# minesweeper question
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minesweeper-question/101355
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [April 2, 2002, 7:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minesweeper-question/101355 "2002-04-02T07:49:21Z")
**Posts on this page:** 9
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@curwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/curwin)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2002, 7:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minesweeper-question/101355/1 "2002-04-02T07:49:21Z")
From what I’ve seen, you never start the game by clicking on a mine. So is the map of mines determined by where you click first?
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### Author:  [@grimpixie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grimpixie)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2002, 7:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minesweeper-question/101355/2 "2002-04-02T07:51:46Z")
You need to play it a bit more!! This has quite often happened to me - true, most of the time, you click on an open space, but there are only 99 mines in 480 spaces (on expert), so that is just a 20% chance of hitting a mine…
Gp
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### Author:  [@Mikahw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mikahw)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2002, 8:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minesweeper-question/101355/3 "2002-04-02T08:10:46Z")
I put it on custom mode. 8x8 square, 49 mines. I still havn’t clicked on a mine on the first try yet, and I’ve tried at lest 40 times.
There’s a 76% chance of landing on a mine on the first try if the mines were placed randomly, but I havn’t landed on one. Not one.
Hmm, interesting. I never noticed that before.
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### Author:  [@istara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/istara)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2002, 8:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minesweeper-question/101355/4 "2002-04-02T08:22:37Z")
My brother spotted this a couple of years ago. It must be that the grid isn’t determined until you’ve made your first move.
I play with the “Big Grid” - max custom size, and 200 mines. Nearly impossible to get out. I’ve done it three, maybe four times in my life.
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### Author:  [@GilaB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GilaB)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2002, 8:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minesweeper-question/101355/5 "2002-04-02T08:26:26Z")
If you set the custom version to have exactly one fewer mine than there are spaces in your grid, you’ll still never click on a mine your first try. I did it once just to find out what color an 8 was (it’s black), but then, I’ve always taken far too strong an interest in all things minesweeper. (I got my time down to 78 seconds on expert a couple of months ago. Oh, the things I feel the need to brag about!)
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### Author:  [@buckgully](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buckgully)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2002, 8:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minesweeper-question/101355/6 "2002-04-02T08:40:59Z")
Yeah, I just tried the same thing, with the same result. However, I seem to recall that at some point you could click on a mine on your first try.
Could this be a more recent development? I don’t have any windows 98 or 95 (or 3.1) machines around to try on, just 2000 and XP.
I also think that they made the solitaire game in Windows CE easier somehow. I can usually win once out of every 5-6 games or so on my HP Jornada, whereas on the PC, in Eric’s Solitaire on the Mac, or in real life I very, very rarely win.
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### Author:  [@Popup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Popup)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2002, 10:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minesweeper-question/101355/7 "2002-04-02T10:07:26Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by GilaB \*
> \*\*(I got my time down to 78 seconds on expert a couple of months ago. Oh, the things I feel the need to brag about!) \*\*
:: bowing, kissing **GilaB** s feet::
I have found a master. I have only come under 100sec three times, and the best was 89 seconds.
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### Author:  [@Mikahw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mikahw)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2002, 10:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minesweeper-question/101355/8 "2002-04-02T10:53:50Z")
> [@](#):
>
> if you set the custom version to have exactly one fewer mine than there are spaces in your grid, you’ll still never click on a mine your first try.
How do you do that? My version doesn’t seem to allow that. For example, in an 8X8 grid (64 spaces), it only allows a maximum of 49 mines. Do you have a special setting that allows you to have one less mine than spaces on the board?
Maybe it’s just that I have a different version (win 98), though.
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### Author:  [@grimpixie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grimpixie)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2002, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minesweeper-question/101355/9 "2002-04-02T11:55:27Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by buckgully \*
> \*\*Yeah, I just tried the same thing, with the same result. However, I seem to recall that at some point you could click on a mine on your first try.
>
> Could this be a more recent development? I don’t have any windows 98 or 95 (or 3.1) machines around to try on, just 2000 and XP. \*\*
Agreed - I have experinced hitting mines on the first go, but that was back in the days of 3.1 - now I have graduated to Freecell!! 😛
Gp