The Authoritative Minesweeper Guestbook

Feel free to chat, make suggestions, or tell your scores!


03/31/01 03:07:06 PM  
Name: Joe Nuss
Comments: oops, this cut off from the end of my message. pretty long, eh? :) now, still some of you might say that intermediate is just a shorter easier version of expert. i disagree. each minesweeper level measures different abilites that make up a good player. for instance, i think the skills that make up a good player are pattern recognition, hand eye coordination, and resilliance (waiting for a good board, playing over and over again, etc). beginner displays resilliance the most, as a good board is absolutely vital to getting a good beginner score (3 or less). intermediate showcases good hand eye coordination the most of the three. finally, expert's most important ability is pattern recognition. of course, each level requires all three skills to succeed, but each has its own "showcase skill". i think it's good that beginner and intermediate are around to weight their specific abilities so that they dont go unnoticed. whew, that was a lot. well, there you go, thats my two cents. discuss amongst yourselves :)
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03/31/01 03:06:04 PM  
Name: Joe Nuss
Best expert: 85
Best intermediate: 22
Best beginner: 3
Comments: woowee! lots of stuff posted since last time i checked here! this is a fun subject! yeah! :) ok, i think an average of your top 5 times would be a good idea too, ive always thought that, but i didnt suggest it because i didnt think it'd be workable for damien. maybe other people could help him out or something with it? i dunno, maybe it is workable. next, i dont think weighting your better times more than your 4th and 5th times or whatever is a good idea, because that basically defeats the purpose of averaging the top 5 at all. looking at the top 5 is supposed to knock a person with times of 14,20,20,21,22 down to earth, because its logical to assume that the 14 was lucky. the 14 still helps the guy's score considerably though, his average would be 19.4 instead of 20.6 if he got another 20. i think that that would provide a pretty accurate ranking of who is actually good at minesweeper as opposed to who has gotten good times. actually, now that im thinking about it, we should almost do top 10 times. only 5 games out of thousands and thousands doesnt really provide very much accuracy, though its a lot better than only 1. i dont know, what do you guys think? for everyone talking about just ranking expert, i think thats bull for a few reasons. first of all, expert is already heavily weighted in your total score. even for someone like sririam (sp?), his expert time is is 74% of his total time. see what i mean? because expert is longer and has more seconds, its already pre-weighted against those with less seconds contributed to the total, like intermediate and beginner. see how it's screwing over matt mcginley? he has phenomenal intermediate and beginner times, yet is towards the bottom of the best players list because of his expert time, which is 82% of his total score. basically, what im saying is that even if you get a really lucky 12 or something on intermediate, it doesnt help you that much on your total score if your expert is bad.
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03/31/01 01:53:58 PM  
Name: Owen Fox
Best expert: 76
Best intermediate: 19
Best beginner: 2
Comments: Yo everyone I agree with the idea that you best stands and is counted in the similar ways you would view athlets but i also think that the other idea was good enough! Foxer
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03/31/01 08:29:50 AM  
Name: matt mcginley
Comments: Lance, I've had a couple wierdish boards. Two I've had on beginner (both 2's). One has just two rows of mines on the top and bottom and another has eight of the mines very closely compacted in one corner. I sent them to Damien, but since I've made a page of my own where Ivre posted my good videos. You can go there to view. I had this intermediate board once where there was a section of about 10 mines all in a checkerboard fasion, with 4's in between them. That was kind of neat.
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03/31/01 06:51:09 AM  
Name: Owen Fox
Best expert: 76
Best intermediate: 19
Best beginner: 2
Comments: Hi everybody! I'm from Ireland and as far as i know, I'm ranked No. 1 there. I have 2 friends who also play and they have good times too but are working to dethrone me from my position....! I agree with the idea that simply your best score counts. It's a lot easier and the notion of Athleticism that was talked about is very true indeed. Damien has ignored loads of my e mails . I don't know hy. i made a good suggestion a while back too and he ignored that. I don't know why. Hopefully he will update the page too for all of us twitching in anticipation !! Bye all
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03/30/01 10:54:56 PM  
Name: Lance Votroubek
Best expert: 75
Best intermediate: 18
Best beginner: 2
Comments: Ok, I've played thousands upon thousands of games of minesweeper, and have run across only a very very few weird boards. With the law of random chance supposedly applying to minesweeper, everyone should have gotten some kind of weird looking board, and possibly noticed it. I have only gotten one weirdish board (which suggests far less than randomness), and it was on beginner, where the ten mines were in the top 2 1/2 rows. I got this board a while ago, maybe in January, but I just sent it to Damien. If anyone else has a weird board that they've screen-shot, maybe they should send it to him. I suggested that he make an "oddities" or weird-board page, but he hasn't responded, due to, uh, extenuating circumstances. If anyone else has weird boards, it'd be cool if you described it here or something. Anyway, just a suggestion to get the stale conversation a'flowin. Good night, and happy sweeping! Lance
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03/29/01 03:35:32 PM  
Name: Marc Schouten
Comments: Ah, ok. Then I don't think that should be used either, obviously :)

03/29/01 01:37:37 PM  
Name: matt mcginley
Comments: No marc, I meant by their overall times (top5). ex. 16, 16, 16, 17, 17 would be ranked higher than 12, 20, 21, 21, 21. Same concept as the other one.
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03/29/01 12:44:18 PM  
Name: Marc Schouten
Comments: Matt: Of course, Damien ranks players in each category as well: the "world records" part of the site.

