PDC 2005: New Games in Vista & Screenshots

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The games that have come with Windows have their roots with Windows 3.1. Solitair in its various forms along with Minesweeper have been the bane of offices everywhere.

But with Windows Vista, Microsoft has gone back and redone the games. And they look impressive. I...ahem..tested these games..at length today here at the Microsoft Professional Developer's Conference (PDC).

In total, 8 new games come with Windows Vista including Chess, Shanghai, a new Minesweeper, a new Freecell, a new game called "Purple Place", and a couple other card games.

View: Screenshots of the new Windows Vista games

View: Live PDC blogging

Windows Vista Starter Edition

Only sold in emerging markets
Very feature limited
Only 3 simultaneous applications running

Windows Vista Home Basic Edition

Equivalent to XP Home
Includes firewall, parental controls, Security Center, Movie Maker, Photo Library and more
For first time buyer / budget conscious

Windows Vista Home Premium Edition

Everything from Vista Home Basic
Adds DVD video authoring, HDTV support, DVD ripping support
Similar to current XP Media Center edition but with added features

Windows Vista Professional Edition

Aimed at the business consumer
Can join domain, has IIS web server
Akin to XP Pro

Windows Vista Small Business Edition

Designed for small businesses without IT staff
Backup and Shadow Copy support, Castle and server-join networking, and PC fax and scanning utility
Pre-paid access to the Windows Live! Small Business or Microsoft Office Live! subscription services

Windows Vista Enterprise Edition

Optimized for the enterprise
Ships with Virtual PC & the multi-language user interface (MUI)
Aimed at business decision makers, IT managers and decision makers, and information workers/general business users.

Windows Vista Ultimate Edition

"The best operating system ever offered for a personal PC"
Superset of both Vista Home Premium and Vista Pro Edition
Podcasting application, Game Performance Tweaker, possible free music/movie downloads

#1 )(RockerBoy on 15 Sep 2005 - 22:21

Nice

(7 replies) #2 R_a_V_e_N on 15 Sep 2005 - 22:23

Get over them, they are boring. I played them for little while last night and got bored. I wonder why we need a front page article every tiny thing related to Vista

EDIT: I hope they improve Chess AI because right now its dumb as

#2.1 Frogboy on 15 Sep 2005 - 22:24

/me looks up at site title -- Neo...Win... New..Windows..

#2.2 IGx89 on 15 Sep 2005 - 22:57

It's the week of PDC2005; to do otherwise would be unthinkable

#2.3 R_a_V_e_N on 15 Sep 2005 - 22:58

Abit offtopic, unless it my imagination this build run slower then Beta 1. It seems sluggish.

#2.4 R_a_V_e_N on 15 Sep 2005 - 23:00

PDC 2005 not VDC 2005.

#2.5 y_notm on 16 Sep 2005 - 03:54

ive racked up over a thousand games of freecell in the past 6 months. its not boring, and visual refresh is welcome here

#2.6 Smigit on 16 Sep 2005 - 08:26

If the games are borring why were you playing them just last night?

#2.7 TRC on 16 Sep 2005 - 18:42

QUOTE

So he could troll today.

#3 Colin-uk on 15 Sep 2005 - 22:26

"testing" lol

screenshots look good, i never got the hang on mahjong though :/

(4 replies) #4 sullysnet on 15 Sep 2005 - 22:40

what about Pinball

#4.1 Kalphegor on 15 Sep 2005 - 22:48

same here

where is Pinball?

#4.2 IGx89 on 15 Sep 2005 - 22:54

Hopefully waiting for Beta 2 w/ DX10

#4.3 C-Fu on 16 Sep 2005 - 10:02

Wait for Vista Plus Edition mate

#4.4 TRC on 16 Sep 2005 - 18:44

The Pinball game in NT and the Plus packs was actually a stripped down version of Full Tilt! Pinball from Maxis. The full game contains three tables instead of just one. Maybe they didn't renew their right to include it or something.

#5 Boxster17 on 15 Sep 2005 - 22:48

Glad they're putting Mahjong, never played any other Windows games, but will be playing that one.

