1 post tagged “minesweeper”

I enjoy the occasional game of Minesweeper.  It may seem silly, but whenever I get a new computer one of the first things I want to do is a set a score (any score, though if it's really poor I'll go again) for each of the difficulty levels.  After college, before I got my first job, I even made my own clone in C++ Builder.  I'd like to think I'm pretty good, but a quick google search produces people with some truly amazing scores.  Lately I've begun the quest to break the two minute barrier on expert.  I just set a new personal best, but I'm still two seconds shy:

Of course, I could easily have faked this, so you'll just have to take my word for it that the shot is real.  Since the time is comparatively not that good I'd have no reason to lie.  This is only a little exceptional for me: I frequently score in the 130s.  A more typical time is closer to 160 seconds.

My recent play has taught me that Minesweeper is as much about memory and pattern recognition as it is about logic.  This is especially true when playing for speed.  Sure, the logic is there.  But most of it you only do a few times before it becomes committed to memory as a pattern you recognize and apply.   This gets more obvious as you learn more complex patterns.

One example is a pattern I uncovered recently that improved my speed significantly.  I call it the "1,2,1 wall".  Whenever you uncover a row of unsolved blocks at least five long with a 1,2,1 next to blocks along the center, I know right away without having to think that there will bombs next to the 1s.  I could figure this out again each time, but it's much faster to recognize the situation and apply bombs in order.  The pattern is adaptable, and comes up more than you might think.  It's helped improve my time considerably.  Unfortunately, my pattern library is still pretty small.  What's your best time? What are some patterns you use?