Click with your mouse but don´t hit the bombs!

Minesweeper is a single-player computer game. The object of the game is to clear an abstract minefield without detonating a mine. The game has been rewritten for nearly every system platform in use today. The most well-known version is Minesweeper for the Windows platform, which comes bundled with versions of the operating system from 3.1 and on. Minesweeper is commonly associated with procrastination and time-wasting.

When the game is started, the player is presented with a grid of blank squares. The size of the grid is dependent on the skill level chosen by the player, with higher skill levels having larger grids. If the player clicks on a square without a mine, a digit is revealed in that square, the digit indicating the number of adjacent squares (typically, out of the possible 8) which contain mines. By using logic, players can in many instances use this information to deduce that certain other squares are mine-free (or mine-filled), and proceed to click on additional squares to clear them or mark them with flag graphics to indicate the presence of a mine.

The player can place a flag graphic on any square believed to contain a mine by right-clicking on the square. Right-clicking on a square that is flagged will sometimes, according to settings, change the flag graphic into a question mark to indicate that the square may or may not contain a mine. Right-clicking on a square marked with a question mark will set the square back to its original state. Squares marked with a flag cannot be cleared by left-clicking on them, though question marks can be cleared as easily as normal squares. The third question mark state is often deemed unnecessary and can be disabled so that right clicking on a flagged mine will set it back to its original state right away so mines flagged in error can be corrected with one right-click instead of two.

In some versions of the game, middle-clicking (or clicking the left and right buttons at the same time) on a number having at least as many adjacent flags as the value of the number reveals all the unmarked squares neighboring the number; however, one forfeits the game should the flags be placed in error. This method is a very useful tool when trying to beat a good score. Some of those implementations also allow the player to move the mouse with the right mouse-button held down after marking mines; the player can then left-click on multiple numbered squares while dragging with the right mouse-button, in order to clear large areas in a short time. As an alternative to clicking both buttons at the same time players can also middle-click or shift-click on fully-flagged numbers.

Some implementations of Minesweeper will set up the board in favor of the player by never placing a mine on the first square clicked, or by arranging the board so that the solution does not require guessing.

History

The basic gameplay style became a popular but minor part of the puzzle game genre during the 1980s, with such titles as Mined-Out (Quicksilva, 1983), and Yomp (Virgin Interactive, 1983). Cube was further succeeded by Relentless Logic (or RLogic for short), by Conway, Hong, and Smith, which was available for MS-DOS as early as 1985. In RLogic, the player is a private in the United States Marine Corps, delivering an important message to the U.S. Command Center. RLogic is more similar to Minesweeper than to Cube in concept, but a number of differences exist:

In RLogic, the player must navigate through the minefield, from the top left corner to the bottom right corner (the Command Center).

• It is not necessary to clear all non-mine squares. Also, there is no mechanism for marking mines or counting the number of mines found.
• The number of steps taken is counted. Although no high score functionality is included, players could attempt to beat their personal best score for a given number of mines.
• Unlike Minesweeper, the size of the minefield is fixed. However, the player may still specify the number of mines.
• Because the player must navigate through the minefield, it is sometimes impossible to win — namely, when the mines block all possible paths.

The gameplay mechanics of minesweeper have evolved to become encompassed in a variety of further software titles; one notable occurrence of this is the mini-game Vinesweeper implemented into the MMORPG Runescape. In this particular venture (written by Jagex developer Danny J), the Minesweeper gameplay is given a large multiplayer aspect and the 'game board' adopts a continually resetting timer. This allows for a never-ending game of Minesweeper where the skill is awarded by the merit of points rather than 'game completion'.