mother and grandmother want windows style solitaire on their macs, and grandma has had her mac for years. She still doesn't like anything but microsoft-style solitaire.

The original (Windows 3.0) solitaire was written by an intern. I'm sure one of us can reimplement it on the mac.
posted by b1tr0t at 7:57 PM on February 7, 2008

Just thought you might want to know that for Vista they completely rewrote Spider Solitaire. The graphics are entirely different, and you can "take back" a redeal or a 13-card take. Still the same game, but it doesn't look the same.
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 8:07 PM on February 7, 2008

Have you looked at Burning Monkey Solitaire? It's what my mother-in-law bought when she got a Mac.
posted by AaRdVarK at 8:14 PM on February 7, 2008

Is it a question of exact rules? Exact functional behaviours (for example, if you right click a card, it does X)? Or exact right down to the appearance of the cards and the hideous green colour?
posted by jacquilynne at 8:26 PM on February 7, 2008

Huh. What is it about old ladies and that game? My mother was also obsessed with it. I bought a used iMac for her a few years ago and that was pretty much the number one thing she was concerned about. She played that game at work a lot (in a dentist's office, during breaks) and was giddy at the prospect of being able to play at home. She seemed to be satisfied with the one I got for her.

Alas, I don't know who made it. I do know that it was called "Classic Solitaire for Mac OS X" and I paid $30 to BMT Micro for it back in Nov 2004. It may very well be the same one that's now offered by Apple directly, I dunno.
posted by intermod at 9:36 PM on February 7, 2008

This is from Apple's site, but a free download and states "Classic." It only shows a screen shot of a regular solitaire game, but Spider, Freecell, and a whole bunch more are included in the download. Worth a look-see, since it's a freebie
posted by JABof72 at 1:03 AM on February 8, 2008

I had a similar problem when I gave my parents a Mac. I had to find a version of Klondike (instead of Spider) that was "just like Windows". After trying out 5-10 different applications, they liked Solavant best. A basic version with just Spider, Free Cell & Klondike is available as well.

It is not an exact duplicate but they felt it was the easiest to use. My parents use their computer only for card games and internet. They do not understand how to open files and just began using email.
posted by bCat at 4:50 AM on February 8, 2008

X11 + wine (via ports or fink?) + Windows exe?
posted by cmiller at 6:14 AM on February 8, 2008