FreeCell, also known as Microsoft FreeCell, is a
computer game
Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device to gener ...
included in
Microsoft Windows
Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...
, based on a
card game with
the same name.
Development
Paul Alfille implemented Freecell in 1978 for the
PLATO computer system at
CERL; by the early 1980s
Control Data Corporation
Control Data Corporation (CDC) was a mainframe and supercomputer firm. CDC was one of the nine major United States computer companies through most of the 1960s; the others were IBM, Burroughs Corporation, DEC, NCR, General Electric, Honeywel ...
had published it for all PLATO systems. Jim Horne, who enjoyed playing Freecell on the PLATO system at the
University of Alberta, published a
shareware
Shareware is a type of proprietary software that is initially shared by the owner for trial use at little or no cost. Often the software has limited functionality or incomplete documentation until the user sends payment to the software developer ...
$10
DOS version with
color graphics
Computer graphics is a sub-field of computer science which studies methods for digitally synthesizing and manipulating visual content. Although the term often refers to the study of three-dimensional computer graphics, it also encompasses two-di ...
in 1988. That year Horne joined
Microsoft, and later ported the game to
Windows.
The Windows version was first included in
Microsoft Entertainment Pack Volume 2 and later the Best Of Microsoft Entertainment Pack.
It was subsequently included with
Win32s as an application that enabled the testing of the
32-bit
In computer architecture, 32-bit computing refers to computer systems with a processor, memory, and other major system components that operate on data in 32-bit units. Compared to smaller bit widths, 32-bit computers can perform large calculation ...
thunking layer to ensure that it was installed properly.
However, FreeCell remained relatively obscure until it was released as part of
Windows 95.
In
Windows XP, FreeCell was extended to support a total of 1 million card deals.
Releases
Today, there are FreeCell implementations for nearly every modern operating system as it is one of the few games pre-installed with every copy of Windows. Prior to
Windows Vista, the versions for Windows were limited in their player assistance features, such as retraction of moves. The Windows Vista FreeCell implementation contains basic hints and unlimited move retraction (via the Undo menu choice or command), and the option to restart the game. Some features have been removed, such as the flashing screen to warn the player of one move remaining. FreeCell is not included in the
Windows 8 operating system but is available in the
Windows Store as the free
Microsoft Solitaire Collection
''Microsoft Solitaire Collection'' is a video game developed by Smoking Gun Interactive, Microsoft Casual Games and Arkadium and published by Microsoft Studios for Microsoft Windows. It combines the Solitaire, FreeCell and Spider Solitaire titles ...
, which is also bundled with
Windows 10.
Legacy
Microsoft created the Entertainment Packs to encourage non-business use of Windows. According to company
telemetry FreeCell was the seventh most-used Windows program, ahead of
Word and
Microsoft Excel.
The original Microsoft FreeCell package supports 32,000 numbered deals, generated by a 15-
bit,
pseudorandom-number seed. These deals are known as the "Microsoft 32,000",
and all but one of them have been completed.
Later versions of ''FreeCell'' include more than one million deals.
When Microsoft FreeCell became very popular during the 1990s, the Internet FreeCell Project attempted to solve all the deals by
crowdsourcing
Crowdsourcing involves a large group of dispersed participants contributing or producing goods or services—including ideas, votes, micro-tasks, and finances—for payment or as volunteers. Contemporary crowdsourcing often involves digita ...
consecutive games to specific people. The project ran from August 1994 to April 1995, and only #11982 proved unwinnable.
Out of the current Microsoft Windows games, eight are unsolvable.
The significance of the "Microsoft 32,000" to many FreeCell players is such that other computer implementations of FreeCell will often go out of their way to guarantee compatibility with these deals, rather than simply using the most readily available
random number generator for their target platforms.
As an
easter egg, Microsoft intentionally includes a few impossible games, with negative numbers. Playing these games do not count towards the statistics recorded by the computer.
See also
*
List of games included with Windows
References
{{Windows Components
1991 video games
Casual games
Microsoft games
Patience video games
Video games developed in the United States
Windows games
Windows-only games