I’ve made it through 20th Century Food Court, and (mild spoiler warning, especially for LockeCJ) its tie-in in the deluxe edition is pretty cute. I won’t spoil it beyond that.
The later puzzles do lean pretty heavily on trying to decode single inputs to multiple mixes of options, which started to feel a bit tiring towards the end. Also, the “sequencer” part you can use in later levels is very powerful, but I kept feeling like there was never a point where I was actually able to use all that power.
That’s definitely done as a because I can, rather than leaning into the limitations of the format, like in the Star Wars Asciimation.
None of these sort of stunt projects are anything new for Zachtronics games, but I think I feel more strongly about these since Last Call BBS evokes a very specific time and technology, whereas other games have been more clearly separated from reality.
I picked up the Zachtronics Solitaire Collection a while back, and occasionally load it up when I want something that’s mostly “background” thinking rather than active puzzling. It’s a collection of a wide range of solitaire games, both from Zachtronics games and unreleased ones they had experimented with.
I went back to playing Kabufuda Solitaire in it, and I think I finally realized what I’d found before, but hadn’t quite put my finger on to be able to remember it.
In most solitaire games you’re somewhat incentivized to make matches and clear them quickly. In this one, though, every group of four you clear takes away a cell you could use for movement.
So… from the start, focus on building as many groups of four on top of existing piles as you can.
By the time you hit a wall, you should have at least two or three ready to go, with other groups of three that can be cleared in short order. Then it’s time to start slowly clearing cells - I usually end up preferring top cells if they’re open - with an aim to uncover the cards you need for other groups of four. It usually snowballs from there pretty easily on lower difficulties, but the higher difficulties need more advance planning to avoid getting into a corner.
I never did get around to playing around much with the door game mechanic… adulting sucks.
Edit: Since that realization, I was able to clear over 50 Kabufuda games across difficulty levels with no losses. Now if only I could do that for the “Cribbage Solitaire” or “Fortune’s Foundation” variants…
I’ve only played it briefly, but it was really just so nice just to let everything else go and focus on this game for a brief time. And it’s not a twitch reflex-based game. So relaxing.
Now if only I could do that for the “Cribbage Solitaire” or “Fortune’s Foundation” variants…