Number 20: Solitaire

Quick: What is the most used computer application in the world? If you said Solitaire, you win a bucket of fried chicken. Bill Gates has told us that more people use solitaire than any other program included with windows. This seems to suggest something very negative about our culture/civilization, although I'm not sure what. Post your thoughts in the comments.

The pleasures of solitaire are simple. It's accessible, easy to understand, and requires little time, yet is just complex enough to be interesting. How many computer games can you say that about?

And who can't say that they have felt a vague sense of release and returning boredom after watching the cards bounce around the screen after winning a hand? Just think of how much slight joy those bouncing cards have brought to millions of people who only moments earlier were bored.


Oddly, no other top PC games list I read included this game. Millions of people have played it; I'd estimate more than 20 percent of the world's population. How does that not deserve a spot on a great games list. And any game that has surely been responsible for numerous firings and countless lost hours of work has to be considered an incredible achievement. I mean, this has to be the 2nd biggest killer of productivity for the world behind the internet. Considering how many evil corporations exist in the world that have lost millions of dollars because of this simple game, well, that deserves a noble peace prize in my book.

If only windows hadn't made that unfortunate sequel . . .

The Top 20 PC Games of All Time

Have you ever read one of those lists of the top 20 or 10 or 100 PC games of all time at some internet website? Well, in my quest to be a real American hero, I'm going to be counting down the top 20 PC games of all time on our fabulous blog one post at a time just like those big name websites. In my preparatory research, I have noticed most of the other lists have two common themes.

Firstly, they have major gaps. Some only focus on first person shooters and strategy games leaving other genres in the cold or with only a token mention. Most lists leave out older games and adventure games in addition to whatever kind of game the author of the list was ignorant about despite being a site that is supposed an expert opinion.

Secondly, every list acts like it is the definitive list of PC games because they are experts of unquestioned authority. There are so many thousands of PC games in existence going back decades. How could anyone have played a quarter of these games in depth? Yet, because these "experts" can beat their friends at Crysis, they feel like they are the authority on all computer games. It would be nice if at least one list would point out what an absurd and complicated task it is to narrow down the best PC games of all time.

Any idiot can throw every game ever made by Blizzard, a bunch of first person shooters, and The Sims and call it the greatest games, but who will actually go out on a limb and say that their list is total unresearched, impulsive bullshit? Me. I haven't even played many of the games on this list and am not even going to try to base my list on any kind of objective or logical criteria. Instead, I've made my choices because these are the games I felt like putting on my list and if you don't like it, make your own list.

Honorable Mention - Mr. Mayank's SAT Preparation Challenge (1987)

That's right, I'm starting with an SAT preparation game. And a damn good one. Where else can you see your cacti garden grow as you answer SAT questions correctly? Mr. Mayank, an ordinary high school guidance counselor, unfortunately did not sell many copies of this game, but not for the lack of trying. Every weekend he had his booth set up at the flee market and would often position his students in front of grocery stores to compete with the girl scouts. Unfortunately, Mr. Mayank died in a drug overdose in 1998, but his legacy lives on both in this game and in the beautiful cactus garden Joey has grown in an abandoned building to honor his memory.