| \*****/ |\ /| --- |\ | --- -- | | | --- --- --- --- --- ********* | \ / | | | \ | | |__ | | | | | |__| | |__| -***********- | | | | | |-- | | | | |-- |-- | |-- |\ ********* | | | | | | --- - - | | | | | \ /*****\ --- --- --- --- --- | Minesweeper FAQ v 4.01 by Nich Maragos, nichm@thegia.com Table of Contents ----------------- I. Introduction II. What's new? A. Black and white mode discovered III. How to play A. Basic operations IV. Winning strategies V. Cheat mode VI. Legal notices I. Introduction --------------- I first made this FAQ when I saw the desperate need for it after visiting alt.games.minesweeper.please.help.me. A lot of people either didn't understand what Minesweeper was about, or how to play, or what the numbers meant. Originally, this was all the FAQ contained, but later I expanded its content a little so that it could become a tool for experienced Minesweeper players to derive even more enjoyment out of an already great game. II. What's new? --------------- Fritz Fraundorf (fritz@thegia.com) has written in with the exciting discovery of Black and White mode, available by unchecking the Color option in the Game menu. Thanks, Fritz! Hugs and kisses! III. How to play ---------------- The playing field consists of a timer and a grid (8x8 in Easy, 16x16 in Medium, and 32x16 in Hard). Beneath the featureless gray squares are mines. Left-clicking on a square reveals whether it's a mine or a safe spot. If you left-click on a mine, the game ends. However, safe spots come in one of two types which can help you avoid the mines. A safe spot is either blank, in which case there are no mines in any of the 8 adjoining squares, or there are mines in one of the adjoining squares. If the latter is true, then a number will appear on the safe square which tells you how many adjoining spaces contain mines. Your job is to figure out using these clues which spaces contain mines, and unearth all of the safe spaces. It gets much more complicated than that. There's a timer. IV. Winning strategies ---------------------- In no way will any winning strategy involve the question marks. Forget them. There are two ways to play the game. Either you can concentrate on improving your time, or you can play it as a life-and-death struggle, just as it was in the old days of decisive battles at sea. In the first case, work on an automatic, reflexive knowledge of the number patterns and what they mean regarding bombs in the area. Don't hesitate--if you make a mistake, another game is just a click of the chilling, eerie "overlord" character away. In the latter case, be very careful. Men's lives are depending on your decision. The timer is meaningless; the mines won't go off by themselves under any circumstance. If you come up against an unsolvable or completely ambiguous bit of puzzle, agonize over it for hours before selecting one based on your "gut feeling." If you're wrong, refuse to play the game for weeks on end. V. Cheat mode ------------- There are two generally accepted ways to cheat. The first way is to use the Custom mode to create a board of the maximum 32x32 boundaries, with the minimum of 10 mines. Click on any space within the grid and victory is virtually assured, other than a couple possible cleaning-up clicks for mines against a wall. If it's a record-beating time you're after, I have found no better way to achieve this than to edit winmine.ini, found in c:\windows\, and write in your own name and desired time. VI. Legal notices ----------------- This FAQ is not for publication by anybody, ever, with or without permission. If you see this FAQ printed on any website whatsoever, please email me at nichm@thegia.com and I will deal with the situation appropriately. All submissions or emails regarding this FAQ, up to and including notifications of illegal publication, become my property and I may do with them as I desire. Minesweeper is a copyright of the Microsoft Corporation.