03/29/01 12:39:30 PM  
Name: matt mcginley
Best expert: 80
Best intermediate: 17
Best beginner: 1
Comments: I agree with marc. Even though Im a beginner and intermediate player definitely, I still think expert is the best display of skill (not necesarrily speed, like b&i). I proposed a ranking system to Damien that was nearly identical to (I cant rememeber dan's or david's). Damien then responded simply that the ranking system he was going to use (the one you see today) was simpler and easier. I also agree with marc that not many people keep track of their best 5, or even 3 best times. I do...in fact I keep track of every record I set, the date, the world ranking for that record, my top 4 scores in b&i, and top 5 scores for expert. Getting to the main point in this post, I rely heavily on luck and a good board for expert. That's why my expert time is always lagging behind my b&i times. If you look at my 17, you think, "wow, what a fast sweeper!" In contrast, you look at my 80 and say," meh, thats not that fast..." I agree totally, and thats why the ranking should be determined by overall scoresin each level, not just expert. Check out my website for my personal records table,as well as some videos :). If you have sub-20, email me your profile..... I saved my ranking system, so if you want to look over it, email me, and Ill send it to you (it ranks people in EACH level, not all of them, or just one, so people will be ranked in the different levels....more fair that way I think.)
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03/29/01 11:46:43 AM  
Name: Marc Schouten
Comments: (previous message cut off) ... should be used here. Comments welcome, obviously. Man, I've typed a lot ;)

03/29/01 11:45:25 AM  
Name: Marc Schouten
Best expert: 58
Best intermediate: 19
Best beginner: 2
Comments: Although using averages is a nice idea and certainly worth considering, I still don't think it should be used to rank players. The reason being the one I more or less stated in my previous post: different people have different styles. One player might go for finishing a lot of games, another might go for pushing himself a lot, thus finishing fewer games. But the goal for every single player out there is the same: to get as low a time as possible. That is the one thing that matters most to all players out there. Consider two athletes preparing for the Olympics. One of them wins race after race in the months leading up to the event, while the other chooses to prepare himself in solitude. Suppose the latter wins the Olympic final, while the former comes in second. Do we consider the former the better ahtlete, because he came in first in 8 events and second in the Olympics, whereas the latter only won 1 race? No! We look at the end result, taking into account the preparation both have taken, and say: the Olympic champion chose the better preparation, he won the Olympics, so he's the best. Any system to rate the "preparation" -to continue the analogy- is arbitrary. Which weighing coefficients should you use? 5x1st + 4x2nd, etc, as Dan suggests? 2x1st + 1x2nd, as David suggests? Who's to decide? The only factor that is unequivocally determined is a person's best time and I think that should be used to rank players. Another practical reason not to use the weighing system is that not everyone keeps track of all their best times. For example, I know I've gotten 1x58, 2x59, 4x62s, but after that, I don't know. I'm sure that many people who are now in the best players list don't know all of their best times. And how will you handle people whom you can't reach anymore? Just throw them off the list? I'm guessing most people would agree with me that that wouldn't be fair. Considering all this, I think it's clear why I don't think the weighing system s

03/29/01 10:47:06 AM  
Name: David Barry
Comments: Dan, I agree with the idea of using an average of your best 5 times... I think double weighting for your best time, equal for the other 4.
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03/29/01 09:07:00 AM  
Name: Stubbe Bak Rasmussen
Best expert: 64
Best intermediate: 19
Best beginner: 3
Comments: Reading your posts I can't help to wonder how much a difference it makes, whether you start sweeping in the middle of the board or at the edges. Personally I always start at the top edge, sweeping adjencent sqares. This obviusly gives me a lesser chance of a good opening, but at the same time a fair chance of getting a usabel pattern such as 1-2-1, 2-3-2, 2-4 or similar. Nevertheless I'm going to try Sriram's method.
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03/29/01 08:48:20 AM  
Name: Dan Cerveny
Comments: I was just thinking about the top players list. If I was running a minesweeper site I would take the 3 or 5(or more?) top expert times for each player and make some kind of ranking system out of it... Maybe take the average of your top 5 times. This would improve the player ranking list in a couple ways; first, it would eliminate beginner and intermediate scores(too much luck involved, also too many repeat boards we are getting familiar with), second, very fast scores would be rewarded while at the same time consistency would be a factor. So my data on the list would include my top 5 scores(57 58 59 59 59) and my top 5 average(58.4). The ranking would be by average. If you did it this way, it would be possible to have a lower best time than someone else but also be ranked lower than that person(e.g. (Joe = 55 60 60 61 62, avg. 59.6) would be ranked lower than (Tom = 59 59 59 59 59, avg. 59)). If you don't like this way then maybe give weight to each of your 5 top scores. Frankly, I was just doing some calculations and I like this idea. You could get the average by adding together (best score x 5), (2nd best x 4), (3rd best x 3), (2nd best x 2), (5th best x 1), then divide that number by 15. If you do it this way then Joe was have an average of 58.53 which would beat Tom's average of 59. Consistency would still be a factor, but your very best time would mean more your 5th best time. Anyone else like this?
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03/29/01 07:08:45 AM  
Name: Marc Schouten
Best expert: 58
Best intermediate: 19
Best beginner: 2
Comments: Although I agree with David and Dan that expert is best used to determine a player's skill, I think there's no reason why Sriram should not be considered best player. While consistency is certainly an asset in a player -as it increases chances of fast times- it is not the yardstick by which we measure skill. Records are. It's fantastic that Lanyje got his 1000th sub-60. Hell, I've only gotten 3 so far ;). But we don't know how many Sriram has had and even if we did and it wouldn't be many, that's still no reason why he shouldn't be considered the best player in the world. Different players have different styles. I, for one, have a style that relies heavily on extremely fast clicking and less on efficiency. Therefore, I don't finish as many games as others with a different style might due to clicking mistakes. But what does that matter when the end results are the same? I say Sriram is the best player in the world, simply because he has the fastest overall times. I still consider Lasse as the greatest player of all times, but he's no longer the best. Come on, Lasse... Show us you can beat Sriram! ;)