#6 JOEWARE on 15 Sep 2005 - 22:53

sweet

(6 replies) #7 bucko on 15 Sep 2005 - 22:55

Wait they develop legacy games instead of the operating system? What is Vista coming to? How about doing somthing usful like making a better firewall and system admin apps, taking out all the bugs so we don't have to use automatic updates, speed up the time it takes to boot up your computer, redesign the interface so it makes life easy then perhaps we would have time to play these games

oh and btw I use search about once a month wats the big deal most of you people must seriously have a lot of crap on your pc's.

#7.1 IGx89 on 15 Sep 2005 - 22:58

There's more than one person working on Vista, fyi...

#7.2 bucko on 15 Sep 2005 - 23:01

I think I figured that looking at all the games there making

#7.3 IGx89 on 15 Sep 2005 - 23:02

lol, smart response

#7.4 YaddaMe on 16 Sep 2005 - 01:13

Wait they develop legacy games instead of the operating system?
--------
I think I figured that looking at all the games there (sic) making

FWIW, they are responsible for zero (0) of these new games. These games are made by outside sources, and simply packaged along with Vista.

#7.5 megamanXplosion on 16 Sep 2005 - 01:48

How about doing somthing usful like making a better firewall

They've already done that.

and system admin apps

taking out all the bugs so we don't have to use automatic updates

They're already doing that (their bug database is open for beta testers to view, they've been squashing bugs at a really fast rate.) Also, you can't expect a product to be 100% bug free (the people creating the software are human afterall), automatic updates will always be needed.

speed up the time it takes to boot up your computer

redesign the interface so it makes life easy

then perhaps we would have time to play these games

Time's ticking.

#7.6 Smigit on 16 Sep 2005 - 08:28

besides you can only have so many people working on things until you begin to just loose efficiency. Too many cooks in the kitchen per say. As others said it wasnt even the OS guys that made em

#8 timdorr on 15 Sep 2005 - 22:58

Finally, the *real* reason why Vista's been so delayed!

#9 IGx89 on 15 Sep 2005 - 23:01

I know it's nitpicking Brad, but solitaire has an e at the end; someone must not play many games in the office

(3 replies) #10 Pwn3r on 15 Sep 2005 - 23:14

I don't know about any of you, but to me and many other end users, this is actually quite awesome. I mean what would you say if the old games were still around?

#10.1 J_R_G on 15 Sep 2005 - 23:18

We'd say MS sucks for not updating them, now we'll just say they shouldn't be wasting their time on games.

#10.2 Pwn3r on 15 Sep 2005 - 23:32

Why does everyone think Microsoft makes these games?

Plain and simple: Oberon in, Wes Cherry and the gang out.
Or has it always been them?

#10.3 megamanXplosion on 16 Sep 2005 - 01:53

Exactly. I look forward to playing Chess

#11 hotrod on 15 Sep 2005 - 23:35

Where's Texas Hold 'Em!!!!?????????

(2 replies) #12 neufuse on 15 Sep 2005 - 23:37

oh good greif, you guys complain about everything, graphic sare a waste of time, not enough graphics, too fancy, not fancy enough, now why they wasteing time on games sheesh...

you know these games came from the Microsoft Zone division of MS? No time from the OS division were wasted on them, so don't say they should of put the time into the OS when it was time that would of went to gaming anyways

#12.1 dannymp3 on 16 Sep 2005 - 00:08

Thank you. Glad someone said that.

Just can't satisfy people these days. Give them some, then want more. Give them more, and they want a LOT more. Greedy asses.

I like the games. I kinda' remember playing that mahjong game when I was in the single digit ages. Glad to see these games got updated to. Will give a nice touch to the OS. Plus, these are the type of things that impress most end users who buy Windows. It's not the performance they care about, it's how it looks!

#12.2 megamanXplosion on 16 Sep 2005 - 01:53

I second that. Thank you for posting.

#13 Shiranui on 16 Sep 2005 - 01:04

<snipped> Innappropriate?

Last edited by 33280 on 16 Sep 2005 - 01:49

#14 Joshie on 16 Sep 2005 - 01:50

I'm very happy to see a nice looking shanghai game. ^_^ I went through all kinds of trouble getting my hands on a copy of Shanghai: Second Dynasty a while back, which is still, in my opinion, the greatest way to play it on a computer. Too bad a no-cd patch was never made for it, tho.

