Introduction
This page accompanies JavaFX Lab 7.1 MSModelInterface
Minesweeper is a logical deduction game that gained popularity when it came bundled with early versions of the Microsoft Windows operating system. The objective of the game is to clear a rectangular board containing hidden mines without detonating any of them. When you start the game, you are presented with a board of tiles, some of which contain hidden mines. The rest of the tiles are empty. The ratio of the number of mines to the board size determines the level of difficulty.
To play the game, players click on a tile to reveal what is underneath it. If it is a mine, the game is over, and you lose.
If it is an empty tile, the number of neighboring mines is revealed.
You can use the number of neighboring mines to deduce which tiles contain mines and which don't. If you are sure that a square contains a mine, you can mark it with a flag to prevent accidental clicking. The game is won when all non-mine squares are revealed.
Strategy
When learning Minesweeper, you should play slowly and deliberately. First go for tiles you know for certain are mines because the unrevealed neighbors must all be mines to satisfy the number of a tile. This logic is described here.
When there are no obvious mines to flag, you can often apply advanced logic to deduce which tiles are mines or empty. This page has a collection of scenarios where logical deduction can be applied to gain information about tiles.
Warning: The strategy guide says you should memorize the patterns. This is NOT true when learning the game. It is highly recommended that you slow down and figure out a logical proof for how/why each pattern leads to known information. Otherwise, you will end up memorizing patterns without the skill to deduce them on your own.
Play Minesweeper
There are many versions of minesweeper to play online, on your phone, etc. Here are two online versions:
You can also download the games that used to come with Windows 7, including a version of Minesweeper. You can install these and play them directly on your windows computer.
Tino APCS