Tips and Tricks to Winning MineField Classic
MineField Classic is a variant of the revered (and dreaded) minesweeper family of boomer games. This grid game challenges your deductive abilities to guess where all the safe tiles are. You also have to worry about clicking the dreaded mine tile that destroys all progress and sets you back to a new game. Like many logic games, this is not something that a player can master in a single try. All play sessions are different experiences from others.
So far, here are some of the ways to help you overcome one of the most challenging boomer video games ever created.
The first click is mostly safe
Few versions of MineField and other mine sweeping derivatives greet your first attempt with a mine. Either you’re playing at max difficulty or you have been awarded with the blessed misfortune to lose after revealing the first square. Modern game versions will let you reveal a sizable area of the grid, while some of the other editions are happy to award you with a blank or a number. At least you’re guaranteed that nothing bad will affect your game. You’ll then be allowed to worry about the next click and beyond.
Open the corners
Starting with the corners is a typically safe way of opening a game. This is also an opening method that allows you to uncover a larger area of the grid than most other methods of starting a play. While there is still a risk of snagging a Game Over with this method, you’re more likely to end your play session faster by opening from the center of the grid.
Pay attention to the mechanics
This more applies to the complete beginner in MineField Classic, given that you’d rely on mostly luck to get past a stage. Squares hide either a digit, a blank space, or at worst, a mine – with the mine blowing up on your face telling you to start a new game. A digit tells you how many of the surrounding squares are hidden mines. You’ll be able to tell more accurately by looking at where the digit tiles are gathered. 1’s and 2’s on the same spot can give you a clue where a bomb tile is hiding by checking what square they are all adjacent to. That center typically has your ticket to starting a new game for the nth time.
Another basic function of MineField that is overlooked is flagging tiles. Sometimes, we are in a hurry to finish a game so we’ll overlook squares that could help us win a playthrough. Always right-click obvious tiles with mines in them. This should help you avoid a few of those icons that will bomb your progress back to a Play Again.
Use Chording
Some versions of MineField let you click both the left and right mouse buttons at the same time to reveal all safe tiles around a digit. This comes pretty handy in making fewer second-guesses in the later parts, where there are more mines than safe tiles.
It takes practice to get used to mastering this type of games for boomers even with enough theoretical know-how. Knowing the ins and outs of MineField Classic is also a big help to beat other iterations of minesweeper games.
