Saturday Morning Gaming: Ye Olde Cribbage Club
Eric’s awesome “Bring Back Playing Cards” post made me remember playing cribbage on Saturday mornings at a diner with a friend on Saturday mornings and that made me wonder if there was a cribbage computer game.
AND THERE IS!!!
Ye Olde Cribbage Club is on Steam. (And, as far as I can tell, it’s the *ONLY* cribbage game on Steam.)
It has flaws. For example, the setting is vaguely insensitive. You’re visiting an old folks’ home and playing cribbage with the people there. It points out that one of them has Alzheimer’s (but remembers how to kick your butt at cribbage). That said, the setting allows the people you’re playing against to gossip about the other people you might play against.
Pick your opponent, then pick your difficulty:
How does the difficulty work? As far as I can tell, there is only one real difference between difficulties. Like, I don’t see them throwing dumb cards into cribs or whatnot, the difficulty is whether or not your opponent tells you that you haven’t picked all of your points. Like, if you forget the nobs? Well, on easy they’ll tell you that you missed something. On hard they don’t tell you.
In real life, I have played with the rule that says “if you don’t want those points, I’ll take them!” and that seriously gets you to look at stuff like “do I have a Jack?” but this game only shrugs if you don’t take all of your points (on hard difficulty, anyway).
So how is the AI? It’s pretty good, I guess. I would expect to skunk my opponent every time if it were bad and I haven’t. I’ve seen the AI make really good plays that have resulted in 20 point hands. The AI is also irritatingly good at peg play while you’re throwing cards down. Never opens with a 5, does a good job of baiting you with a 3 when it’s ready to throw down a 9… that sort of thing.
If you’ve never played cribbage before, it’s got a little tutorial that will break down runs and pairs but not really explain nibs and nobs. That said, there is a “how to play” screen in the options that breaks it down for you and will get you to where you need to go:
Is it perfect? No. When you draw a card to figure out who goes first, they go by whomever picks the high card (shudder). They don’t let you pick whether you want to be red or blue or if you want the inside or outside track. Instead of making you pick out each pair, they say “three of a kind is six”. But if you can get past all of that, it’s a good game for if you want to play cribbage for 7 or 8 hands in a row but you don’t want to talk to anybody.
The music is charming, the cards are pleasant, and they make you count out your points. What’s not to like?
So… what are you playing?
(Featured image is a screenshot from Ye Olde Cribbage Club. All screenshots taken by the author.)
You sometimes start on the inside? I’ve never heard of that.Report
We always played that you cut and the low card went first. But you could pick your pegs and pick your track.
This one says “you’re red and you’re the outside track”.Report
Low card and pegs for sure. Whenever I play, the track is just the most proximate one. Go around twice and the first to 121 wins.Report
The picture shows a board with a single continuous track, so someone is on the “inside”. On a conventional board, I’ve always played that you go out on the outer row of holes, back on the inner. I’ve read things that say that’s a rule, and others that it’s only a custom. Messing with it seems an invitation to get confused, or to cheat.Report
Oh, yeah. We never started from peg 120! Oh my gosh, that would be awful.Report
Exactly. The game is hundreds of years old. You don’t mess with convention.Report
Grandpa Cain probably wouldn’t have played against a computer because he enjoyed the psychology aspects of it too much. Does your opponent habitually sort their cards? What are their tendencies about what to put in the crib? If they’re leading, what can you guess about their hand and what they’ll do with it based on the lead card? Nothing felt better than near the end of a close game, Grandpa Cain counting first, and pegging out before he could count.Report
None of the computer games will be half as good as sitting in Village Inn and playing with my buddy Dman on a lazy Saturday morning.
But the small joys of having a 9, two 6s, a 3, and flipping a 3? That’s nice. Even if it’s not “really” happening.
That said: I’ve had a handful of pegging victories and there are no shortage of games decided before the other guy can show his cards and wail about how he’s got a quadruple run.Report
It’s a great social game, and like Mr. Cain points out, it’s pretty fun to try to read your opponent.Report
I’m almost 70 now, but when someone calls me “Mr. Cain”, I still have an urge to turn around and see if my long-dead father has somehow appeared behind me :^)Report
Heh. I had a Facebook memory the other day recalling the time a few years ago when the member of a band I’d gone to see called me sir. Talk about feeling your years!Report
I haven’t played Cribbage in about three decades, but this and the previous discussion inspired me to look for a phone app to remind myself how to play. There are a bunch, but i found one that had the benefit of being free with no IAP, and it also gives a little analysis at the end of each game on your non-optimal discards and pegging plays. No personified opponents or rendition of a cribbage board though, just the game essentials.Report