Minesweeper, but done right

Hangar Flying
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Hey y’all!

A reddit post I just saw reminded me that not everyone knows this:

Y’all know how Microsoft Minesweeper sucks because sometimes you just have to guess (and if you are like me, you always guess wrong) even though you enjoy the rest of the gameplay?

Simon Tatham (yes, the same guy who made PuTTY) created a variant of the game which never requires guessing.

Enjoy!

https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/puzzles/js/mines.html

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just great :slight_smile:

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grafik
grafik693×517 12.2 KB

:thinking:

Maybe I miss something

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Which game number is that?

Edit: either way I think I can tell that you can continue in the upper left.

Edit2: wait, I am not sure. I am not that good at Minesweeper to be honest.

Edit3: I think the middle field above the 3-2-2 sequence has to be a mine.

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I’m pretty sure at this point you need a few privates to crawl forward poking the ground in front of them with their bayonets at shallow angles.

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IIRC they used flocks of sheep in Bosnia at some point.

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The first square you open is guaranteed to be safe, and (by default) you are guaranteed to be able to solve the whole grid by deduction rather than guesswork. (Deductions may require you to think about the total number of mines.)

Maybe it’s the total number of mines that we’re missing? IDK I’m not that great at math/logic puzzles, my superpower is reading documentation :stuck_out_tongue:

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The total should only matter for the last few mines.

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This is my train of thought approaching this problem:

  1. There must be an empty cell above the 5 or 3 because if they were both mines then there would have to be a space above the left hand 2, a mine above the right hand 2, and a mine above the left hand 1, thus putting 2 mines next to that 1 which is not possible.
  2. As there must be a space above the 5 or 3 then there must be a mine above the left hand 2 to satisfy the 3, so I would mark that cell.
  3. There must be a mine and space above the right hand 2 and left hand 1 to satisfy the 2’s, so the cell above the right hand 1 must be empty to satisfy the left hand 1. So I would click on this cell next.

I hope that makes sense?

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Yeah, I guess the line between trying all possible variations in your head and guessing is blurry. Not sure where the deduction ends :wink:

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