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Microsoft Minesweeper - best times

Posted: 2004-06-25 11:45pm
by Alan Bolte
I've found myself playing this again recently. What're your best times?
Beginner - 7 (Whoo, guessing frenzy mode)
Intermediate - 47
Expert - 149

Posted: 2004-06-26 12:00am
by Asst. Asst. Lt. Cmdr. Smi
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.

Posted: 2004-06-26 12:13am
by Mayabird
Beginner: 4 seconds
Intermediate: 42 seconds
Expert: 138 seconds

Posted: 2004-06-26 02:02am
by Agent R
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 :P

Posted: 2004-06-26 02:07am
by Mayabird
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).

Posted: 2004-06-26 11:04am
by Alan Bolte
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!

Posted: 2004-06-26 09:19pm
by YT300000
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

Posted: 2004-06-27 02:26am
by Mayabird
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.

Posted: 2004-06-27 09:21am
by ZShade
Beginner - 7 seconds
Intermediate - 36 seconds
Expert - 89 seconds

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

Posted: 2004-06-27 01:26pm
by muse
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.