Microsoft launches global tournament to celebrate 25 years of wasting time with Solitaire

Microsoft may be embracing new games such as Candy Crush Saga, but the company isn’t forgetting its roots as it prepares to celebrate 25 years of Solitaire on Windows.

Following an internal competition among Microsoft’s own employees, the public will can compete against the winners as part of a 25th anniversary tournament for Microsoft Solitaire. It’ll host the event inside the Windows app.

As an intern, Wes Cherry first developed Microsoft Solitaire in 1989, and it first appeared in Windows 3.0, which went gold on May 22, 1990. Though the game was partly designed to entertain, it was also intended to help familiarize those with the new user interface of PCs, including “drag and drop.”

While the game will likely hold a soft spot in many people’s hearts, it has been responsible for wasting a heck of a lot of time — at home, school, and in the office. In fact, way back in 2006, a man lost his job in a New York lobbying office after Mayor Michael Bloomberg spotted him playing Solitaire on his computer.

The game has moved with the times, however, and those wishing to take part in the tournament can not only do so from their Windows PC but their mobile phone, too — but only on Windows Phone.