Minesweeper

Minesweeper, or some variation thereof has been readily available on just about every computer I’ve ever used for a number of years. It’s a deceptively complex game hidden behind a fairly simple to grasp concept: using your wits to locate and mark mines.

You’re presented with a grid, and on that grid a number of mines has been placed. You can click on any space on the grid to see if it had a mine under it. If it does not it will either vanish or show a number. The number represents how many squares are adjacent to it that contain a mine. If you right-click on the space, you mark it with a flag, which means that you think there is a mine there. Your goal, then, is to use your wits to reason which spaces have the mines, mark them all and win the game.

The game is also pretty unforgiving, if you click on one space that has a mine, you = dead and your game = over. So it’s in your best interest to methodically poke around the grid and carefully consider each move. Or do what I do, make the grid as large as possible and the number of mines as small as possible. Then there’s a very good chance that you’ll solve the puzzle with a single click… Unless you happen on a mine on your first click.

Leave a Reply