Mine Field was written for DOS in 1985 by Everett Kaser.
You start in the top left corner and navigate to the bottom right using the keyboard. The number of mines adjacent to your position is shown in the current square. The grid is fixed You are awarded 1 point per square opened and 100 points for completing a game. Unlike other early games like Relentless Logic and Landmine, when you complete a game you automatically start a new game with 10 more mines and keep scoring points until you lose.
Version 1.04 is monochrome with a fixed grid of 20x15 and 1 to 85 mines while Version 1.05 is a fixed grid of 15x10 with 30 to 87 mines.
Kaser confirmed to minesweepergame that he remembered playing Landmine (1984) but not being impressed by the user interface. He wrote Mine Field as Freeware before later starting his Shareware company Kaser Software in 1989. Version 1.05 is in "CGA alpha mode" which introduced 8 colours. He also wrote a find the path game called "Hearts & Bones" for the HP Palmtop and a DOS game called "Knarly Hexes" which is similar to Hex Minesweeper but you use number clues to identify and merge coloured cells.
Version History
A list of all known versions sorted by platform then version. Email admin@ if you have more! See the Downloads section for available files.
DOS
1.00
DOS
1.01
DOS
1.02
DOS
1.03
DOS
1.04
DOS
1.05
Added colour and changed grid to 15x10. Custom changed to between 30 to 87 mines.
