Experience the charm of loneliness in "Mine Sweeper" and compete with yourself every moment

I once heard a joke about games. It was about two people going to an Internet cafe for a night together. One person played Minesweeper all night, and the other watched him play Minesweeper all night. . At first glance, it sounds like this game is mocking the boredom of the "Mine Sweeper" game, but on the other hand, it also shows that "Mine Sweeper" is very attractive, right? Although this is a joke, small games such as Minesweeper and Solitaire seem to have become a symbol for Microsoft systems. Simple squares and numbers have become enlightenment games for countless people.

The predecessor of Minesweeper can be traced back to a game called "Cube" in 1973. Later, "Cube" was transformed into another game called "Rlogic". "The player plays the role of a U.S. Marine, and the task is to find a safe route without landmines for the troops. Two years later, someone else wrote on the basis of "Rlogic" and developed a game called "Landmine", and this was the prototype of Minesweeper. It was not until 1981 that two engineers from Microsoft, Robert Doerr and Carter Johnson, loaded the game on the Windows 3.1 system. Since then, the Minesweeper game has become known to the world.

However, it is worth mentioning that in 1981, Microsoft added Minesweeper to the Windows 3.1 system, not simply to add some games, but to train users' left and right mouse button operation abilities through Minesweeper. It makes the action of clicking the mouse more natural, while also improving the speed and accuracy of mouse movement. The original purpose of Microsoft's inclusion of Minesweeper later became the rules of the "Minesweeper" competition and the direction of training for professional players. Since it is to train simple mouse operation skills, the gameplay is naturally very simple.

Minesweeper is divided into three difficulties. The main difference between each difficulty lies in the size of the square matrix and the number of mines it contains. The basic level is 9*9 and 10 mines, the intermediate level is 16*16 and 40 mines, and the advanced level is 16*30 and 99 mines. The gameplay is for the player to control the mouse and click to open the matrix square to mark all the mines. However, if a mine is clicked, the game ends. After the player clicks on a square, a number will appear, indicating the number of mines in the eight surrounding squares centered on the square. This is the only clue given to the player.

In fact, the essence of the gameplay is about mathematical reasoning. Use the clues about the number of surrounding mines given by the opened grids to analyze and reason about which grid the mines are on. It can be said that this is the simplest reasoning game, but it is extremely charming, and this charm comes from "mathematics". If we carefully recall the various mathematical problems we encountered during our academic career, we will find an interesting similarity. These problems can all be regarded as reasoning questions.

Minesweeper is like a mathematical reasoning problem. The fun of the game lies in thinking and reasoning. Of course, the biggest difference between Minesweeper and other games is probably "boring". Just like the joke about going to an Internet cafe to play Minesweeper, since the original intention was not to entertain users, the production of Minesweeper is very simple, and there are not even playing cards that look like a game. But I have to admit that Minesweeper has achieved what all games want to do but cannot, that is, popularity. As long as there is Windows on any computer, Minesweeper will have Minesweeper. To a certain extent, Minesweeper has the largest number of players in the world. group.

However, only a small number of people actually experience Minesweeper in depth, and most people are dissuaded by its complex mathematical reasoning gameplay. Just like the mathematician Gauss said, "Some beautiful theorems in mathematics have this characteristic: they are easy to be summarized from the facts, but the proofs are extremely hidden." The rules of minesweeper are very simple, and the gameplay only requires the mouse. Click, but there are too few people who can calm down and experience this game.

Just like those players who love Minesweeper say, "This is a lonely game." Everyone is fighting alone, but there are many people walking side by side on this road. There are many Minesweeper games that also have their own world records and their own professional terminology. For example, 3BV (Bechtel's Board Benchmark Value) refers to the minimum number of left-clicks required to open all non-mine blocks in each round. This is also data used to evaluate the difficulty of the situation. There is also 3BV/s (3BV / (Time - 1) ) refers to the average 3BV value completed per second in a game, which is data used to evaluate player speed.

In the field of mine clearance, the Polish Kamil Muranski is recognized as a genius and has set multiple world records for mine clearance. There are many different rules for Minesweeper world records. The three most basic categories are normal gameplay, "blind scan" and "3BV/s". Normal gameplay is to rank by summing the clearance times of the three difficulties. "Blind scan" "Sweep" is also called NF. It is a gameplay that only turns over the blocks without marking the mines. The rankings of NF gameplay and 3BV/s are also ranked based on the sum of the clearance times of the three difficulties. And Kamil Muranski uses these three rankings to rank first in the world.

A reporter once interviewed him. The first question the reporter asked during the interview was "Why are you addicted to it?" This may also be a question that all people who do not play Minesweeper want to ask, Kamil Muranski The answer is very simple, "Because I want to be the best in the world in something." When interviewed by reporters, Kamil Muranski's answer is always simple and direct, as simple as numbers but extremely accurate. This may be what minesweeper brings to His character traits. Kamil Muranski said that Minesweeper is different from other games. This is a game where you are always fighting alone. Even if you participate in the competition and compete with others, you are still challenging yourself.

Being ranked No. 1 in the world did not bring any practical benefits to Kamil Muranski, and when asked by reporters whether he was worried about the future of this game, Kamil Muranski’s answer was very simple. He said that even when Minesweeper was the most popular, no one gave him money because of his reputation as "the world's number one". Although he was worried that this game would disappear, that was the fact and he didn't really care. Kamil Muranski's attitude towards minesweeper is completely different from the attitude of professional players in other games towards their own games. He does not express his emotions very strongly, and you don't seem to feel his love for minesweeper at all.

Minesweeper requires quick thinking and quick reaction capabilities, which are also reflected in professional players like Kamil Muranski. "Precision" is the best way to describe them. In today's era when various AAA masterpieces are emerging one after another, and countless games are pursuing game development technologies such as graphics, actions, effects, etc., this "little game" from 28 years ago is still deeply loved by players. Indeed, this is a lonely game, so lonely that in the player's eyes there are only numbers and squares between 1 and 8, so lonely that all the time and energy invested is just to go faster by 0.01 seconds, but lonely people tend to go faster. Far away, because they are focused and focused.