Solitaire is old as time itself. Okay well maybe as old as playing cards. Actually in British English it’s known as “Patience”. In any case, Tri Towers, also known as Tri Peaks, Three Peaks, or Triple Peaks is a solitaire variation, and was actually created in 1989 by Robert Hogue. So it’s actually a fairly new game. In any case 18 cards are placed face down in three, three-tiered pyramids. (In other words 6 in each pyramid with 3 levels). Over these are ten face up cards placed along the bottom “row”. The rest are used as a “stock” pile. Then there’s the waste pile, one card is turned over for that. The point of the game is to get the next higher or lower in rank as the card in the waste pile, into which it also goes in the waste pile. For instance a 5, can either have a 6 or a 4 laid on it. It doesn’t matter what suit it is or color it is. Once you can’t find anymore cards to put into the waste pile, you can start going through the stock pile until you do. You keep playing it until you’ve either cleared all the cards in the pyramid or wasted all you stock pile cards. If you clear it, you win.
It actually sounds more complicated than it is. And there’s been tons of various versions of the game floating around. One is called Tri Towers Solitaire from Glowing Eye Games. It’s actually mentioned in the Tri Peaks Wikipedia entry! Holy smokestacks, I need to play another game. Give me several minutes and I’ll be right back. Okay back! I didn’t do too good that time, only about 217k points. In any case there’s a small variation in this version of the game, and that is a wild card, which can only be used once per round. So if you’re stuck and need a buck then don’t rely on luck because the hooooook brings you baaaaack, er sorry, I mean if you can’t play anything else play the wild card. You don’t get a the bonus for not playing it though. This web version is pretty easy to use point and click essentially. Also you can stack an Ace on top of a King and vice versa. In the web version if you clear the table you can go on to the next round, and keep going like that, building up your score. You also have a single undo, it’s only one level deep, so use it well.
Well, gee, this paragraph is going to be short. Basically the graphics are pretty uninspired. Even Star Crash by the same developer, was neater looking than this. But where Star Crash was kind of boring, this is actually addicting so you’re not going to be caring about the graphics much. There is no music, and the sound is negligible. Since this paragraph is so short in comparison to the first two, let me give you a little tip. It might even be considered cheating. Up in the upper-left corner of the screen is the Menu button, which acts as a pause button. With Resume, Instructions, and Exit to Title screen. So, like, how nice is that. The trick is you simply pause it so you can decide what you’re going to pick ahead of time, because there’s a time bonus, and when it runs out you get less points. So use pause to actually maximize your points! So it’s cheating, so what? No one will ever know ;-)
Final Analysis: I forgot to mention something but it goes along with my final analysis of the game. At first when I played it I was like it looks and sounds uninspired, it’s a card game, big deal. I even thought it seemed a little complicated, but when I realized how simple it was I started playing more and more, and now I’m utterly obsessed. So my final thought is, it’s free, it’s addicting and it’s fun, so why not go play it! Play it NOW!
Name: Tri Towers Solitaire
Developer: Glowing Eye Games
Price: Free (it’s a web game remember?)
Where you can play it: Right here on it’s very own page!
Tags: addicting, Browser based (flash/java), Card and Board, Casual, free, Freeware, fun, game, games, Glowing Eye Games, independent, Indie, point'n'click, review, reviews