Minesweeper

[Aquenee]

I'm assuming this would go in video games, and I found nothing on the search.

Minesweeper, the one game I can play for hours when I am bored out of my mind.

 

My fastest time for beginner is 10 secs.

I rarely ever play Intermediate(I usually do advanced or beginner) so my time there is only 132 secs.

As for advanced, I have come very close but I haven't won a single advanced game just yet >.<

 

So, any sort of strategies you guys use?

[Lythiaren]

My record on easy is 5 seconds, 108 on intermediate and... 132 on expert, I think. >>

 

A lot of it is pattern recognition, really. Like 2-3-2 along a flat surface with nothing else nearby, the three spaces next to the numbers are all mines, 1-2-1 under the same circumstances means mines next to the 1s, and so on.

 

Expert just likes to mess with your head. Many, many times I've been caught with four unmarked spaces, two of which are mines, and all logic says there are two possibilities and you have to take a leap of faith. It forces you to guess most of the time.

Edited July 2, 2011 by Lythiaren

[wonton55912]

My time is like forever. I just click randomly and blow up.

[Fortune86]

I normally just randomly click until a nice large space clears or I blow myself up.

[Lythiaren]

... lol I just realized I got mixed up on my records.

 

Easy 5s, Intermediate 41s, Expert 108s. :V

[caramba2654]

I actually forgot my records... I'll do them again.

[Infinis]

I normally just randomly click until a nice large space clears or I blow myself up.

This. |D I am so bad at Minesweeper. The only one I've ever won is beginner. And I think that took like 40 seconds because I was afraid to click anywhere for fear of losing on the next click, haha.

 

It's kinda fun when you blow up though. I don't even know why, I find it amusing.

[Aquenee]

I like to keep an advanced game open all the time and work on it while I'm doing other things. It does result in VERY bad times, but it's still fun.

 

My current game

[Lythiaren]

>> *links in case you don't want help*

 

http://i52.tinypic.com/23h4s2f.png

 

Red ones are mines. In each pair of yellow spaces, one of them is a mine.

 

</helpfulwhetheryouwantitornot>

Edited July 8, 2011 by Lythiaren

[Lagie]

I normally just randomly click until a nice large space clears or I blow myself up.

This. Then I start working on corners and edges.

[Aquenee]

>> *links in case you don't want help*

 

http://i52.tinypic.com/23h4s2f.png

 

Red ones are mines. In each pair of yellow spaces, one of them is a mine.

 

</helpfulwhetheryouwantitornot>

How are you able to tell... almost all of those!? O_o

you has skills. I usually tell with corners.

[Lythiaren]

Like I said, mostly pattern recognition. :3

 

For example if you have a long edge with all 1s, then along that edge it always goes mine-space-space-mine-space-space. Once you've figured out where one mine is, then all the 1s touching it aren't touching any other mines and the pattern repeats as long as you have a line of 1s with clear safe space on one side and squares on the other. If that line of 1s that goes all the way to the edge of the screen, then the third space from the edge of the screen is always safe. That's because the two 1s right up against the edge of the screen are both touching the same mine and everything else touching those two 1s is safe. So even if you don't know which of those two squares is safe, you know the third one is, because it's touching the second 1, which is touching the same mine as the first, and the first is not touching it. In fact the principle extends a little further; the first two ones actually form the base of a T-shape of safe spaces, regardless of whether the line of 1s continues!

 

There's a whole lot of them, some of them are hard to describe with words. Of course, the examples above are assuming the patterns are isolated with clear spaces on the other side of the numbers...

Edited July 8, 2011 by Lythiaren

[votehim]

i had never figured out what the numbers meant until today, but i'm having some issues, the numbers are how many mines are in the surrounding squares right? (diagonal included)

[Lythiaren]

Yup, that's right.

[votehim]

ah, then my minesweeper lies to me on occasion.

[BecomingMe]

Kinda glad to know that I'm not the only one who likes minesweeper...reminds me of the song my Weird Al "White and Nerdy"...and I hit a lot on that list...though I don't really play minesweeper for days, but have done that with Doom when it first came out.

[Lythiaren]

 

I hate it when this happens. If you can't see it at a glance, the only two spaces left are in the top center. One is a mine, the other is safe, and logic says it could be either.

 

 

Once I took the screenshot, I clicked the top one.

 

That was the mine.

 

FML.

 

(For the curious: that was done purely by logic, except the bottom right area. That was completed with the aid of a few lucky guesses.)

Edited July 9, 2011 by Lythiaren

[Aquenee]

Kinda glad to know that I'm not the only one who likes minesweeper...reminds me of the song my Weird Al "White and Nerdy"...and I hit a lot on that list...though I don't really play minesweeper for days, but have done that with Doom when it first came out.  

I've actually gotten into a habit of listening to that nonstop while I play minesweeper.

@Lyth I hate when that happens You come so close after so much work... then you have to guess.

[Lythiaren]

INORITE?

 

So frustrating when that happens. And it happens almost every time on Expert. Whyyyyyy. :c

[Yasmiki]

Expert is frustrating because there's doubt here and there >.< That's what makes it challenging I guess ^^

[Aquenee]

Ugh... just this one corner, and there are two mines left.

 

Grr...

The mine turned out to be the one just above the 5.

Edited July 10, 2011 by Aquenee

[baoser]

What's your strategy to approaching mines? I go for corners, but that usually leads me into the wrong area >_>;;

[sharlykng]

I just play this whenever my brain goes blank or got fried. Currently I've won 17 times in Expert out of 1.3k times

 

last two boxes, 1 mine...

 

*click*

 

boom.

 

...wtf?

[dgsunburst]

i hate when u play a new game and ur first click is a mine its happened a lot to me fml

[7Deadly$ins]

i hate when u play a new game and ur first click is a mine its happened a lot to me fml

That is programmed to never happen.