This one is pretty bad. https://greenfelt.net/freecell?game=1684110046 \ Can't tell you how many plays as I haven't won, but after 45 minutes finally 10 people did beat it. #10 took 7:00 and #1 managed just under 2:00.
Another incipient bear: not imposssible, just gnarly. First thing you notice is stacked red tens (actuallly tripled-up with a black one). To disperse them you need black jacks -- they are stacked too. Red queens? Stacked. And the black kings are buried deep. At this writing #10 is almost 3 minutes. https://greenfelt.net/freecell?game=525597643
Middling ursine. Two of the usual suspects are under a minute, but many are over 3:00. If you aren't careful you will find yourself with every red face card in play, and nary a black one in sight. https://greenfelt.net/freecell?game=1046749584
@DeusExMachina, I see you have discovered this beast: https://greenfelt.net/freecell?game=3548089137 . I saw you managed to get four cards up; I haven't gotten but three so far. (We have both been pushed off the board now.) #10 comes in at 3:35.
Funny how challenging it can be to find a viable path to get started, and how easy it can be once you get just 4 or 5 steps down that path. I must’ve tried at least 40 or 50 opening gambits that all petered out before stumbling on one that yielded a fairly easy stroll to the finish line. https://greenfelt.net/freecell?game=1871248482
Major bear: https://greenfelt.net/freecell?game=1035207148 . Look at those stacked queens. Look at all those 7s and 9s in play with the 6s, 8s, and 10s mostly buried. It goes on and on. Currently the top 10 times range from 2:04 to 4:34. Don't know how many have played it because I haven't beaten the game yet.
Yowza! That one went beyond enjoyable challenge to the realm of torture, @zudensternen. I lost track of how many sessions I devoted to it. At least 4. The funny part is that after dozens if not hundreds of attempts, I finally got onto a winning track by poking randomly at the middle of two columns. DM me if you want hints…
With three sub-60 second times, others clearly found this one way easier than I did, but it sure gave me a run for my money: https://greenfelt.net/freecell?game=1991999552.
A time of 2:10 landed me in 97th place.
Maybe a bear? Not sure this one qualifies because only 59 people have played it to date. But only 8 have beaten it, and the #8 time is 11:11. https://greenfelt.net/freecell?game=1254720052
One man's bear is another's piece of cake, I guess. Judging by the results so far, many people don't find this game particularly challenging — most times range from 1:08 to 1:26 — though I haven't yet found a way through it. But one player, Du Pont de Nevers, beat it in 5 seconds. [ boggle ] Not sure I have ever seen such a gap between the #1 player and #2. Even the fastest anonymous player trails that pace by 41 seconds. I wish our Monsieur Du Pont made how-to videos the way @DeusExMachina does.
@zudensternen That was the game of the day, so that explains folks going out of their way to knock out faster scores. It is indeed a fair tester. Took me longer than usual to break the 10 second mark.
Anyway, here’s a video of the fastest solution I came across:
@DeusExMachina , here's an unbearable one for you. As of now the #1 time is 2:15 and #10 is nearly four and a half minutes. (Recently it was over 17 minutes.) It's deceptive — doesn't look at first glance like there should be anything particularly knotty about it.
@zudensternen: OMG...tried your game=968270913. Lost track of how many tries it took. Almost gave up but at last minute came up with 16th place. Sheer enjoyment. Thanks for finding the game.
Why is it getting more and more difficult to find a "bear" in Freecell. Have been trying almost all evening to get something I can post here. Besides that, something strange is going on. My usual average is in 2m26s, which I'm quite satisfied with, but looking for the bear my times are all in the 1m30s range. This is ridiculous, I can't play that fast...my poor little mouse is exhausted. Is anyone else having the same problem?
Hmm a nice kind of problem to have seems to me, your time cut nearly in half! Seriously though, I haven't seen any systemic change in Freecell. Could just be a run of luck in the random sequences.
I think you are right. Run of luck is the only thing I can come up with also. Ordinarily, I would be jumping with joy with those times but I was looking for something I couldn't win.
Found a bear. Finally 10 players on the board have beat it, but it took a while. First place at the moment goes to aletaster — s/he who routinely shows up in the 30s and 20s of seconds. Number 10 is 3:08 now. Can't tell you how many plays because I haven't beaten it (nor come close).
Now that was a bear...took quite a bit of thought and planning.
