Microsoft Solitaire game turned thirty years old today, and the occasion is being celebrated by Microsoft with an attempt of setting the world record for the most number of games completed in a day. According to the company, Solitaire has 35 million monthly players, and over a hundred million hands daily played all over the world.
The game was included originally as a part of Windows 3.0 way back in the year 1990. It was made to teach the users about the use of the mouse. Getting virtual cards and putting them at a place was meant to teach the basic function of drag-and-drop in the Windows.
Originally named Windows Solitaire, it owns the status of being one of the highest played games all over the world because it has been shipped in all versions of Windows for over two decades. This also means that it has been present in over a billion PCs. It stopped being an inseparable part of Windows only after Windows 8 was released in the year 2012.
Wes Cherry, a Microsoft intern, was the first one to program the game and the original card deck was designed by Susan Kare, Mac GUI and pixel art pioneer. Cherry had initially put in a boss mode in the Windows Solitaire that had a fake spreadsheet for fooling coworkers and bosses. However, Microsoft removed the boss mode before releasing the game. Perhaps, if the boss made was still there, some people would have been saved from being fired.
The broad appeal of Solitaire has ensured that it is still being widely played by millions all over the world. Last year, it was given the honor of being inducted in the World Video Game Hall of Fame. The game is played in over 200 markets and it has been localized into 65 languages.
