Games and applications for Windows Live Messenger
There are various games avilable in Windows Live Messenger that can be accessed via the conversation window by clicking the games icon and challenging your "buddy".
Tic-Tac-Toe Classic
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Tic-Tac-Toe is a game where you place your letter (either a X or a O) on part of the bord, A board is made up of 9 squares and the aim of the game is to complete a 3 across (across, down/up or diagonally)
Solitaire Showdown
Template:Catmore1 MSN Messenger versions 6 onwards contains this game (in the Games menu), based on the original Solitaire in Windows. It is online, 2 player, and features 2 decks (a triple deck, and a special 13-card pile). Each player must race to remove cards of the special 13-card pile, and put their cards on the shared piles/suit stacks (e.g. putting an ace of any suit on the pile, but putting 2's of a suit may only be possible after the ace of the suit is currently on the pile, not covered by any other cards). There are eight different suit stacks possible. Other differences between this and normal Solitaire, is that not just Kings, but any card can be put on a blank row stack, and there are four black row stacks to put on instead of seven. The game ends if one player removes all cards of the 13-card pile, or when both players are "stuck" and cannot remove/put up any more cards, and manually end the game using the End Game button.
Scoring
Putting a card up on the suit stack gives 1 point, while removing a card from the 13-card pile (i.e. putting such a card on one of the row stacks) will give 2 points (hence it is also possible to get 3 points by directly putting a card from the 13-card pile on to the suit stacks).
Checkers
A standard two-player game of checkers.
Bejeweled
Template:Catmore1 A two-player game where pairs of jewels on a playfield are switched to arrange three or more in a line of the same colour therefore removing them from the game. It is played in real time and individually, with scores being compared at the end.
Minesweeper Flags
Template:Catmore1 In a twist on the original game, players must now locate flags and whoever has found the most by the end wins (i.e. the first person to get 26 or more mines wins). There are 51 mines on the map. If you find a flag you get to continue, otherwise it becomes your opponent's turn. Players get the one-off option to "bomb" a 5x5 area if they are losing, and get all the flags in that area (hence it is possible to get more than 26 mines).
Other Games
Other "Instant Games" include: Jewel Quest, Mahjong Quest, Quarto, Backgammon, 7 Hand Poker, Mah Jong Tiles, Tic Tac Toe, Polar Express Bejeweled, Cubis, Hexic and Mozaki Blocks.
Third-party games
A number of additional third-party games have also been made available through use of various patches (eg. MSN Custom Games Patch), which change where the game information is requested via HTTP by the client.