In 2024, you’re probably not sinking hours into the games bundled with your copy of Windows. Hell, we don’t even have anything worthwhile to play on our Windows 10 or Windows 11 machines. It’s a far cry from the glory days of Windows 3.1, Windows 98, and Windows 7.
I remember being fascinated by the built-in games on my Windows 98 computer, partially because those titles were my only options for a long time. From Windows 1.0 to Windows 7, the era of built-in Windows games is still remembered fondly by countless users, which prompted me to rank my all-time favorites.
Ranking all Windows operating systems on the basis of their built-in games
While modern versions of Windows are infamous for bloatware, their older counterparts came with some truly innovative games
7 Solitaire
The one that really got things going
I’m sure that if you’re a 90s kid like me, you would have played Solitaire to a fault on your first-ever Windows computer. Microsoft first introduced it in Windows 3.0 back in 1990. It was one of the biggest changes seen on Microsoft’s third major Windows version, and was on another level compared to Reversi, the only game you could play on Windows 1.0 and 2.0.
Solitaire was not a complex or visually arresting game, but the gameplay loop was so tight and rewarding that people couldn’t stop playing. Once my 8-year-old brain learned how the game worked, I craved the rush of the cool “falling card” animation that followed a win. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t playing Solitaire even during my Windows 7 days.
It’s sad that we haven’t seen the game come back in later versions of Windows. In fact, after Windows 7, many of the old classics disappeared from the operating system, replaced either by ad-filled trash or nothing at all.
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6 Chess Titans
The best of Microsoft’s 3D era
With Windows Vista, Microsoft wanted to show off some new capabilities, and the 3D games bundled with the OS this time were a breath of fresh air, despite the excellent catalog we had seen in Windows XP. The best of these new 3D games, according to me, was Chess Titans.
The visuals were top-notch, the art style was something to admire, and the animations were as smooth as could be (or at least that’s what I felt at the time). I wasn’t a chess pro by any stretch of the imagination, and I still couldn’t resist spending hours every week playing against the computer and getting my behind handed to me repeatedly.
Many of you might prefer Mahjong Titans or Purble Place , but for me, nothing beat the cerebral gameplay of Chess Titans.
5 Minesweeper
A landmark in bundled Windows games
Minesweeper is one of those timeless games that doesn’t need fancy new graphics, animations, or loud additions to keep it relevant. I could still sink hours into the simple yet addictive loop of smelling out mines without stepping on one. Windows 3.1 brought this gem to us in 1992, and nothing was the same after that.
Whether or not you’re a fan of the game, you can’t deny its place in history. Minesweeper was way simpler than Chess Titans and Solitaire, but in my book, it easily beats them in unadulterated fun and excitement. The panic that sets in, in the final stages of a round, is like nothing you see elsewhere. And if you mess things up after a grueling journey to the end, just before the victory, it sucks big time.
That doesn’t stop you from starting up another round right away, though. And that’s the beauty of games like Minesweeper — they keep you coming back for that thrill of victory, which can be elusive once you start braving the larger boards.
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4 SkiFree
Remember the Abominable Snowman?
While SkiFree might not technically be a built-in Windows game — being part of the Microsoft Entertainment Pack 3 for Windows 3.0 — it was somehow pre-installed on my first computer, a Windows 98 pre-built Pentium 3 machine from HP. The objective of the game was to avoid obstacles, mostly trees, rack up points, and avoid getting eaten by the Abominable Snowman.
SkiFree was actually one of the first PC games I ever played, despite having heavyweights like Minesweeper, Solitaire, and Hearts on Windows 98. The game genuinely felt so much richer and chock-full of humor. I don’t remember if I was actually ever able to run away from the snowman, but the memory of this fantastic game hasn’t run away from me yet.
3 Smart Dots
Hours of puzzling fun
You’ll think I’m lying, but even Smart Dots was present on my Windows 98 computer since day one. Part of the Symantec Game Pack released for Windows 3.x (which I just found out), this game, along with SkiFree, is one of my earliest memories of PC gaming.
The goal here is to create more boxes than the computer on a grid of dots. A spin on noughts and crosses, Smart Dots used to be one of my favorite time sinks in the late 90s and early 2000s. After remembering the endless fun I had with this game, I’m pretty sure I’ll be loading it up inside a virtual machine or on one of those game archive sites.
Smart Dots, just like the next entry on this list, was one of the few puzzle games that felt different to me at the time. Before we moved from Windows 98 to Windows XP on our home computer, games like these challenged my young brain to think and learn while having fun.
2 Hangman
Another Symantec gem from my childhood
Part of the Symantec Game Pack of 1991, Hangman completed the trinity that was my first tryst with PC gaming (with SkiFree and Smart Dots). If I’m not wrong, it’s probably the first one that I started playing after getting our first computer in 2000. The game was essentially guessing a word or phrase the computer threw at you in a limited number of guesses, lest you get “hanged.”
Each wrong guess brought you one step (or limb) closer to getting hanged, so the stakes were real. You could choose from a number of categories like movies, cities, sports teams, and the computer industry, or select ‘everything’ and go in like a boss. At the time, the game felt really hard, since I wasn’t very well-versed in many of the available categories, but I had fun nonetheless.
Hangman had a great impact on me, so much so that I forced my friends to play it with me on the back pages of our school notebooks. Even two decades later, I still play it occasionally (with pen and paper, of course) with my brother. It was, in fact, one of the first video games for both of us.
1 3D Pinball for Windows – Space Cadet
You knew this was gonna be at the top
Arguably, the greatest built-in Windows game of all time is 3D Pinball for Windows – Space Cadet. Licensed to Microsoft for inclusion in the Windows operating systems, this game was originally one of the tables used in Full Tilt! Pinball, a 1995 game developed by Cinematronics. Microsoft included it in Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, Windows Me, and Windows XP.
Of course, I only played the game on Windows XP some time around 2005. From the moment I first experienced it, I knew I was playing something special. The allure of reaching the next high score, and discovering more of the “lore” that felt so deep was never-ending. The sounds and music were the biggest surprises. I bet you can still hum the opening music of the game in your head.
I think most of us can claim Space Cadet Pinball as our most-played bundled Windows game of all time. I’ll never recover from the tragedy that was its removal from all further Windows versions after XP.
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Instead of more ads, Windows should bring these games back
Every Windows version after Windows 7 has paled in comparison to those that came before. Windows 10 and, later, Windows 11 dropped many of the classic games people loved, while including unwanted titles and those that were just glorified ads.
Today, if you want to experience these gems, you can find some of them on Microsoft Store and online archive sites, but reliving the old days is almost impossible now. Here’s hoping that Windows 12 (if we ever get it) or the next big Windows 11 update considers resurrecting these fan favorite games.
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