History & Community
Minesweeper History, Records and Community Guides
Minesweeper was written to teach people how to use a mouse, shipped with Windows to an audience that had mostly never held one, and then quietly became one of the most competitive puzzle games ever made. These articles cover where it came from, how the world record scene developed across three decades, the psychology that makes the game hard to put down, and the real ships the name comes from.
History & Community articles
Facts worth knowing
Why it exists
Minesweeper shipped with Windows to teach mouse skills. In 1990 most computer owners had never used one, and the game drilled precise left and right clicking without feeling like a tutorial.
When it left Windows
It was removed as a built-in in Windows 8 in 2012, not Windows 10, when Microsoft moved its games into the Store.
The world record
Expert records are accepted only with replay or video evidence. The current figure depends on the verifier, so record articles identify the authority and date instead of treating one number as permanent.
XYZZY
Never a menu code. Typing it and pressing Shift and Enter turned a single pixel in the top-left corner of the screen white over a safe square and black over a mine.
The name
A minesweeper is a naval ship that finds and destroys sea mines so other vessels can pass - the same job the game abstracts into clicking cells.
Other Minesweeper topics
Start with the site's own evidence. Then connect the history to today's platform data: read how this publication is maintained, inspect current platform rankings, then review the live platform statistics.