Microsoft Entertainment Pack 3

Overview

Microsoft Entertainment Pack 3 (also known as Microsoft Entertainment Pack: Volume Three) is a game compilation developed and published by Microsoft for Windows PCs in 1991.

The third in the Microsoft Entertainment Pack series (and the sequel to Microsoft Entertainment Pack 2), Entertainment Pack 3 features seven new games and the inclusion of the IdleWild screensaver program (with eight exclusive screensavers).

SkiFree, TetraVex, and TriPeaks were later included in the Best of Microsoft Entertainment Pack compilation. LifeGenesis, SkiFree, and TriPeaks were also ported to the Game Boy Color as part of the compilation's handheld port, while WordZap as released separate Game Boy game.

Games Included

• Fuji Golf (Chiki Nagai & ANK Co.) - A behind-the-back golf simulation game, where players play 18 holes of a fictional golf course in a tournament with 39 other fake players. Like other golf simulation games, players must navigate each hole and adjust to both wind and terrain in order to complete the course in as few strokes as they can.

• Klotski (ZH Computer Corp.) - A tile-based sliding block puzzle game, where players must push blocks of different shapes and sizes around the playfield (in cardinal directions only) in order to get the "master block" to its goal. The game includes 36 puzzles, including variations of the original puzzle.

• LifeGenesis (Jim Horne) - A tile-based puzzle and simulation game based on the Game of Life model. In addition to the "Life" mode (which is a customizable simulation of the cellular automaton, including examples), it includes an original turn-based game where players (as blue) attempt to use the simulation's rules to remove all red squares on a 15x15 board while a computer player tries to do the reverse. Each turn has both players adding their own tile while removing an enemy tile, and then the game performs a "step" of the simulation's rules.

• SkiFree (Chris Pirih) - A skiing simulator where players guide a skier down a vast mountainside, avoiding obstacles and using ramps to perform stunts. In addition to a Free-Style path, the game includes two slalom run paths (Slalom and Tree Slalom) where they are scored by properly skiing around flags.

• TetraVex (Scott Ferguson) - A tile-based puzzle game where players are given a tray of tiles, each tile having a symbol on each of its four edges, and must place all of them on a square grid where each tile's edge matches the edge of the adjacent tile (similar to a traditional game of dominoes).

• TriPeaks (Robert Hogue) - A solitaire card game where 28 cards are stacked in three four-level overlapping "pyramids" (or "peaks") and only the bottom-most cards are shown. Players must remove as many cards from the peaks as they can by forming a sequence of rank, then drawing a new card from the pile of remaining 24 cards to reset the sequence. The game is score-based and is focused on repeated plays, where higher sequences give better score.

• WordZap (Michael F. C. Crick) - A word game similar to Boggle, where two players (one of whom can be an AI opponent) race to make proper 3-5 letter English words from a group of 15 letters (in which each letter must be adjacent to the previous one in the word bank). An optional "EasyZap" mode brings it down to 8 letters and removes the adjacency rule. Words that both players have spelled are made invalid ("zapped"). The first to make seven words, or the player with the most words after 35 seconds of nobody completing a word, wins the round. Unlike other games in the series, WordZap supports networked multiplayer (via null-modem cable).

IdleWild Modules

• Boat Race (Tony Kreuger)
• Chomp (Ed Halley)
• Divide & Conquer (Tony Kreuger)
• Fade Away (Tony Kreuger)
• IconBownz! (Doug Timpe)
• Oriental Rug (Tony Kreuger)
• Tinfoil (Ed Halley)
• Trails (Michael Gates)