Minesweeper scores?

Elok · August 30, 2003, 21:41

Ah, minesweeper: probably the best program Microsoft ever made. I've killed SO many hours just sitting there clicking and staring until I felt like my eyeballs were about to spontaneously extrude. The best I've managed to do, on my current computer at least, is:
12 seconds beginner
76 seconds intermediate
246 seconds expert
How well have you guys done? I know somebody here has to have beaten the 246; until recently I couldn't beat expert at all. Obviously this isn't really anything to brag about, but I'm just asking out of curiosity...

MichaeltheGreat · August 30, 2003, 21:59

My best four on expert: 54 seconds, 57 seconds, 62 seconds and 64 seconds.

I've heard about a cheat, but never been able to remember what it supposedly is, or find anything that works as a cheat. Obviosly luck is a big factor, but there were a few things I did:

I had a 21" monitor, 6 x 8 pen tablet and trackball for my standard comp setup - the only thing I did was change resolution to 800 x 600.

Next thing, make sure the damned question mark option is off, and I used the pen tablet hand to select, the right click on the trackball hand to identify.

Then I got lucky breaks that didn't leave me with any ambiguous areas.

BustaMike · August 30, 2003, 22:01

I posted a thread about this not too long ago. Currently my best is 160 on expert, but several people here have said they've broken 100. MtG even claims to have had scores in the 50's on expert. There is NO WAY I will get a time in the 50's on expert, ever.

MichaeltheGreat · August 30, 2003, 22:12

If you have a normal mouse/trackball set up, you can barely break 100 with luck. The way I did it was two handed - not cheating, but a definite mechanical advantage when you have a lot of squares to clear.

MattH · August 30, 2003, 22:26

Oh, god.

vovan · August 31, 2003, 00:10

I did 1 second on Beginner. Once. With fast clicking. And a LOT of luck.

No cheating or anything. Other than that, my normal score would be about 10-15 on beginner, 60 on intermediate, and 180 on expert.

geeslaka · August 31, 2003, 00:37

20x20 board, 50 mines, 130 seconds.
Just started playing again.

It's been too long.

Urban Ranger · August 31, 2003, 01:01

I got like a 92 second record on expert level a long time ago, but I have stopped playing Minesweeper for years.

BTW, trackball is better, though you need to get used to it.

BustaMike · August 31, 2003, 04:58

The cheat was with old versions of windows you could simply edit the text file that keeps the scores. Kinda defeats the purpose of playing though.

DrSpike · August 31, 2003, 07:29

I used to play this incessantly. My expert time was 61, which is pretty much unbeatable unless you have spent hundreds (maybe thousands) of hours playing. The world record was 48. So my hat off to MtG if he is serious about his time in the 50's............we used to keep a worldwide list and the number that broke 60 seconds was small, only a couple of hundred.

DrSpike · August 31, 2003, 07:34

Oh, if you used 2 devices then the time would have been inadmissable.

Eli · August 31, 2003, 07:34

Beginner - 3 (pure luck)
Intermediate - 39
Expert - 136

Urban Ranger · August 31, 2003, 22:18

Quote:

Originally posted by DrSpike
we used to keep a worldwide list and the number that broke 60 seconds was small, only a couple of hundred.

On expert level though luck is always an issue, so keeping a record wouldn't mean anything.

DrSpike · September 1, 2003, 05:02

Sure you can't go sub-sixty without a good grid. But the skill in speed minesweeper lies in not making any mistakes in the fastest time possible when the chance is there.

Ultimately the nature of the game is that there may be a 50/50 at the end. If you get it right you could call that luck I guess, but it evens out. There is no way you can say players that beat 60 seconds (something which always eluded me - actually I have checked the old lists now and below 60 was nothing like 200, more like 50 tops worldwide, and this was at a time when minesweeper was more popular) are lucky. They are the best players, period.

FrustratedPoet · September 1, 2003, 07:00

Isn't Minesweeper the ultimate Sunday gamers' game Spike?

