Minesweeper Versions

There have been a huge number of Minesweeper versions and variations made since the game was invented around 1990. These are some of the ones I personally think are interesting or worth checking out.

• There are 3 official versions allowed for the authoritative ranking on minesweeper.info. These are Windows only, and all have one standard game mode, but with automatic video recording (in an extremely compressed format), statistics, and several other features that vary by version.
  • Minesweeper Arbiter - The most customizable and very strong on statistics, great if you want to really understand your playing in detail. By Dmitriy Sukhomlynov and Maksim Bashov. One big feature is a custom Counters window with whatever statistics you want. Here's my personal config file for that.
  • Minesweeper X - Relatively simple, small and doesn't need installation. By Curtis Bright. One fun and unique feature is the ability to play with custom graphics, which can add an interesting challenge. The linked site has a bunch of those skins, and I also have a collection of them.
  • ViennaSweeper - The newest of the three, by Christoph Nikolaus and Thomas Kolar. Has a special feature (although it's defunct for the moment): the ability to play in live, online tournaments through a website called Scoreganizer.
• Minesweeper3D - (Not free) A version where you can play Minesweeper on the surface of various 3D objects. There are many hundreds of boards to compete on and a list of world records. The logic and playing techniques are deep, so I've written a page of notes on playing it.
• Mamono Sweeper - Minesweeper crossed with an experience and leveling system, where you have to defeat monsters (mines) of varying strengths (values), and the clues give the total strength of nearby monsters. I have a page of notes on the logic and techniques of playing it.
• World of Minesweeper - Online minesweeper with a chat, experience system, achievements, and so on. Individual games are played by yourself but there are many ranking systems to compete on.
• Nonosweeper - (Not free) Closely related to minesweeper but with completely different logic. You are given a randomly generated nonogram puzzle and have to solve it as fast as possible without hitting a mine. The website has a tournament system on a weekly rotation which has been running continuously since 2004.
• I've made a few versions of my own in JavaScript:
  • Minesweeper: The Grand Master - the hardest Minesweeper game to beat. think you have the skills to become a GM?
  • MultiSweeper - Standard minesweeper, but with several different control schemes and several variations
  • carykh's Minesweeper - a copy of carykh's Minesweeper game from https://htwins.net/minesweeper/, but with way more variations.
  • Radial - an infinitely scrolling board where the density depends how far you are from the center. also supports infinite boards with a specific fixed density, and some other options. WASD or arrows to scroll
  • Torus Sweeper - A version with boards where the edges wrap around, as if the squares are on a torus. Use WASD or the arrow keys to scroll.
  • Hex Minesweeper v1 - Hexagonal minesweeper, with board sizes weighted by me.
  • Hex Minesweeper v2 - Hexagonal minesweeper, with board sizes from a version called HexMines by Heinz Repp.
  • Mouse Control - A simple game used to practicice controlling the mouse for fast minesweeper play.