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What is MineSweeper3D?

You've probably played the old game called minesweeper. It's been included with each of Microsoft's operating systems since before Windows95, and is very addictive! The idea is simple, but it's a challenge to master.

Here is a 3D version of minesweeper. The 3D graphics enhances the experience and the different tilings used for the different boards introduces new challenges of logic and adds a lot to the gameplay. There's a lot more variation in this game than in the original Minesweeper!

Also, you can compete against others around the world by trying to get onto the online world records board!

How to play

The board is covered with tiles. You play by clicking to reveal what lies beneath each tile. Some tiles have mines (or bombs) hidden beneath them, so you must not click on those tiles! Other tiles will reveal a number, which indicates how many neighbouring tiles contain mines. Tiles are neighbours if they touch, either along an edge or just at a corner. Use these numbers to find all the tiles that don't contain mines. You win when all such tiles have been revealed. If no neighbouring tiles contain mines, then no number is given (it would be zero), and all neighbouring tiles are also revealed (recursively if they too have no neighbouring mines!). This helps you clear large empty areas.

Since this version is three-dimensional, you also need to rotate the board to access all the tiles. This is also controlled with the mouse. You can even zoom in and out.

Features

Auto-solver

See the auto-solver in action on the video page

The game has a built-in auto-solver. Watch the computer play MineSweeper3D all by itself! You can also use this feature to ask for a hint when you get stuck. If you do use the integrated solver, the timer will be disabled and you can't get a world record (that would be cheating!).

The solver can rotate the board to show you what it's doing, and highlight tiles to show what information it used to figure it out. Download the free demo and check it out! The solver can always find a safe move to make if one exists, and it can calculate exact probabilities of each tile containing a mine otherwise. Probabilities are shown on the screen as percentages and by colour-coding the tiles.

So how does it work? It uses various rules. First it looks for any moves that can be made using just a single open tile. For example, if an open tile has the number "1", and it already has a flagged tile touching it, then all other neighbours must be safe to open.

Then it looks for moves that can be made based on two tiles. Then three. And then it considers all the tiles at once and counts the possible combinations. If tiles don't contain mines in any valid combination, then they are safe to open. If they do contain mines in all valid combinations, then they are safe to flag. Otherwise the counts are used to figure out exact probabilities of each tile containing a mine, and a guess is made by choosing a tile with the lowest probability.

There are lots of user-settable options which control the auto-solver. You can tell it to stop when it finds certain situations. You can change the speed at which it plays on the screen. There is even a stats mode, where it plays off-screen and collects statistics about how many games were won, and how many of each type of rule were used to solve the boards.

OK, I want it. Gimme gimme gimme!

Start by downloading the free demo version by clicking here. If you want to buy the full version click here.


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