Minesweeper is a video game created by Curt Johnson. First released as part of the Microsoft Entertainment Pack 1 in 1990, it was first included in the standard install of Windows releases, replacing Reversi from Windows 3.0. Microsoft Minesweeper was included without major changes in all subsequent Windows releases until Windows Vista, at which time an updated version by Oberon Media replaced it.
The goal of Minesweeper is to uncover all the squares on a grid that do not contain mines without being "blown up" by clicking on a square with a mine underneath.
The location of most mines is discovered through a logical process, but some require guessing, usually with a 50-50 chance of being correct. Clicking on the game board will reveal what is hidden underneath the chosen square or squares.
Some squares are blank while others contain numbers (from 1 to 8), with each number being the number of mines adjacent to the uncovered square.
To help the player avoid hitting a mine, the location of a suspected mine can be marked by flagging it with the right mouse button. If a player is unsure, they can tag it with a question mark (?). The game is won once all blank or numbered squares have been uncovered without hitting a mine.
In early versions of the game, a cheat code let players peek beneath the tiles. By the year 2000, the game had been given the name of Flower Field instead of Minesweeper in some translations of Windows Me and Windows 2000, most notably the Italian version.
Flower Field featured flowers instead of mines, but gameplay and the executable file name remained unchanged.
The "Flower Field" version developed by Oberon Media shows a garden blooming when the game is lost. It became the default in certain Windows distributions.
The color scheme changed from gray to blue or green, icons were updated to match the Aero look, and a flower motif called "Flower Garden" was added.
Microsoft removed Minesweeper from Windows 8 and released it as a free game on the Microsoft Store. The new version is developed by Arkadium and is ad-supported.
Later versions added subscription options to remove ads. Many news outlets criticized this change as greedy.
Business Insider called the game an "iconic part" of the Windows operating system.
Minesweeper was initially designed as a tool to teach people how to use a mouse.