Minesweeper Trivia Quiz

Answer: a 2D puzzle game.

As you probably well know, "Minesweeper" is much more a 2D puzzle game than any of the other suggestions. The puzzle element is trying to deduce which squares contain mines. Winning is accomplished by uncovering all the mines.

Answer: The smiley face.

The smiley face puts on a small look of surprise when you press a square on the grid and when you click on a mine its eyes are replaced by asterisks and its mouth reverted to make it seem unhappy/disappointed/depressed/unconscious/deceased.

As with many programs and games Minesweeper utilizes keyboard shortcuts. Instead of clicking on the smiley face, one can simply press the F2 button to begin a new game which is useful when trying for those best times since opening up a large space with the first click often leads to quicker times.

Answer: a number or blank square(s) with numbers around it/them.

Clicking on the grid will always reveal one of five things depending on which button is used and what was previously on that grid square:

1. A number revealing how many mines are in the immediate vicinity.

2. A small flag which you can use to mark the squares you think contain dangerous mines.

3. A question mark which you can use to mark the squares you are unsure what they contain (theoretically at the start of the game that's all of them!).

4. A blank square - this happens if you cycle through the flag/question mark/blank options.

5. A mine.

Answer: Blue

Blue is allocated to "1", "4" and "6" though for "4" it is a much deeper blue and "6" much lighter, more like cyan. The allocations are as follows: 1 (blue), 2 (green), 3 (red), 4 (dark blue), 5 (dark red/brown), 6 (pale blue), 7 (black) 8 (grey).

Answer: 7

As explained in the information for the previous question, black is the colour for number seven. Number seven is relatively rare unless using the custom feature to pack the grid full of mines.

Of course the number nine could never appear because there are only eight other squares around each square.

Answer: Expert

Besides custom, the three options for grid size are "beginner, intermediate and expert". The only aspect of the game to change between these are the size of the grid and number of mines (the increase in mines is relatively larger therefore the density of mines increases also).

Regarding luck, luck plays a small role in "Minesweeper" but not altogether significant unless trying to secure a record time. There are numerous situations when you have to guess and luck plays no bigger role in the game than at the beginning when trying to get off to a favourable start.

Answer: 81

The beginner grid (the smallest) has nine rows by nine columns meaning 81 squares. This contains 10 mines.

The Intermediate grid is 16 rows by 16 columns meaning 256 squares and the expert setting contains 480 squares (16 rows by 30 columns).

Answer: Width

As well as width (i.e. how many grid squares across the grid is), you can choose the height and number of mines. The customisability of "Minesweeper" does not stop there though! You can also turn sound effects on or off, turn colour off or remove the option of placing question marks.

"Injuries" is obviously a reference to sports games though an injuries option on "Minesweeper" would prove interesting and possibly expensive for Microsoft who would probably receive complaints saying that not only are computer technicians having to be called but bomb disposal experts too!

"DK mode" is a reference to the N64 console's "Goldeneye" in which was included an option to turn the other characters into Donkey Kong like figures (i.e. monkey like).

Answer: F1

The extremely helpful contents page explains fully all of the intricacies of "Minesweeper". For those of you unfamiliar with shortcuts, F1 is generally used a direct link to some sort of "help" or "contents" page on most programs.

I did consider putting "Control + Alt + Delete" as an option but wouldn't want to be responsible for...well...I hope nobody would actually fall for that!

Answer: 1

A corner square only has three surrounding squares and so revealing a "2" in a corner shows you two of the three surrounding squares have mines in them.

Therefore a mine will definitely be behind two of them. A number "2" could appear in any of the three squares if there are no other mines in the immediate vicinity of its square - it would be in contact with the two squares with mines in them. A number "5" could also appear, but only on the square diagonal to the corner square (hence the two mines would be in the squares directly horizontal and vertical to the number "2" in the corner). It would be a "5" if of its remaining five squares that it contacts, three of them had mines in them.

A "1" could not appear because whichever of the three squares it was in surrounding the corner square, it would still remain in contact with the two mines.

Trivia: J.K. Rowling, when taking breaks from writing her latest Harry Potter novels, often chews gum and plays Minesweeper. She took up this routine when she decided to give up smoking.

I hope you have enjoyed my quiz on "Minesweeper", I'm sure many of you have idly wasted away hours on it like me. Other current titles in this fashion include "Freecell", "Hearts", "Solitaire", "Spider Solitaire" and "Click on the Red Card Solitaire"! (Just kidding about that last one!).

I once wrote a review for "Minesweeper" for a games magazine on Teletext on a television channel. Each week a viewer's own review of the latest video games was published so I decided to be unorthodox and review a game that nobody would dream of reviewing yet probably most people had played. I remember I gave it 3/5 because even though it is incredibly playable, the graphics are not too impressive and the storyline is virtually non-existent!