Subject: The next game

Date: Thu Dec 14 00:49:16 2017
User: redberet
Message:
When playing regular streak mode, is the next game predetermined no matter when you press the play button or is it more like a slot machine and determined the moment you press play?

Date: Thu Dec 14 15:02:28 2017
User: Klepp
Message:
I fondly recall playing a slot machine while on liberty in the Persian Gulf back in the early-90s (likely Bahrain, Abu Dabai, or Jebel Ali) while USN enlisted on a merchant marine fuel vessel (the USNS Joshua Humphreys T-AO 188)...the public house was tiny, empty, unkempt, and the barkeep was (seemingly somewhat) irritated when I hit THREE ORANGES and ~$80 (all quarters) flew out of a seriously venerable looking contraption...I'm pretty sure I've not played that particular casino diversion since (unless we all (obliquely) play it here regularly, with Klepp picturing a fuzzy little hamster pausing and heavily panting for a mere (decisive) half-second of its unbroken 14-hour shift within its all too familiar wheel, ultimately giving the FreeCell aficionado or dabbler their prize (gilded game or big a** booby prize))...

Date: Thu Dec 14 16:39:14 2017
User: Klepp
Message:
On further retrospect, the machine actually spit out 300 dirhams which was the *then equivalent* of 80 USD...(the reason for the *80* being foremost remembered)...

Date: Thu Dec 14 22:41:04 2017
User: BuzzClik
Message:
One learns on discussion boards to make whatever comment you might have or to ask your question without opening the door for unwanted tangents. redberet, you witnessed firsthand why this is the case.

Date: Thu Dec 14 23:56:31 2017
User: redberet
Message:
BuzzClik I've found this forum to be pretty much helpful throughout the years. Although it doesn't seem to be in use as it once was, I believe however I posed my question legitimate or not it would still draw a harmless but inane response. Most threads more often than not go on a tangent, but you see at least I learned something today. The exchange rate of dirhams to dollars.

Date: Fri Dec 15 07:28:30 2017
User: BuzzClik
Message:
By the way, your question is a interesting and one I've considered many times. I doubt there's a ready answer unless we hear from the one who put the "randomness" generator in place.

Date: Fri Dec 15 09:57:44 2017
User: jamesblackburn-lynch
Message:
My bet is someone besides Denny knows the answer. I'm always surprised by how many people seem to know how the code is written here. I'm curious too. Though of course it doesn't make a difference. Either way an unwinnable is headed your way eventually.

Date: Fri Dec 15 11:06:10 2017
User: Klepp
Message:
"...nuclear beta particle emission..."--true randomness, or no?

Link: Old discussions of such

Date: Fri Dec 15 11:45:39 2017
User: jimmyp
Message:
I had a theory that it was a fairly simple random number generator scheme and someone cracked the code. He then used this information to run off an impossible streak in 4x4 and other mega-tough variants. He would look in the history to see what games had been won, then figured out when one of those games would appear, and clicked play at that instant. I developed this theory because I had read an article where someone did this with slot machines to figure out when jackpots would occur.

Date: Fri Dec 15 13:23:43 2017
User: joeygray
Message:
I only know how the code is written based on what it does. And I can't think of any way to distinguish the behavior of these two cases. To go off on a tangent, consider the computer game Heroes of Might and Magic III. I can tell, using the infamous 'plus one sword of save and restore', that the hero 'on deck circle' is already determined at the time you hire your hero at the tavern: it's always the same hero that replaces the one you hired, and the new on deck hero (you can't see who it is until you hire again) is chosen at random at that time. So if you're looking for Kyrrie (and of course you are cause he's the one who gets the logistics bonus) you have to save and then hire two heroes, if he's not there you can restore and try again. But what test could I employ to know when the random game number is generated? Occam's razor tells me it's 'the instant you ask for a new game', since it's the easiest thing to do and there is no discernible difference in game behavior of doing anything else. But that doesn't prove anything, that's just a guess.

Date: Fri Dec 15 22:35:22 2017
User: redberet
Message:
The only reason I asked was because I love lucky 13 and an unwinnable is always right around the corner. I want to believe that any ritual I got going at the moment of a good streak is not going for naught and that I can keep the dreaded unwinnable away. if that next game is predetermined no matter when I press that button I might as well burn my lucky 13 sweatshirt.

Date: Sat Dec 16 00:17:59 2017
User: joeygray
Message:
I feel your pain. I'm in the same sad boat w/r 12x0, and right now I'm fending that unwinnable off by refusing to play another 12x0 without playing at least 15 of other variants between them. Now there's a future flaming t-shirt if I ever saw one.

Date: Sat Dec 16 00:25:04 2017
User: joeygray
Message:
(In your honor, and also cause I had just reeled off 15 7x5s, I dialed up a 12x0. The shirt rides on! Whoohoo!)

Date: Sat Dec 16 01:03:34 2017
User: TNmountainman
Message:
joey, I doubt if you would remember this, but when I set the streak record for 12x0, after I got way up there, I 'rested' a lot between games - meaning I would just let the streak sit there for days or even weeks while I played other variants. I somehow came to 'believe' "the dealer" was wanting to prevent long streaks, but 'allowed' a game or two, or a few. I even posted at the time as I approached the record, wondering if I was jinxing myself by so doing. I believe "FASTISHAM"(sp?) was commenting on it, and maybe someone else, too? I think it took several months for me to ride that out - and to be honest.........I hadn't been on this site long enough to fully realize how difficult that achievement was. I don't think I had a clue back then that it was at least as much luck of the draw as pure skill (altho I do remember winning some very tough games). More globally......it *does* seem to me that there are 'factors' that bring on the rare unwinnable in some situations. Of course, if all is as we believe it really is, then that's pure poppycock. And most certainly I'm not someone prone to superstition. Yet so powerful can the temptation be to link (perceived) cause and effect in the mind, or to see patterns when there really is no reason....

Date: Sat Dec 16 01:37:20 2017
User: redberet
Message:
it could also be that they let a person first starting out getting a reasonable streak just to set the hook. Then Denny comes along a throws one of those little trolls in the random generator gears and that's when you start getting back to back unwinnables, but its too late you've been hooked. now all you want to do is be king of the hill if even for a day, which makes the free in freecell ironic in that you are now its captive