What was the game that came with Windows that you liked the most?

Microsoft doesn't include games with Windows anymore (I think Solitaire may be a free download), and that's a shame because I got some good use out of them.

Here's a list of games that have been included with Windows to jog your memory

I liked Minesweeper a lot, but one of my brothers, the programmer, was really into it.

I played Solitaire, but not that much. My mother, on the other hand, was nuts for it for a good long time. I think she got her money's worth for the PC just from Solitaire. I was trying to think if she played anything else, but I can't think of anything. She may have played Hearts a bit. I remember playing Hearts, but don't remember for sure if she did. I also played some Free Cell.

The game I liked the most, though, was Space Cadet pinball. I once went on a business trip to Dallas for two weeks and spent almost all my spare time in the hotel room playing Space Cadet. Other people were out taking tours, visiting the JFK assassination museum, and eating at restaurants, but not me. I was ordering room service and playing pinball haha.

As kind of another category, some PC's used to come with a selection of games on disk. If you want to include your favorites of those, feel free. All I really remember is this motorcycle racing game (maybe called MotoGP) which I played a little.
 
Microsoft doesn't include games with Windows anymore (I think Solitaire may be a free download)
Your link says a few solitaires are still included with 10 & 11.

I had already played all of the card and board games IRL before PCs became a thing, so it's got to be one of the others. Which leaves 2 of interest: Minesweeper in the early days, and Mahjongg when it showed up on 7—I really like the classic pyramid layout, and the game setting that every game you launch is winnable. Something aesthetically beautiful about the native tile sets too.

Anyone who wants a few freebies to pass the time, MS has 1,000 in the store:
 
Space Cadet pinball is obviously the only right choice. I can only assume the people who didn't choose that haven't played it/

Anyone who wants a few freebies to pass the time, MS has 1,000 in the store:

A lot of those are not free, but "free+".
 
How quickly we forget


I played Solitaire way too much as well, to point I have Solitaire Collection in windows but I haven't played it in years now.

this should have been a poll. I don't think you can retro actively make it one or I would.
 
Space Cadet pinball is obviously the only right choice. I can only assume the people who didn't choose that haven't played it/



A lot of those are not free, but "free+".
I probably should have put pinball on my list. It would be toward the end, though. I liked it, but I didn't play it as much as the others. My favorite pinball video game of all time was the one on the Intellivision. It had 3 tiers that you could get to if you were good enough.
 
Space Cadet pinball is obviously the only right choice. I can only assume the people who didn't choose that haven't played it/



A lot of those are not free, but "free+".
I'm joining the Space Cadet club. :) It was the only Windows game that I played for longer time. I was doing some crazy results back in those days. :)
Like many other here, I'll have to say pinball.
Pinball for me. My first PC had Windows 95 and that along with the Weezer video playing in a tiny Window made it feel really advanced to me then.
HAH, I am 100% in the pinball camp even though I never reached a High level on it as a kid.

I still remember that ole' windows 95 just to play pinball. 🤣

also like the GIF below, I just used to button mash when I was much younger, and got confused by the tilt function. 😂

r0N9xL.gif
 
and got confused by the tilt function. 😂
I'll bet most people who have only played pinball in video games have no idea what tilt was all about. In a real pinball machine, people bump them around to try to move the ball, and they put a plumb sensor in them that would shut the game off if you tilted the machine too much, to keep people from cheating. I miss playing real pinball machines. You don't see them much anymore.
 
I'll bet most people who have only played pinball in video games have no idea what tilt was all about. In a real pinball machine, people bump them around to try to move the ball, and they put a plumb sensor in them that would shut the game off if you tilted the machine too much, to keep people from cheating. I miss playing real pinball machines. You don't see them much anymore.
that was as far as my hunch went as I grew older, but I never realized that was an "anti-cheat" for real pinball machines.

thanks for the story. 😉
 
I'll bet most people who have only played pinball in video games have no idea what tilt was all about. In a real pinball machine, people bump them around to try to move the ball, and they put a plumb sensor in them that would shut the game off if you tilted the machine too much, to keep people from cheating. I miss playing real pinball machines. You don't see them much anymore.
I love real pinball. Always wanted to buy a machine for my house.
 
