Minesweeper, what was that all about? The 16-bit PC game had millions of people clicking squares at random desperately hoping to avoid the 'mines' that would blow up, but it turns out there's actually a way of playing it after all.
A TikTok user called Paisley - who goes by the handle @p.hops - aims to show you how you're really meant to play the game. The clip was also shared on Twitter with the caption: "Bro. After all these years I was just clicking for luck."
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Paisley is shown not just managing to avoid clicking on any mines, but doing so using strategy and an understanding of how to actually play.
"I am about to make all your middle school dreams come true because I am going to tell you how to play this stupid game called mine something or other," she says in the video.
She then goes on to explain that after you first press a square, the number each subsequent square reveals indicates how many mines it is touching.
This means that ultimately you are left to deduce which un-clicked square is containing the mine based on how many mines the squares next to it are touching. Sheer sorcery.
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Turns out load of people didn't know how to play either.
One Twitter user wrote: "I thought the numbers were just there for vibes."
Another added: "Right lol I need to go beat the game now."
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However, many were still none the wiser about how to play.
One said: "My slow a** watched the video and I still don't know to play it."
Another commented: "I still don't get it. maybe if she tried yelling at me like my mom when I didn't understand math it would add up."
A third recalled another free Windows game classic, writing: "This game use to have all of 60 seconds before i close this mf and played pinball."
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Minesweeper has been one of the most enduring and yet maddening games on the PC, one of a small cluster of 16-bit games you could play for free on booting up Windows 95 or 98, alongside the likes of card games such as Freecell and Solitaire.
The card games similarly could take some getting used to, particularly for kids, but they were based on the rules of age-old physical card games. The rules of Minesweeper however were, well, confusing.
Solitaire celebrated its 30th anniversary last year, with Microsoft estimating 35 million people still play it monthly, incredible given the advancements in technology and gaming since it first came out on Windows 3.0 in 1990.
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To celebrate, Microsoft set Solitaire's players of playing the most games of the card conundrum within a single day.
Minesweeper also celebrated its 30th anniversary last year. To commemorate it, perhaps the creators could've made a special edition of the rules.
Featured Image Credit: TwitterTopics: GAMING, Microsoft, Technology