03/29/01 06:17:59 AM  
Name: Dan Cerveny
Best expert: 57
Best intermediate: 16
Best beginner: 3
Comments: I have always felt that expert is the best way to determine how fast a player is. As the size of the board and number of mines increase, the amount of luck involved decreases. There is a lot of luck involved in getting a good intermediate score while there is MUCH less with expert.
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03/29/01 04:26:03 AM  
Name: David Barry
Best expert: 51
Best intermediate: 18
Best beginner: 3
Comments: Sriram probably won't post anything here, so I'll pass on what he's told me... Firstly, he's been in Paris recently with the Harvard Model Congress, so he hasn't played Minesweeper for a week or two... hopefully we can all start to catch up to him now. :) He plays using Damien's tip of soaking your hand in hot water for a few minutes; he reckons it works really well (and I suppose I can't argue with him there). Around the time he got his 47 (and a 49) he was playing a couple hours a day after school (he also plays quite a bit of tennis after school), as well as a few hours on the weekends. He doesn't start flagging mines till he gets two big openings on a board... I always thought that this was a waste of time - you get to play less boards, but once again I can't really argue with him. In my opinion, Lasse is still the best minesweeper around, due to his consistency in Expert (I don't count my games, but I would guess I have not more than 100 sub-60's). I don't think that Intermediate and Beginner should be given equal weighting to Expert... but maybe that's because I'm not good at them.
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03/29/01 03:57:45 AM  
Name: matt mcginley
Comments: I agree that Lanyje is still the fastest sweeper in the world. That consistency is important. Sriram is just progressing so very quickly. I wish he would write something here, like how long he plays minesweeper a day. He must play at least two hours a day.
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03/28/01 07:16:30 PM  
Name: Lance Votroubek
Best expert: 75
Best intermediate: 18
Best beginner: 2
Comments: consistency is obviously extremely important, as lanyje shows with three 47's and a 48, but if Sririam has a 47, that would make him the fastest, by 3 seconds, because his intermediate and beginner scores are faster. maybe you should brush those scores up before you phase out, lanyje ;) But, regardless, standards have been set that everyone finds difficult to break. Good job! Lance
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03/28/01 05:14:12 PM  
Name: Dan Cerveny
Best expert: 57
Best intermediate: 16
Best beginner: 3
Comments: Lanyje, you are clearly the world's fastest minesweeper player, but I can't believe how fast Sriram is charging. I changed my technique a little bit yesterday and immediately got good results. The problem is I couldn't complete a couple easy low 50's games. I didn't have to guess, I just made a bad click in each game. The good thing is that I don't seem to be getting nervous anymore when I'm playing fast.
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03/28/01 03:44:40 PM  
Name: Lasse Nyholm
Best expert: 47
Best intermediate: 15
Best beginner: 3
Comments: Hi everybody - So my last goal (so far) in minesweeping has been reached: today I got my sub-60 number 1000 and yesterday I got my fourth sub-50 (now I have 47x3 and 48x1). I'm not playing as much as I used to, and I think I'll be playing less and less from now on - I just hope I can beat my expert-score soon, cause I've heard that Sriram got a 47 a week ago or so. Good luck to you all - Lanyje
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03/28/01 05:58:38 AM  
Name: June Cutright
Best expert: 211
Best intermediate: 40
Best beginner: 4
Comments: Regarding the age thing--I am 40, but as all can see, my scores aren't quite as fantastic as those posted. And as much as I don't like to say it, I think my best minesweeping days are behind me. Nevertheless, my scores certainly don't prove that as age increases, so do minesweeping scores. FYI, I started when i was over 30 and could still operate a regular mouse, but now i am using a trackball as a last resort. I got the 40 and 211 with a trackball; the 4 came a few years back with a regular mouse--my best track ball beginner is a 6. Any comments? I continue to minesweep, but I don't expect to ever break 100 on the expert--perhaps I will score under 200!
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03/27/01 10:26:24 PM  
Name: patrick klein
Best expert: 61
Best intermediate: 20
Best beginner: 4
Comments: I forgot to tell everyone mya ge before. I'm 19 and I've been playing minesweeper for about a year now, maybe two I don't really know when i started. Me and my two brothers would always try to outbeat each other. Thats when I started getting fast.
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03/27/01 11:50:37 AM  
Name: Dan Cerveny
Best expert: 57
Best intermediate: 16
Best beginner: 3
Comments: I am 26 years old. I didn't start playing until age 21.
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03/27/01 11:03:33 AM  
Name: Marc Schouten
Best expert: 58
Best intermediate: 19
Best beginner: 2
Comments: I don't think age has very much to do with it... I think playing Minesweeper is like playing an instrument. If you play enough, your speed and creativity will improve. There are plenty of old world class musicians. But it would be interesting to know who's the oldest player around here... I'm 24, by the way.

03/27/01 10:22:16 AM  
Name: Lance Votroubek
Best expert: 75
Best intermediate: 18
Best beginner: 2
Comments: I wouldn't consider myself one of the fastest, but I am fairly fast. I am 20 years old, and will be 21 in mid July. Lance
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03/27/01 07:30:04 AM  
Name: patrick klein
Best expert: 61
Best intermediate: 20
Best beginner: 4
Comments: yea, I'm still stuck with my old best times, I haven't gone any faster in like 3 weeks now. I was just wonderin how old some of you guys are? Are the guys with the fastest times young or old? Just curious because Damean was saying that he was grounded and not too many people my age get grounded.
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03/26/01 10:42:08 PM  
Name: Damien Moore
Comments: Time left for one more sec...got 100 letters and I just finished sending them to alternate adresses and downloading to save my account...keep them coming in...next deletion won't be for 10 days. I got another one on beg and man, a lot of you guys got good scores last month...congrats all. Damn again. See ya.

03/26/01 10:30:49 PM  
Name: Damien Moore
Comments: D*** Hello all you guys...some of you are probably a little ticked about the site...if you're ticked I could hmmm... Anyways, I was going to update the site around the 15th but I was grounded from two weeks of internet access and minesweeping...today I get 15min to say hi and prevent my hotmail account from being deleted, and then I lose one more week. Damn, see you all first week of april. Good luck.

