Spotlight on Freeware: Grouper

It's been several months since I provided an overview of freeware card games for the Palm, and I thought I'd correct an oversight I made in that article: Grouper by Daniel McCarthy. I somehow managed to forget about it when I did the original article. That's a shame, really, because it is a very engaging and original card game.

Basically, cards are laid out in a 4x3 grid. Each card has a distinct background color, foreground color, and number of spots. In higher levels, the spots can also have different shapes. The object is to remove cards in groups of three. Each characteristic of a group must be the same on each card or totally different on each card.

In Level 1, "Passed Third Grade," the deck consists of 27 cards - with three different background colors, three different foreground colors, and containing either one, two, or three squares. Since each characteristic of the cards in a group must either be the same on all cards or different on each card, the following cards could be grouped: all cards have a black background, all cards have three spots, and one card has a black foreground, one has a white foreground, while one has a gray foreground. However, these cards don't make a group because two and only two of the cards have the same foreground color: all cards have a black background, one card has one spot, one has two spots, while the third has three spots, and two cards have a white foreground while one has a black foreground.

In Level 2, "The Thinker," the deck consists of 54 cards. In addition to different colors and spot numbers, there are two spot shapes - square and oval. Again, each characteristic of the cards must be the same on all cards or different on all cards. Since there are only two shapes, the shape must be the same on all cards of a group.

In Level 3, "Analytical Genius," the deck consists of 81 cards. There are three different spot shapes - square, oval, and peanut. Since there are now three types of spots, a group can consist of one oval, one square, and one peanut.

If you get stumped at any point, you can get a hint, but it will cost you 2 points. Each group is worth 5 points, and clearing all cards earns an additional 15 points. Grouper maintains a single high score sheet incorporating all three levels.

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