Minesweeper is this little
game that comes with most computers with Windows 98. In this game
you want to find all the hidden mines, but without uncovering any of
them. You click on little squares that give you numbers, telling you how
many mines there are in the eight squares surrounding it. Some squares
will uncover more than just itself when clicked; they also uncover the
squares around them that don't contain mines. When you think you have
found a mine, you can right click on it and the computer will mark that
square with a flag and that way you can't accidentally click on
it and blow up. Which leads to dying. When you uncover a mine, you die.
Blow up and die. The computer will show you where all the mines were,
and if you had marked any squares, it also shows you if you mis-marked a
square. To win the game, you must uncover all the squares that don't
contain mines.
On the top part of the game window are two
numbers and a cute smiley face between them. The number on the left is
the number of mines you haven't "discovered" in the field, and
the number on the right is how much time you have taken during the game.
You want to win the game as quickly as possible because your score is
how long you take to win. The smiley face doesn't really have a
function. Well, it kind of does. Clicking it restarts the game, but you
can always hit F2 to restart the game. The smiley face is there
to keep you company. It smiles at you while you play the game and gasps
every time you are about to click a square and smiles again if you
uncovered an empty square. When you win the game, it puts on some nice
shades acting cool like he won the game, but when you die he dies too. I
think he is like some kind of motivation to win, 'cause you don't want
to kill the little smiley face!
This game is great for when it's late at night
and you can't seem to concentrate on writing your essay due the next
day. When you first start playing, you get addicted to it and are
determined to beat the high score. After a while you become bored with
it, but as soon you get bored with your essay, Minesweeper
becomes very inviting again. Some people may become completely addicted
and drag their friends with them into their addiction. Then you may
set up competitions, if you have two computers or do this over the
phone, racing one another. (Warning: people who do this may be
considered nerds.) I have recently had a whole phone conversation about
Minesweeper and my scores with a friend, so I guess I fall into
the nerd category.
Minesweeper is a simple and
entertaining game. Play it when it's late at night or when you're bored
during the day. Become the Minesweeper master. I used to think
this game would prepare me to be some sort of Minesweeper in the
Army. Just imagine, we could save the world from being blown up by
clicking on some squares.
