| Solitaire | |
|---|---|
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 Solitaire in Windows 7 | |
| Original author | Wes Cherry |
| Developer | Microsoft |
| Initial release | May 22, 1990; 35 years ago (1990-05-22) |
| Operating system | Microsoft Windows |
| Platform | IA-32,x86-64 (and historicallyDEC Alpha,Itanium,MIPS, andPowerPC) |
| Successor | Microsoft Solitaire Collection (Windows 10) |
Solitaire is acomputer game included withMicrosoft Windows, based on acard game of thesame name, also known as Klondike. Its original version was programmed by Wes Cherry, and the cards were designed bySusan Kare.
Microsoft has included the game as part of its Windows product line sinceWindows 3.0, starting from 1990.[1] The game was developed during the summer of 1988 by theintern Wes Cherry.[2][3] The card deck itself was designed byMacintosh pioneerSusan Kare.[4] Cherry's version was to include aboss key that would have switched the game to a fakeMicrosoft Excel spreadsheet, but he was asked to remove this from the final release.[5]
Microsoft intendedSolitaire "to soothe people intimidated by the operating system," and at a time when many users were still unfamiliar withgraphical user interfaces, it proved useful in familiarizing them with the use of amouse, such as thedrag-and-drop technique required for moving cards.[1]
According to Microsofttelemetry,Solitaire was among the three most-used Windows programs andFreeCell was seventh, ahead ofWord andMicrosoft Excel.[6] Lost business productivity by employees playingSolitaire has become a common concern since it became standard on Microsoft Windows.[7] In 2006, a New York City worker was fired after MayorMichael Bloomberg saw theSolitaire game on the man's office computer.[8]
In October 2012, along with the release of theWindows 8 operating system, Microsoft released a new version ofSolitaire calledMicrosoft Solitaire Collection.[9] This version, game designed byMicrosoft Studios, with visual design led by William Bredbeck, and developed byArkadium, is advertisement supported and introduced many new features to the game. As with the original release of the game, William Bredbeck is quoted as saying "One of the intentions of the redesign was to introduce users to the novel changes incorporated in the new Windows 8 operating system". This design is still in use throughWindows 11.
Microsoft Solitaire celebrated its 25th anniversary on May 18, 2015. To celebrate this event, Microsoft hosted aSolitaire tournament on the Microsoft campus and broadcast the main event onTwitch.[10]
In 2019,The Strong National Museum of Play inductedMicrosoft Solitaire to itsWorld Video Game Hall of Fame.[11]
By its 30th anniversary in 2020, it was estimated that the game still had 35 million active monthly players and more than 100 million games played daily, according to Microsoft.[12]
When a game is won, the cards appear to fall off each stack and bounce off the screen.[5] This "victory" screen is considered a prototypical element that would become popular incasual games, compared to the use of "Ode to Joy" on winning a level ofPeggle, and makesSolitaire one of the first such casual video games.[13][14]
SinceWindows 3.0,Solitaire allows selecting the design on the back of the cards, choosing whether one or three cards are drawn from the deck at a time, switching between Vegas scoring and Standard scoring, and disabling scoring entirely. The game can also be timed for additional points if the game is won. There is a cheat that will allow drawing one card at a time when 'draw three' is set.
InWindows 2000 and later versions ofSolitaire, right-clicking on open spaces automatically moves available cards to the four foundations in the upper right-hand corner, as inFreeCell. If the mouse pointer is on a card, a right click will move only that card to its foundation, provided that it is a possible move. Left double-clicking will also move the card to the proper foundation.
Until theWindows XP version, the card backs were the original works designed by Susan Kare, and many were animated.
TheWindows Vista andWindows 7 versions of the game save statistics on the number and percentage of games won, and allow users to save incomplete games and to choose cards with different face styles.
OnWindows 8,Windows 10,Windows 11,Windows Phone,Android andiOS, the game is issued asMicrosoft Solitaire Collection, where in addition to Klondike four other game modes were featured,Spider,FreeCell (both of which had been previously featured in versions of Windows asMicrosoft Spider Solitaire andMicrosoft FreeCell),Pyramid, andTriPeaks (both of which were previously part of theMicrosoft Entertainment Pack series, the former under the nameTut's Tomb).
