History of Solitaire, the simple card application that became the most used tool on Windows

Many people these days worry about how many hours they waste on social networks when they should be working. This is called procrastination, taking care of irrelevant things and leaving the truly important tasks for later.

But in reality these PC distractions started long before Zuckerberg launched Facebook and kitten videos dominated Instagram. It started with a very popular game at the time: Windows Solitaire. Considered by the company to be the most used Microsoft application in the world, this innocent pastime has an exciting history full of surprises.

We all have a vague image of solitaire as a card game that came with an older version of Windows. Well yes: Solitaire was introduced in Windows 3.0 in 1990. This version of Windows was not the first to include a graphical interface, but it introduced numerous new features and gained huge popularity worldwide.

It must first be clarified that, in reality, “solitary” is any card game known to be played alone, without the company of other players, and it usually challenges the player to finish arranging all the cards in one way or another. Solitaire has many variants, and was the one chosen by Microsoft Klondike.

At the time, in my tender adolescence, it seemed cool to me to include a free game in the operating system. But the truth is that the inclusion of Solitaire (and by extension, Minesweeper, in Windows 3.1) was due to a very specific purpose: to teach users how to operate the operating system more easily.

How we got here

Now it’s almost comical, because we take things like clicking, right-clicking, or dragging and dropping things on the screen as something natural. But most people in 1990 were not familiar with these operations, because few people interacted with a graphical interface and a mouse. It is true that such interfaces already existed as early as the 80s, when they were launched First model From Mac (based on research from Xerox PARC laboratories). But due to the high price of those computers they still did not have much market share.

Because of this, Microsoft thought that Solitaire would be a fun way to get users used to drag-and-drop movement (because it’s done precisely how you place cards in their respective decks), while Minesweeper would allow you to fine-tune with the mouse and easily get used to using right and left clicks.

In an interview with The Washington Post, Libby Duzan, entertainment product manager at the time, commented: “Microsoft put Solitaire on Windows to reassure people who might be intimidated by the operating system. It gave them something familiar, something fun to do with their computer, while also teaching them how to use a mouse.” So that they can then say that video games are of no use…

Since solitaire was more than just a hobby back then, who would take that responsibility? A programmer with knowledge and experience in games and educational? well no The fact is that the author of Solitaire was a Microsoft intern who, according to himself, Not paid For this reason he did not receive Royalty of any kind

The intern in question is Wes Cherry, who explained his story in 2016 in a Reddit thread. According to Cherry himself, he wrote Solitaire for Windows 2.1 in the summer of 1988 while an intern at Microsoft. Apparently he played a similar card game on the Mac and wanted a version for Windows, which he made for himself.

After finishing it, Cherry left his game on a server that was used by a group of Microsoft programmers Hack Learn from Windows and its APIs, and make games where some of them leave you. It was there that a Windows project manager saw it and decided to include it in the next version of the operating system.

Of course, before doing this, they force Cherry to remove a curious function that, as we’ll see later, turns out to be quite useful: a what is the bossOr a secret key to hide the game from your boss if he walks past your desk at the office. Cherry was aware of the level addiction That can create the game and program that key to display a random C: code on the screen. But Microsoft didn’t want to include that feature.

“It was clear they weren’t going to pay me for this, they were going to give me an IBM Today, famous intern owns a cider production company on Vashon Island near Seattle. Nothing to do with your computer past.

But if it’s surprising that the author of such a hugely popular game was an intern at an ordinary company, it’s even more so when you know who designed the deck of cards. Because if we mention the name Susan Carey it may not sound very good, but if we explain that she is Graphic designer In the 80s, responsible for many elements of the Mac’s graphical interface, things changed.

Well yes: irony of life, an Apple designer was the creator of the original deck of Windows Solitaire in its first version. Kare is the author of many fonts, icons and other graphic design elements for Mac: Chicago, Geneva or Monaco fonts, Classic Smiling Mac or Key Symbols order Their work on the Apple keyboard.

As I said at the beginning, solitaire became an addiction, perhaps one of the first forms of procrastination in front of the computer. So Cherry wanted to include a key to hide it from bosses. But because Microsoft didn’t allow it, productivity concerns persisted in North America.

