The Authoritative Minesweeper Guestbook

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


06/10/01 10:40:19 PM  
Name: Casey Hanger
Best expert: 57
Best intermediate: 19
Best beginner: 3
Comments: Hi, first time I actually searched for Minesweeper site in like four years. Just broke my expert time tonight by posting a 57 second time. I have completed 58 once and 59 something like 3 times. I rarely play mid, but my best there is 19. I play beginner even less, a three is my best there. If I don't get a record in the first fifteen minutes of playing, it isn't gonna happen. Took me ten minutes of playing tonight.
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06/10/01 12:29:09 PM  
Name: BRUNELLIERE Emmanuel
Comments: The 16 I've just got finishes on the same board that Damien Moore's 14... Is it possible to know how mines are placed on the board, how "randomness" is made by the programm ? Manu.
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06/10/01 11:57:31 AM  
Name: Owen Fox
Comments: Thanks Corm! Just today I Made a Personnal Best in the long jump and high jump. My length was 4.82m and my height was 1.40m I'm only beginning. I know there are not great scores..... In my best event I managed a silver in the 800 metres. It was SoO close... just half a second seperated 2nd, 3rd and 4th... i dashed home to make it a silver! With the races, i havenb't been sweeping much. i own't be able today and yesterday i got : 23, 23, 24, 25, 25, 25, 28, 28 in just a short while ( 20 mins or so ) And anyone who beat their records, could I have a screenshot or video if available please? Thanks!
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06/10/01 11:37:01 AM  
Name: Dan Cerveny
Best expert: 54
Best intermediate: 15
Best beginner: 2
Comments: Just got a 15 on intermediate. I have been playing pretty fast today, but I just couldn't get a favorable board until now. Unfortunately, that is how intermediate works. I can probably take most expert boards and break 60 if I'm playing well, but there are only a handful of intermediate boards that physically allow a score of 12-14.
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06/10/01 11:22:01 AM  
Name: matt mcginley
Comments: A few years ago, nobody believed that anybody would join Gernot in breaking 17. I think Damien did it first, then lately a whole wave of people have gotten 13-16's. Progression is natural but it's impossible to say how far we can take scores. I believe 12 is pretty much the limit for intermediate and maybe 45 for expert. But who knows? Maybe Microsoft will put out a version with every found bug eliminated and scores may drop another second. Good luck with 1-11-44. And does anybody have a clue who broke 20 first? Tom Kelsh, Andrew McCullough, Chris Paradies and Chris Page would be considered.
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06/10/01 10:25:44 AM  
Name: BRUNELLIERE Emmanuel
Best expert: 68
Best intermediate: 16 !!!!!!!!
Best beginner: 3
Comments: Hello guys ! After an horrible afernoon of non-stop rubbishes scores in inter ( average of 30 and a 26 for the best board ), guess what ? I've "shot" my record directly from 19 to 16 ! The most surprising thing is that exactely the same thing happened a few weeks ago, when I had broken my expert record from 80 to 74 then 68. Impossible for me to get any sub-80 since then ! I'd like to be able to finish more boards and to have better scores ON AVERAGE ! But I'm in in heaven with my exceptionnal 16 nevertheless !! Have fun ! Manu. P.S : Matt, I'm going to prepare something for your site. But will you correct my english, please ? P.P.S : I have the screenshot for those who want..
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06/09/01 07:51:21 PM  
Name: Marc Schouten
Best expert: 58
Best intermediate: 16. Really.
Best beginner: 2
Comments: Well... This is a rather good night for me. If you check the time of my previous post, you can see that it's been less than an hour since I went from 19 to 18. A couple of minutes ago, I got a 16. And guess what: it's the famous world-record board that so many people have gotten already. I didn't play particularly well, mada a few small mistakes, so I'm not entirely happy, as it could easily have been a 15 or 14. But all in all, I'm pretty satisfied by this night of minesweeping. Three seconds off. I can only hope to repeat that on expert one day. Only two seconds off of my total best times to break that 2 mines/s barrier...

