My family has a good computer. It has a fast processor, plenty of memory, an excellent graphics card, good speakers and a nice display. It can run the most high end computer games on the market. My parents use it to play Windows Solitaire. Why use a $3000+ machine to play a game that could be run on a pocket calculator?
Every day, people across the nation waste millions of processor cycles by clinging to these old and pedestrian games. Attempts to trick these people into playing the latest incarnation of Quake very rarely succeed. However, with the release of Extreme Windows Games, these insults to our modern and expensive technology will soon become a thing of the past.
In Extreme Solitaire, cards are no longer flat sprites moving around the gamespace, but thin, fully 3D models. When picked up and moved around, they flex slightly in accordance with a physics model factoring in gravity, air resistance and which part of the card you picked up (clicked on). Lighting is fully customizable, allowing the player to alter the number of lights, their type, positions, direction, focus, movement and color. The light is realistically reflected from the cards, the customizable gaming surface and the individual facets of the optional disco ball. The flex of the card in one's hand will also distort both the reflection of this light and the shadow it casts on the playing surface. The acoustic properties of the playing surface, be it wood, fabric, or otherwise, will also affect the soft rustle of the cards as they are moved. The view can be zoomed and rotated around all axes.
So too with the other games in the Extreme Windows Games series. In Extreme Minesweeper, a wrong step will not result in an x-eyed smiley face, but an intricately detailed lighting spectacular. Flames and debris burst outward as the expanding wave fronts detonate each mine in turn, accompanied by appropriate blasts of house-rattling bass. In Extreme Hearts, the expressions of your fully modeled virtual opponents will reflect hatred as the game turns in your favor, barely hidden by polite smiles. And should one manage to win any of these games, one will no longer be "rewarded" by a pack of hopping cards or a smug, sunglass-wearing smiley. Instead, one will be presented with an extravaganza of sound and graphical effects intense enough to bring all but the most high-end systems to their knees.-- Ebb, Jan 05 2003 Freecell 3D http://cgi.amberman...in/am/f3d/index.phpA step in the right direction [Ebb, Oct 06 2004] Pong http://www.atpm.com/7.10/images/pong3.jpg [Amos Kito, Oct 06 2004] Drug Design and Optimization Lab http://www.d2ol.com/Contribute your excess computer capacity towards working to discover drug candidates against Anthrax, Smallpox, and Ebola. [jvonr, Oct 06 2004] Other Distributed Computing Efforts http://www.aspenleaf.com/distributed/ [jvonr, Oct 06 2004] The antithesis http://www.tinywindowsgames.com/ [half, Oct 06 2004] Try seti@home, folding@home, climateprediction.net… Maybe it’s just me. I find those more fun (and meaningful) than solitaire or minesweeper regardless of graphics and they will certainly consume those unused CPU cycles.-- Shz, Jan 05 2003 Hang on... this guy's suggesting the indiscriminate use of software bloat! Fishbone!-- Corona688, Jan 06 2003 Yes, but it might be FUN. Or isn't that the point of computer games? (+) for the exploding minesweeper imagery.-- egbert, Jan 06 2003 id actually play a solitare game like that, just for the effects.-- ironfroggy, Jan 06 2003 You know, sometimes all you want is to play a quick game of solitaire while watching TV. I'm not sure waiting for a gigantic solitaire program to load would hold my interest enough. In comparison, loading up The Sims takes about five minutes, and that's completely worth it, considering I'll play it for quite awhile.-- lnyav, Jan 06 2003 Well, it seems rather like the "Freecell 3D" game linked to by the author, only a little more so. I'm not sure that's an idea, and it's difficult to believe there aren't games out there -- among the hundreds and hundreds of solitaire, minesweeper, hearts, etc. games -- that bake it more fully. If nothing else, modern tricked-out tetrises probably qualify.-- Monkfish, Jan 06 2003 The idea here is to maximize system resource utilization by making the graphics and sound requirements of already existing, very old games as intensive as possible. Why? They’re not that good to begin with.-- Shz, Jan 06 2003 Its the same principle as putting a spoiler and magwheels on a Yugo. The same tyrannical principle! Half a criossant. The other half for HOUSE RATTLING BASS!-- bungston, Jan 06 2003 I'd settle for a plethora of alternative simple games, like Tetris, Cascade, Chess, Pool & Doom III.-- FloridaManatee, Jan 06 2003 Well, it's not as if the extra effects would add anything to the game. They may seem exciting when you first use them, but I be t they get old fast.-- MadEwokHerd, May 05 2003 At $1.40 per gigabyte for hard disk and 18¢ a megabyte for premium RAM, "software bloat" ceases to have much meaning.-- bristolz, May 05 2003 This idea sounds cool, but wouldn't better games be more epick? I mean, why play Solitaire, when your computer comes with a more fully-rendered first-person shooter-- mks, May 05 2003 random, halfbakery