Microsoft Entertainment Pack
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| Microsoft Entertainment Pack | |
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| Developer(s) | Microsoft |
| Publisher(s) | Microsoft Game Studios |
| Distributor(s) | Microsoft |
| Designer(s) | Robert Andrews |
| Series | Entertainment Pack |
| Platform(s) | Windows 3.x, Windows 95, Windows 98 or Higher (32- Bit only) |
| Release date(s) | 1989 |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
The original Microsoft Windows Entertainment Pack (WEP) is a collection of simply-designed 16-bit computer games for Windows. These games were somewhat unusual for the time, in that they would not run under MS-DOS. Many of the games (still compatible with Windows XP) were later released in the Best of Windows Entertainment Pack. There were four Entertainment Packs in the original series. All games being 16-bit run on modern 32-bit versions of Windows but not on 64-bit Windows, except through a virtual machine.
FreeCell and Minesweeper from this pack were later bundled with Windows.
Contents |
[edit] List of games
Here is a complete list of the original Microsoft Windows Entertainment Pack titles:
-
- ^ Included in Best of Windows Entertainment Pack
- ~ Bundled in some later versions of Windows
- Chess
- Chip's Challenge^
- Cruel (a card game)
- Dr. Black Jack (a card game)^
- FreeCell (a card game)^ ~
- Fuji Golf
- Go Figure!
- Golf (a card game)^
- IdleWild (a screensaver program)
- JezzBall^
- Jigsawed (a Jigsaw puzzle)
- Klotski
- Life Genesis (based on the Life simulation by John Horton Conway)
- Maxwell's Maniac
- Minesweeper~
- Pegged (a form of Peg solitaire)
- Pipe Dream (by LucasArts)^
- Rattler Race
- Rodent's Revenge^
- SkiFree^
- Stones
- Taipei^
- Tetravex^
- Tetris (Windows version)^
- Tic Tac Drop (a form of Connect Four with quadrilateral, triangular and plus-shaped boards and customizable win pattern and number of rows and columns)
- TicTactics (a Tic-tac-toe variant)
- TriPeaks (a card game)^
- Tut's Tomb (a card game)^
- WordZap (a word game)
[edit] GameSampler
For much of the early 1990s, the Gamesampler, a subset of the Entertainment Pack called small enough to fit on a single high-density disk, was shipped as a free eleventh disk added to a ten-pack of Verbatim blank 3.5" microfloppy diskettes. Games on the sampler included Jezzball, Rodent's Revenge, Tetris, and Skifree. A "Best of" disk of several of the games was also available at times as a mail-in premium from Kellogg's cereals.
[edit] 32-bit versions
In the copies of Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000 source code which leaked back in 2004, there are 32-bit versions of Cruel, Golf, Pegged, Reversi, Snake (Rattler Race), Taipei and TicTactics.[1] However, FreeCell and Minesweeper have had official 32-bit versions bundled even with early versions of Windows NT. The original game developers of some of the games such as SkiFree[2], TriPeaks[3], WordZap[4] now offer 32-bit versions. Third party developers have also created 32-bit freeware clones of Klotski[5], TetraVex[6] Rodent's Revenge[7], JezzBall[8], and Tetris.[9]
[edit] Port to the Game Boy Color
A multicart containing seven games was released for the Game Boy Color as simply Microsoft Entertainment Pack. Four of the games on the multi-cart were ported from Best of Microsoft Entertainment Pack, while the remaining three were ported from other Microsoft Entertainment Pack compilations.
Games found on the GBC Microsoft Entertainment Pack mult-cart:
- Tut's Tomb
- TriPeaks
- FreeCell
- TicTactics*
- Minesweeper*
- Life Genesis*
- SkiFree
*Not included in the original Best of Windows Entertainment Pack.
[edit] See also
- Microsoft Entertainment Pack: The Puzzle Collection – a later 32-bit collection for Windows 95
- Microsoft Arcade
- Best of Microsoft Entertainment Pack
[edit] References
- ^ "We Are Morons: a quick look at the Win2k source". Kuro5hin.org. http://www.kuro5hin.org/comments/2004/2/15/71552/7795/119#119. Retrieved January 6, 2012.
- ^ Chris (February 10, 2010). "The most officialest SkiFree homepage". Ski.ihoc.net. http://ski.ihoc.net/. Retrieved January 6, 2012.
- ^ "TriPeaks Homepage". Rhogue.com. http://www.rhogue.com/tripeaks/tripeaks.htm. Retrieved January 6, 2012.
- ^ "Classic WordZap". Wordzap.com. http://wordzap.com/downloads.asp#Classic. Retrieved January 6, 2012.
- ^ "Klotski homepage". Phil.freehackers.org. http://phil.freehackers.org/klotski/. Retrieved January 6, 2012.
- ^ "Tetravex Game in Delphi". Delphi.about.com. http://delphi.about.com/od/gameprogramming/a/tetravex.htm. Retrieved January 6, 2012.
- ^ "Rodent's Revenge 2000". Web.archive.org. August 22, 2007. http://web.archive.org/web/20070822075641/http://www.emu8086.com/vb/rodent.html. Retrieved January 6, 2012.
- ^ "J-Ball". Gametop.com. http://gametop.com/download-free-games/jezzball/. Retrieved January 6, 2012.
- ^ "CrystalOffice Games". Crystaloffice.com. http://www.crystaloffice.com/games/. Retrieved January 6, 2012.