DrSpike · September 1, 2003, 07:19

How dare you try and pigeonhole me with such an evil group! Minesweeper (for sub 90 second times anyway) requires a great deal of skill, far more than that possessed by any Sunday gamer.

Skanky Burns · September 1, 2003, 09:19

Clicking on boxes versus controlling the life of your own sim. Gee, which is more difficult?

Elok · September 1, 2003, 09:30

When you have to click on those boxes at a ludicrously high speed without making a single mistake?

FrustratedPoet · September 1, 2003, 09:42

Clearly you've never tried to get your Sim to work on time in the morning. It requires planning and split-second precision of the highest degree.

DrSpike · September 1, 2003, 09:53

Yeah and it's especially tricky when you are worrying about overcooking the sunday roast at the same time.

Elok · September 1, 2003, 10:46

If I wanted to do that crap I would get an actual life. Geez.

Spaced Cowboy · September 2, 2003, 10:21

My best ever was only 69 (get it), but I can pretty easily break 100. I've noticed that it seems harder now than back on my old 486. I wonder if comp speed has anything to do with it, or I'm just getting way to old for this.

Shadowstrike · September 2, 2003, 15:50

Beginner: 6 seconds
Intermediate: 37 seconds
Expert: 128 seconds

This game is pure evil when you're trying to get anything done..... My biggest gripe is that Expert is usually very difficult to win, because of the mine to square ratio, you usually end up with quite a few dubious ones and end up hitting a mine guessing. Still... 60 seconds on expert? Dear lord....

Spaced Cowboy · September 2, 2003, 17:25

Yeah, you'll need to put the comp on the lowest resolution (which makes playing it now rather tedious) (640*480) and turn off the question mark option.

Then it is right click to mark. Right and left click to blow open spaces around marked bombs.

And as for the "dubious mines," don't save them for last. Go ahead and guess while you are there. Also don't mark obvious mines out by themselves in the middle of no where.

DrSpike · September 2, 2003, 17:28

All that is true, but if you want regular sub 100 second times there is only one real piece of advice. Play more.

Merlin · September 2, 2003, 20:21

My mum set the fastest genuine beginner level minesweeper time I've ever seen - 16 seconds. My own best is about 35.

Elok · September 3, 2003, 09:52

It's all a matter of learning to recognize patterns so quickly and respond to them so instinctively that conscious thought gets left out of the loop. For example, 1-2-1 against a wall is obviously bomb-clean-bomb, because any other configuration would have the ones be lies. That setup is sufficiently frequent that if you learn to just right-click, left-click, right-click in a row the second you see it you save a lot of time. Having to actually think is your enemy in minesweeper. While you're thinking you're not clicking as fast as you could be. Sometimes you have to so it's a necessary evil.
And not saving ambiguous cases for later is a good policy PROVIDED there is no way the situation could be made less ambiguous by clearing the mines in a line towards it from another direction, e.g. if it's in a corner. If you have several ambiguous cases on one unresolved mass, it's of course best to just go for the one that offers the best odds and start clicking. Thank god for ones in a situation like that.

Kropotkin · September 3, 2003, 18:30

13, 65 and 183 seconds on my girlfriends computer. I'm not sure if those are my bests. My own computer is turned off, so I can't check.

I'm not really trying to break the records anymore. I'm just playing for distraction and leasure. I'm not planning to get a heart-attack over minesweeper.

Garth Vader · September 4, 2003, 13:30

I got a 126 on expert, Although I haven't got better than 150 since that time.

Zero · September 6, 2003, 17:36

40-50 second on expert. Simply with mouse.

No, I wouldnt be able to do that at all. Its my friend's record. And he clicks NON STOP. I wonder how he has time to think about where the mines are.... :scary:

so what about me? I think I beat expert mode once in my life. Rest of the times I just get impatient, bored, and click random buttons until either mouse breaks or i hit mine. (How do you people play this game!!!??? )