How to play:

• Uncover a square by clicking it. If you uncover a mine, you lose the game.

• If a number appears on a square, it indicates how many total mines are in the eight squares that surround the numbered one. You can use this number to help deduce whether a square is safe to uncover.

• To mark a square you suspect contains a mine, right-click it. This will add a flag to the square. If you're not sure, right-click it again, which will add a question mark to the square.

• When you uncover a square which doesn't have any adjacent mines, the minefield will be automatically cleared up to the points where squares do have adjacent mines.

• To start a new game, use the menu or click the smiley face.

• The game ends when you have marked all mines and cleared all the squares.

• The display keeps track of the number of mines remaining and the time.

Tips:

• The first time you play the game, you'll set a difficulty level. The fewer mines you select, the easier the game.

• Try to mark all mines right away. If you know exactly where some mines are, take a second to mark them. Otherwise, you might forget them by the time you get back from another part of the board. This takes time, but it's worth it in the end.

• Learn to recognize numerical patterns. If you see that three squares in a row display the numbers 2-3-2, then three mines are in a row next to one side of that row of squares. If a square displays an 8, then you know every square around it holds a mine.

• Explore the unexplored. If a set of squares doesn't reveal a pattern and you're not sure where to click next, clear out some unexplored territory. You're better off clicking in the middle of unmarked squares than clicking in an area where you know some mines are located.

A completed game

 

More detailed info on Minesweeper is at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minesweeper_(game)

Thanks to Duncan Mark Aitken, http://www.netsoc.tcd.ie/~duncan, for the Java Applet source.