Minefield

About Minefield

Minefield is a browser game by zrebec, with a macOS download, drawn in the blocky colours of the ZX Spectrum. You walk a soldier from an entry gap to an exit on the far side of a field. The mines are never drawn. When you step on a square the field answers with a beep: a short one for one touching mine, faster and higher for two, an alarm for four. The count tells you how many mines are next to you but never which side, so the game is deduction: cross two counts against each other and a mine's position falls out.

Your own trail of footprints is the only ground that is always safe, and you can retreat along it. From level three a rarer beacon mine reaches two cells instead of one, which breaks counts you thought you understood. Twelve gems on each level change the run: red ones give back time and lives, cyan ones can permanently reveal a mine, green ones call a recon plane that sweeps a row, and a single gold gem is worth extra points and time. A hostile plane also crosses the field and drops new trouble on ground you have not reached yet. Each level has ten minutes on the clock.

The daily is one field a day for everyone, generated from the date. Every daily field is checked to have a route from the entry to the exit before it is used, and if it is repaired it is repaired the same way for every player. Daily runs go on the score table; random practice runs never do, and the practice-only reveal of the real field is switched off in the daily.

Accessibility is the point of the game rather than an extra. Every sound has an on-screen twin, such as a four-segment danger meter and an LED for long-reach mines, and every screen is mirrored to your screen reader. Keys give a sonar sweep, an exit beacon and the nearest gem, and H reads the full briefing on any screen.

How to play Minefield

1. Open Minefield on itch.io and start the daily field.
2. Move one square at a time and listen (or watch the danger meter) for how many mines touch you.
3. Compare the counts from neighbouring squares to work out where the mines are, and flag them.
4. Retreat along your own footprints when you are unsure; they are always safe.
5. Reach the exit within ten minutes per level, collecting gems on the way for time, lives and points.

Screenshots

Tips

• A count tells you how many, never where: step sideways to get a second count before stepping forward.
• Spend cyan gems carefully; three of them reveal a live mine permanently.
• From level three, remember that beacon mines reach two cells, so a high count may come from further away.

Questions