03/25/01 09:16:35 AM  
Name: matt mcginley
Comments: Methinks maybe I should pick up where Chris paradise left off with an intermediate profiles page. Damien has an expert profiles page, and all (3) of the profiles on chris' page are dead (the links, not the poeple). Anyone with sub-20 intermediate that wants to be on a profile page, email me.
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03/24/01 11:29:10 AM  
Name: matt mcginley
Comments: Been working on a website....bout minesweeper. All it has now is a small collection of 10-15 of my videos, a bio of me, and a guestbook. http://minesweeper.8k.com Sign the guestbook if you go.
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03/24/01 09:56:39 AM  
Name: Stubbe Bak Rasmussen
Comments: Jeg tror dig...
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03/23/01 09:39:08 PM  
Name: Anonymous Surfer
Comments: det har jeg virkelig ikke! - seriøst!

03/23/01 09:38:32 PM  
Name: Anonymous Surfer
Comments: jeg har ikke noget med det at gøre

03/23/01 09:37:38 PM  
Name: Lasse Nyholm
Comments: have a great night - jeg ved ikke hvor mange der forstår dansk i denne gæstebog - men jeg vil bare sige at selv om man er god drikker man stadig en hel del øl - tag den! fu"s"k dig - røvsnaps
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03/22/01 11:11:28 PM  
Name: Lance Votroubek
Best expert: 75
Best intermediate: 18!!!!!!!!!
Best beginner: 2
Comments: Woo hoo!!! I finally did it! I just knocked 5 seconds off of my intermediate score, trimming it down to a professional 18 seconds! I hope it's not a fluke, but holy cow! I am finally on the pimp daddy playaz list! Feels good folks, it feels good. Have a great night! Lance
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03/22/01 05:56:11 PM  
Name: Scott Taylor
Best expert: 130
Best intermediate: 41
Best beginner: 3
Comments: you guys are awesome. i have a new reason to try and get faster. ah yeah! i love minesweeper. later
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03/22/01 07:59:44 AM  
Name: Dan Cerveny
Comments: Damien, when is this site supposed to be updated next?
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03/21/01 05:57:52 PM  
Name: Lance Votroubek
Best expert: 75
Best intermediate: 23
Best beginner: 2
Comments: Hey there all! Good news for Lance... I just knocked another second from my intermediate score, so I am now JUST ONE SECOND from the pimp daddy playaz list... I've been taking a little break from my super-studying this week - two research papers, a midterm, and work. Bummer. Have a good night, everyone! Lance
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03/20/01 12:36:43 PM  
Name: Dan Cerveny
Best expert: 57
Best intermediate: 16
Best beginner: 3
Comments: Most of my best games seem to come when I mark 70-80 mines.
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03/19/01 05:35:46 PM  
Name: matt mcginley
Comments: As Ive seen in my videos, I mark about 60-70 mines on expert. Maybe that explains why Im so good at intermediate as compared to my expert times. I think if I get a decent board with only low numbers, then I could have a chance to sub-70 or sub-60.....but I havent been close to one of those yet. Dan's 57 is a board I would like to get. The best minesweeper player ever and the only man to sub-50 marks about every mine on the field. Then again Damien (w/a 53)doesnt mark nearly as many as other sub-60 players. Ill just have to keep sweeping....pattern recognition will help, there's always more to learn.
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03/19/01 02:25:17 PM  
Name: Stubbe Bak Rasmussen
Best expert: 64
Best intermediate: 19
Best beginner: 3
Comments: Hi Andy.
About your flagging: I probably make 85-90 flags per game so perhaps you should look for other reasons for not attaining enough speed. Personally I think that the key to fast times mainly is pattern recognition which only comes with experience. It's likely you could sub-100 in a couple of months if you practice enough.

Good mining everyone
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03/19/01 12:41:06 PM  
Name: Andy Stuart
Best expert: 149
Best intermediate: 47
Best beginner: 8
Comments: Still working my way down. Had a near win in the 120's on expert, but can't get in the 50's consistantly on intermediate. I'm convinced beginner is all luck. I know I flag, way, way, way to much (85-95 times/game on expert).
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03/17/01 12:25:42 PM  
Name: matt mcginley
Comments: Just doing some averages with the top 45 list. Top 10: 2.2 15.5 54.7 11-20: 2.7 19.4 63.7 21-30: 2.6 20.7 68.1 31-46: 2.9 21.7 72
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03/17/01 05:03:54 AM  
Name: Michael Chai
Best expert: 81
Best intermediate: 22
Best beginner: 3
Comments: To Matt: I know you definitely will break the 70 secs barrier, just the matter of time. But why can't you finish most of the game? If possible, would you send me a video of your expert game to mikechai@exysnet.com using Camtasia? Do you play with or without flagging? Finally, I have broken my intermediate records down from 26 secs to 22 secs now. For the expert level, I'd been trying real hard trying to break the 80 secs barrier but I failed.
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03/15/01 03:03:01 PM  
Name: Marc Schouten
Best expert: 58
Best intermediate: 19
Best beginner: 2
Comments: Hi Ben, Congratulations on your new record. And rest assured: you're not bothering anyone here with your times. It's always nice to hear other people are enjoying the game as much as we all do here.