Took 3 tries: 1st try placed 355 scored 1, 25 moves in 3m52s
2nd try placed 155 scored 4, 17 moves in 7m13s
3rd try placed 79 scored 52, 101 moves in 5m47s
Great find @zudensternen, really enjoyed it. I understand your feeling conspired against. At first, the thought is to place cards that "fit" with other cards but that didn't work for me...same deal for the second try, no luck. Finally found something that worked for me, placed cards that made a column on the lefthand side of the game, things finally seemed to fall into place by themselves. Fun game
This bear could use more TLC from strong players. Only 8 non-anonymous players have beaten it, and #8 took 25:59 to do so. The one time I won it only 63 had played (over 700 with anonymeese). https://greenfelt.net/freecell?game=872270150
This game is some flavor of bear. (Maybe it's like a koala: not a real bear because it doesn't meet the koalafications.) At the moment with just about 500 plays by logged-in players, the #1 time is 1:17. When anonymous players are included (about 7 times as many, which is typical), the top 10 range from 0:40 to 1:04.
It's rare that the anonymeese beat the logged-in so badly as to push them out of the top 10 entirely.
Comments
Pretty darn ursine, @DeusExMachina . I managed to beat it though no one but me can verify that.
This one is pretty bad. https://greenfelt.net/freecell?game=1684110046 \ Can't tell you how many plays as I haven't won, but after 45 minutes finally 10 people did beat it. #10 took 7:00 and #1 managed just under 2:00.
12 minutes and 1 second, but I won it. I did forget to pause, so it might be a little faster. That was twisty.
A bear cub. After 418 plays, the top 10 times range from 1:03 – 2:28. My 3:11 ranks in the top 3%. https://greenfelt.net/freecell?game=1136609715
Another incipient bear: not imposssible, just gnarly. First thing you notice is stacked red tens (actuallly tripled-up with a black one). To disperse them you need black jacks -- they are stacked too. Red queens? Stacked. And the black kings are buried deep. At this writing #10 is almost 3 minutes. https://greenfelt.net/freecell?game=525597643
Middling ursine. Two of the usual suspects are under a minute, but many are over 3:00. If you aren't careful you will find yourself with every red face card in play, and nary a black one in sight. https://greenfelt.net/freecell?game=1046749584
I began to think this’un was unwinnable: https://greenfelt.net/freecell?game=1950759719
Solved by only 7 players so far.
Pack a lunch!
@DeusExMachina, I see you have discovered this beast: https://greenfelt.net/freecell?game=3548089137 . I saw you managed to get four cards up; I haven't gotten but three so far. (We have both been pushed off the board now.) #10 comes in at 3:35.
https://greenfelt.net/freecell?game=1807329024
4:51 was good enough to get me 3rd. ‘nuf said
This’un was a pain!
https://greenfelt.net/freecell?game=27768711
Pack a lunch!
https://greenfelt.net/freecell?game=1225552658
I nearly gave up on this one. Tenth place clocks in at 3:38. https://greenfelt.net/freecell?game=1903001666
Funny how challenging it can be to find a viable path to get started, and how easy it can be once you get just 4 or 5 steps down that path. I must’ve tried at least 40 or 50 opening gambits that all petered out before stumbling on one that yielded a fairly easy stroll to the finish line.
https://greenfelt.net/freecell?game=1871248482
This one gave me a run for my money: https://greenfelt.net/freecell?game=2130259050. My time of 3:46 landed me in 6th (among signed-in players).
Hmm looks like the bear yielded to more time & players. #10 is now 2:47.
Major bear: https://greenfelt.net/freecell?game=1035207148 . Look at those stacked queens. Look at all those 7s and 9s in play with the 6s, 8s, and 10s mostly buried. It goes on and on. Currently the top 10 times range from 2:04 to 4:34. Don't know how many have played it because I haven't beaten the game yet.
Yowza! That one went beyond enjoyable challenge to the realm of torture, @zudensternen. I lost track of how many sessions I devoted to it. At least 4. The funny part is that after dozens if not hundreds of attempts, I finally got onto a winning track by poking randomly at the middle of two columns. DM me if you want hints…
Ursa Minor: https://greenfelt.net/freecell?game=52992624
With three sub-60 second times, others clearly found this one way easier than I did, but it sure gave me a run for my money: https://greenfelt.net/freecell?game=1991999552.
A time of 2:10 landed me in 97th place.
Maybe a bear? Not sure this one qualifies because only 59 people have played it to date. But only 8 have beaten it, and the #8 time is 11:11. https://greenfelt.net/freecell?game=1254720052
Won that one. Twisty but fun.
