Playing the web with dear Aunt Maude

Old-fashioned card and board games are having a renaissance on the web. PETER SINCLAIR plays his hand at some of the maiden aunts' favourites.

Whatever happened to the maiden aunt?

You never see them now, but when I was young - we're practically back in the 19th century here - every family seemed to have one or two of these non-functional old biddies positioned somewhere in the middle distance, unobtrusively leafing through a novel or laying out the cards.

Sedate they might appear, though, they invariably played a killer game of patience, and the friskier sort excelled at canasta and gin rummy (some even played a mean hand of poker and drank rather a lot of gin).

If any survive, I suppose they're all online by this time, for one of the paradoxes of the information age is the renewed popularity of old-fashioned card games. Bill Gates will always be remembered as the adiüber-aunt of solitaire for bundling it with the world's biggest-selling OS.

He's also given us the MSN Gaming Zone a feast of free online multi-player games; from Ants (whatever that is, but thousands play it) to favourites like euchre and bridge and gin rummy.

Recently added: a series of classic board games from Hasbro - checkers, backgammon, crib and chess. And if you've ever wondered, as I have, what Parcheesi is (it sounds like something quick 'n' easy you'd make for Sunday supper), now's your chance to find out.

My own choice, if it's late at night and I'm wakeful, is Pogo. As Pete1100, I'm the terror of the cribbage-board. There's a real sense of community here, and some of the best friends I've made in cyberspace have been found over games of hearts. Excellent interface.

Yahoo! offers a great selection too, all free and requiring no extra plug-ins. Interesting to observe, too, how tastes change: as I write, 2763 people are playing good old dominoes but only 149 have chosen mah jong.

Some multiplayer games need a free one-time download so you can chat with your opponents during play and won't have to wait for the games to load each time you visit. And most sites - like Mplayer and GameStorm - combine a free-play area with a subscription section for proprietary games.

But, wherever you go and whatever you play, always observe netiquette. These days maiden aunts have turned into tough cookies.

They are liable to cuss you out if you don't keep a civil tongue in your head.

MSN Gaming Zone

Pogo

Crib

Yahoo! Games

Mplayer

GameStorm