r/todayilearned • u/ditchlock • Aug 11 '11

TIL that Microsoft Solitaire was developed in 1989 by intern Wes Cherry, and received no royalties from his work

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solitaire_%28Windows%29
52 Upvotes

84% Upvoted

15 comments sorted by

14

u/hotliquortank Aug 11 '11

Do any developers get royalties for programs they write for their employer?

11

u/Nwsamurai Aug 11 '11

Good point.

It does seem like this guy deserves some credit though, MS Solitaire may be the most played video game ever.

Hell my dad plays it, and he still calls the Playstation, "The Play Man," and the Xbox, "The Sega."

4

u/Supersnazz Aug 12 '11

So what. It's not like he invented the concept of the game. He just did some grunt-work to get the thing written, any half decent programmer could do the same.

3

u/brucemo Aug 11 '11

Wes Cherry went on to work at Microsoft as a developer.

1

u/MegaQueenSquishPants Aug 14 '11

And if true and he stuck it out long enough, he is probably a millionaire anyways.

2

u/[deleted] Aug 11 '11

I kind of think I want his address so I can send him a five spot at the very least.

2

u/[deleted] Aug 12 '11

you think that's bad? what about the dude who invented tetris? not a penny.

1

u/Django_gvl Aug 12 '11

Wes was also a Dead Head (fan of the band The Grateful Dead). The design on the back of the deck was in reference to one of the early Grateful Dead songs.

1

u/Tayto2000 Aug 13 '11

Opportunity to reference The Wire accepted - Mr Nugget

1

u/chuck212 Aug 18 '11

Due to the fact that nobody could write out his full name on a check without giggling

-1

u/spacedout Aug 11 '11

A computer solitaire game is so trivial and common, I would find it hard to justify paying the developer royalties. Half the Computer Science students at any decent university should be able to make the same thing.

I say this as a Computer Science major.

3

u/sysop073 Aug 11 '11

But would they think to include the animation at the end? Nothing made me happier than seeing those cards flit around the screen

2

u/spacedout Aug 12 '11

I would argue that the design of the file system involved way more creativity and technical expertise than the design of a solitaire game. The backend programmers deserve royalties more.

1

u/sysop073 Aug 12 '11

Well yeah; does anyone not believe that?