General description

Minesweeper was introduced in 1990 as a Microsoft game. It has survived for the past 22 years and is as popular as ever. Almost everyone has played it at least once. Still, there is a lot of confusion about how to play it and especially how to get it resolved.

Since its inception, it has changed very little graphically. Some minor changes have been made, but the game remains the same. This means that once the technique is mastered, there’s no reason why wins shouldn’t be frequent.

variants

Some of the game varieties involve having minefields of different shapes and dimensions. There are hexagons, triangles, and even three-dimensional shapes. In some versions, there are even multiple bombs possible in each cell. Some games are a combination of two games. There are many variants of the game that recreate real life battles.

Criticism

A negative review is also positive. That criticism is the difficulty of deciphering the locations of the bombs. There are mathematical formulas to determine where the bombs are, but it’s pretty complicated except for a hardened mathematician.

Another criticism from some is the fact that they feel the game trivializes people risking their lives to clear real bombs. They say it is offensive to those who have suffered personal injury or even death in a minefield.

The way some have handled criticism of the minefields is to change the “bombs” to flowers or some other symbol.

how to play

Playing the game is extremely easy and extremely difficult. The actual mechanics are simple, but the logic and trying to win are very difficult.

There are beginner, intermediate and expert levels. The levels determine how many cells are on the grid and how many mines are placed. The game then follows a routine.

• Select the first cell

• Place a flag over any cell you know has a mine by right-clicking on a cell

• Check the numbers and determine where to place another flag.

• Click to solve when all mines are located

• If you click on a mine, you lose

• If you reveal and check all the boxes, you win

It is easy to follow the procedures, but avoiding the mines is not so easy.

traps

• Open minesweeper

• Type XYZZY on the keyboard

• Hold down the shift key for 10 seconds

• Look in the upper left corner for a single pixel

• Scroll through cells

• Pixel turns black if mine is present, white if no mine is present

Strategies

A strategy is, of course, the mathematical formula to determine where the mines are. If one is so inclined, the formula can be used to find any and all mines.

Another strategy is to click on the center cell on the first move. The first cell clicked will not contain mines. Clicking in the center usually exposes more empty cells, plus numbers to help you determine which cells contain mines.