Something about requiring a disc to play a game of solitaire that brings us one day closer to the apocalypse.

So yeah! And stop whining when you don't know anything! And yanno what? If you whine, and somebody schools you, acknowledge it! Buncha drive-by bashers. In a hurry to the next thread, eh? The world doesn't wait for retards.

(1 reply) #15 j0j081 on 16 Sep 2005 - 01:58

I wonder how many fps I will get in Solitare??? Probably not many now everything is gonna be 3D lol.

#15.1 machorro on 16 Sep 2005 - 13:52

i think you'll need a AGEIA card so you can manage all the physics of Solitaire

#16 xpgeek on 16 Sep 2005 - 02:18

The new Solitaire looks reallyyy nice, and that chess looks really great too.

#17 vlsi0n on 16 Sep 2005 - 02:36

good games are hold value (maybe not that cake one? lol what is that??

)

#18 Gergith on 16 Sep 2005 - 04:32

you dont understand how happy i am that mahjong's in windows now

a new game to install of my list of spider/solitare freecell, minesweeper, and now mahjong

(im sorry you can only play hearts soo many times....)

the next game i would request would be.... SUDOKU!!!!

but its awesome when things that have gone untouched for so long get a much needed update... its like when i got happier then all heck because of the new notepad

something as simple as ctrl-s shortcuts made me incredibly happy that and a replace dialog, both soo simple, but just always missing

so good job with this stuff

(2 replies) #19 GiB WaKeR on 16 Sep 2005 - 04:34

Wheres my ski game with the yetti that comes out and gets you if you go for too long?

#19.1 phedot on 16 Sep 2005 - 11:49

LOL That game was awesome!! I remember playing it when I was 8...

#19.2 Richardo on 16 Sep 2005 - 13:36

I remember this, so I downloaded it and played it..
how boring it is 13 years later...
SkiFree

I don't think a 3d overhaul could resurrect this game for vista.

#20 mr_demilord on 16 Sep 2005 - 06:55

Thank God Solitaire is still in Vista!

#21 Guol on 16 Sep 2005 - 07:53

not bad...glad to see theyre covering multiple areas in development...

(3 replies) #22 wicker_man on 16 Sep 2005 - 08:10

Some of the comments are so pathetic...as well as the "Solitaire looks impressive" comment under the screenshot. MS has been screwing with its users with the new OS releases for years claiming they were the best ever made. Indeed, but it's 2005 already and we got an updated solitaire only now, 10 years from its initial release?! Oh wait, we have to wait one more year until Vista is public. Half of the Vista's UI (i mean revamped games, 256x256 .png icons, etc) should have been in XP 4 years ago, you don't need Avalon to make them look like that. Shows as well how M-Dollar used to treat everyone, covering 10-year old crap with Luna interface, and now when they see OS X and Linux behind their back they are finally doing something (this is NOT a pro-Linux or pro-Apple post!) - this refers not just to games. About time I say, and I know I do have a point.

Last edited by 33280 on 16 Sep 2005 - 12:17

#22.1 SquareSoft0 on 16 Sep 2005 - 08:43

Please don't feed the trolls.

Last edited by 33280 on 16 Sep 2005 - 12:18

#22.2 bucko on 16 Sep 2005 - 20:49

I agree with you 110%

#22.3 PCyr on 17 Sep 2005 - 18:11

Please don't feed the trolls.

Last Edited by matt74441 on 16 Sep 2005 - 07:18

Well then matt, why not remove the comment if you agree it's trollish

#23 nmuibm04 on 16 Sep 2005 - 14:24

Alright two things...

First off: I'm glad to see these are actual games. Not some "connect to the internet to play". There are times where I CANNOT connect to the net, and to be told by my computer that "I need to connect to continue this operation" bites the big one. Yeah sure bandwith is cheap, but When you're on the go, you don't always have a 'net connection.

Second: Backwards compatibility... Will I be able to copy over pinball from my winXP machine and have it run ok?

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