Microsoft marked Solitaire’s 25th anniversary by holding an internal tournament around the game and will soon open the competition to the large public.

People will get a chance to measure their strengths in stacking up against some of the best Solitaire players who are working for the company which computerized the game. The competition open to the public starts up in June and five popular versions of Solitaire will be played.

“From Klondike to FreeCell to Spider, TriPeaks and Pyramid game modes, you’ll be challenged to bring your best to defeat our best. Are you up to the challenge? Get your Solitaire game on today,” announced Microsoft.

Solitaire is based on the game of patience. The original version is more a genre of games, while Microsoft Solitaire was created to help new Windows users learn a simple concept: patience and how to use the mouse. The patience games can be enjoyed with cards, but also with pegs and are all designed just for one person.

Microsoft Solitaire, developed by intern Wes Cherry back in 1989, was created to aid Windows users get around the new elements of the operating system’s graphical interface, like the drag-and-drop procedure. Susan Kare, who created Apple’s iconic logo, is the one who designed the decks of cards in the Microsoft Solitaire.

Cherry himself used the creation of Solitaire to find out about the details of the Windows operating system, but the intern was never given any royalties for the program. The game is now one of the most famous pieces of software in the world.

Microsoft Solitaire was released for Windows 3.0, 25 years ago, and has been a component of every Windows OS, except Windows 8. However, the game will reappear with the release of Windows 10.

Cherry has moved on from the tech business and has dedicated himself to fruit. He and his family are running Dragon’s Head Cider and he is only works with software on the side now, but, 25 years later, the legacy of his internship is still alive.

“Suppose a business said everyone on the sales force was getting a free deck of cards so that when they get bored they can play solitaire. Not going to happen, right? But if you give everyone on the sales force a $2,000 computer, you know they’re going to play some solitaire because it’s the second or third most common program run,” author and technologist Clifford Stoll told Time in 1998 interview.

Image Source: GreatNews