Before Angry Birds and Candy Crush, there was Solitaire and Minesweeper.

在《愤怒的小鸟》和《糖果粉碎传奇》流行之前，《纸牌》和《扫雷》才是热门游戏。

But despite many people believing they were welcome little distractions¹ from whatever task you were supposed to be doing, the makers² of Microsoft Windows say they were actually developed to teach people how to use computers.

尽管许多人觉得它们是工作之余怡情的小娱乐，但微软Windows系统的开发者说这两个游戏其实是设计来教人们使用电脑的。

While many believe that Solitaire was designed to flaunt³ an interactive⁴ digital deck of cards, the game was actually created to familiarize computer users with the 'drag and drop' feature of the mouse.

许多人以为《纸牌》是Windows用来炫耀交互式数字化纸牌的，其实它的出现是为了让电脑用户熟悉鼠标的拖放功能。

Solitaire is a card game that has existed since the late 1700s and is the oldest Windows game and dates back to the 3.0 version released in 1990.

《纸牌》是从18世纪晚期就存在的一种牌戏，也是Windows上最古老的游戏，于1990年和Windows 3.0版本一同发行。

Minesweeper, the logic-based game, originally made its first appearance in the late 1960s but was introduced on the Windows 3.1 version in 1992.

《扫雷》则是一款逻辑游戏，于20世纪60年代后期面世，但直到1992年才在Windows 3.1版本中出现。

Microsoft say that Windows developers wanted users to develop speed and precision when using the mouse and making left and right clicks a natural habit.

微软公司称Windows开发者想要用户在使用鼠标点击时能做到快而精准，并使点击鼠标左右键成为人们的习惯性动作。

Hearts, introduced on 1992's Windows for Workgroups 3.1 - the first version built for networks - was there to get people introduced in networking: you could communicate with other Hearts clients on a LAN.

《红心大战》于1992年在Windows for Workgroups（WFW） 3.1中亮相，WFW是第一个联网的Windows版本，而《红心大战》就是为了让人们了解联网功能：在局域网中你可以和《红心大战》的其他玩家交流。

According to Mental Floss, the games not only taught people how to use the computer without realizing it, but they also saw users become familiar with the operating system.

美国杂志《Mental Floss》称，这些游戏不仅在潜移默化之中教会用户如何使用电脑，还让他们熟悉了Windows操作系统。

In fact, the games were so successful that every time Microsoft tried to remove them, they were met with protests from testers of the new OS.

事实上，这些游戏大获成功，以至于微软公司每次试图从新版操作系统里移除它们时，就会遭到参与新系统测试的人员的反对。

In 2012 Microsoft released Windows 8, which didn't have the classic games. People could download them, but Solitaire and Minesweeper didn't come bundled.

2012年，微软公司发行Windows 8，该系统不再自带这几款经典游戏。用户可以自行下载，但《纸牌》和《扫雷》并不是绑定的。

But perhaps Microsoft has realized its mistake because it is bringing back Solitaire for Windows 10.

不过也许微软公司已经意识到此举失误，所以在Windows 10里人们将得以再次看到《纸牌》的身影。

The new Windows 10 is the first iteration that doesn't come with them pre-installed but, you can still download them from the Windows Store, essentially⁵ the games way of teaching you how to download software.

新的Windows 10是第一款没有预装这些游戏的系统，但你还是可以从Windows应用商店中下载，此时这些游戏的本质使命就是为了教你如何下载软件。