How Bill Gates’ Minesweeper addiction helped lead to the Xbox

Enlarge / These little numbers helped launch a gaming revolution at corporate-focused Microsoft of the early '90s. (credit: Microsoft / Reddit)

Ars Technica Senior Gaming Editor Kyle Orland has written the definitive book on the history of Minesweeper. In this exclusive excerpt, he takes you back to the Microsoft of the early '90s, where the game got its hooks into countless employees (including a certain CEO) and helped convince the company that Windows gaming might be a thing after all...

Kyle Orland's Minesweeper is available for pre-purchase as part of the Boss Fight Books Season 6 Kickstarter.

The early Windows version of Minesweeper became an instant hit on Microsoft's internal network when it released in 1990, according to people who worked there at the time.

“We never had to work very hard to find testers,” said Libby Duzan Nuttall, who served as Microsoft’s lead product manager for entertainment in the '90s. “It was one of those things where you would walk down the hall and you’d see it… on people's computers. At that time at Microsoft, people were staying late into the night, so you’d see people taking breaks, 9 o’clock at night, playing a round of Minesweeper.”

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