Minesweeper Rules and History: Who Invented It?
In Minesweeper you open squares on a grid while avoiding hidden mines. Each opened square shows how many mines touch it, and you win by opening every square that isn't a mine. The best-known version, Microsoft Minesweeper, was written by Curt Johnson and Robert Donner and first released in 1990 in the Microsoft Entertainment Pack, then included with Windows 3.1 in 1992.
The rules of Minesweeper
- The board is a grid of closed squares. A set number of mines is hidden under some of them.
- Open a square by clicking or tapping it. If it's a mine, the game is over.
- Read the number. A safe square shows how many mines are in the eight squares around it (above, below, left, right and the four diagonals).
- Blank squares have no mines around them, so the game opens all their neighbours automatically, which is why one click can clear a big area.
- Flag squares you think hide mines (usually right-click; on phones, a long-press or a flag mode). Flagged squares can't be opened by accident.
- Win by opening every square that isn't a mine. You don't have to flag the mines.
Most versions also have a mine counter (mines minus flags placed) and a timer. Many make your first click safe, and some let you chord: clicking a number that already has its mines flagged opens the rest of its neighbours.
Board sizes and difficulty levels
The classic Windows levels became the standard that most versions copy:
| Level | Board | Mines |
|---|---|---|
| Beginner | 8×8 or 9×9 | 10 |
| Intermediate | 16×16 | 40 |
| Expert | 30×16 | 99 |
GameLake's levels are sized for phone screens: Easy is 9×9 with 10 pufferfish (the lake's version of mines), Medium is 14×10 with 21, and Hard is 18×12 with 36. There's also a Daily lake that's the same board for every player.
Who invented Minesweeper?
There's no single inventor. The idea of uncovering a grid while avoiding hidden mines appeared in several games before the famous version:
- Mined-Out (1983), a game for the ZX Spectrum home computer by Ian Andrew and published by Quicksilva, had players cross a minefield while the game showed how many mines were next to them, but not where.
- Mines (1987), by Tom Anderson for Unix workstations, is another early mine-sweeping game.
The version that made the game world-famous is Microsoft Minesweeper. It was created by Curt Johnson and Robert Donner, both Microsoft employees at the time. Johnson wrote it originally for IBM's OS/2 and Donner brought it to Windows. Johnson has said the design was borrowed from another game (though not, he said, from Mined-Out), and which one has never been settled, so be wary of any source that names a single "inventor".
When was Minesweeper created?
| Year | What happened |
|---|---|
| 1983 | Mined-Out is released for the ZX Spectrum. |
| 1987 | Mines, a mine-sweeping game for Unix, appears. |
| 1990 | Microsoft Minesweeper is first released, in the Microsoft Entertainment Pack for Windows. |
| 1992 | Minesweeper is included in the standard install of Windows 3.1, replacing Reversi. |
| 2000 | A mathematics paper shows that deciding whether a Minesweeper position is consistent is NP-complete, one of the hard problems of computer science. |
| 2007 | Windows Vista's redesign adds a "Flower Garden" theme with flowers in place of mines. |
| 2012 | Windows 8 no longer includes Minesweeper; Microsoft publishes it as a free app in its store instead. |
Minesweeper spread so widely because it came free with Windows for two decades. It's often said to have had a useful side effect too: just as Solitaire got people used to dragging with a mouse, Minesweeper got new computer users comfortable with precise left and right clicks.
Why it's still worth playing
Under the mines, Minesweeper is a logic puzzle, closer to Sudoku than to a game of chance. Once you learn to read the numbers together, patterns like 1-2-1 start jumping out and you can clear whole boards without a single risky click. Our guide on how to win Minesweeper walks through those patterns with diagrams.
GameLake's Minesweeper is built for touch screens, and every board can be solved by logic alone, so you never have to guess. If you get stuck, Teach me shows which numbers to read and explains the next move.
Frequently asked questions
What are the rules of Minesweeper?
Open every square that isn't a mine. Each opened square shows how many mines touch it, including diagonals. Use those numbers to work out where mines are, flag them, and avoid opening them.
Who invented Minesweeper?
No single person. Earlier mine-hunting games include Mined-Out (1983) and Mines (1987). Microsoft Minesweeper, the famous version, was made by Curt Johnson and Robert Donner.
When was Minesweeper created?
Microsoft Minesweeper was first released in 1990 in the Microsoft Entertainment Pack and became part of Windows 3.1 in 1992. Similar games existed from 1983.
What do the numbers in Minesweeper mean?
How many mines are in the eight squares around that number. A blank square means zero.
Is Minesweeper still on Windows?
It stopped being included with Windows 8 in 2012. Microsoft offers a free Minesweeper app in its store, and you can play it in any browser, for example on GameLake.