Simple Games to Play on Your Windows PC
On-screen games are one of the most popular activities for computer users, whether playing online through your web browser or playing games installed from desktop computer software discs.
Following below are some quick notes and updates on computer game sources that might relate to your own interests.
My own game routine is to get in a daily mix of "brain exercise" rotating between crossword, sudoku, solitaire and jigsaws.
A few of my frequent game stops:
AARP's game section at https://games.aarp.org/ is a widely used online hub for seniors, which I use a lot myself.
Boatload Puzzles at https://www.boatloadpuzzles.com/ is a popular online game site also, which I enjoy particularly for its free easy-to-play crossword puzzles.
Recently I started with sudoku, a simple numbers type of puzzle, and https://sudoku.com has a nice interface for free play.
I've played around a bit also on Luminosity at https://www.lumosity.com/ . That website is a bit more focused than others on programmed mental exercises.
Microsoft game apps:
Windows 10 users are migrating more and more to the games available as apps from the Microsoft Store. The Solitaire, Jigsaw and Word Game collections are especially popular.
As with most online games nowadays, you can play some for free but it may cost extra to play ad-free or to get full access to all the games or features available.
You can access the Microsoft Store in your browser at https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/store/, or simply click the shopping bag icon on your taskbar on most Windows 10 machines.
These are fast to download and install, but the Microsoft Store layout can be a little confusing at first because such a wide range of software (games and other types) is available.
It helps to have your own free Microsoft ID set up to take full advantage of this resource, but not essential for gaining access.
Pogo games:
Pogo is one of the most popular game sites among seniors in our own neighborhood area. It has a really extensive range of games and it's one of those websites that game fans are happy to pay a nominal subscription to play ad-free.
There have been some changes in accessing Pogo however, which have created confusion for many existing Pogo users. In brief, Pogo is now owned by ea.com, a game portal otherwise associated primarily with video and simulation games, quite different from simpler and more conventional games associated with family and home entertainment.
When you sign up or pay for Pogo registration or subscriptions now, the pogo.com website will take you to an ea.com webpage. This may seem odd, even concerning to existing Pogo players and customers. Not to worry. It's not a sneaky redirect or any kind of malware at work. It just means that ea.com now is handling the user accounts end of Pogo operations. Setting up an ea.com account is as simple as providing a birthdate and email address, and creating a password and a screen name. Once you've done that you should be returned to the pogo.com site. Take note - Pogo subscriptions may be handled through an ea.com address as well. If by chance you already use ea.com for other gaming besides Pogo, that is not related to any Pogo subscription that you may have on top of your free play access.
Here is a Q&A webpage for further info on the Pogo-EA relationship: https://help.ea.com/en-us/help/pogo/pogo/pogo-accounts-are-now-ea-accounts/
"Old favorite" disc-installed games:
If you have games on hand that you installed from a disc onto an older computer, you may have some concern about them not being compatible with Windows 10.
This may be less of a concern now than in the past. Many games we got on CD's some years ago were written for 32-bit computers and then could not be installed on newer 64-bit machines.
However, many Windows 10 computers do have an "emulator" capability that will run older software on the new systems.
So I suggest holding onto those old "favorite game" discs from the days of Win 95-8, ME, XP and Vista, if you want to give them a fresh try. Some of them may run on the newer Windows 10 machines even if they would not run on Windows 7 or 8.
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