My name is Neil, and I am a Solitaire addict.

The Start Menu says it all really. Admittedly, it doesn’t include any of the apps in quicklaunch, which arguably are used more often, but it’s a sorry picture.
It was never always this way though. Personally I blame dial-up internet. I came to university in September 2002 after nearly a year on broadband, and suddenly I had to wait while my computer dialed up to the internet. Now, on any good ISP, that takes a minute tops. But the university’s own access was heavily over-subscribed – 240 lines for, well, a lot of students. So, consequently, it was often engaged. At its worst, it could take 100 redials and over half an hour before I could get connected.
So what did I do in those anxious minutes? I played games. First it was Spider Solitaire, but after I while, I got bored of that, so it’s been Solitaire now for the past 18 months. Minesweeper pops in occasionally too, although since you can’t pause it I tend not to play that so much. Recently, Freecell has appeared in there too.
In fact, to widen my scope, I dug out Microsoft’s Best of Entertainment pack, which I bought years ago (it came on a floppy disk copyrighted in 1994), and installed that, so that I had games like Chip’s Challenge, Golf, Taipei, Tut’s Tomb and Tripeaks to keep me occupied.
The worrying thing is, as soon as I have to wait for something, either because I’m downloading a file or installing for some software, I get a reflex action to reach for a game. Even at home, where I get broadband. It’s scary.
Obviously I could play better games – I’ve got Worms Armageddon on here for example – but they’re not games you can flit between while working on something else. In any case, I hope this is an addiction I can overcome. You can get credibility saying that you’re good at playing Counterstrike, but say that you can complete a game of Solitaire with Vegas scoring makes you sound like a total nerd.

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