early Windows versions of Minesweeper When it was released in 1990, it was an instant hit on Microsoft’s internal network, according to people working at the time.
Libby Duzan Nuttall, who was the lead product manager for Microsoft’s entertainment division in the 1990s, said: “It was one of those things you would walk down the hallway and see it on people’s computers. I saw someone playing a game. Minesweeper”
“Needless to say, it was very well tested software around Microsoft. Windows entertainment packwhere Minesweeper It will be a public debut. However, these “testers” were not strictly required to improve the product. [Minesweeper coder Robert] Donner remembered. “Every time someone claimed to have found a bug, I had to ask them to send me a screenshot and point out the error in their logic.”
This was apparently a relatively common problem. entertainment pack Product manager Bruce Ryan recalled getting an email from his colleague in marketing, Mike Slade. “He was like, ‘I tried 20 times and I can’t.'” Ryan eventually had to go to Slade’s office and spend 10 minutes completing an expert board until the marketers were convinced. He said.
“Every time someone claimed to have found a bug, I had to ask them to send me a screenshot and point out the logic error.”
Minesweeper Coder Robert Donner
But even in an office full of logic-minded computer engineers, Minesweeper It didn’t appeal to everyone at Microsoft. Among the many amateur Windows games that were circulating on the company network at the time,Minesweeper The most polarizing,” Ryan said. “People at Microsoft are pretty analytical, so they prefer the analytical and logical side. MinesweeperBut there were a lot of people who looked at it and said, “I don’t know.” Click randomly to hit a mine, [stop]They thought it was a guessing game. “
hooking building
in the meantime Minesweeper The love at Microsoft wasn’t universal, but the game was able to hook into the most important backers a Microsoft game could have.
As Fitzgerald put it bluntly, “Bill became addicted.”
Bill Gates, the billionaire Microsoft founder and CEO, of course (although he wasn’t yet the “richest man in the world” in 1990). In 1990, Gates found himself obsessed with dominating, even though he had the money to spend on more elaborate entertainment. [Minesweeper coder Curt] A simple Windows game experiment by Johnson and Donner.
“Originally, I think I got an email from Bill saying, ‘We just solved it. [Beginner] Minesweeper in 10 seconds. Is that okay? ’” Ryan recalls. “I wrote him back. I think he’s an 8 at the moment. (Embarrassingly, I think it was me.) Apparently, the record is very close to where he made it.” the fact that [it] his mission [to beat it]”
ryan is gates Minesweeper My addiction got so bad that I ‘took it off the machine’. But that wasn’t enough to stop him from fixing the CEO. “It was a high score. [an easy-to-edit] Text files had a rule that someone had to watch your files. [record] Score,” Fitzgerald said. “So… one Sunday afternoon I got an email from Bill. [short-lived Microsoft President] Mike Holman’s office.and [we were] like what? ‘”
Ryan recalled the surreal experience of being called in by Bill Gates on a random weekend and huddled around another executive’s computer to see something new. Minesweeper 5 second high score on beginner board. “This was in the evening. So we went there, seven o’clock at night. [Hallman] He’s a former Boeing executive and he wasn’t a humorous guy so… the idea that Bill was sitting there after work going to the president’s office and playing Minesweeper, it was just a weird image. ”
“That’s when I realized how games can waste precious time,” Donner said of hearing about the track records at Gates’ multiple offices.
