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Microsoft Hearts
Hearts, also known as Microsoft Hearts and The Microsoft Hearts Network, is a trick-taking computer game included with Microsoft Windows. Based on the card game Hearts, it was first introduced in Windows 3.1 in 1992 and appeared in every version of the operating system until Windows 7.
Originally designed to showcase Microsoft's NetDDE networking technology, the game allows for both single-player against computer opponents and multiplayer over a local network. While the game's title refers to the Hearts family of games, the mechanics specifically follow the Black Lady variant. The game was eventually succeeded by Internet Hearts in later Windows versions before being removed entirely in Windows 8.
Hearts was first included in Windows with Windows for Workgroups 3.11, Microsoft's first "network-ready" version of Windows, released in 1992, which included a new networking technology that Microsoft called NetDDE. Microsoft used Hearts to showcase the new NetDDE technology by enabling multiple players to play simultaneously across a computer network. This legacy could be seen in the original title bar name for the program, "The Microsoft Hearts Network" (although network play was removed in the Windows XP version).
Hearts would later be renamed Internet Hearts, and included in Windows Me and subsequent versions of Windows, but was absent in all Windows NT-based OSes prior to Windows XP including Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000. From the 'Help' menu, Hearts offered a quotation from Shakespeare's famous play, Julius Caesar (act III, scene ii): "I come not, friends, to steal away your hearts...". Later versions of Windows starting with Vista removed this quotation.
Hearts is not included with Windows 8, 10 or 11. As part of the operating system, it is deleted upon upgrading to Windows 10 from an earlier version.
On The Microsoft Hearts Network for Windows for Workgroups 3.1, the default opponent names are Anna, Lynda, and Terri. In later versions, the three default opponent names, Pauline, Michele, and Ben, were specified by the program's developer. One is the spouse of a Microsoft employee who found a program bug, one was a Microsoft employee who resigned in 1995, and one is an employee's child who frequented the Microsoft worksite. The names are not used in the Windows Vista version of the game, instead favoring the three cardinal directions that the computer players pertain to depending on their side of the window ("West", "North", and "East"). This version of the game no longer prompts for a player name to be entered at startup, and instead uses the name of the currently logged-in user account as the player name.
Gameplay follows the rules of a version of the Black Lady variant of Hearts. When the game is first loaded, the user is prompted for their name, and then the game begins. The computer uses all three hands against the player. The game ends when at least one player has 100 or more points at the end of a hand. The winner is the one who has the fewest points.
The user is given thirteen pseudo-random playing cards, and selects any three of them to pass. For the first hand, cards are passed to the left; for the second, to the right; for the third, across; and for the fourth, the passing stage is skipped entirely, and the players keep (or "eat") their cards. On the fifth hand, the cycle starts again, passing to the left. In any case, after passing three cards, the players receive three cards, and play begins.
Hub AI
Microsoft Hearts AI simulator
(@Microsoft Hearts_simulator)
Microsoft Hearts
Hearts, also known as Microsoft Hearts and The Microsoft Hearts Network, is a trick-taking computer game included with Microsoft Windows. Based on the card game Hearts, it was first introduced in Windows 3.1 in 1992 and appeared in every version of the operating system until Windows 7.
Originally designed to showcase Microsoft's NetDDE networking technology, the game allows for both single-player against computer opponents and multiplayer over a local network. While the game's title refers to the Hearts family of games, the mechanics specifically follow the Black Lady variant. The game was eventually succeeded by Internet Hearts in later Windows versions before being removed entirely in Windows 8.
Hearts was first included in Windows with Windows for Workgroups 3.11, Microsoft's first "network-ready" version of Windows, released in 1992, which included a new networking technology that Microsoft called NetDDE. Microsoft used Hearts to showcase the new NetDDE technology by enabling multiple players to play simultaneously across a computer network. This legacy could be seen in the original title bar name for the program, "The Microsoft Hearts Network" (although network play was removed in the Windows XP version).
Hearts would later be renamed Internet Hearts, and included in Windows Me and subsequent versions of Windows, but was absent in all Windows NT-based OSes prior to Windows XP including Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000. From the 'Help' menu, Hearts offered a quotation from Shakespeare's famous play, Julius Caesar (act III, scene ii): "I come not, friends, to steal away your hearts...". Later versions of Windows starting with Vista removed this quotation.
Hearts is not included with Windows 8, 10 or 11. As part of the operating system, it is deleted upon upgrading to Windows 10 from an earlier version.
On The Microsoft Hearts Network for Windows for Workgroups 3.1, the default opponent names are Anna, Lynda, and Terri. In later versions, the three default opponent names, Pauline, Michele, and Ben, were specified by the program's developer. One is the spouse of a Microsoft employee who found a program bug, one was a Microsoft employee who resigned in 1995, and one is an employee's child who frequented the Microsoft worksite. The names are not used in the Windows Vista version of the game, instead favoring the three cardinal directions that the computer players pertain to depending on their side of the window ("West", "North", and "East"). This version of the game no longer prompts for a player name to be entered at startup, and instead uses the name of the currently logged-in user account as the player name.
Gameplay follows the rules of a version of the Black Lady variant of Hearts. When the game is first loaded, the user is prompted for their name, and then the game begins. The computer uses all three hands against the player. The game ends when at least one player has 100 or more points at the end of a hand. The winner is the one who has the fewest points.
The user is given thirteen pseudo-random playing cards, and selects any three of them to pass. For the first hand, cards are passed to the left; for the second, to the right; for the third, across; and for the fourth, the passing stage is skipped entirely, and the players keep (or "eat") their cards. On the fifth hand, the cycle starts again, passing to the left. In any case, after passing three cards, the players receive three cards, and play begins.