Minesweeper: A Forgotten Masterpiece

So, as you may guess from the title, this is a post regarding Minesweeper.

I could easily write an essay on this, but I guess I'll keep it short for the sake of all you readers.

Minesweeper is a game most people have played, yet the vast majority of those people will have never understood it. Excuse me for any errors, since I play on the Windows Vista version, but I think they're all roughly the same.

Basically, there's a "minefield". It's just a bunch of squares. Some of these squares are mines. Click on these and BANG; Game Over. So, what's your goal? To find out where these mines are and click on every other square to un-cover them. There's a counter showing how many mines you haven't "placed" yet, and you just have to find them with some logical deduction and right-click on the squares to indicate that they're there.

This will make it impossible for you to click that square, and die. Now, how do you know where they are? Some of the other squares will have numbers on them. This number is the amount of mines the square is adjacent to. So, the maximum possible is, obviously, 8. (Diagonals count as being directly adjacent in Minesweeper.)

The first step, obviously, is to choose where some are by finding a square with exactly that number of squares adjacent. Say there's a 2 up against the edge, limiting it to a 5, and it's above a straight line. It only has 2 adjacent squares, so they MUST be mines. And you work your way through. I'm not sure if it's only in the Windows Vista version, but you can double-click on the numbered squares and it will remove everything next to it, possibly killing you if you got it wrong.

So, it's actually quite simple. It just requires thought. Of course, as the map gets bigger with more difficulties (Beginner, Intermediate, then Advanced.), you may find yourself stretched mentally. This is the fun part; play for it. :P It's amazing.

So, in conclusion, despite being simple and graphically, nothing amazing, Minesweeper is an amazing game requiring lots of thought and logic. I strongly recommend going to play it now. Pretty much anyone should be able to pass a Beginner puzzle, and even if you can't manage Advanced, you should still be able to make a good attempt at an Intermediate.

So, what are you waiting for? Try it now!~ Go do it.