03/15/01 04:39:00 AM  
Name: Ben Van Calster
Best expert: 76
Best intermediate: 21
Best beginner: 3
Comments: Hello again, yesterday I was complainig about not beating 79, now I suddenly have 76! And the funny thing is that I was eating a sandwich while I was playing, I wasn't playing seriously. Sorry to disturb you people, but I think you know the feeling of wanting to share your unbelievably toplevel performances with whomever can hear it. Have a nice day and thanks for listening

03/14/01 01:06:39 AM  
Name: Ben Van Calster
Best expert: 79
Best intermediate: 21
Best beginner: 3
Comments: Hi everyone, this is the first time I'm in this guestbook. I just had my seventh 79 and this time it was even more frustrating than before: I thought I had it all cleared, looked at the clock and saw 77... I started looking for that bloody square I forgot and then it said 79. My friend here at the office (yes, I'm taking a legal break... damn addiction) says I'll be 79 sooner than I beat 79. Could someone send him a bombletter? That'd be nice btw Matt, I recognize the feeling of being able to beat 70...

03/13/01 05:24:03 PM  
Name: matt mcginley
Best expert: no comment
Best intermediate: 17 ... still
Best beginner: 1 .... yeah, still
Comments: Ooohhhhh....I HATE expert. I feel so fast and I KNOW that I can sub-70, but I dont finish any games. I have been playing just expert for the past three days for at least three hours a day, and I only finished ONE game.....an 82. I can look on the bright side and say that all this playing is just making me faster and that when I DO get a board I can finish, I will finish it with the most astounding display of speed and fluency ever wrought forth unto a minesweeper board...MUWA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HAAAAAA...... Ill be back with a 69 or better.
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03/13/01 10:27:58 AM  
Name: Marc Schouten
Best expert: 58
Best intermediate: 19
Best beginner: 2
Comments: Dammit... Just blew a certain 55 or 56 with only 8 mines to go... And I got my second 59 five minutes before that. Only good thing is that I'm not choking anymore when I know I'm going fast. I knew this was a fast game before I was halfway through, but it didn't bother me. Expect to see at least a mid-50s from me soon...

03/13/01 01:47:27 AM  
Name: Linda Kallman
Best expert: 84
Best intermediate: 25
Best beginner: 5
Comments: A couple of weeks ago I finally made it - from 89 to 84 on expert - and happy as I was, I forgot to make a screenshot... Did 85 though yesterday, and did make a screenshot of that. My intermediate has been dropping down a few times and is now 25. It's obvious that it should be possibly to get down to around 70 on expert, and 20 for the intermediate, but it just never works!!!:( I can't really be bothered with the beginners at all, I only seldom play a few beginners games. I wish I could learn to combine the flagmarking technique with the one where you don't mark, but if I start marking, I can't stop, and vice versa... and I never manage to click/mark as fast as I think, but someday I WILL play the perfect game. Good luck to the rest of you maniacs!
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03/13/01 12:12:32 AM  
Name: Wen Gao
Best expert: 83
Best intermediate: 22
Best beginner: 3!!!!!!
Comments: Next 2 days...wait for me.
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03/12/01 09:26:20 PM  
Name: Paul Kerry
Best intermediate: 16 *grin*
Comments:

It took me 3 seconds to make the last 2 clicks too!

:)

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03/12/01 07:47:54 AM  
Name: Damien Moore
Comments: Congrats, Paul. I've been playing beginner madly for a few weeks now...got a 2 for the fifth day in a row for a total of fourteen. Yesterday I passed 200 for 3secs and 900 for 4secs (Got 57 4's yesterday...I know, I'm going mad). Playing beginner is rad because after that intensity and seeing thousands of boards whipping by you start recognizing more boards...I've had two different boards four times each on two different computers and I'm starting to remember certain moves of memorable games and getting the feeling that I've done this before...unfortunately, I only take pics of good games, but it is a amazing how much scores depend on luck (maybe 50% for beg). For instance, I got 2, 3, and 4sec on the sane board: First time the timer jumped so the one didn't appear and I got 3, then a perfect game of 2, and then the timer skipped and I clicked on two numbersd before I found the large opening and then the remaining click. In my other identical I got 2, 2, 3, and 4 and the 4 and 2 were on the same day! Yikes...it shouldn't repeat that often, but I'm not complaining.

03/10/01 08:43:36 PM  
Name: Paul Kerry
Best expert: 63 still
Best intermediate: 17 still
Best beginner: 2 yesterday :)
Comments:

For those of you not on the eGroups mailing list, here is a link to a Minesweeper humour post, which I hosted on my website.

Whilst I don't have the 2 second game on video, I have been experimenting with Camtasia, which runs like a dream on my machine - no noticeable effect so far (though I do have a high spec machine).

As for making videos comulsory, it'd be nice to do that I agree. But, I play Minesweeper a lot whilst I'm doing other things, maybe hopping back and forth for an occasional game, and yet another open window on my task bar really annoys me :P So, until camtasia can run without an open window on the taskbar, I'm against it!

