Windows Solitaire inducted into the World Video Game Hall of Fame

World Video Game Hall of Fame. The award recognizes ‘s role as a significant part of gaming’s history.

was first bundled with Windows 3.0. Much like the other notable bundled game, , was there to serve as a secret tutorial: in a time when the mouse was still regarded as a new and exotic piece of computer hardware, honed clicking, double clicking, and drag-and-drop skills.

As a computerized version of a familiar card game, it was instantly recognizable. It was bundled with every subsequent Windows version, up to Windows 7. Windows 8 replaced it with a much more varied set of card games.

The combination of approachability and bundling means that the game has been installed on more than a billion PCs, and it has likely been played by many billions of people.

Despite its fame and enormous player base, I’d be hesitant to call a good game. It’s a straightforward version of the card game, and aside from the animated card backs and iconic victory animation that sees all the cards jumping out of their stacks and bouncing away, it did little to really take advantage of its computerization.

Perhaps most unforgivable is that many hands of are simply unwinnable, no matter how skillfully played. Contrast this with the vastly superior , where in theory every regular game can be won. And both of those pale in comparison to , a game that arguably be played on a computer, having no real analogue-world counterpart.