Card games for Emacs: about thirty of them, from Klondike and FreeCell to Hearts, 500, Gin, Cribbage, and two-player Russian Bank against the computer. Every game plays with the keyboard everywhere and with the mouse on a graphical display.

On a graphical display the cards are drawn as SVG; in a terminal they fall back to UNICODE glyphs (customize card-game-symbols). You can switch how every game is drawn from the menu – text (UNICODE), svg (drawn cards), or full (a full-window SVG table) – and dial the computer opponents between easy, normal, and hard.

A full Info manual ships with the package: after installing, C-h i and choose Card Games, or M-x info RET (card-games) RET.

Games

To open the game menu type M-x card-game, or start a game directly with its command. From the menu you can also switch the card treatment (text / SVG / full-window) and the AI difficulty.

Trick-taking

• cg-bid – 500 (Bid). Win the auction, name the trump suit, then take tricks with your partner to reach 500 points before the opposing pair. Also playable live over the network (M-x cg-bid-host / cg-bid-join).
• cg-hearts – Hearts. Avoid taking hearts and the Queen of Spades, or take them all to "shoot the moon"; lowest score loses.
• cg-spades – Spades. Partnership bidding to 500; spades are always trump. Make your side's combined bid, mind the bags, dare a nil.
• cg-whist – Whist. Trump is the turned card, there is no bidding; score one point for each trick past the book of six.
• cg-ohhell – Oh Hell. The hand shrinks each round; bid the exact number of tricks you will take, no more and no fewer.

Solitaire

• cg-montana – Montana (also called Gaps). Each row is anchored by a Two and built upward in one suit, 2 through King; slide cards into the gaps until all four rows are sorted.
• cg-gaps – an alias for cg-montana.
• cg-hells-half-acre – the build-down variant: each row is anchored by a King and built downward, King through 2.
• cg-klondike – Klondike, the classic "Solitaire": build the four foundations up by suit from the Ace.
• cg-freecell – FreeCell: every card in view, four free cells, a game of nearly pure skill.
• cg-spider – Spider (two decks): build down regardless of suit, but only same-suit runs move; clear eight King-to-Ace runs.
• cg-yukon – Yukon: Klondike's layout dealt mostly face up, with any buried group movable and no stock.
• cg-canfield – Canfield: a 13-card reserve and a foundation base rank set by the deal; foundations wrap King to Ace.
• cg-forty-thieves – Forty Thieves: two decks, ten columns, eight foundations, build down by suit, and no second pass through the stock.
• cg-scorpion – Scorpion: build down by suit and free any buried group to assemble four King-to-Ace runs.
• cg-golf – Golf: clear the layout by playing exposed cards one rank above or below the waste top.
• cg-tripeaks – TriPeaks: the same, on three overlapping peaks, with Ace-King wrapping for long chains.
• cg-pyramid – Pyramid: remove pairs of exposed cards whose ranks sum to thirteen; Kings go alone.

Shedding and climbing

• cg-eights – Crazy Eights. Match the suit or rank of the discard; eights are wild and let you name the next suit.
• cg-president – President (Scum). Climb: play one to four of a rank, beat it or pass; first out rules, last out scrubs, and the roles trade cards on the next deal.

Rummy

• cg-gin – Gin Rummy. A two-handed duel: draw or take the discard, build sets and runs, and knock once your deadwood is ten or less, or go gin with none; your opponent then lays off and may undercut you. First to 100 wins.
• cg-rummy-basic – Rummy. Meld sets and runs onto the table and lay cards off onto them; empty your hand to go out and score the cards left in the other hands.
• cg-rum500 – Rummy 500. As above, but you score the cards you lay down and lose the cards left in your hand; first past 500 wins. Take a buried discard card with T: you take it and every card above it, and meld the chosen card at once.
• cg-handfoot – Hand & Foot. A partnership Canasta cousin: play a hand and then a foot, build books of a rank with Twos and Jokers wild, and go out once your side has completed two of them. Each round opens with a rising go-down minimum (50, 90, 120, 150); red threes are bonus cards; and you can pick up the discard pile (p) by melding its top card with two matching naturals.

Matching

• cg-go-fish – Go Fish. Ask another player for a rank you hold; collect all four to lay down a book, and make the most books.
• cg-old-maid – Old Maid. One Queen is set aside; discard pairs and draw blind from your neighbour, and do not be left with the odd Queen.

Pegging

• cg-cribbage – Cribbage. Lay two cards to the crib, cut a starter, peg toward 31, then count fifteens, pairs, runs, flushes, and his nobs. Two-handed to 121.

Capturing

• cg-scopa – Scopa. A 40-card deck; capture table cards by value and sweep the board for a scopa. Score cards, coins, the sette bello, and primiera to 11.
• cg-casino – Casino. The full deck; capture by pairs and sums and score cards, spades, the casinos, and aces to 21.

More trick-taking

• cg-euchre – Euchre. A 24-card deck with the two bowers; order up or call trump and take three of five tricks. Partnership to 10.
• cg-pitch – Auction Pitch. Bid for the pitch; your first lead sets trump. Score High, Low, Jack, and Game; first to 7.
• cg-briscola – Briscola. A fixed trump turned from the deal and no obligation to follow suit; capture the Aces and Threes. Partnership to 61 of the 120 points.

Climbing patience

• cg-spite – Spite & Malice. Race the computer to empty your goal pile onto shared centre piles that build Ace to Queen; Kings are wild.

