h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

(bear with me - I'm only a first year)

How does it get past the initial random clicking to start the board? Wouldn't it think that (according to the information) every square holds a mine as there is nothing to tell it otherwise?

(thinks through the algorithm again) Or is there where the 'guessing' comes into action as it knows that it's 'found' more mines than there really are?

Neither

To sum up the way the program works: it guesses thirty times, making sure every guess fits in with the information, then averages the guesses together to get probabilities for there being a mine on each square.

Now, at the start of the game, it doesn't have *any* information... thus it produces thirty entirely random guesses at what the board might contain. Averaging these values out, it naturally concludes that some squares are less likely to have mines on than others... simply because of the random nature of the probability calculating procedures.

It then picks whichever square happened to look like it ought to have the least probability of containing a mine.

In effect: it guesses. But the guessing comes from the probability calculations, not from any higher-level process.

The cool thing about my algorithm, though, is that if you ask it 'where are all the mines?', it will always be able to give you an answer... if there are thirty mines on the board, it *always* knows where it thinks every single one of those thirty mines might be...

26199

Does your program make use of the Minesweeper 'cheat' in windows: if you blow up the first time, then move that bomb to another (random) square.

This'd change the 60% for the Beginner mode to 66%, possibly?

You mean there's never a bomb on the square which you lost on last time?

In fact, my program plays against its own version of minesweeper for reasons of easy of interaction, so it doesn't have any little quirks to take advantage of.

There's a better cheat for the Windows 3.11 version of minesweeper, incidentally: I think you type something like SHIFT x z z y ENTER (this isn't likely to be accurate - you could look it up at http://www.eeggs.com ) and then the top-left pixel on your screen changes colour to show if you're hovering over a mine.

26199

No, the first square you click is never a bomb...

btw, presumably you might get better results if you randomly guessed at the center, rather than the edges... or maybe vica versa... some element of "look-ahead" would make the program work faster...

umm, I meant better, not faster...

It's true that the program doesn't take into account how much information it'll get from clicking on a particular square...

Hmmmm. Intuitively, I think the advantage gained in doing so would be incredibly small... but I could be wrong.

*shrug*

26199

I suspect that in classic Minesweeper the advantage is of the order of percentage points - but I'm sure I could find variations where it is critically important...

Have any of you played Minesweeper on really old b/w macs?

The cheat is X Y Z Z Y - from ADVENT fame

Advent was the REALLY old text game (we're talking before 'COLOSSAL' adventure, which took up more than one reel of tape): the name is ADVENT because they only had 6 letter filenames.

oh good god - the "magic word"! fond memories...

You are in the Hall of the Mountain King. MyRedDice blocks your way.

that's old.

Grin, I played that one...

Prob'ly wasn't born before it came out, though.

26199

Yes - it's just the same on a b/w Mac isn't it?

I beg to differ. The first square you click on CAN be a bomb - and it's REALLY irritating.

*shrug* not on my PC. It's probably different for the mac - I know it's different for some of the clones...

I've tested Win 3.1 and Win 95's minesweepers, and it appears MyRedDice is right: the first square you click on is never a mine.

26199

What the *&^*&^ ARE YOU ON ABOUT????!!!
IF YOU CAN HELP THIS ONE OUT THEN THE FLAG IS UPSIDE DOWN ALREADY....
do you know the meaning of autocracy?????
Where do you think these types of ?? come from anyways?
You might as well be playing "Step on the Mine and You DIE"
-Jin

Er...

Dare I ask what you're talking about?

26199 (somewhat baffled)

Remember kids, mines aren't toys...