Microsoft Solitaire inducted into the video game Hall of Fame | News and opinions

Modern players may doze at the thought of playing solitaire. But Microsoft's take on the classic card game has helped open the casual gaming market, according to The Strong's National Game Museum.

The Video Game Hall of Fame inducted today a known computer game: Microsoft Solitaire.

The game joins Mortal Kombat, Super Mario Kart and the text-based title Colossal Cave Adventure as the newest members of the video game's Hall of Fame The Strong's World.

Modern players may doze at the thought of playing solitaire. But for older PC users, Microsoft Solitaire was a game not to be missed in the 1990s, while free software was scarce. Solitaire's easy-to-learn mechanisms have also paved the way for the casual gaming market, according to The Strong's National Game Museum.

"The game has proven that sometimes analog games can be even more popular in the digital world and has shown that there is a market for games that appeal to all types of players," said Jeremy Saucier, vice-president of the game. deputy president of The Strong.

Microsoft Solitaire debuted in 1990 on Windows 3.0 as a free title bundled with the operating system. Wes Cherry, a trainee at the company, developed it because the Windows operating system did not have a real game at the time. In an interview in 2017, Cherry said that he was not paying a dime to create the game, even though it's quickly become a popular distraction for office workers.

At one point, he even created a special key that would allow the player to switch between the game and a spreadsheet. "It gave the impression that you were doing a real job, but Microsoft forced me to remove it," he said in an interview.

Since its inception, the game has been distributed to over a billion computers and located in 65 different languages, Microsoft said. "It's amazing to think that one of the most-played video games in the world was born in 1990 to allow Microsoft to teach users how to use a mouse," said Paul Jensen, head of the game. Microsoft Casual Games studio, in a statement.

According to the company, players from more than 200 countries continue to play Microsoft Solitaire today, despite all the current computer game offerings.