06/09/01 07:13:38 PM  
Name: Marc Schouten
Best expert: 58
Best intermediate: 18. Really.
Best beginner: 2
Comments: Well... Just broke my longest-standing record by a second. I got 19 seconds in int in December 2000 and just now I got an 18. I should have gotten a 15 and a 17 in the past couple of days, but I'm confident that I'll break 18 pretty soon. I just have to keep playing int. And yes, it does seem a lot of people are breaking their int scores. That's what inspired me to spend some more time to it :)

06/09/01 01:41:09 PM  
Name: Joe Nuss
Comments: matt, you're wrong about the clock, i already explained this. my minesweeper clock and my system clcok run the opposite of synchronous. i checked it. i saw the 2 second bug occur, and it wasnt at the end of a second on the system clock, it just happened. the minesweeper clock was independent of the system clock, ill video it for you if you dont believe me.
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06/09/01 01:19:54 PM  
Name: Corm
Best expert: 79
Best intermediate: 22
Best beginner: 2
Comments: Howdy! so this is Corm, Owen's friend from Ireland, I wont be coming here reguraly but just want to say hi to all you fellow sweepers, good luck and stuff. hmmm arn't the pumpkins the best band ever?.... duuuuuunnnnnnnnnnn Owen. abasinia! -Corm

06/09/01 12:54:45 PM  
Name: matt mcginley
Comments: I hate to sound arrogant, but check out my page Kimmo...
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06/09/01 12:37:57 PM  
Name: Kimmo
Best expert: 88
Best intermediate: 30
Best beginner: 3
Comments: Do you know any other good minesweeper pages which are updated often?

06/09/01 11:27:29 AM  
Name: Owen
Best expert: 69
Best intermediate: 18
Best beginner: 2
Comments: Yo Everbody! Today I entered the Wicklow Athletic Championships representing my local running club.... I notched up 3 medals... a silver in 1500 metres a silver in the discus and a GOLD in the Shott Putt! heehe I'M SO Happy!! It was my first championships.
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06/09/01 10:22:39 AM  
Name: Dean Smith
Best expert: 85
Best intermediate: 25
Best beginner: 3
Comments: Just beat my intermediate record of 26. Suprisingly I'm not over the moon about it though because i messed up a 20/21 game when I only had 2 easy squares left to clear! That annoyed me greatly as you'd probably guess. Weird how most people are now concentrating on intermediate at the moment isn't it? And this timer issue is detracting away from the real business of sweeping. So I say to the hell with that and lets see someone dare I say sub-11 on intermediate!

06/08/01 03:47:18 PM  
Name: matt mcginley
Comments: Okay, BIG problem! I accidently deleted "Fake??" from my site. If anyone can access their history and view the whole site as it was saved, please email me the source code. I dont want to try to write it all over again...
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06/08/01 12:35:49 PM  
Name: matt mcginley
Comments: I'll try to sum up a good bit with the timer. What it seems like, by people's experimentation, is that the slower your PC, and/or whatever programs you have running, the slower the minesweeper clock goes, as compared to the real time, given by the player window or a watch. Some people have mentioned their system clocks being faulty, but this, given minesweeper's short-time-span nature, would seem to not have an effect on the clock of the game. Marc mentioned his very fast PC with Win2k (which I'm told has minimal memory leaks, if any, or was it WinXP?). He also didn't mention that he runs any software like WinAmp or Camtasia when he's playing. Because of this, his minesweeper clock runs generally synchronous with the system clock. Joe - Minesweeper does indeed run of the system clock...how else do you explain the 2-second bug? When you start a minesweeper game, the clock hitches a ride on the next available second and hangs on from there. Just one question remains to be answered: Does using the stock Win98 mines, or the downloaded Win3.1 affect anything?
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06/08/01 11:56:35 AM  
Name: Marc Schouten
Comments: Owen: I mailed it to Matt and he replied with a video of his best messed-up game, the one posted on his site. They are the same boards. I don't see you email address posted, so you can check it out there.

06/08/01 10:37:21 AM  
Name: Owen
Comments: WOW! That must be a messege length record! Recently I've had many chance to beat my int record and i'm sure i will soon. I HOPE!

06/08/01 10:35:53 AM  
Name: Owen
Best intermediate: 18
Comments: HI all. Just a few thinkgs to say... VERY coincidentally, i got 18 again on Intermediate...What's coincidental is that it was the exact same board i got my origianl 18 on on 22 April this year! I would like that Int board sent to me Marc please! Here are my results of minesweeper in the last week or two :Tuesday : 77, 78, 78, 79, 89 Wednesday : 95, 96 Thursday : 80, 80, 80, 85, 90, 91, 100 Saturday : 20, 22, 23, 24, 75, 76, 79, 81, 84 Tuesday : 74, 90 Wednesday: 79, 80, 83, Thursday : 22, Friday : 22, 22, 77, 80, 85, Saturday : 24, 25, 25, 25, 72, 80, 95, Tuesday: 4, 4, 20, 24, 27 Wednesday : 86, 90 Thursday : 27, 29 Friday : 21, 25, 26, Saturday : 24, 25, 27, 27, 29, 29, 29, 80, 92, 94 Sunday 3 June 85, 94 Monday Bank Holiday 92 Tuesday : 20, 22, 22, 22, wrecked 15, 16 Wednesday : 21, 22, 26, 26, 27, 29, Thursday : 22, 22, 22, 22, 23, 23, 24, 24, 25, 25, 26, 26, 26, 27, 27, 27, 27, 28, 28, 29, 29, 22 should have been 19. Friday : 18, 20, 22, 22, 24, 24, 24, 25, 26, 27, 2728, 28, 28, 28 To I forget who - I sometimes have minesweeper imposed over my normal thoughts/vision! One time i was subconsciously playing for around 10 mins while watching a film until i noticed!! BIzarre! I don't particularly care about the timer situation as there's nothing we can all do about really and we can't just say our scores are worthless because of it. And about lasse not having as many sub 50s... - that's crap. You might as well say the same thing to everyone then .

