Minesweepers come here!

[KrazyHorse]

My current records stand at 7, 39 and ~120 (can't remember exactly).

[axi]

18-195-999 is what is written now, but I have only recently installed windows XP.

[Shadowstrike]

Mine are 12-102-999. As you can see, I'm not very good at this game.

[Eli]

After couple days of playing I managed to improve it to 3, 50, 170.

I'm really proud of 170

[Spaced Cowboy]

It is pretty tough on the expert level.

Do you know about the cheat/Easter Egg??

[Sarxis]

Originally posted by RPMisCOOL

Do you know about the cheat/Easter Egg??

No, but you surely must tell us about it!


And I have a hexagon version of minesweeper somewhere; nice twist on the game.

[Spaced Cowboy]

k,




MINESWEEPER EASTER EGG


This Egg works with the MineSweeper (%windir%\Winmine.exe) releases bundled with Windows/WfWG 3.1x, 95/OSR1 (WITHOUT MS IE 4/5/6 installed!) and probably with NT4/2000/XP. It does NOT work with Windows 98, 98 SP1, 98 SE, ME or MS IE 4/5/6.
NOTE: You MUST disable ALL animated cursors FIRST!

Run Winmine.exe.
Hold down the left Shift (or press Shift + Enter together) and type:
xyzzy
These characters are case insensitive.
Release Shift and then hold it down again (or left-click once on the happy yellow face).
Now whenever your mouse cursor is over one of the mines, you'll see a tiny little pixel at the end of your cursor's arrow (or a black dot in the upper left hand corner of your screen). The pixel (dot) disappears if your mouse is not over a mine spot.

UPDATES:


This other cheat for MineSweeper appears courtesy of Ari Lintula (ari.lintula@dlc.fi):
"Start a game. Click and hold BOTH right AND left mouse buttons the same time and press Escape. The Timer has stopped."

To add your name to the MineSweeper list of players without playing, edit Winmine.ini (using Notepad), a text file located in your Windows folder:

add/change the "Time1=xxx" value to match Beginner level;
add/change the "Time2=xxx" value to match Intermediate level;
add/change the "Time3=xxx" value to match Expert level;
add/change the "Name1=xxxxxxxx" value to match Beginner level;
add/change the "Name2=xxxxxxxx" value to match Intermediate level;
add/change the "Name3=xxxxxxxx" value to match Expert level.
Save your work (don't type the quotes!) and close Notepad.
To become unbeatable add these 2 new lines (replace "MyName" with your real name):

Time4=0
Name4=MyName

and then change Winmine.ini file attributes to read-only and hidden []:

ATTRIB %windir%\WINMINE.INI +R +H


"Typing xyzzy allows also for 10x10 grids with 81 mines, and you can cheat by clicking on boxes with an 8 below them. Your friends will not see you cheat, even if you tell them you are doing so.



Note I have not verified these.
R:PM

[Eli]

Expert record reduced to 166.

Edit : Another record! 144!

[Triped]

Hahaha, I'm slower when I cheat than when I play legit.

That is useful, though, for when you've done well but you're faced with one last mine, and its location is a coin flip.

[DrSpike]

Originally posted by RPMisCOOL


I'm sorry, I find your (ed. Triped) year ago times quite unbelievable.

2 seconds meand right clicking 10 times (to mark all of the mines). I do not see how this is possible.

R:PM

These times are quite believable. Mine from a few years back when I played minesweeper a lot are.

3
18
59

I don't remember the beginner and intermediate records, but even a couple of years ago there were credible reports of a 45 second game on expert. I myself had games which were faster than my 59 record but faltered on the last 50/50.

Minesweeper is one of those games where the times can get faster and faster for much longer than you originally think. When I broke 150 on expert I was convinced that was close to the best time possible. When I broke 100 I looked for other times, and was flabbergasted that times far below this were possible. When I broke 1 minute, the final boundary I cared about I stopped playing. You do not want to know how many hours it takes to get such a time.

Well perhaps you do.......what would you say Triped? I would say 100-150 for me, with half of that getting from 80 downwards........it gets hard after a point.

[DrSpike]

Originally posted by RPMisCOOL

Triped,
Care to exand on the year ago method on expert like computer type and such (marking versus clicking)...Why are you now not even close? Or do you think, like myself, that processor speed has something to do with it? My best times were on an old P133. I also find that going to minimum monitor resolution helps since MS is not scalable. I find it difficult to break 100 on the new machine (well it was new at one time p3 500mhz). However, I also do not play like I used to with 4 hour marathon sessions.

I have played on several systems, and it makes no difference, nor should it. What does make a difference is resolution. When I upgraded and started playing on higher resolution I found it easier to move quickly. But this is still just preference. You should have a good mouse that you clean constantly. You should have a good mouse mat and turn the sensitivity up as high as you can possibly control. Oh, and never mark other than in your head, and do not place mines unless you are going to click on them to clear squares.

To get a really good time (<80 say) requires lots of practice. This is because such times do not come from thinking. Thinking is too slow. You have to play till you know the usual patterns in your sleep; it is not enough to say "well that is a 3, that's a 2, so the mine must be either here or there, and it can't be here so it must be there" You just have to know. Of course this is not always possible, but you can make the best guess in the situation and make it quickly. Unfortunately you always rely on luck. By luck I do not mean you make lots of guesses and get them right, though this helps. Rather I mean the position of the mines must be right. Certain large clusters of mines make life very easy for you. My best game ever was a flawlessly exectued game with few (educated nonetheless) guesses. The mine positions were awful though, and the time was in the 80s.

[Eli]

Intermediate record reduced to 46.