Microsoft Entertainment Pack 2

Overview

Microsoft Entertainment Pack 2 (also known as Microsoft Entertainment Pack: Volume Two) is a game compilation developed and published by Microsoft for Windows PCs in 1991.

The sequel to Microsoft Entertainment Pack for Windows, Entertainment Pack 2 features seven new games (including a port of LucasArts's Pipe Dream) and the inclusion of the IdleWild screensaver program (with eight exclusive screensavers).

One game in this compilation, FreeCell, is notable for being included in most releases of the Microsoft Windows operating system from Windows NT 3.1 to Windows 7. The game, along with Pipe Dream, Rodent's Revenge, and Tut's Tomb, was later included in the Best of Microsoft Entertainment Pack compilation. FreeCell and Tut's Tomb were also ported to the Game Boy Color as part of the compilation's handheld port.

Games Included

• FreeCell (Jim Horne) - A solitaire card game where players have access to eight cascades (four with 7 cards and four with 6 cards, all of which are face-up) and must attempt to move all cards to the four "home cells" (one for each suit) in order, similar to traditional Klondike solitaire.

• JigSawed (Tito Messerli) - A simple jigsaw puzzle game, where players can load any image they want (although five are included), scramble it into multiple pieces of five different configurations (none of which have the traditional interlocking shapes), and attempt to re-assemble the pieces into the original image (while being timed).

• Pipe Dream (Wes Cherry) - A tile-based puzzle game where players must construct a continuous pipeline with sections of pipes given to them as a green goo flows through it in real-time, attempting to have the goo pass through a certain amount of tiles before it hits an invalid opening. Similar to Tetris in the first Entertainment Pack, Pipe Dream is a licensed video game port.

• Rattler Race (Christopher Lee Fraley) - An action game (and part of the "snake game" sub-genre) where players control the head of a hungry snake as they try to eat all the apples in the playfield and reach the exit before the timer elapses. Along the way, they must avoid various hazards, including walled mazes, other snakes, bouncing balls, and their own body (as it grows from eating).

• Rodent's Revenge (Christopher Lee Fraley) - A real-time tile-based puzzle game where players guide a mouse through a playfield full of pushable blocks and attempt to trap enemy cats by surrounding them in all directions (cardinal and diagonal) with blocks. Along the way, they earn points by eating cheese dropped by trapped cats, must work against a timer (which spawns new cats in the playfield), and must avoid various obstacles (including the cats that chase them, mouse traps, sinkholes, and balls of yarn).

• Stones (Michael C. Miller) - A puzzle game where players must place textured "stones" given to them on a 10x10 board based on their three differentiating attributes (such as their foreground and background colors and their symbol) and attempt to fill up the entire board. Each stone can only be placed next to another stone, and only if each adjacent stone matches it in at least two of the three attributes (with special "wild stones" matching automatically).

• Tut's Tomb (Rick Laplante w/ W. Nolder and D. Schiele) - A solitaire card game similar to traditional Pyramid solitaire, where 28 cards are stacked in a 7-level "Pyramid". Players attempt to remove all cards from the pyramid by matching cards whose ranks add up to 13 (including cards from the remaining 24 card pile, or "Stock") in order to win the game. Similar to Microsoft Solitaire, the game includes multiple scoring options (Standard and Casino), an optional timer, and the choice between "draw one" and "draw three" for the Stock.

IdleWild Modules

• Bricks (Ed Halley)
• Life (Bradford Christian)
• Mandelbrot (Matthew Bellew)
• Spider Web (Tony Kreuger)
• Spotlights (Tony Kreuger)
• Stretch (Tony Kreuger)