06/08/01 10:14:02 AM  
Name: David Barry
Comments: I think the smoothness of optical mice against roller balls is somewhat overrated... I haven't used the Microsoft Intellimouse, but I have used a Dexxa optical, and I didn't notice any difference between the motion of that and the motion of a ball mouse... and the weekly cleaning of a ball mouse is hardly a burden. I would see tension as the most important factor in a mouse.
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06/08/01 08:41:07 AM  
Name: Dan Cerveny
Comments: I have trouble playing minesweeper while listening to music, especially loud music. Music just tends to overwhelm my concentration so my minesweeping suffers. I do, however, always have the tv on when I play. I use a roller ball Intellimouse and I love it. I tried using an Optical Intellimouse, but I couldn't get used to the feel of it. The optical is considerably lighter, and I didn't like the slickness of the grip. The optical might be smoother, but for minesweeper I think the feel of my mouse is more important than the smoothness.
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06/08/01 08:15:37 AM  
Name: Paul Kerry
Comments:

On optical mouses....

An optical mouse won't improve your ability, obviously. However, they have all but perfectly smooth motion. This means any motion mistakes caused by the mouse itself will be eliminated instantly. So, once you are used to the new mouse you'll make fewer mistakes, and complete more boards.... certainly very useful for breaking records.

You might want to be careful when selecting the mouse. The Microsoft Intellimouses are wonderful, but they are big, and the spring tension in the buttons is far from perfect. You might be able to find a better 'sweeping mouse by trying a few optical mouses.

I wouldn't trade my Intellimouse for the world.... I can't live without the backwards/forwards buttons now I've used them. I have considered changing my mouse for extended sweeping sessions though (to the one that came free with the system).

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06/08/01 08:07:30 AM  
Name: Andrew Washburn
Best expert: 72
Best intermediate: 18
Best beginner: 4
Comments: Matt I just read you mouse review on your page...I use a roller ball mouse, do you think an optic one would really make me significantly faster?
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06/08/01 03:16:02 AM  
Name: Janne Vieri
Best expert: a little over 200
Best intermediate: about 60
Best beginner: 11
Comments: I remember playing a cool version of Minesweeper about 3-4 years ago. What made it interesting was the fact that you could change the shape of the tiles. There were about 15 styles: hexagonal, octagonal and so on. Does any of you know about this? I can't remember its name, but I think it's not listed on the Downloads-page. (btw, you can't download mine2000!)
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06/08/01 12:21:12 AM  
Name: Female Surfer
Best expert: 50
Best intermediate: 14
Best beginner: 3
Comments: Hey, i have just been surfing and found this site. Who are the cool guys out here? Can anyone of you'll beat these scores. I know that its real hard but who are the gentlemen out here. This is a challenge issued. Are you miners ready to take it? P.S - these are not my scores

06/07/01 07:11:31 PM  
Name: matt mcginley
Comments: Ok, Im just trying to sum things up here.... Marc, send that board over. Well done Washburn, Ill update that. The music I listen to when I play is usually hardcore rock or punk, so the beat doesn't really affect me, but occasionally I like some techno. But, again, I usually like Aphex Twin, which has no recognizable beat (great band). About the system clock thing. If someone has a slower system, and/or they have camtasia and winamp running, does that mean that the minesweeper clock will go slower for them? Im kind of confused on the whole thing. If anyone feels that they have it under control, I would absolutely love an article written on it for my site, because I, and many others I'm sure, haven't a clue :)
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06/07/01 06:38:32 PM  
Name: Paul Kerry
Comments:

Just two points :)

1. Music: About 18 months ago I played Minesweeper faster when listening to the Vengaboys than anything else. I toyed with the possibility that certain beats/timing in music forces the mind/clicking into some kind of unison/beat, it's feasible certain songs could force a rythm on sweeping (either good or bad). However... there is a lot of pseudo-psychological crap in that supposition!