Cheers

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03/09/01 09:52:06 PM  
Name: Wen Gao
Best expert: 83!!!!!!
Best intermediate: 22
Best beginner: 4
Comments: Yeahhhhaahhaaha!!! Promise i'll sub-80 in the next 2 days. I'm THAT confident!
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03/09/01 02:23:50 PM  
Name: matt mcginley
Best expert: 81
Best intermediate: 17
Best beginner: 1
Comments: Way to go Patrick...Hope you break 60 and 20 soon. Ive done one........(*sigh) How long have you been playing, Patrick?
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03/08/01 03:04:22 PM  
Name: patrick klein
Best expert: 61
Best intermediate: 20
Best beginner: 4
Comments: Well I don't have any clue why, but I've been breaking personal records a lot lately. I'm down to 61 and 20 but I can't seem to drop anytime in beginner. On the expert level, it seems like I'm not moving the mouse as fast as before, but I've become a lot more efficient and thats why I've been doing better. And plus I've been playing a lot lately, like 2 hours a day almost.
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03/06/01 09:01:11 PM  
Name: David Barry
Comments: I think a largely ignored style of proof for Minesweeper times is the German Minesweeper League at http://minesweeper.saxen.net/ (link is in the Downloads section of Damien's site, under "The League"). You don't have to be able to speak German, just hit the "ubertragen" button once you've got a best time to upload it to the site. You don't have to play hours online either - you just connect once you've got a best time, then submit the score.
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03/06/01 06:52:01 PM  
Name: Dan Cerveny
Comments: Pictures are ok to send, and most of us send them in, but you should try making videos if you want to show absolute proof of your scores(click on the 'videos link on the left side of screen). Some computers don't seem to run the recording program smoothly, but it works well for most of us.
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03/06/01 05:24:09 PM  
Name: patrick klein
Best expert: 64
Best intermediate: 22
Best beginner: 4
Comments: thanx dude, actually i just broke my record again, now i'm down to 64. and i'm making copies of these boards as proof if you guys need them.
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03/06/01 05:00:24 PM  
Name: Dan Cerveny
Comments: Patrick, if you want your times posted you need to send an email to Damien(runs this site). His address is thefinerminer@hotmail.com. The world records and top players lists are updated about once a month. At the upper left of the main screen is the date of the last update.
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03/06/01 04:17:59 PM  
Name: patrick klein
Best expert: 67
Best intermediate: 22
Best beginner: 4
Comments: Hey, is this website ever upgraded, because i posted my times here before and i should be on the top 45 players list with my times. and i just broke my expert level time. I don't mean to complain but c'mon, I should be number 29 on the list.
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03/06/01 02:26:20 PM  
Name: Lance Votroubek
Best expert: 75
Best intermediate: 24
Best beginner: 2
Comments: must be some kind of weird coincidence, because I have been playing intermediate almost singly over the last week and a half. I figure I can brush up on my skills there, and maybe shave a couple of seconds off of my int times, or, even better, my expert times. I just need two more seconds, folks! I'm gonna get on that list.... hopefully before my weeklong spring break trip to Cancun! Lance
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03/06/01 01:31:13 PM  
Name: matt mcginley
Comments: Damien and I both keep track of the hundreds of 3's and 4's we get on beginner. It is a pain, but the gratification of looking at those totals and seeing that you have gotten 400, 500, or 1,000 4's (soon...) is very pleasing. I also, like Damien have been furiously playing intermediate and beginner lately. I hope to get as many sub-20's as he has sometime......
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03/06/01 08:41:14 AM  
Name: Dan Cerveny
Best expert: 57
Best intermediate: 16
Best beginner: 3
Comments: Damien, it is great that you were able to get a 53 on expert, but now you have a tough time breaking your record in the future. My record is currently 57, but I know I can beat that so I have big motivation to keep playing. If I get a low 50's game sometime, that very well could be my permanent record. I would think most of us will reach our max speed in that area. If we play a perfect game on a friendly board it is possible to break 50, but I imagine few of us will be able to. Damien, why do you bother keeping track of how many hundreds of 3's and 4's you get on beginner? I only keep track of how many '60 or below' games I play on expert.
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03/06/01 07:34:58 AM  
Name: Damien Moore
Comments: Yesterday was awesome...fifty-two 4's, ten 3's, and three 2's (on video of course). Matt had me worried for a while there. Right now I really suck at expert. I've just played int and beg for three weeks now...I only played one ex and it was a 67...when you play lots of int the instant gratification destroys your patience on expert. But, I'll hope to get back in the swing with it. Good luck to you Marc and Dan.

03/05/01 08:54:14 AM  
Name: Marc Schouten
Best expert: 58
Best intermediate: 19
Best beginner: 2
Comments: Hey Dan, Same thing happened to me. In January, I got tons of sub-70s. Then February hit and my averages went up dramatically. They're going down again now, although I'm not at my best yet. The thing is to just keep on playing. It'll come back to you.

03/05/01 07:00:59 AM  
Name: Dan Cerveny
Best expert: 57
Best intermediate: 16
Best beginner: 3
Comments: Cool beans, Marc. I've had some games lately in which I've been on pace for low 60's, but my rate of playing 50's pace games has slowed to a crawl. It is difficult for me to understand why I was able to get 59 in early December, but three months later I'm struggling to break 65. Maybe I've just reached my limit.
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03/04/01 07:25:24 PM  
Name: Marc Schouten
Best expert: 58. And might I add: AAAAAAAARGH, YES!
Best intermediate: 19
Best beginner: 2
Comments: It's 4:18am over here in the Netherlands. I've been telling myself to go to bed for two hours. Good thing I didn't listen. Otherwise I might not have gotten my first expert record in almost two months. Near the end of the game, I saw the second digit of the clock out of the corner of my eye. It was a 2, so I assumed I was at 62, as I didn't feel I was going as fast as I was. I didn't pay much attention to it, luckily. Who knows how I might have reacted otherwise... This wasn't a perfect game by far, by the way, so I'm gonna be playing hard to break 55. Which I'm sure this game would have been, had I marked better.

03/04/01 10:20:17 AM  
Name: matt mcginley
Comments: Cool, Just got a 17 video. It's so ridiculously close to a 16 though. The wierd thing about it is that it's basically like my 19 sec video board except it's been shifted slightly. What Im trying to say is that if you put 2 of my 19 sec video boards next to each other, then took the minesweeper window and put it in the middle of the two so that it gets the right half of the left board and the left half of the right board, you would get my 17 sec board. You'll see when the vieo is put up.
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03/03/01 10:28:00 AM  
Name: Lance Votroubek
Best expert: 75
Best intermediate: 24
Best beginner: 2
Comments: I'm obviously not as good at minesweeper as the people whose mouse specs you're really interested in, but I do have a mouse that I really really like. It is a 7 month old Logitech optical wheel mouse. It's very precise when my computer is running at full speed, but if I am doing too much multitasking, it'll skip by a few pixels, occasionally. I have no idea what the spring tension is, because the box for it is back at my house, and I am at college right now, but it is perfect so that I don't have to work too hard to push the button, and it doesn't just accidentally click under my fingers' weight. It set me back $30 at Best Buy. It has two buttons and a wheel. Lance
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03/03/01 04:37:41 AM  
Name: Marc Schouten
Best expert: 59
Best intermediate: 19
Best beginner: 2
Comments: I use a standard OEM Logitech mouse with scrollwheel that came with my computer. Nothing fancy, although I did deliberately choose a logitech. I've had two now and they're both pretty good mice.

