Microsoft Entertainment Pack for Windows

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Microsoft Entertainment Pack for Windows

Microsoft Entertainment Pack for Windows - WIN3 - USA.jpg

Windows 3 - USA - 1st edition.

Developer Various
Publisher Microsoft
Published 1990-??-??
Platforms Windows 3
Genres Compilation
Series Microsoft Entertainment Pack
Distribution Commercial

Microsoft Entertainment Pack for Windows is a compilation video game of seven games and a screensaver developed and published by Microsoft for Windows 3 in 1990. This is the first title in the series. The various games were made by a variety of developers and included the following:

Title Game Type Developer
Cruel Card solitaire Ken Sykes
Golf Card solitaire Ken Sykes
IdleWild Screensaver Bradford Christian
Minesweeper Minesweeper Robert Donner, Curt Johnson
Pegged Peg solitaire Mike Blaylock
Taipei Mahjong solitaire Dave Norris
Tetris Tetris Dave Edson
TicTactics 3D tic-tac-toe Robert Donner

Although Minesweeper is often thought of as a default Windows game, Windows 2.0 and 3.0 shipped with Solitaire and Reversi, not Minesweeper. This was the first Microsoft product released which contained Minesweeper. However, shortly after the release of this game, Microsoft began shipping Minesweeper with Windows 3.1, and included it with every subsequent version of Windows.

Personal

Own?No.
Won?See individual game pages.

This program came loaded on the Packard Bell 386SX my parents bought back in 1991. It was one of the few game packages I had for Windows 3 at the time, so I became very familiar with each of the games. I have beaten most of the games in it.

Review

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5 5 4 1 5

Best Version: Windows 3

— This section contains spoilers! —

Good

  • There is a fairly decent assortment of games. Two card games, two tile games, a peg board game, a pen-and-paper game, and one action video game.
  • This was the first Windows port of Tetris.
  • Even though it was extremely rare at the time, some of the programs take into account display sizes beyond 640x480 resolution.

Bad

  • All of the games are casual, so they're all lacking depth.
  • The programs are lacking media being mostly devoid of music, sound effects, and animation.
  • With only one action game, the collection is very slow-paced.
  • Tetris is the only 2-player game in the collection, even though TicTactics should have been as well.

Ugly

  • Nothing.

Media

Box Art

The box features a nice photograph of various toys and games. Too bad almost none of them are actually represented in the software.

Links

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