I'm one of those people who must tap along with a decent beat, and I tend to find myself subconsciously tapping/moving to them from time to time. It's not unreasonable that when my concentration goes, that I play Minesweeper in time. However.... I'm not going to dust my Vengaboys CD in the hopes I'll break a record... I have my dignity(ish)!

2. The 2 second bug. I've not done extensive testing, but if I start games from a minimized board, I've never seen the time skip.

Boom boom boom boom..........

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06/07/01 05:49:50 PM  
Name: Marc Schouten
Comments: AAARGH! Just made a mistake at the last square of a would-be 15s int game. That would have been a spectacular decrease of my best time, which now, unfortunately, remains 19. Great board, though. If anyone's interested in seeing it, let me know.

06/07/01 01:10:35 PM  
Name: Andrew Washburn
Best expert: 72
Best intermediate: 18
Best beginner: 4
Comments: I broke my expert record of 74 today. Just thought I'd share that. The funny thing is though, I was listening to the same song as when I broke my int record a few days ago (Destiny's child survivor, which on my playlist has about a 1/20th chance of being played at a given time). Coincidence or does the background music really have an effect on sweeping skill? Who knows? Any thoughts on that? PS, I think we're overdue for an update here, Damien
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06/07/01 01:03:04 PM  
Name: Justin DiFebo
Comments: i got a 0,1,1 on a french minesweeper site on beginner.
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06/07/01 12:44:31 PM  
Name: Surfer
Comments: 1,101,201,301,401,501,=0 league 1, 97,193,288,384,480,=20 winmine3.1 1, 97,193,288,384,480,=20 winmine98 0, 95,190,286,379,474,=26 narkomania 0, 94,188,284,378,473,=27 hexmines -Disturbingly, I watched the seconds tick away and my computer's clock (PIII 266MHz 32 MB-RAM) occasionally skips a second!! One or two seconds every few minutes skips to the next number very quickly and sometimes a second passes noticeably quicker than it should. The League version kept pace with the clock exactly even though the system timer skipped 7 times in 500 seconds...I couldn't tell on the other versions because their timers are irregular. -My computer is at 73% (free for resources), but the League uses an extra 4% without effect, so since Camtasia uses 5% it must be something in the program but not the space it uses (it's not an overload that causes the clock failure). -Cheer up! Only 2s is lost a minute so all the pain we feel from the clock skipping at the start of record games can be thrown out because it's compensated for! :)

06/07/01 12:13:21 PM  
Name: Marc Schouten
Best expert: 2
Best intermediate: 19
Best beginner: 58
Comments: David: Damn! It seems anyone has 'lag advantage' but me ;). I could have records of 1/17/55 if I'd been playing on a slower system. Oh well... Just another reason to keep at it I guess... To all of you who have records on "lagged" systems: I wouldn't worry about it. I don't consider them any less valid than "unlagged" times. It's just another bug, like the 2-sec bug. I might try finding such a system, though, to beat my scores :)

06/07/01 07:22:47 AM  
Name: David Barry
Comments: An 8x8 beginner board with no zero-squares could be:
1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1
1 M 2 M 1 1 M 1
1 1 3 2 2 1 1 1
1 1 2 M 1 1 1 1
1 M 2 1 1 1 M 1
1 2 2 1 1 2 2 1
1 2 M 1 1 M 2 1
M 2 1 1 1 1 2 M
Where M means mine, other numbers are the usual ones that you would see in the game. I don't know how many clicks this would take... it would all be theoretical anyway, little chance of this board being beaten even if it did come up.
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06/07/01 05:56:55 AM  
Name: Georgi Kermekchiev
Best expert: 93
Best intermediate: 27
Best beginner: 5
Comments: Hi guys ..... Just to make you move your brains a little :-) Everybody knows what is the perfect Mine board - All mines are in a cluster and one click is enough to open the board .... What I find more interesting is the worst board - how must be situated mines so that with maximum clicks to be open entire board (let's supose we are talking about beginner level - board 8X8 with 10 mines)and how many clicks is the maximum ... Any suggestions ??? :-)
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06/06/01 04:43:16 PM  
Name: Joe Nuss
Comments: totally, lance. mine always effs up considerably, until we got this little atomic clock thing, which downloads the time from GMT once a day so its accurate. still, im sure it loses a minute or two by the time it readjusts each day.
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06/06/01 04:15:42 PM  
Name: Lance Votroubek
Best expert: 73
Best intermediate: 18
Best beginner: 2
Comments: Just a note to whoever said earlier that computer clocks are reasonably accurate to start with: not true! They use the same quartz clocks that the cheapest $3 watches use. If they used the ultra-accurate systems that your system uses, it'd slow down the system. It has nothing to do with battery or power supply, either. Mine is often off by 5-10 mins. Anyway, happy sweeping! Lance
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06/06/01 01:25:26 PM  
Name: Andrew Washburn
Best expert: 74
Best intermediate: 18
Best beginner: 4
Comments: Hey, it seems everyone's int times are dropping now...i was but the first. My beginner time is slow for someone of my ability I know. I just don't have the patience to pursue a new record in such a boring board size when I could be playing int at the same time. Anyone else have such a problem? Would running mp3s while playing increade the whole timer lag thing?
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06/06/01 11:44:11 AM  
Name: David Barry
Comments: More timer stuff... just checkin some of the videos, Lanyje's 52 and 50 both have about a 3sec lag over the whole time, Marc's 63 has no lag (or at most < 1sec), Dan's 54 was also about 3sec slow, my 62 was about 2-3sec slow. So, I don't know... I'll let everyone ponder it all.
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06/06/01 11:28:02 AM  
Name: Owen
Comments: DAMN IT! I was playing Int for a good while yesterday when i got a board that i lost on a 50 -50. the timer was at 15 Soon later i lost another board on 15 on a 50-50. That sucks so badly as i would have whipped my record! Oh Ye- i got them both on video in Cians house. When i get them I'll show you all.

