Minefield was written in 1983 for the BBC Micro by Neal Cavalier-Smith. It was published in 1984.

In Minefield, written by Neal Cavalier-Smith, you use the 'Z' 'X', '*' and '?' keys to move yourself around the screen, in which you have to manoeuvre your tank across the minefield to get to the other side. Once you get safely to the right hand-side of the screen, you'll be given the chance of tackling a more difficult field. The blank column on the lef-hand side of the screen is a safe 'no man's land' where yoou can move around in safety. There is no danger of a mine being planted there. The number in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen deontes the number of mines which your tank is near (including those which are diagonally adjacent to it). The tank's colour (and the colour of its trakcs) tells you how many mines are near.

Your tank (a square) turns black for 0, red for 1, green for 2, blue for 3 and magenta for 4 or higher. After each game you can keep playing but another mine is added each time. You are awarded a score based on the number of finished levels and moves taken.

A second version was written in 1984 and published for the IBM PC using Microsoft BASIC in 1985:

You are now commanding a mine-sweeper, with the task of clearing a path through the heavily mined Juicy Straits Canal, so that oil tankers can get through. Each section of the canal is split into a ten by fifteen grid. Each separate location in this grid can contain a mine. Although you can't actually see the mines, your rusty old mine-detector can tell when a mine is in one of the eight locations that surround your position.

The game was re-published as Mine Sweeper in 1985 for the IBM PC and Apple II computers, both using Microsoft BASIC. These "stripware" games came with an encoded piece of paper read with a special Cauzin strip reader. The books also include the original code.

The following attributes can be used to map the evolution of Minesweeper. Blue cells are confirmed attributes for official versions of Minefield. Yellow cells are unknown.