My family has for many years played a version of Solitaire which I have never seen described in any card game book. The game requires 2 decks of cards and requires 8 piles to be built during play - 4 from ace to king and 4 from ace to king. It is an easy game to play but quite difficult to win.
A Windows (X86) version of the game is available from this site for free. The link at the bottom of the page takes you to a requirements and downloading instructions page.
The game involves shuffling two decks of cards, which are then dealt face up into thirteen piles one by one; during the course of the deal, as cards are dealt, a card is placed into a face down "stock" each time an ace appears or a two is dealt to the second pile, three is dealt to the third, etc., through queen. When an ace falls in the first pile or a king falls in the last, three cards are dealt to the stock. When the deal is done, the thirteen piles will usually contain six or seven cards each (they might not all have the same number of cards) and the stock will have (usually) between ten and twenty cards.
To play, the top card is removed from the stock and the corresponding hand is picked up. Cards are played from the open hand as well as from the top cards of the remaining twelve piles. One pile of cards in each suit is built going from ace to king, and one pile is built going from king to ace. Hence, if an ace appears in the open hand or on top of one of the piles. When no further play from a hand is possible (or desired), the hand is replaced and the next stock card is taken to open a new pile.
The game ends when all 104 cards have been played to the piles, or when the last stock card is taken and no further play is possible from that hand or from the remaining top pile cards. Winning the game is extremely rare.
If you have ever seen this game, please write to me about it (including any written source for rules, if you know of one.) Write to john.elion@verizon.net
In fact, if you play the game, please write - let me know if you figured it out, couldn't figure it out, liked it, hated it, and two important bits of information: what platform you use (Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT) - so I know where people are having success, and where you are from - to satisfy my curiosity.