06/06/01 10:23:15 AM  
Name: BRUNELLIERE Emmanuel
Best expert: 68
Best intermediate: 19 Yeaaaaaaaah !!!
Best beginner: 3
Comments: A few hours after telling you that I should stop sweeping, I got a 3 at beginner and a 19 at inter ! I don't feel like stopping anymore now... Manu.
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06/05/01 11:41:20 PM  
Name: Emmanuel
Best expert: 68
Best intermediate: 21
Best beginner: 3
Comments: Hello everybody ! Has anyone ever counted the mines on an expert board ? Because i've just seen that not only the counter is too slow but sometimes 2 or 3 mines are missing !!! ????? Don't worry, only joking ( How would it be possible ? ) More seriously, I feel desesperate to hit another sub-70 on expert, It's even rare to have a sub-80 !! Maybe should I stop a few days ! Manu.
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06/05/01 10:05:47 PM  
Name: Joe Nuss
Comments: i got another 19, matthew. i hope sincerely that you do not want a screen shot, because in my haste i didnt take one. i am ashamed. i was keeping screen shots of my top 5 for each level, too.
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06/05/01 06:11:19 PM  
Name: Marc Schouten
Comments: Yeah, I'm surprised too. I don't think that the difference lies in different system clock speeds. Those things are pretty accurate, normally. It has to be something in the programming area. David's suggestion about dummy loops sounds reasonable to me. Anyway, it's much more probable that the minesweeper timer is affected by some factor that's system dependent, than that our system timers run asynchronously.

