Thursday, March 28, 2013

The Beginning of Tournament Games


Tournament Games was the brain-child of Jack Pearson in 1997 and began with the sole purpose of allowing player to compete with each other in games of skill. Starting with only one game, Tournament Solitaire, the website was launched to the public. The idea for Tournament Solitaire began with the release of a classic console arcade game called Solitaire Challenge which was developed by Pearson as well and released to the public in 1994. The game allowed two people to compete against each other in a competition of skill while playing solitaire. Later in 1995, a newer version was released called Tournament Solitaire. Also a classic console game, Tournament Solitaire allowed the competition to extend beyond two players to an unlimited amount of competitors. Players would enter the competition at any point during a seven day long competition and at the end of the week, the player with the highest score was declared the winner and the next tournament began.

At the time of the Tournament Games website’s launch, the internet was in its infancy. Pearson took his idea of Tournament Solitaire modified the current version to be available on the World Wide Web. The console version was the first game of its kind to offer competition between players without the need for the players to be at the same place at the same time. Similarly, the resulting internet version of Tournament Solitaire presented the option of competing against other players while never having to leave the comfort of their homes. Since that time, Tournament Games has introduced new games into the tournaments and developed software that allowed for in-browser game play with no need for a download.

Tournaments are now available on multiple platforms including the downloaded and in-browser versions of their online games for PC. Integration of their tournaments for Android Devices and Facebook are now available, and branching into the realm of Apple platform devices is currently being discussed. As always, Tournament Games holds to the philosophy of Quality over Quantity. A new game may not be released each week, as with some online game companies, however each online game released will undoubtedly hold up to the highest caliber standards of gaming experience possible.