Minesweeper

Screenshot of the minesweeper clone KMines

Minesweeper (English sweeper mine: "Mine Sweeper") is a simple, the operating system Microsoft Windows up to and including version Windows 7 to enclosed computer game , where the player should find out through a combination of reasoning and (sometimes) random rates, under which fields mines are hidden. The goal is to uncover all fields behind which no mines are hidden. A stopwatch is running as an additional challenge so that the game is mostly played on time.

history

Minesweeper was originally developed by Microsoft for Windows 3.1 and has been included with every successor version for the PC; since Windows 8 it has to be installed as an app from the Windows Store . The game is missing from Windows Mobile up to version Windows Mobile 2003 SE. For Windows Phone , a free Xbox Live Minesweeper app is available in many countries through the integrated Windows Phone Store . With Windows Vista it has been completely redesigned and has the option of replacing the mines with flowers, for example. Minesweeper was also integrated in the Siemens S25 mobile phone, released in 1999 .

Records that have been achieved on the program versions included with Windows are not accepted for international and national leaderboards, as the current version gives the player the option of playing several times in a row on a playing field with the same mine positions (restart) and previous versions are not secure against cheats and hacks are. For competitions and ranking lists, however, only the programs “Minesweeper Arbiter”, “Minesweeper X” and “Viennasweeper” are used. The paper-based game lighting was developed based on Minesweeper .

Difficulty levels

The original minesweeper for Windows 3.x and 9x has four different levels of difficulty:

Beginners: Playing field of 8 by 8 (64) fields with 10 mines (16%).
Advanced: Playing field of 16 by 16 (256) fields with 40 mines (16%).
Professionals: playing field of 30 by 16 (480) fields with 99 mines (21%).
Custom: Maximum size 30 by 24 (720) fields, up to 668 mines (93%).

In Windows versions from Windows 2000 onwards , the beginner playing field size is 9 times 9 with the same number of mines as before (10, so now 12%). When viewed over several games, this lower mine density results in an advantage over the 8 by 8 playing fields, since the lower mine density reduces the average number of clicks required to win.

The user-defined mode of the versions Minesweeper Clone 2007 and Minesweeper X, which are accepted for official ranking lists, allow a maximum playing field size of 50 by 50 or the entire screen size.

Course of the game

At the beginning one of three levels of difficulty is chosen, which determines the size of the playing field (number of fields) and the number of mines. Before the start of the game, all fields are covered. The aim of the game is to uncover all the fields that do not hide a mine.

With the left mouse button the player exposes a field; if there is a mine under this space, the game is lost. With the Windows versions as well as the versions accepted for ranking lists, however, the first click in normal game mode is never a mine. With the right mouse button he marks a field as mine. A red flag will appear there. To undo this marking, one or two more right mouse clicks on the same field are sufficient (depending on the selected setting). In order to win it is not necessary to mark mines with the right mouse button. It is sufficient to uncover all fields that do not contain mines with the left mouse button. Optionally you can activate so-called markers if you are not sure whether there is a mine under a field. These appear in the form of a question mark on the fields and are also set with the right mouse button.

Fields uncovered with the left mouse button that do not contain a mine reveal the number of mines that are in the adjacent eight fields. A revealed space surrounded by mines on all sides will show an 8. It is usually possible to find out the whereabouts of the mines through the numbers of the uncovered fields. If you double-click with the left mouse button on an uncovered field in the vicinity of which all mines are already marked or if you click on it with the left and right mouse button at the same time, the remaining fields are uncovered at once. Fields that do not have any mines in their vicinity play a special role: On the one hand, such fields do not show a 0, but are shown in different colors. On the other hand, all still hidden fields in their neighborhood are automatically revealed. If such a newly revealed field is also a zero field, this process is continued recursively.

At the start of the game and especially at the higher game levels, situations arise in which one can only guess under which field a mine is.

The clock is paused by minimizing the program in the system tray .

variants

Minesweeper flags

In MSN / Windows Live Messenger there is the option of playing against a contact in the list. In this game variant, 51 mines are distributed on the field, the aim is to be the first to uncover 26 mines. One field is turned up alternately; whoever finds a mine may uncover one more. In addition, each player has the opportunity to detonate a bomb once in each game, which completely reveals a 5x5 field of his choice at once (if the player is behind).

Do not mark mines (non-flagging - NF)

In this game variant, the player does not mark any mines. So you are not allowed to use the right mouse button during the game. You have automatically won if you have uncovered all fields except for the mined ones with the help of the left mouse button. The difficulty of this game variant is that you have to remember the identified mine positions.

In order to achieve the best times at the beginner and advanced level, many professionals sometimes even use this variant on the entire playing field. Since the best times of the world's best players in the non-flagging variant are only slightly lower than their best times in normal play and non-flagging is played less often, it can be assumed that non-flagging, although more difficult for beginners, is not slower than flagging is.

In addition to the official world ranking list, which includes both flagging and non-flagging games, there has also been an official ranking list that is exclusively reserved for non-flagging best times since 2009.

Increase mine density

Another difficulty is increasing the mine density in the custom / user-defined variant. The starting point is usually the largest playing field, which in the standard variant is occupied by 99 mines. Such a field can still be solved with a little practice; However, times under 150 seconds require good practice.

However, clearing a field of this size becomes more difficult, the more densely the field is occupied. Fields with 130 to 140 mines (28%) already have a very high degree of difficulty. Having more mines laid already results in a lot of unsuccessful attempts to get even a first attempt at mine clearing.