06/05/01 03:46:31 PM  
Name: Joe Nuss
Comments: hah matt, good point. marc, what i was saying is that maybe your system clock runs differently than mine, but our minesweeper clocks run the same? i admit it's a long shot, but does anything else really make sense? im convinced minesweeper doesnt run off the system, there's nothing in sync about them when i tried it. im still really surprised no one noticed this before.
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06/05/01 01:20:42 PM  
Name: matt mcginley
Comments: Good point Barry. I run Camtasia and winamp while playing. I record at 15 f/s at either 128 or 256 colors. I think that would maybe be about a 13-17 second lag every 500 seconds. But the good thing is that when you divide down to 20 seconds or less for intermediate, it is hardly more than half a second. Expert is trickier though...Sucks for expert ;)
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06/05/01 12:57:11 PM  
Name: Andrew Washburn
Best expert: 74
Best intermediate: 18
Best beginner: 4
Comments: Does the timer thing only affect slow computers? I think athletics and minesweeper are mutually beneficial. As many know, I am a track runner (ran a 4:45 metric mile, 2:09 800 meters and 17:47 5k) and I think running has really helped with my sweeping. It's the whole motivation thing. Whoever asked (sorry forgot the name) I hate math with a passion. A very strong passion. Anyway, ciao.
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06/05/01 09:58:56 AM  
Name: David Barry
Comments: Oops, just remembered that I was starting my stopwatch when the minesweeper clock hit 2 (so as to avoid the 1-2 jump), so add 2 seconds to each of the lags below. Incidentally, the German Minesweeper-League gives no lag at all.
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06/05/01 09:51:21 AM  
Name: David Barry
Comments: Okay, I've spent a good deal of the evening trying things out with the timer... With 87% system resources, there was an 11sec lag in 500sec (about 2%). With 57% sys resources, there was also an 11sec lag in 500. I then had WinAmp play some music, as I would normally when I sweep (resources still at 57%), and there was a 15sec lag. (3%) Camtasia running, no WinAmp (64K colours, 8frames/sec), 14sec lag. Camtasia running (64K colours, 10frames/sec), 15sec lag. All this makes me wonder even more... the lag was much greater this morning (almost 5%, as I recall), perhaps I had some extra programs running in the background or something. I will probably test it again tomorrow, to see if there is any change... Any thoughts, programmers, on how you would get a timer to behave in such a way? One method I could think of would be for Minesweeper to work out how many dummy loops it would take to last one second, then use this as a delay-routine for the timer... but my programming knowledge is very limited, and I don't really think Microsoft would use such a thing as this.
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06/05/01 04:26:01 AM  
Name: Roelof Smit
Comments: Hi there, Well, I've let my stopwatch play for 500 secs and watched the minesweeper timer every 100 secs. These are my results, with first the stopwatch time and then the minesweeper time: 100 - 97, 200 - 193, 300 - 288, 400 - 384, 500 - 480. A gap of 20 secs at 500! That means about 2 secs at every 50 secs. I don't have anything to do with video and stuff. This is the real game and I'm quite disappointed. By the way: I took a look at some profiles and some of you wrote they liked mathematics very much. Does anyone of you hate mathematics? I do, that's also because I'm really bad at it. My parents aren't very good at mathematics either and when they saw me play they were amazed. According to them you have to be a maths-star to get good scores. Well, I'd like to know how you think about that. Owen, sometimes I even dream about minesweeper. And I can get asleep, maybe because of my minesweeper thoughts. I play FIFA games as well and when I see a real soccer game afterwards I always miss the yellow circles under the players... I don't think I'll ever get used to my new mouse. Greetz, Roelof
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06/05/01 04:06:59 AM  
Name: Marc Schouten
Comments: Joe: If Minesweeper's timer is faulty, then the effects aren't the same across platforms. As I said before: there's no discernible difference on my system. So no matter what, we're not all equally advantaged by the slower timer. By the way, I think I was the one to state that the timer is triggered by the system clock. I checked a few months ago and it seemed to be that way. It must have been coincendece back then, because just now, I tried again and they weren't running synchronously.

06/05/01 12:46:00 AM  
Name: Joe Nuss
Comments: just for kicks, i put a stopwatch up against my system timer, and there's no difference. i thought there would be, because my computer clock habitually screws up, and time is often and hour off at times. weird. who originally said that minesweeper runs off the system clock? because judging from my computer, that looks impossible. they're totally out of sync. even the 1 to 2 jump doesnt have anything to do with the system clock, i noticed. im thinking that minesweeper comes with a faulty timer, which would mean at leats that we're all equally wrong. it probably means that lasse has only really broken 50 once or twice, though. heh. i dont know, maybe not. debate, my fellows!
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06/05/01 12:37:21 AM  
Name: Joe Nuss
Comments: wow, this whole timer thing is nuts. i cant believe no one noticed it before. this kind of blows. i did it, and when 60 seconds on the system timer elapsed, only 58 had on minesweeper. by 100 on the system, it was only 97 on minesweeper. does minesweeper count slower than real time? a ghastly mystery opens before us... heh heh, im relatively sure its the same for all PCS though, for some reason. i couldnt imagine the game would be that inaccurate. i mean, thats pretty bad.....at 230 on the real clock, 223 on minesweeper....maybe minesweeper comes with its own internal seconds counter, and doesnt run on the system clock? or something.
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06/04/01 11:15:07 PM  
Name: Georgi Kermekchiev
Comments: Marc, If the speed of the counter depends on PC configuration than all records are not made under the same circumstances .... and gives some people advantage ...
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06/04/01 11:09:52 PM  
Name: Georgi Kermekchiev
Comments: Hi Mark, Probably the speed of the counter depends on your PC configuration. Yesterday I've checked the counter (neither Camtasia recording, nor any other applications running - just Minesweeper) and for the real 500 secs, the Minesweeper showed 480 !!! .... And that is the same time discrepancy as that recorded on Videos by different people. How can you explain this ?
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06/04/01 07:53:13 PM  
Name: Marc Schouten
Comments: David: Hmm... strange. There is no discernible difference between my game and my clock. I've ran the game for 5 minutes and the difference, if any, was less than half a second. 190 seconds instead of 201 means the game is about 5% slower than the clock. That's 3 seconds on a 60s game! For comparison: I'm running the win98 version on win2k on an Athlon 700 with 128 megs. Let's see if we can find out what's going on here exactly, shall we?

