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This article was posted to the Usenet group alt.hackers in 1995; any technical information is probably outdated.

Re: Minesweeper solver


Article: 7822 of alt.hackers
From: seebs@solutions.solon.com (Peter Seebach)
Newsgroups: alt.hackers
Subject: Re: Minesweeper solver
Date: 15 May 1995 10:19:17 -0500
Organization: Solutions Online
Lines: 30
Approved: me
Message-ID: 3p7rdl$7ti@solutions.solon.com
NNTP-Posting-Host: solutions.solon.com
Status: RO

In article <3ordi5$qla@news.bu.edu>, Brad Heintz <bpheintz@bu.edu>
wrote:
>Peter Seebach (seebs@solutions.solon.com) wrote:
>: I don't believe it.  I think it's safe to say that there is no way
>: to even start a minesweeper level without guessing.

>Actually, *any* square you choose will be a free one.  Try it.  When you
>think about it, it'd be sort of a no-brainer to implement.  If you don't
>get a "0" square the first try, though, the second one will be
>guesswork.  What I'd be interested to know, though, is whether or not
>the solver mentioned earlier in the thread had a semi-smart
>probabalistic guessing mechanism, or if it just guessed randomly when it
>was stuck, i.e., did it ask "Based on the number of mines and
the number
>of untouched squares, am I better off choosing randomly, or going with a
>square bordering a known square?"

That's losedose minesweeper.  *REAL* minesweeper doesn't give you
that gaurantee.  (Trust me.  I've lost on the first move.)  And yes,
unless your first square is a zero, you still guess.

The point is, even if you are *sure* your first square will be empty, you
are guessing when you choose one - you do not have any proof of its emptiness,
except for a general existentialist faith that the computer will cheat for
you.

-s
--
Peter Seebach - seebs@solutions.solon.com  -- seebs@intran.xerox.com
C/Unix proto-wizard -- C/Unix questions? Send mail for help.
Moderator - alt.religion.kibology, comp.lang.c.moderated
Copyright 1995 Peter Seebach.  Not for distribution through Microsoft Network.



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