03/02/01 11:56:18 PM  
Name: Michael Chai
Best expert: 81
Best intermediate: 26
Best beginner: 3
Comments: After playing extensively for 2 months now. I finally broke the 100 secs barrier and now down to 81 seconds. My intermediate scores have been very slow. I really seldom got below 30 secs. Lately I'd been praticing playing without flagging any mines. My current best expert time without flagging is 109 secs. How about you guys? My next target is breaking the 80 secs barrier.
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03/02/01 11:40:29 PM  
Name: Joe Nuss
Best expert: 85
Best intermediate: 22
Best beginner: 3
Comments: yeah, i agree matt. i want to hear what the pros are using :)

03/02/01 04:38:14 PM  
Name: Wen Gao
Best expert: 89
Best intermediate: 22
Best beginner: 4!!!!!!!
Comments: Finally, a record captured on video. Now how hard was that?
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03/02/01 04:21:55 PM  
Name: matt mcginley
Comments: Ive got an idea.... We could have mouse reviews on this page. If our mouse is really crappy, we could review it and get it out there that that mouse is crappy. Same thing with a good mouse, you would review it, and tell whats good about it. We would have the brand name, model, price, number of buttons, optical or roller ball, and spring tension......and whatever else is needed. Just throwing an idea out there. I also got my 7th 2 sec. beginner time. I have 5 of those on video that Damien should be putting on the videos page soon. Hope yous guys like 'em.
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03/02/01 12:14:38 AM  
Name: Lance Votroubek
Best expert: 75
Best intermediate: 24!!!!!!
Best beginner: 2
Comments: ok, this has been a pretty good night. I just knocked another second off of my intermediate! Only 2 seconds left before I'm ranked! Lance
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03/01/01 08:19:08 PM  
Name: Wen Gao
Best expert: 89
Best intermediate: 22
Best beginner: 5
Comments: Yeah, just recorded a no marking 23sec int video. I'm planning to sub 80 in exp and sub 5 in beg at the end of March. This is very very achievable considering how fast i'm improving right now thanks to Matt's advices. And hey, who knows, i might even get a combined score of less than 100 by the end of next month.
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03/01/01 07:16:57 PM  
Name: Lance Votroubek
Best expert: 75!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Best intermediate: 25
Best beginner: 2
Comments: WOOO HOOO!!! I have finally done it... not once, but twice! I have been seriously trying to break the 80/70 barrier for more than two months now, and I finally did it. My previous record was 80 that I set like last week or the week before, and then I was so busy that I couldn't play more than 5 mins/day for 6 days straight. Yesterday I thought I had a fighting shot, averaging about 88s, but the lowest I ever got was 81. Then today, I got an 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, and some other high 80's, then BAM! a 75s board. Three games later BAM! a 78s board, so I don't feel like it's a fluke :) Anyway, just thought I'd share. Now I only need to knock 3 more seconds off of my total times to be on the top 45 list.... here I come! Lance
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03/01/01 07:26:00 AM  
Name: Marc Schouten
Best expert: 59
Best intermediate: 19
Best beginner: 2
Comments: Hey ET, The same thought has occurred to me a while back. At first, I thought custom games might be different from beg/int/exp. But then I realized that makes little sense. It's much more probable that there's one board generator for all boards and that beg/int/exp can simply be seen as presets for that generator. Kinda like a radio. If you find a station on a radio by scanning the band, you'll hear the same music as when you find it by using a preset. Just an analogy off the top of my head... hope it clarifies.

03/01/01 12:54:08 AM  
Name: Khor Eng Tat
Comments: Being a victim of the 8x8 and 9x9 issue, i think the best solution is for all to stick to 8x8 (as that seems to be the "original" size for beginner).

For damien to try to keep 2 lists for beginner (one 8x8 and another 9x9) would probably be too much trouble.

Perhaps damien, you could just put a note besides the record if it was on a 9x9.

Another interesting point that came to me, what if a custom board was set to the same size and specifications to a beg/inter/exp board, would it be easier to play? Because if it was easier to play, there's no way for us to know whether it's a normal or custom board. (Hope that makes sense).


02/28/01 08:23:25 PM  
Name: Ryan Peckyno
Comments: Damn...y'all play too much minesweeper. Some of you probably have more 3 second games then I have played games. I haven't played the game in probably about 2 weeks or so. I just got board of it. I tend to play it for about 4-5 days then don't play it for a couple months...then play it for 4-5 days again. Probably why my best scores are ok 2 sec, low 20's, low 80's but not awesome. Well, I'm going to retire from playing for now but I still am interested in figuring out how it all works. I think if you play it that much it loses its purpose. Later, Ryan
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02/28/01 06:39:58 PM  
Name: Marc Schouten
Comments: Oh, and as I've mentioned before, I think 8x8 should remain the standard. No reason at all to start playing 9x9. We're not playing 20x32 expert either, are we....?

02/28/01 06:38:13 PM  
Name: Marc Schouten
Comments: Count again, Matt. It's really 8x8 :)

02/28/01 06:22:20 PM  
Name: matt mcginley
Comments: Marc, I noticed from your wierd beg. screenshot that you're using a 9x9 board. Ive ben using a good ol' 8x8, and tolerating it, but if we as a minesweeper community start accepting 9x9 boards, then why shouldnt I be playing them? For now, until we ratify the guidelines, Ill be playing a trusty 8x8....(*sigh)
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02/28/01 04:35:03 PM  
Name: Marc Schouten
Best expert: 59
Best intermediate: 19
Best beginner: 2
Comments: Well... Today is the first day in a long while that I actually feel I'm playing well. Got a 62 just now. That's my first sub-65 in over three weeks. Oh, I also got a weird beginner game: all the mines in the board touched, so that they were in a single patch. I've uploaded the screenshot to the files section of the mailing list. I blew the game, by the way... :) Matt: I don't know why PPJ doesn't join those files. I've never used them to join Minesweeper files myself. Maybe it's because of the special codec used to create the movies. I guess you're going to have to use Damien's suggested method in Camtasia.