06/04/01 06:52:04 PM  
Name: Paul Kerry
Comments:

Seeing Minesweeper games whilst I'm trying to get to sleep isn't so much of a problem, if anything, it would send me to sleep.

However, seeing Minesweeper scenarios unfold before me during the day is quite odd. I can be doing practically anything and have games superimposed over whatever I can actually see.

I've recently been playing a fair amount of Tetris, and that is even worse. Incidently, the version I'm playing is called Blocks from Hell, it's 23.7k total (no installation required), and it is a great, great clone (I believe its freeware too).

In both cases though, its almost like practice without playing. Maybe it is the secret to developing great pattern recognition? :)

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06/04/01 06:06:58 PM  
Name: David Barry
Comments: I just checked the timer (in the actual game) against my stopwatch... After 190 seconds were showing on the timer my watch said it was about 201. There was also about a 10-second lag over 3 mintues when I checked it against the system clock. So I don't think that it is just the video. I think we shall all have to hope that whatever timing mechanism is used, it is consistently slow across computers... otherwise my times may be invalid. :(
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06/04/01 05:08:50 PM  
Name: matt mcginley
Comments: Yeah Owen, athletic activity increases blood flow which, as you progress in sports, develops new capillaries to accomodate the increased blood flow which, in turn, allows more oxygen to be sent to the brain. Neat, huh?
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06/04/01 04:59:31 PM  
Name: Owen
Comments: Tennis fans - Are you watching the coverage of the tennis at Roland Garros? I am and i'm enjoying it alot.. Heres a question for all - After playing minesweeper late at night of for a few hours during the day , do any of you ever visualize minesweeper as if you are playing games when you go to bed?. I do sometimes and it keeps me up for quite a while! I hate that! In my last post i didn't mean to talk entirely to Matt, rather to anyone who say the screenshot of jaous board...

06/04/01 04:47:54 PM  
Name: Owen
Best expert: 2
Best intermediate: 18
Best beginner: 69
Comments: HI all Matt , It's late in the morning (night) now and i've just read your page Matt. I absolutely agree with your argument about jaou. I'm suprised it took you so long to notice that the board is incapable of getting a twelve. Even at a glance you can see. but i know that's easy to say in hindsight. i didn't realise athletics is good for your mind. Good luck everyone.

06/04/01 04:47:16 PM  
Name: Marc Schouten
Comments: That's exactly what I'm saying. I don't know whether the problem occurs during recording or during playback, but when you play a real game, the timer runs perfectly synchronous to the (system) clock.

06/04/01 04:01:06 PM  
Name: matt mcginley
Comments: So what you're saying, Marc, is that the video of a game shows the game being played slower than what it was actually played? Does the video software slow down minesweeper, in that sense?
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06/04/01 03:43:39 PM  
Name: Marc Schouten
Comments: Hi all. It's been a few weeks since I last visited the site. I've taken a short break from the computer. Let me tell you: pulling a muscle playing tennis and then working 20 hours straight on the computer is *not* beneficial for your right arm ;) But everything is fine now. My minesweeping hasn't really suffered from the break, although my times aren't impressive so far... Matt: before you start another rant on your site, let me point out to you that there's nothing wrong with the timer in Minesweeper. It runs perfectly synchronous with the system timer. If there's a discrepancy between the actual time passed and the time displayed by the timer in a recorded movie, it's because the movie doesn't play at the same speed at which it was recorded. I'm somewhat surprised that you guys didn't check the actual game first.. ;) Anyway, enough for now. I've got some catching up to do. See you all later.