One man's bear is another's piece of cake, I guess. Judging by the results so far, many people don't find this game particularly challenging — most times range from 1:08 to 1:26 — though I haven't yet found a way through it. But one player, Du Pont de Nevers, beat it in 5 seconds. [ boggle ] Not sure I have ever seen such a gap between the #1 player and #2. Even the fastest anonymous player trails that pace by 41 seconds. I wish our Monsieur Du Pont made how-to videos the way @DeusExMachina does.
https://greenfelt.net/freecell?game=4093035457
Edit just after posting — In the time I spent composing the above, another player, @Tartempion, posted a time of 7 seconds for this game.
Edit 2 — I finally did find a narrow path to victory, in 4:37. It's a Bear. A Fat Bear.
@zudensternen That was the game of the day, so that explains folks going out of their way to knock out faster scores. It is indeed a fair tester. Took me longer than usual to break the 10 second mark.
Anyway, here’s a video of the fastest solution I came across:
@DeusExMachina — thank you, the video does indeed scratch the itch.
Sheer bear. Fastest time is just under 2 minutes and #10 comes in at 5:22.
https://greenfelt.net/freecell?game=968270913
@DeusExMachina , here's an unbearable one for you. As of now the #1 time is 2:15 and #10 is nearly four and a half minutes. (Recently it was over 17 minutes.) It's deceptive — doesn't look at first glance like there should be anything particularly knotty about it.
https://greenfelt.net/freecell?game=443132873
@zudensternen: that was a fun one, indeed. I finally cracked it after about a dozen tries. 4:22 landed me in 14th.
@zudensternen: DEM is right...great game. Took around 4:02 put me in 14th...sorry about that DEM 😏.
@zudensternen: OMG...tried your game=968270913. Lost track of how many tries it took. Almost gave up but at last minute came up with 16th place. Sheer enjoyment. Thanks for finding the game.
Why is it getting more and more difficult to find a "bear" in Freecell. Have been trying almost all evening to get something I can post here. Besides that, something strange is going on. My usual average is in 2m26s, which I'm quite satisfied with, but looking for the bear my times are all in the 1m30s range. This is ridiculous, I can't play that fast...my poor little mouse is exhausted. Is anyone else having the same problem?
Hmm a nice kind of problem to have seems to me, your time cut nearly in half! Seriously though, I haven't seen any systemic change in Freecell. Could just be a run of luck in the random sequences.
I think you are right. Run of luck is the only thing I can come up with also. Ordinarily, I would be jumping with joy with those times but I was looking for something I couldn't win.
Found a bear. Finally 10 players on the board have beat it, but it took a while. First place at the moment goes to aletaster — s/he who routinely shows up in the 30s and 20s of seconds. Number 10 is 3:08 now. Can't tell you how many plays because I haven't beaten it (nor come close).
Everything conspires against you in this game.
https://greenfelt.net/freecell?game=1667342824
Now that was a bear...took quite a bit of thought and planning.
Took 3 tries: 1st try placed 355 scored 1, 25 moves in 3m52s
2nd try placed 155 scored 4, 17 moves in 7m13s
3rd try placed 79 scored 52, 101 moves in 5m47s
Great find @zudensternen, really enjoyed it. I understand your feeling conspired against. At first, the thought is to place cards that "fit" with other cards but that didn't work for me...same deal for the second try, no luck. Finally found something that worked for me, placed cards that made a column on the lefthand side of the game, things finally seemed to fall into place by themselves. Fun game
A bear for your consideration. The top 10 range from 1:55 to 3:21. I haven't beat the game yet so can't report on how many plays this represents.
https://greenfelt.net/freecell?game=1157751
This’un took me a bunch of tries: https://greenfelt.net/freecell?game=438327894
At the moment only one player has cracked 2.5 minutes (kudos to @evansfan.
Have it, bear-hunters!
This bear could use more TLC from strong players. Only 8 non-anonymous players have beaten it, and #8 took 25:59 to do so. The one time I won it only 63 had played (over 700 with anonymeese). https://greenfelt.net/freecell?game=872270150
This’un tested me something fierce: https://greenfelt.net/freecell?game=35184595
This game is some flavor of bear. (Maybe it's like a koala: not a real bear because it doesn't meet the koalafications.) At the moment with just about 500 plays by logged-in players, the #1 time is 1:17. When anonymous players are included (about 7 times as many, which is typical), the top 10 range from 0:40 to 1:04.
It's rare that the anonymeese beat the logged-in so badly as to push them out of the top 10 entirely.
https://greenfelt.net/freecell?game=1234726578