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Creator Of Solitaire For Windows Interviewed

Posted by simoniker on from the seminal-gaming-auteur dept.

Thanks to B3ta for its interview with Wes Cherry, creator of Solitaire for Windows, as installed on "hundreds of millions of machines worldwide." Cherry discusses an 'Easter egg' left out of the final version ("There was a 'boss-key' which when pressed would display some random .C code. Microsoft made me remove that"), the all-important card back designs ("My fave is the dealer with the Ace crawling up and down his sleeve, which is a reference to a Grateful Dead song, 'Doin' that Rag'"), and bizarre benchmarking concepts using Solitaire ("At one point, a computer magazine proposed a SolMark computer speed test: The faster the cascade, the faster your computer.")

9 of 77 comments (clear)

  1. SolMark by ThetaPi · · Score: 5, Funny

    I wonder what my old 486 would make on that test. I think I could have played a game of 52 card pickup (perhaps several) before the cascade finished.

    --
    "When God kisses Satan and the Incarnations applaud." "Death is dead. Long live Death!"
  2. come on guys! by BigBadDude · · Score: 5, Funny

    this is one of the most useful windows applications, not to mention one of the most stable ones!

    the guy deserves more attention than this!

    cheers for Wes!

  3. The boss key would have been redundant by AtariAmarok · · Score: 4, Funny

    ("There was a 'boss-key' which when pressed would display some random .C code. Microsoft made me remove that")

    In Windows, due to the presence of frequent and random occurances of blue screens with crpytic messages, having a boss key is redundant.

    --
    Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
  4. Easter egg by PatrickThomson · · Score: 2, Funny

    The article has the question "Is it true that there is an 'Easter egg' embedded in Solitaire that pops up a picture of Bill Gates caught in flagrante delicto with a marine mammal?" answered yes.
    What I want to know is, what is this easter egg? It's for... uuh... personal reasons.

    --
    I am one of many. My idea is not unique, nor do I expect my voice alone to sway you. I speak in a chorus of opinion.
  5. Hours spent working by JustJon · · Score: 4, Funny

    Just imagine how many thousands of hours the workforce might have had to spend actually working if it wasn't for Wes

  6. Stable? by RealityMogul · · Score: 4, Funny

    Got a copy of Windows 2000 (maybe other versions do this too)?

    Run Solitaire and click both mouse buttons simultaneously on a card for a few seconds as fast as you can.

    1. Re:Stable? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny
      Run Solitaire and click both mouse buttons simultaneously on a card for a few seconds as fast as you can.

      And...? I just tried it, nothing happened except the little number next to "Time:" kept increasing!

  7. as installed on "hundreds of millions of machines by terbo · · Score: 2, Funny

    But when will they interview the author of SubSeven?

    --
    If you're interested in facts I'll tell you what they are and I'll give you sources - Chomsky on The Big Idea
  8. Deal Again? by Gregory+S+Patterson · · Score: 2, Funny

    Know how after you win, it asks if you want to deal again? I always wondered why it doesn't just close if you click no. Surely, if you did not want to deal again, you must be done playing, so why not save you the extra click and close the damn thing?

    Bad interface design, tsk tsk.