I love real pinball. Always wanted to buy a machine for my house.
I'd love one, but I don't have room. I just moved my home office upstairs in our house. We just did a big project of doing a little remodeling in our 3 bedrooms, and rearranging where everyone's bedrooms are, since my oldest moved out. My wife and I moved into his upstairs room, my youngest moved into our downstairs room, and I get my youngest son's old room upstairs for my office.

Anyway, I just moved my desk and arcade machine up there last night, and it was a major pain in the backside. That arcade machine is big and heavy.
 
I'd love one, but I don't have room. I just moved my home office upstairs in our house. We just did a big project of doing a little remodeling in our 3 bedrooms, and rearranging where everyone's bedrooms are, since my oldest moved out. My wife and I moved into his upstairs room, my youngest moved into our downstairs room, and I get my youngest son's old room upstairs for my office.

Anyway, I just moved my desk and arcade machine up there last night, and it was a major pain in the backside. That arcade machine is big and heavy.
nice, but isn't that the point of antique retro arcade machines? To be authentically big and heavy? 😂

otherwise, we'll see a future where there is an ultra lightweight arcade machine, made from interactable holographs. 🤣
teens-playing-holographic-game-medium-long-shot-teenagers-video-161206821.jpg
 
nice, but isn't that the point of antique retro arcade machines? To be authentically big and heavy? 😂

otherwise, we'll see a future where there is an ultra lightweight arcade machine, made from interactable holographs. 🤣
teens-playing-holographic-game-medium-long-shot-teenagers-video-161206821.jpg
Absolutely! But that doesn't make it any less of a pain in the backside. :LOL:

Although mine isn't really that authentic. I bought a cabinet kit that takes a modern, flat-screen TV as the screen. It's a nice, sturdy kit, though. And the control panel I have for it is pretty cool.
 
I'd love one, but I don't have room. I just moved my home office upstairs in our house. We just did a big project of doing a little remodeling in our 3 bedrooms, and rearranging where everyone's bedrooms are, since my oldest moved out. My wife and I moved into his upstairs room, my youngest moved into our downstairs room, and I get my youngest son's old room upstairs for my office.

Anyway, I just moved my desk and arcade machine up there last night, and it was a major pain in the backside. That arcade machine is big and heavy.
We've got a good place for it. We have a finished basement that has nothing but one of those basketball shooting games like you see at arcades where you have a certain amount of time to sink so many shots. That and a couple of boxes are all that's in that room, and it's actually the biggest room in the house. It's an old house and the basement area was just crazy. Ceilings are over 10 feet, which made it perfect for the basketball game.

We almost bought an old Victorian house with 3800 sq ft. (It was $72,000 in the mid-nineties when we were buying a house here). So glad we didn't. I would have never come up with anything to do with all that space if I never managed to do anything with our finished basement.

Note: House prices were ridiculously low when we bought our house. I feel sorry for young people today who want a house.
 
We've got a good place for it. We have a finished basement that has nothing but one of those basketball shooting games like you see at arcades where you have a certain amount of time to sink so many shots. That and a couple of boxes are all that's in that room, and it's actually the biggest room in the house. It's an old house and the basement area was just crazy. Ceilings are over 10 feet, which made it perfect for the basketball game.

We almost bought an old Victorian house with 3800 sq ft. (It was $72,000 in the mid-nineties when we were buying a house here). So glad we didn't. I would have never come up with anything to do with all that space if I never managed to do anything with our finished basement.
Wow! That's really awesome. I'd definitely convert that to a game room real quick. I love those basketball games. You need a pool table down there, too.
 

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