The unimaginable extreme of solitaire

“You used to set up offices so that the back of the monitor was facing the wall,” Frank Burns explained to the Washington Post. “Now it’s upside down, so the boss can’t catch you playing solitaire.” Dennis Pyles, owner of a computer store, said: “It’s taken all the companies by storm. I installed the computer system at the water treatment plant in Warrenton, and the first thing I saw the next time I saw the customer was ‘I’ve earned 2,000 points in solitaire!'”

The matter came The unimaginable extremeFor example, in 2006, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg fired a city official after seeing him playing solitaire on his way to his office. Years ago, in 1995, Dr. Maresa Hecht Orzak opened the world’s first clinic for “Internet addicts” in Massachusetts, inspired by her own addiction to solitaire.

Bill Gates, for his part, and according to gossip, was a minesweeper addict. Product manager Libby Duzan explained that she deleted it from her work computer. What I did then was play on then Microsoft president Mike Holman’s computer, when I couldn’t take it anymore. That’s where they say he set his personal record by 5 seconds.

The anecdote is that Microsoft’s head of development, Tom Reeves, wrote a macro that automatically attacked and defeated the puzzle. Gates’ record with a duration of 3 seconds. When Gates found out how he did it, he sent an email in which he said: “My most important skills are being displaced by a computer. This technology thing is going too far. How can you maintain your dignity as a human when computers do all the important things better than humans?”

The original 1990 Solitaire was a triumph in every sense. In its first version it allowed you to switch between different designs for the backs of the cards, draw one or three cards at a time from the deck, switch between two scoring modes (Standard or Vegas) or use no scoring and play against a timer to earn more points.

But that’s not the point. Throughout its more than 35-year history, Windows Solitaire has evolved and gained new features. In Windows 2000, for example, you could use double-click to move cards (because we should have already learned how to drag and drop items, I imagine).

In Windows Vista and Windows 7, for its part, Solitaire provided usage statistics (including the number of games and winning percentage) and the possibility to save games in progress. With the arrival of Windows 8, however, came controversy, because Microsoft Move Solitaire for free of all lifeAnd instead presented the so-called Microsoft Solitaire Collection, which can be downloaded from the Windows Store.

In addition to the classic Klondike, this new game includes four more solitaire modes (Friesel, Spider, Tripeaks and Pyramid)… and lots of ads in the form of videos between games. If you want to remove them, you have to pay. Get paid, for something we’ve been playing for free for over 20 years! The reception by the specialized press and users was, logically, not good at all.

Microsoft seems to have come to its senses (albeit only partially) and with the arrival of Windows 10 it again offers Solitaire as a game integrated with the operating system, and not as an app downloadable from the Store. The Bad: It’s still the Solitaire Collection Edition Free to playLike Windows 8. That is, you can play it as is, but if you want to get rid of ads, earn more “coins” in challenges, or try additional game modes, you’ll need to get out your wallet.

It remains the model in Windows 11 and iOS, Android and browser versions. The Microsoft Solitaire Collection is free with ads, which disappear with a subscription or Xbox Game Pass. Still the game did not lose momentum. For its 30th anniversary, in May 2020, Microsoft assured that it has more than 35 million players per month in more than 200 countries and 65 languages, and more than 100 million games are played per day. A year ago, in 2019, it entered the World Video Game Hall of Fame at the Strong National Museum of Play, along with classics like Super Mario Kart or Mortal Kombat.

Otherwise, there is always the option of playing an online solitaire game for free, which you can easily find on the internet. For example, you have this online method by the same authors as the Microsoft Solitaire Collection, this other website with several versions of Klondike solitaire, and the Microsoft Solitaire Collection itself in an online version.

Gone is the solitaire we were able to play on our brand new 386 in the 90’s and it stole a lot of our homework time. But hey, as its creator, Wes Cherry, says, “The good thing about time is that they always do more. So that’s okay.”

In Xataka | The most famous Windows keyboard shortcut was a mistake, as Bill Gates himself admitted

In Xataka | Microsoft has become a perfect machine for creating “slop” for its users. So you’re going to take action

In Xataka | Google, Apple and Microsoft agreed in the same week on something no one expected: computers matter again