Hackers of a certain age will remember that before the Internet was available to distract us from our work, we had to find our own fun. Luckily, Windows was there to come to our aid, in the shape of “Minesweeper” – a classic of the age that involved figuring out/occasionally just guessing where a selection of mines had been hidden on a grid of squares via numerical clues to their proximity. For those missing such simple times, [Martin] has brought the game into physical space with his 3D-printed travel-game version.
A number of pre-determined game fields can be inserted (by a friend… or enemy, we presume!) and covered by tiles, which the mine-clearing player can then remove with their plastic shovel to reveal the clues. The aim of the game is to avoid uncovering a bomb, and to place flags where the bombs are hiding.
Aficionados of the game may remember that a little guessing was often inevitable, which sometimes ended in disaster. On the computer version, this merely entailed clicking the Smiley Face button for a new game, but in this case would require a new sheet to be inserted. Blank sheet templates are included for producing your own fiendish bomb-sites, and all the pieces pack away neatly into a handy clam-shell design that would be ideal for long car journeys when the data package on the kids’ tablets has run out.
We wonder what other classic games may lend themselves to a travel remake and look forward to the first 3D-printed travel set of Doom with anticipation!
If you’re above solving your own Minesweeper games, then you can learn how to write a solver in Java here.
I can’t imagine how it would work, but 3d-printed travel Doom sounds awesome.
Once upon a time, there existed a thing known as RPG
As a Pathfinder DM, that has printed minis, I appreciate this.
But it proved ineffective and was replaced by Uncle NLAW, Saint Javelin, Papa Krab and others which demilitarize armor much more reliably.
Rapid Prototype Games?
There is a Doom tabletop, might be a bit large for a car trip tough…
But while i think about it, a travel version of Battletech would rock. Little peg versions of the mechs on a hex peg board, maybe two “basis-maps” for a start, A5 versions of the mech sheets… <3
Minesweeper once in a while ends up with a state where there’s only one mine left but the positioning of other mines nearby that the player has correctly flagged make it 100% impossible to determine which of two squares has the mine. All the numbers point to it being equally possible that it’s one or the other.
At that point all you can do is flip a coin (literally or figuratively) and choose one.
That’s what makes a perfect solver for Minesweeper impossible. https://gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/288247/what-do-i-do-when-two-squares-are-equally-valid
How about rolling paper background, like two papyruss rolls…
Or putting each background inside an “envelope” with a tab: you insert the envelope with the tab pointing in the insertion direction; when it is placed, you grab the tab and retire the envelope. This way, the background is in place and you didn’t see it.