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If you haven't ever played Solitaire, Minesweeper, Hearts or FreeCell, it's safe to say you're in the minority. These simple Windows games have probably caused more lost worker hours than anything short of a worldwide coffee shortage. Whichever one was your favorite, the temptation to take just one more go at beating them—to get a faster time or a better score—was hard to ignore.
But as fun as these games were, they weren't actually designed for entertainment. At least not in their Windows incarnations.
The oldest of the four, Microsoft Solitaire, was first added to Windows 3.0 in 1990. Although the game (sometimes called "Patience") has existed since the late 1700s, this digital version seemed to be demonstrating that in the future we would no longer require a physical deck to play simple card games. But that's not what it was doing at all. Its real aim was far more modest: it was teaching mouse-fluency by stealth.
The intention was that Solitaire would get a generation of computer users still most familiar with a command-line input to teach themselves how to drag and drop, without realizing that's what they were doing. The fact that we're still dragging and dropping today suggests that it worked rather well.
It is highly probable that SN members were aware of the true purpose of these games but the article seemed interesting nevertheless.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by frojack on Sunday August 16 2015, @08:43PM
Back in the Windows 3.0 days this story might have been believable.
Not any more.
People know how to use a mouse well before they encounter solitaire these days. Yet the games persists.
In fact most users wouldn't know how to launch solitaire without a mouse.
They could have invented something that could be practiced in two minutes to teach all mouse techniques, without
consuming hours of time.
Seems like one of those stories that might be appealing, but doesn't stand to scrutiny. TFA cites not a single source.
It just casts it out there as truth. Along with BGR and Business insider. The story is getting a lot of play lately.
Back in 1994 [washingtonpost.com] Libby Duzan, lead product manager for entertainment at Microsoft was quoted as saying "Microsoft originally put Solitaire into Windows to soothe people intimidated by the operating system". The mouse was the least intimidating part of windows back in the 3.0 days. The perpetual blue-screens were far more intimidating.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by Whoever on Sunday August 16 2015, @09:01PM
Some of us had used a mouse well before Windows 3.x was released.
(Score: 4, Informative) by N3Roaster on Sunday August 16 2015, @09:10PM
Apple went this route. Around the same time period Macs came with a Hypercard stack that briefly taught basic mousing skills by feeding fish and things like that. It was cute enough, but it wasn't something you'd be likely to spend a lot of time with.
Typica - Free software for coffee roasting professionals. [typica.us]
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 16 2015, @09:25PM
The games persist because their removal would result in an outrage. The non-classics get removed all the time (like that pinball thing they added in XP).
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 16 2015, @09:48PM
But putting ads in them and requiring a subscription won't cause outrage, I'm sure.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 17 2015, @01:00AM
$1.49/month to get rid of the ads [google.com]
...and it's $15 for M$'s stripped-down proprietary DVD player, which has been removed from the Windoze install.
People who have gotten off the M$ treadmill look even more wise to me with each passing day.
-- gewg_
(Score: 2) by TheB on Monday August 17 2015, @01:48AM
Is there a good version of solitaire and minesweeper on Linux?
I haven't found one better than the xp or win7 versions.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 17 2015, @08:50AM
For mine sweeper, go for Simon Tatham's Portable Puzzle Collection. http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/puzzles/ [greenend.org.uk]
That version of mine sweeper guarantees that the game can be solved without guessing. There's nothing more annoying that playing a large game, clearing three quarters of the board, and then needing to guess the single square out of the next seven that doesn't contain a mine.
In short, it turns mine sweeper from a game of guessing into a game of thinking.
(Score: 2) by TheB on Monday August 17 2015, @11:27AM
His android collection is my favorite app.
...
Tried it.
The guaranteed solvable puzzle generator is nice. In time my muscle memory could get used to the different mouse controls. Not saving preferences is an issue though. 30+ playable puzzle games in 1.5MB is impressive.
The Android version is more polished.
(Score: 3, Informative) by c0lo on Sunday August 16 2015, @11:51PM
Not my father, no.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by mhajicek on Monday August 17 2015, @02:11AM
My father played AOE II almost every day for about a decade.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 17 2015, @03:26AM
It took me 5 years to get my father to correctly use the mouse. It was more a matter of motivation. He wanted to use ebay. I would not do it for him.
My mother took longer. She could crack out 80WPM on the keyboard. But could not use the mouse. It took her a few months to get the nack of it.
Now the reason these games exist is to be freemium with adverts :(
(Score: 2) by mhajicek on Tuesday August 18 2015, @03:07AM
My dad knew how to use the mouse but he wouldn't. He got a trackball instead, which forced me to use it. Been using Logitech thumb trackballs for about 25 years now.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 2) by BK on Monday August 17 2015, @01:53AM
Maybe 10 years ago, but not necessarily now. From the educational trenches:
For a while in the early 2000s, students mostly arrived in school knowing how to use a mouse. Today, not so much. Mouse skills have to be taught in schools or disciplines unwilling to move to touch-only interfaces.
...but you HAVE heard of me.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 17 2015, @08:45AM
Only if you want to limit computers to the groups of society that already uses computers. Last we tried to get my mother to do something with a mouse, she had big problems. Every time she tried clicking, the mouse would move an about an inch.
Maybe if we could get her to play solitaire. But she'd probably give up before we manage to explain the rules.
(Score: 2) by Dr Spin on Monday August 17 2015, @09:38AM
Back in the Windows 3.0 days this story might have been believable.
No. It would have been common knowledge.
This was widely publicised when Windows 1.0 came out.
This is not news, it is a proclamation of how ill-informed some "reporters" are.
Warning: Opening your mouth may invalidate your brain!