Friday, July 27, 2007

Not a professional

So, back in the day, I was a big minesweeper guy. Thought I was pretty good--my best time is 98 seconds on expert. Joked about how I thought about dropping out of school and going pro.

Turns out that would have been a mistake.



38 seconds!

So watching this, it reminds me of what I always knew was holding me back--control/speed of the mouse (a three button helps and fast control) and of course the incessant need to mark almost every bomb (I counted Dion marking 54 bombs). i just didn't realize it was holding me back that much!

3 comments:

Jot said...

You gave up your chance to be a top notch Minesweeper player, with all the endorsement contracts and adoration, to become an Ultimate player, with all the endorsement contracts and adoration.

Now, it is all so clear. ;)

Anonymous said...

I guess it helps to read the instructions. I didn't realize you could click on the number once you pointed out the bomb. Either way, I wouldn't even come close to that. Better stick to frisbee like Keith.

Anonymous said...

Truly getting the unmatchable speed thing down isn't easy in these logic-y games. Most everybody starts off with the goal of just finishing things, instead of actually motoring through at a record pace.

It's that way for me in sudoku, although for awhile there (my mojo is gone, btw) I was actually getting v. quick. But a better parallel is Slitherlink/Fences puzzles -- another logic thing where you have to click here and there and end up w/ a completed board of some sort. They were completely impossible for me for the longest time, so I'd use the notation thing -- you only need to show the fence part in your final solution, but there are little x's you can put between dots so that you know that no fence goes there...

And what happened? My times are, like, 2x the times of the leaders. And that's on a good day. Eliminating the need to put x's everywhere would certainly speed things up, but...I've tried and it just seems impossible. Maybe someday, I dunno. I imagine it's somewhat like "growing up" by putting the mine notes on squares in Minesweeper.

For a good time, visit www.kwontomloop.com, btw.