Bridge

• cg-bridge – Contract Bridge. A full auction (bids, pass, double, redouble), play with the dummy exposed, and classic rubber scoring with vulnerability. You are South; when you declare you play the dummy too. The bidding AI is a small natural system, sensible but no expert.

Two-player patience

• cg-russian-bank / cg-crapette – Russian Bank (Crapette). A race against the computer: build the eight shared foundations up by suit, build the shared houses down in alternating colour, and empty your reserve to win. Load your cards onto your opponent's piles when the rank and suit line up, mind the "stop" rule that ends your turn if you skip a foundation play, and sequence house-to-house moves within the free houses ([ / ] choose how many cards of a run to drop on an empty house). The opponent plays all three difficulty levels.

TODO

• make the suit symbols customizable (cg-symbols) and obey them
• a Texinfo manual
• finish checkdoc docstrings across the per-game files (the shared engine files are clean; make compile is warning-free)
• renderer "skins": let games subclass the display components (text, SVG, full-window SVG)
• a manual card-size control for the full-window SVG UI
• more games

Install

From the package tarball

make package           # builds card-games-1.0.91.tar

Then in Emacs: M-x package-install-file RET card-games-1.0.91.tar.

With use-package

Once the package is on your load-path (installed from the tarball or an ELPA archive), the whole collection loads from the single card-games feature:

(use-package card-games
  :commands (card-game cg-klondike cg-bid cg-hearts cg-gin cg-crapette))

Then M-x card-game for the menu.

From a local ELPA archive

make elpa              # builds dist/ (archive-contents + tar)

(add-to-list 'package-archives '("cg" . "/path/to/dist/"))
(package-refresh-contents)
(package-install 'card-games)

Manually

Put the cg-*.el and card-games.el files on your load-path and (require 'card-games).

Manual

A complete Info manual is included. After installing, C-h i and pick Card Games, or M-x info RET (card-games) RET. To build it from a source checkout:

make info              # builds doc/card-games.info with makeinfo

The manual text is licensed CC-BY-4.0; the code is GPL-3.0-or-later.

Playing

Every game works with the keyboard everywhere and with the mouse on a graphical display.

• 500: b bid, p pass, arrows + RET to play (or click a card), n next hand / new game, ? help.
• Gaps: arrows to move (or hjkl when cg-keys is classic), RET to fill a gap (or click it), r redeal, u undo, n new, ? help.
• Klondike / FreeCell / Spider / Yukon: arrows move between piles, RET picks up a movable run and drops it, f sends a card to a foundation, a auto-plays everything it can, u undo, n new, ? help. On the stock pile, RET deals or recycles.
• Hearts / Spades: arrows choose a card, RET plays it (in Hearts, RET marks a card to pass and p sends the three), n new match, ? help.
• Crazy Eights: arrows choose, RET plays, d draws, x passes, n new deal, ? help.

On a graphical display, v toggles the full-window SVG table. A Card size slider (and the + / - / 0 keys) resizes the cards, and in 500 the ? Help / Rules button explains play. Every game accepts the mouse: click cards, board slots, buttons, and the slider.

Testing

This is a 1.0.91 pre-test snapshot. To try it:

1. make compile && make test – should be warning-free and all green.
2. M-x card-game opens the menu, or jump straight in, e.g. M-x cg-klondike, M-x cg-bid (500), M-x cg-gin, M-x cg-handfoot.
3. On a graphical display, press v in 500 for the full-window SVG table and play entirely with the mouse: click a bid, click five kitty cards and the Discard button, click cards to play, move the Card size slider, and open ? Help / Rules.

Feedback most wanted: anything a mouse-only player who is new to Emacs finds confusing or unreachable, rules bugs, and rendering glitches.

Customization

M-x customize-group RET cg-svg and RET card-games:

• cg-ai-level – how hard the computer plays: easy, normal, or hard (also on the M-x card-game menu, or M-x card-games-set-ai-level).
• card-games-treatment – how the games are drawn: text, svg, or full (also on the menu, or M-x card-games-set-treatment).
• cg-svg-theme-colors – derive the highlight ring and card backs from your theme (on by default).
• cg-svg-highlight-color – the cursor/selection ring (gold by default).
• cg-bid-felt-color – the 500 table felt.
• cg-svg-card-width, cg-svg-card-height, cg-svg-card-shadow, cg-svg-font-family – card appearance.
• cg-svg-card-back – the card-back design: dots, rings, solid, lattice, waves, diamond, an Emacs-logo back (emacs, emacs-classic, gnu, splash), or random (the default – picks one for the session; M-x cg-svg-shuffle-card-back rolls a new one).
• cg-svg-emacs-logo – the emblem on the full-window table: modern (default), classic, gnu, splash, drawn, or none.
• cg-symbols – the Unicode suit glyphs (and the joker) drawn on cards.
• cg-svg-four-color – draw a four-colour deck (clubs green, diamonds blue-purple).
• cg-keys – emacs (default) or classic (adds vi-style hjkl and SPC).
• cg-bid-animate, cg-bid-ai-delay, cg-bid-trick-pause – pace the 500 AI so play is watchable and completed tricks linger.
• M-x card-games-set-theme – apply a preset (classic, dark, contrast).

Development

make compile     # byte-compile (should be warning-free)
make test        # run the ERT suite
make checkdoc    # documentation lint
make release     # clean + test + package + source tarball

License

GPL-3.0-or-later. See the file headers; add a COPYING file with the full GPLv3 text for distribution.