The True Purpose of Solitaire, Minesweeper, FreeCell, and Hearts in Windows

Unforgettable classics, guilty of turning the productivity of millions of users into dust, and true examples of skill and intelligence, the four essential Windows games have accompanied us for generations. However, their main objective was not entertainment, but there were other plans behind them. Every new technology needs a good demonstration to attract the public, and if we go back to the early ’90s, elements like the mouse and multiplayer connectivity could take more than one by surprise...

Whether by simple curiosity or pure addiction, I imagine all our readers have played Minesweeper, Solitaire, FreeCell, and/or Hearts on Windows at some point. Their presence was altered with the release of new versions of the operating system (for example, Hearts was not available in NT4 and Windows 2000), but in one way or another they found a privileged place on billions of desktops and laptops.

Both FreeCell and Solitaire guaranteed me more than one technical service session in the past, because the boss on duty would 'delete' both games, and employees would secretly ask me to install them again. With the emergence of new technologies and social networks, the so-called "employer-employee disputes" over how time is spent in front of the computer left Windows games aside, but all of them have a richer story than we imagine. Let's see:

Solitaire

Ah, beautiful monstrosity. A game gives the feeling of being perfect until we discover that the damned king of diamonds is stuck under the three of spades, and everything goes down the drain. History tells us that Solitaire is the oldest of the four, debuting with Windows 3.0. Wes Cherry was its creator, and Susan Kare was in charge of designing the cards. But Solitaire was much more than a personal distraction. In 1990, the mouse and its functions sought a place among users accustomed to the command line. Therefore, Solitaire was a "training platform" for a critical exercise like "drag and drop".

Minesweeper

Personal nightmare. Yes, an absolute personal nightmare. I can't count the times I lost a game on the last move, with a 50 percent chance. At this point, we all know that Minesweeper forces us to guess more than once, and that the first click never hits a mine, but there's also something more: to play you need to be precise, fast, and click with both buttons of the mouse. In other words, Minesweeper has a goal similar to Solitaire, which is to train the user in the use of the mouse and optimize their skill with it. If you don't believe me, think about it for a moment: How many games have you lost because of a wrong click...?

Hearts

Personally, I think Hearts was the least popular game of the pack, not because there was anything wrong with it, but because its learning curve was more aggressive. In essence, the goal of Hearts is to score the fewest points by ending each hand without hearts, and fundamentally, without the queen of spades. The other strategy is to try to capture all hearts 'and' the queen of spades, which will automatically assign 25 points to all your opponents. What was the most outstanding feature of Hearts? The game debuted in Windows for Workgroups 3.1, an environment that included a new communication system called NetDDE. Hearts was nothing more than the "demo" for that system, since it was possible to play with other people remotely. Even its original name reveals this detail: "The Microsoft Hearts Network."

FreeCell

Finally, we come to FreeCell. Many see this game as a simpler version of Solitaire, but no less entertaining and addictive. Legend says that all FreeCell games can be solved... however, some very dedicated players have found at least one exception that can only be solved with tricks (watch the video). Just like with Hearts, the goal of FreeCell was much more "technical," and not so related to the general user experience. The original version of FreeCell had its place in Windows 3.1 through version 2 of the Microsoft Entertainment Pack, which included Win32s, a module that enabled the execution of 32-bit applications in a 16-bit environment like Windows 3.1. Basically, if there was any problem in Win32s or its compatibility layer, FreeCell would throw an error.

As an honorable mention, I would like to remember Reversi, "inherited" from previous versions of Windows, and whose presence extended until Windows 3.0 inclusive, later to be replaced by Minesweeper in Windows 3.1. Did you imagine that Windows games had such a history behind them...?

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