
Minesweeper’s Theme Came From Relentless LogicĪlthough Mined-Out is arguably the biggest influence on Minesweeper, other mainframe games influenced the design, rule-set, and aesthetics of Minesweeper. “I also thought Mined-Out was a much better game for the simple reason that you didn’t need to take random chances in Mined-Out like you do have to with Minesweeper.” 5. “When I saw Minesweeper, I absolutely thought that it was based on my idea.”įurthermore, it would appear that Ian Andrew did not look favorably on Minesweeper’s design changes compared to Mined-Out. Ian Andrew Didn’t Know Of Minesweeper’s DevelopmentĪlthough there are numerous similarities between Mined-Out and Minesweeper which suggests that Mined-Out’s success was a clear influence during Minesweeper’s development in the 1990s, Ian Andrew was not aware of Minesweeper’s development. Hence his passion and drive for game development and design.
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This is because Ian Andrew was involved in the development, design, and manufacture of traditional games like Pinball in his free time. Ian Andrew Had A Long History With Game Developmentĭespite Ian Andrew only being 24 years of age at the time of Mined-Out’s development and that video game design and development was in its infancy during the 1980s, Ian Andrew had an established history with games before Mined-Out. The development of Mined-Out took Ian Andrew six months to complete, whereafter Quicksilva published it. Due to the two-color limitation of Ian Andrew’s Sinclair Spectrum, he believed the best genre of game to develop was a grid-based puzzle game. Minesweeper’s Predecessor Was Made In Six Months

These early mainframe games influenced Mined-Out, which was believed to be a leading influence on Minesweeper upon its development and publication in 1983. Minesweeper Can Be Dated Back To Mainframe Gamesīefore the development of Minesweeper, the developers were heavily influenced by the early mainframe games of the 1960s and 1970s. To find out more about Minesweeper, the following is a list of the 20 things you need to know about the history of Minesweeper: 1. The success of Minesweeper led to clones and tournaments in the 21st century.
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Upon its completion, Robert Donner, another Microsoft employee, was responsible for porting Minesweeper as part of the Microsoft Windows Entertainment Pack 1. Microsoft Minesweeper was developed for OS/2 by Curt Johnson in 1990. However, some interesting historical facts surround this simple yet challenging puzzle game. Since its digital release with Microsoft Windows in 1990, Minesweeper has become a staple of home and office computers globally.
