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Microsoft Solitaire Inducted Into World Video Game Hall of Fame (theverge.com) 50

Microsoft Solitaire, bundled with the Windows operating system since 1990, has been inducted into the World Video Game Hall of Fame for its popularity and influence on other video games and society in general. It joins classic titles like Doom, Tetris, World of Warcraft, and Halo: Combat Evolved. The Verge reports: The World Video Game Hall of Fame is a relatively new institution, created in 2015 and overseen by educational institute The Strong. Its official home is in The National Museum of Play in Rochester, New York, and each year it selects a handful of new inductees. Solitaire may be a video game for the ages, but its inclusion in Windows had a higher purpose. The developers of the operating system felt that the familiar game was the perfect way to introduce users to relatively new computing concepts, like using a mouse and drag-and-drop. By playing Solitaire, users honed more than their card skills: a win-win for all.

Solitaire was first bundled with Windows 3.0 and appeared in every subsequent version of the software up until Windows 8.1. It was removed from the base level operating system, but was returned in Windows 10 after Microsoft admitted that Solitaire, along with Minesweeper and Hearts, still have "devoted followings." Because of its inclusion in the world's most popular PC operating system, lowly Solitaire has likely been installed on more than one billion devices, says the Strong Museum, making it one of the most popular video games of all time. "Microsoft Solitaire demonstrated that there existed a vast market for games that appeal to people of all types, paving the way for the growth of the casual game market," said the institute in a press statement.
"We are humbly honored to have the opportunity to work on a game that has such broad appeal, is localized into 65 languages, and played in over 200 markets around the world, including Antarctica," said Microsoft's Paul Jensen, studio manager for Microsoft Casual Games.
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Microsoft Solitaire Inducted Into World Video Game Hall of Fame

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  • Duplicate (Score:5, Insightful)

    by packrat0x ( 798359 ) on Tuesday May 07, 2019 @05:13AM (#58550842)

    Duplicate

    • by Anonymous Coward

      But... Playing Solitaire is just like reading duplicates on /. all day! They're all the same but... All slightly different... it's a new experience every time. I think /. should also be added in the hall of fame.

    • by Dunbal ( 464142 ) *
      Maybe it was inducted twice into the hall of fame.
    • Duplicate

      Don't get all "facty" on us here, okay?

      Slashdot has standards and we expect you not to exceed them.

  • Microsoft Solitaire is a decent implementation of the game on PC. However its popularity is due to it being default in the Windows OS for decades. Now Microsoft Windows has been lets say a rather dominate OS in terms of deployment for a while, becoming popular with the move over to 32bit PC's and SVGA displays.

    Having an Ok game on roughly 90% of all computer installs, will lead to popularity.

  • Freecell is way more fun and challenging.

  • Oh, the joy of auto complete. The clicking of the cards. The triumphant cascade.
  • I'll have you know that Solitaire and Pong (the arcade version) are still the two best video games EVER made! Nothing else even comes close. Well, there was the Space Cadet pinball game that came with Windows also, smooth running graphics and physics even back in '95. Still runs on Windows 10 without a glitch.

  • They're such a part of history that if /. didn't repeat stories we'd think something was wrong with the world.
  • by modi123 ( 750470 ) on Tuesday May 07, 2019 @01:00PM (#58553080) Homepage Journal

    With Win10 Solitaire gets super angry if there is not an internet connection, pushes ads, and becomes persnickety if you don't login. Can I just get classic solitaire and just be ok with that?!

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