History
Hearts was first included in Windows with Windows for Workgroups 3.1, Microsoft's first "network-ready" version of Windows released in Autumn 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".
Hearts continued to be included in subsequent versions of Windows, although it 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 quote 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 feature, and changed the title bar name to "Hearts" (network play was also removed in the Windows XP version).
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 that frequented the Microsoft work site. The names are not used in the Windows Vista version of the game.
Read more about this topic: Hearts (Windows)
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