The official story says that Solitaire and other games available in Windows were designed to train users in certain mouse functions, but now we have the chance to talk directly with the people who wrote the code and learn all the details. The person responsible for Windows Solitaire was Wes Cherry, barely an intern in 1988 at Microsoft. The real reason for creating the game? Nothing less than classic boredom, and, unsurprisingly, he didn't earn a cent.
A favorite distraction on millions of desktops, an endless source of frustration, a reason to celebrate every time we won, and a black hole of productivity unlike few others. Windows Solitaire has been with us for over 30 years. Some people lost their jobs because of this game, yet most didn't hesitate to take the risk to fill those empty hours. Today Solitaire brings us its creator, Wes Cherry, and although the interview is short, he shares very juicy details.
Wes Cherry, creator of Windows Solitaire
Wes Cherry was an intern (others prefer the term "trainee") in 1988, and Solitaire was born out of boredom. Cherry wrote the code in his free time, while Susan Kare designed the cards. The game received the blessing of Bill Gates himself, which guaranteed its official debut in Windows 3.0 (May 1990), with the only complaint being that it was "too hard to win."
Cherry can't calculate the number of hours wasted because of Solitaire, and he jokingly suggested that "in 1990 there was a recession." Cherry also tried to implement a "boss key," a shortcut that quickly showed a spreadsheet to give the impression of being busy, but Microsoft asked him to remove it.
And no, Cherry didn't get a single dollar from Solitaire, which sounds a bit disappointing. Someone who can provide so much entertainment should be recognized financially. However, this isn't all that unusual in the video game world (the case of Alexey Pajitnov with Tetris comes to mind immediately). What is Cherry up to now? Cider production.
https://old.neoteo.com/pysolfc-1-000-versiones-de-solitario/
