Why did the Microsoft Entertainment Pack for Windows have a special sticker announcing that it also had Tetris?
The first Microsoft Entertainment Pack for Windows didn’t have a number after its name because it was the first one, and nobody knew that there were going to be any sequels.¹
It may not have had a big number 1 on the box, but initial runs did have a bright red sticker that said, “Now includes TETRIS for Windows!” There was no mention of Tetris anywhere else on the box. Why did it announce the inclusion of Tetris only with a sticker?
Because at the time the first run of boxes were being printed, the negotiations to license Tetris hadn’t yet concluded. There was a chance that the negotiations would fall through, and the Entertainment Pack would have to be released without Tetris.
Rather than including Tetris on the box art and risking having to destroy a production run of boxes if the license couldn’t be acquired in time, the decision was made to produce boxes that omitted any screen shots or even a mention of Tetris. In anticipation of the deal coming to a satisfactory conclusion, they did have a run of red stickers on standby. When the deal was completed, the “Now includes TETRIS for Windows!” stickers were applied to the already-made boxes.
Later runs of the product box incorporated the Tetris sticker into the box art, and even called itself “Microsoft Entertainment Pack 1” and suggested that you try out “other volumes of Microsoft Entertainment Pack for Windows” because packs 2 through 4 had already been released by then.
So I guess that means that if you have a copy of Microsoft Entertainment Pack for Windows with the Tetris sticker, you have an ultra-rare copy, like the original Windows 95 box with a hologram of a shirtless baby.
Bonus chatter: Other sticker shenanigans.
¹ Just like how World War I was initially called “The Great War”. If you had called it “World War I” from the outset, people would look at you funny, like “Do you know something I don’t?”
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- \> If you had called it “World War I” from the outset, people would look at you funny, like “Do you know something I don’t?” This is why my son is called “God’s Gift to Computing, the Second”.
- Raymond, regarding your Bonus Chatter point about the Great War and World War I (and now I admit to being way off topic of your original post), when Cardinal Luciani was elected pope of the Catholic Church in 1978, he took the name John Paul I, even though by normal convention, it would have been John Paul. He only served as pope for 33 days before dying in office. Since his successor, Cardinal Wojtyła, subsequently took John Paul II, some wondered if John Paul I perhaps knew ahead of time that he was not going to live long... Read more Raymond, regarding your Bonus Chatter point about the Great War and World War I (and now I admit to being way off topic of your original post), when Cardinal Luciani was elected pope of the Catholic Church in 1978, he took the name John Paul I, even though by normal convention, it would have been John Paul. He only served as pope for 33 days before dying in office. Since his successor, Cardinal Wojtyła, subsequently took John Paul II, some wondered if John Paul I perhaps knew ahead of time that he was not going to live long and also that a “John Paul II” was coming right after him. (There are other credible theories out there as to why he put the “I” in the title.) Pope Francis, on the other hand, didn’t title himself “Pope Francis I”. Read less
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Raymond has been involved in the evolution of Windows for more than 30 years. In 2003, he began a Web site known as The Old New Thing which has grown in popularity far beyond his wildest imagination, a development which still gives him the heebie-jeebies. The Web site spawned a book, coincidentally also titled The Old New Thing (Addison Wesley 2007). He occasionally appears on the Windows Dev Docs Twitter account to tell stories which convey no useful information.
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