OK no one is going to buy a new operating system just because of the games that come with it. Well almost no one. But if you were then the games in Windows Vista might just do the trick. First the old games have been updated with really great graphics. The card games like FreeCell, Hearts and Solitaire hardly seem the same. The images of the cards and backgrounds are all new. The movement of the cards and background sounds are smoother, more modern and generally updated. Even Minesweeper has an updated look and bright new images.

And then there are the new games. Chess and Mahjong are two that adults and kids will like. The graphics again are outstanding. Chess gives you a choice of 10 levels. I can actually beat it at level 2. I'm working my way back up to adequate.

There is a new game called Purple Palace that is actually a collection of kids’ games. These are games, one of them is like mastermind, that will make kids think while they have fun. I think that parents will like seeing their kids play them. Even very young kids (not yet reading) can play some of them. Some parents are going to have to buy a second computer or wait until the little ones are in bed.

I’m not spending any time with these games of course. I am much too busy and grown up for that. But I felt that I should at least try them so that I could report on them to the rest of you. Yeah right. I enjoy playing games in idle moments or while waiting for airplanes to arrive (done that a lot lately) or just to unwind. The new and updated games in Vista are really going to make that sort of down time easier to handle for me. And if simple games like these look so much better I can’t wait to see what more serious games are going to look like. Vista may become the PC game engine.