Who games on Linux? #3 NERTS! Online

NERTS! Online is an online multiplayer Solitaire game by Zachtronics that is free and a lot of fun.

Game Info

- Name: NERTS! Online

- Genre: Solitaire style Card Game

- Demo: It's a free game N/A

- Linux: Native Linux build

Thoughts

Free game from Zachtronics. A lot of fun, like most of their games.

It runs without issues. The only 2 issues I faced are as follows. With DWM, if you use a border for your windows it doesn't fullscreen properly, leaving a blank window. Easily fixed by toggling borders. The other issue is fundamental in the way the game does networking, as it seems to use TCP-Networking. Any lag experienced by you or the host will effect you negatively resulting in late "clicks" and the game feeling unresponsive. If the players live in the same country this won't be an issue but if they are foreign and your latency is aroudn 300ms you will feel it.

As for the gameplay, it is wonderful. Easily picked up as most players know Solitaire. The UI isn't cluttered, so you can easily jump into a game, or change settings. The main differences is how it does scoring and the NERTS pile. The NERTS pile is a selection of face down cards that have to be revealed one by one, and used one by one, in order to reveal the NERTS button. Hitting the NERTS button ends the round, and for each player with cards on the NERTS pile they get -2 points. You score +1 point for each card you place in the "points" stacks in the middle, which is very much like the 4 suit stacks in Solitaire.

As for your individual gameplay, it's like a more constrained solitaire, where you only have 6-4 usable piles, and a shuffle deck and play it like regular solitaire. The difference is in how scoring is done, so hitting NERTS quickly is rewarded, but you can play normally and optimise on score.

It's a lot of fun, I highly recommend it to anyone.

Published on 2021/03/11