There were various games and

applications Application may refer to: Mathematics and computing * Application software, computer software designed to help the user to perform specific tasks ** Application layer, an abstraction layer that specifies protocols and interface methods used in a c ...

available in

Windows Live Messenger MSN Messenger (also known colloquially simply as "Messenger"), later rebranded as Windows Live Messenger, was a cross-platform instant messaging client, instant-messaging client developed by Microsoft. It connected to the Microsoft Messenger ser ...

that could be accessed via the conversation window by clicking the games icon and challenging a "buddy".

Games

Tic-Tac-Toe

Tic-Tac-Toe is a game where the player places a letter (either an X or an O) on part of the board, which consists of a 3×3 grid. The aim of the game is to complete 3 squares in a row, either vertically, horizontally, or diagonally.

Solitaire Showdown

This game, included since MSN Messenger version 6, is based on the Solitaire game that is part of 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 are 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. This game is similar to the game

nertz Nerts (US), or Racing Demon (UK) is a fast-paced multiplayer card game involving multiple decks of playing cards. It is often described as a competitive form of Patience or Solitaire. In the game, players or teams race to get rid of the cards in th ...

Checkers

A standard two-player game of checkers.

Bejeweled

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

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. Finding a flag allows the player to continue; otherwise it becomes their opponent's turn. Players get the one-off option to "bomb" a 5×5 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 included: Play Games Today on Windows Live Messenger!
3D Tic-Tac-Toe,

Jewel Quest ''Jewel Quest'' is a Tile-matching video game, tile-matching puzzle video game created and published by iWin. First released for Windows, it has been redeveloped for Symbian S60, the Nintendo DS (as ''Jewel Quest: Expeditions''), the Xbox 360's X ...

, Mahjong Quest,

Quarto Quarto (abbreviated Qto, 4to or 4º) is the format of a book or pamphlet produced from full sheets printed with eight pages of text, four to a side, then folded twice to produce four leaves. The leaves are then trimmed along the folds to produc ...

Backgammon Backgammon is a two-player board game played with counters and dice on tables boards. It is the most widespread Western member of the large family of tables games, whose ancestors date back nearly 5,000 years to the regions of Mesopotamia and Pe ...

, 7 Hand Poker, Mah Jong Tiles, All Star Bowling, Bumper Stars, Flowerz, Jigsaw Too, Cubis,

Hexic ''Hexic'' is a 2003 Tile-matching video game, tile-matching Puzzle video game, puzzle video game developed by Carbonated Games for various platforms. In Hexic, the player tries to rotate hexagonal tiles to create certain patterns. The game is av ...

, Mozaki Blocks, Sudoku Too, Uno, Worms, Tic-A-Tac Poker, BrainBattle, Reversi, Rock-Paper-Scissors, Luxor, and You-Know-It! Trivia. A number of additional

third-party Third party may refer to: Business * Third-party source, a supplier company not owned by the buyer or seller * Third-party beneficiary, a person who could sue on a contract, despite not being an active party * Third-party insurance, such as a Veh ...

games have also been built using th
Messenger Activity SDK
An overview of third party activities is available o
gallery.live.com

Applications

Whiteboard

Whiteboard opens up a program that looks like Microsoft Paint, but it is shared through two users. They can see what each other draws. This Whiteboard also supports different pages, to allow drawing across many different pages. It is not compatible with Windows Vista. See

Whiteboarding Whiteboarding when used in the context of computing, is the placement of shared files on an on-screen shared notebook or whiteboard. Videoconferencing and data conferencing software often lets documents as on a physical whiteboard. Whiteboardi ...

. This is from

Microsoft NetMeeting Microsoft NetMeeting is a discontinued VoIP and multi-point videoconferencing client included in many versions of Microsoft Windows (from Windows 95 OSR2 to Windows Vista). It uses the H.323 protocol for videoconferencing, and is interoperable wit ...

, This will be disabled if people disable NetMeeting in

Windows Setup Windows Setup is an installer that prepares a hard disk drive for a Microsoft Windows operating system installation by executing two processes: a) initializing the drive and b) copying system files to that drive in order for the operating syst ...

Application Sharing

Application Sharing allows two computers to share an application over the network. This is usually a smaller application, as most computers cannot handle large programs on two systems at once. This is from

, This will be disabled if people disable NetMeeting in

Web browser

Windows Live Messenger includes an

Internet Explorer Internet Explorer (formerly Microsoft Internet Explorer and Windows Internet Explorer, commonly abbreviated IE or MSIE) is a series of graphical user interface, graphical web browsers developed by Microsoft which was used in the Microsoft Wind ...

-based web browser that can be started when using the

Encarta ''Microsoft Encarta'' is a discontinued digital multimedia encyclopedia published by Microsoft from 1993 to 2009. Originally sold on CD-ROM or DVD, it was also available on the World Wide Web via an annual subscription, although later articles ...

robot.

Remote Assistance

Remote Assistance is a feature of

Windows XP Windows XP is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. It was released to manufacturing on August 24, 2001, and later to retail on October 25, 2001. It is a direct upgrade to its predecessors, Windows 2000 for high-end and ...

and

Windows Vista Windows Vista is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was the direct successor to Windows XP, which was released five years before, at the time being the longest time span between successive releases of ...

which is integrated with Windows Live Messenger. It allows one person to "take control" of the other's computer (with their permission) and is intended for offering computer assistance to friends and family on other computers.

References

{{Windows Live Windows Live es:Anexo:Juegos y aplicaciones para Windows Live Messenger