Microsoft Minesweeper - best times

Alan Bolte · Post by **Alan Bolte** » 2004-06-25 11:45pm

I've found myself playing this again recently. What're your best times?
Beginner - 7 (Whoo, guessing frenzy mode)
Intermediate - 47
Expert - 149

Asst. Asst. Lt. Cmdr. Smi · Post by **Asst. Asst. Lt. Cmdr. Smi** » 2004-06-26 12:00am

Beginner: 13 seconds
I don't have best times for the other levels, although I've been trying to get intermediate done in under a minute.
However, I do have a record for a customized expert-sized playing field with only ten mines: one second.

Mayabird · Post by **Mayabird** » 2004-06-26 12:13am

Beginner: 4 seconds
Intermediate: 42 seconds
Expert: 138 seconds

Agent R · Post by **Agent R** » 2004-06-26 02:02am

How do you people get so fast?!?

Hmm....maybe I'm just slow.....

Beginner: 9
Intermediate: 60
Expert: 297

BTW, thanks for getting me hooked again

Mayabird · Post by **Mayabird** » 2004-06-26 02:07am

A little luck and a LOT of practice. I've been playing Minesweeper since middle school and got those scores not too long ago (maybe a little over a year ago for that 4 second one; the others are more recent).

Alan Bolte · Post by **Alan Bolte** » 2004-06-26 11:04am

Beginner is entirely luck. Intermediate requires quite a bit of luck under, say, 70 seconds because you have to move too fast for most people's brains to sit there and work out anything. With both Int and Expert it helps to not really start a game until you have guessed a good portion of the playing field in under 5 seconds. This allows you lots of 'middle button on a one' type moves, and also makes sure you have a field where the mines are conveniently clustered together. Sometimes I go through a dozen or more rounds of guessing before I settle on something I like. These days I don't start on expert until I have three to four cleared 0 areas, depending on size and location. You also learn a lot of the logic of the game fast enough to do it by instinct if you play often enough. I got hooked again recently while trying to recover from a concussion, and now I've got my best Expert score ever!

YT300000 · Post by **YT300000** » 2004-06-26 09:19pm

I don't randomly click, I use logic to discern where the mines are. So it takes me a little longer.

Beginner: 25 seconds
Intermediate: 125 seconds
Expert: 482 seconds

That's of course without cheating. With cheats, my times look like this:

Beginner: 0 seconds
Intermediate: 0 seconds
Expert: 0 seconds

Mayabird · Post by **Mayabird** » 2004-06-27 02:26am

In case your clicking finger gets sore from playing Minesweeper too long, you can just watch some crazy videos of people making crazy Minesweeper times.

http://metanoodle.com/minesweeper/videos.html

It's not all just luck, I insist. You just have to play way too much of it for your own good for you to get into that "In the Zone" state of minesweeping which is actually kinda creepy when you think back on it.

ZShade · Post by **ZShade** » 2004-06-27 09:21am

Beginner - 7 seconds
Intermediate - 36 seconds
Expert - 89 seconds

Though lately, I've been unable to crack 100 seconds.

muse · Post by **muse** » 2004-06-27 01:26pm

Custom - 1 second

If I'm lucky I can get under a minute with beginner, and I've only succeeded a couple times on intermediate. Expert? Forget about it.