02/28/01 04:04:02 PM  
Name: Dan Cerveny
Comments: The second sentence of my last post should read, "A game 2 days ago...".
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02/28/01 03:44:04 PM  
Name: Dan Cerveny
Comments: Another day, another blown chance for a low 50's score. A game days ago was a bad guess, today was the usual mis-click choke job. I suppose if I keep giving myself chances I'll get a low 50's eventually, but I sure wish I could finish more games like lanyje does.
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02/28/01 03:35:25 PM  
Name: matt mcginley
Comments: Hey Marc, I ve been scrolling through the past copuple pages of the guestbook trying to find your email address, but you never listed it. The reason I wanted it was that I downloaded Peck's Powerjoin, or whatever you suggested to me join my videos. There's just one slight problem. It only accepts certain videos. It said all my 2 sec videos were of a wrong format, yet it accepted my 3 sec video (and as far as I know I make them the exact same way...I dont why they would be in a different format). Respond back to this plee-uz....
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02/28/01 10:42:59 AM  
Name: Wen Gao
Best expert: 89
Best intermediate: 22!!!!!
Best beginner: 5
Comments: Yeah! 22 on intermediate and with NO MARKING! And here's a question i wanna ask u guy: Does it really help when u change the color setting to 256? Cause i've just changed it back to 16 bits yesterday and it doesn't seem to get any slower. Can someone please help coz i REALLY REALLY want to capture my record breaking games on video. especially in expert which i feel i can way fast. (With Cam on my expert average becomes over 100, but in normal play i get a sub-89 speed almost ALL THE TIME) So help is seriously needed here! anyone?
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02/28/01 01:44:18 AM  
Name: Lasse Nyholm
Best expert: 47
Best intermediate: 15
Best beginner: 3
Comments: Feeling David, Sriram and Damien presuring me from behind, has made me try a little harder on beginner and inter. So far I've just gotten a few 3s on beg, but yesterday I broke my inter-record with a 15 - super! I don't play with camtasia on, because it still slows my computer down, even with 256 colors - sorry.
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02/28/01 01:15:46 AM  
Name: Lance Votroubek
Best expert: um
Best intermediate: uh
Best beginner: yeah
Comments: Hello ladies and gentlemen. This is a very intoxicated lance. I decided to take advantage of Lanje's idea of seeing the women and drinking the beer, and since tonight was Mardi Gras, and I go to college, well, we'll say the bars were boobalicious. Or boobtastic, whichever. I don't have any more beads to give away, which is a very good thing. Very nice night folks, very nice. This was a darn darn good night. Ok. goodnight folks, and have a fantastic lenten season ;) Lance
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02/28/01 01:08:56 AM  
Name: VM
Best expert: 77
Best intermediate: 24
Best beginner: 1
Comments: Hello everybody! Try to beat my best scores without using right mouse button.
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02/27/01 08:31:25 PM  
Name: Joe Nuss
Comments: With the crazy frequency with which that baord has been showing up, i bet everyone here's had it at least once. think of all the times you die and casually restart, or win a game but dont set your record. think of all the games we've played before we got good. i dont think it'd be a stretch to say that 1 out of 3 people here have gotten that board before and dont even know it. of course, those that have gotten it have been playing for longer. still, makes you think.

02/27/01 07:16:17 PM  
Name: Damien Moore
Comments: Tough luck Matt. I don't know if I'd want to get that board though...I make it a rule not to try to get other peoples games...so far I got two 14's and today a 15...all excellent boards, of course. If you try to copy you will miss out on the other boards...maybe a sub-10 someday, but you have to let them find you. Videos: 14, 15, 16, 17-5, 18-11, 19-19.
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02/27/01 01:01:04 PM  
Name: matt mcginley
Comments: NO!!!NO!!!NO!!!NO!!!NO!!!NO!!!NO!!!NO!!!NO!!!NO!!!NO!!!NO!!!NO!!!NO!!!NO!!!NO!!!NO!!!NO!!! DAMMIT! I just got the 12 sec. board everyone got! However the bad thing was I screwed it up and lost it! Im so pissed off now! I was thinking just last night how fast I could probably go if I got that board......now, nothing. If anyone needs me Ill be hanging by a noose with printouts of that board glued all over me.....
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02/27/01 08:58:57 AM  
Name: Dan Cerveny
Best expert: 57
Best intermediate: 16
Best beginner: 3
Comments: You rock, Lanyje. I'm up to 9 sub-60 scores, although I was very close to 30+ others. This morning I was a few clicks away from a 54, but I had to guess and lost. Lanyje, are you getting your games on video? I want to see a 47(or lower).
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02/27/01 08:32:13 AM  
Name: Lasse Nyholm
Best expert: 47
Best intermediate: 16
Best beginner: 3
Comments: So... yesterday I got my second sub-50. It's been 6 weeks since the 47 and I've had 400 more sub-60s since (I have 800 now). I was beginning to lose patience, but then yesterday I got more than 30 sub-60s and one of them was another 47 - very strange. I was hoping to get a 48 or a 49, but I don't matter getting a 47. My next goal is to get 1000 sub-60s - it'll take a week or two. I hope you guys don't forget to enjoy your life - drink some beer, dance with the girls and so. As long as there's no money in this game , there's no reason to be too serious about it - right? (easy for me to say :)). Well good luck everybody - Lanyje
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