06/04/01 11:23:57 AM  
Name: matt mcginley
Comments: That timer bit is interesting Georgi. I've always heard that the minesweeper clock runs off the system clock (which is true, given the timer jump). But I decided to experiment, and I was shocked to see what I found. I watched an 82 second expert game I recorded some time ago and compared certain increments of time in the game to the timer on the player. At the beginning of the game, the player clock was at about 1.5 seconds. At 50 seconds of play, the clock of the player was at 52, and at the 82 second mark, the player timer was at 85 seconds. This is interesting....I'll have to post something about it on my site. Good work Georgi
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06/03/01 10:56:02 PM  
Name: Georgi Kermekchiev
Best expert: 93
Best intermediate: 27 !!!
Best beginner: 5
Comments: This weekend I attacked my intermediate record and lowered with 3 secs :-) Actually for my surprise I found out when wathcing some downloaded videos that the time counter of Minesweeper does not count seconds .... In fact it is slightly slower than I thought it was. (the counter approximately shows 96 for the real 100 seconds !!!) Probably you have already noticed that, but for me it was very disapointing ...
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06/03/01 09:06:47 AM  
Name: Andrew Washburn
Best expert: 74
Best intermediate: 18
Best beginner: 4
Comments: Patrick, holding down the smiley-face is DEFINATELY cheating (take it from someone on the "super pimp daddy list") Especially on expert, that could significantly (and unfairly) reduce your times. But don't worry. We haven't seemed to have much problem with fraudulent scores, except for some controversy over Joao's drastic drop in all three categories. Personally I have no opinion on the subject. If someone cheats, they live with that knowledge. I, for one, odn't cheat and like to come on this site to compare my legit scores with other legit scores and discuss tactics, etc. Anyway, I'm rambling like an old man (my 18th Bday is on the 20th of June; yeah buddy!)
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06/02/01 11:08:03 PM  
Name: Lance Votroubek
Best expert: 73
Best intermediate: 18
Best beginner: 2
Comments: Hey Patrick- I agree with you. Anything that disrupts the flow of the clock to give you an advantage in finding patterns and mines is a cheat. As for everyone else - although I haven't been able to play much lately (I've worked 125 hours in the last 15 days), I was able to tie my record yesterday, even though I pulled a muscle in my wrist, which sucks pretty hard core. So, I think that once things settle down a bit for me and I can play more (probably starting this coming week, after I get off work at 10:00pm), maybe I'll have a chance to break that record again. My goal for the end of the summer is 65 seconds or less on expert, and I do think that I can do it. Regardless, I plan on enjoying the warm weather that comes with summer, and enjoying the time I spend with friends and family as well! Have a great day all, and happy sweeping! Lance
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06/02/01 07:21:32 PM  
Name: Patrick
Best expert: 147
Best intermediate: 37
Best beginner: 4
Comments: Does anyone know where I can get Narkomania, because the download doesnt work on this site. Also is clicking on the happy face to stop the clock considered cheating? I think it is, but my friend disagrees.
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06/02/01 12:57:54 PM  
Name: Dan Cerveny
Comments: High schools around the country will be ending around next week, so I would think we'd find out soon whether or not Damien will remain grounded past his graduation.
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06/02/01 09:35:48 AM  
Name: Owen
Comments: Hi all. I just got an e mail or two from minesweeper addicts group. I wanted to let you all know that i cannot reply or send any mails to that group as my mail with the account is broken.. Lasse, which files section is it in?

06/01/01 12:26:43 PM  
Name: Owen Fox
Best expert: 69
Best intermediate: 18
Best beginner: 2
Comments: Hi Everyone! I don't cheat. I actually never even bothered to try out the existing cheats.... Dan, I hope you beat your record soon. I can confidently say that I am better than my 69 suggests. My mouse postion and desk position is crap and my wrist sometimes cracks as a result. I think that given a comfortable decent playing postion that i could sub 60 within a week or two of etting a new postion. When i p[lay I can never mark mines quickly. Instead I have developed a way of playing that maximises my strengths. I flag as cleverly as possible and go for fluent play with little waste clicks. But if i could add in rapid flagging I'd whip all my scores ( except Beg ) I hope i haven#t bored you all too much but it FRUSTRATES ME SO MUCH that i can't access my potential. ARGGGH Today in Corm's house ( also Cians ) I wwrekced 2 or 3 sub 20 games. I just get panicky! the best i got was a 22 on vid of course. Matt - What videos do you want apart from my 2 20s if any?
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06/01/01 09:08:56 AM  
Name: Kimmo
Best expert: 88
Best intermediate: 30
Best beginner: 3
Comments: How long have you been playing and how much do you play? I'm going to get under 100 total soon. Keep playing!

06/01/01 06:31:38 AM  
Name: Dan Cerveny
Comments: Mitch, sorry to disappoint you, but nobody here cheats. Go to the videos section of this site if you want proof.
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06/01/01 05:03:38 AM  
Name: Roelof Smit
Best expert: 82
Best intermediate: 21
Best beginner: 3
Comments: Little bit frustrated, Mitch R????
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06/01/01 03:27:35 AM  
Name: Mitch R
Best expert: 168
Best intermediate: 37
Best beginner: 7
Comments: im the only person who didnt cheat to get their records
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05/31/01 04:58:33 PM  
Name: Dan Cerveny
Best expert: 54
Best intermediate: 16
Best beginner: 2
Comments: Matt, I totally understand your experience with mouse comfort. I regularly go through periods in which the mouse just doesn't feel right and I can't remember my comfortable grip. - Over the past couple days I've gotten back on track with my sweeping. A few times I've been on pace to possibly break below 50 seconds, and I've just missed a couple low 50's games by screwing up in the last few seconds. I feel very confident I'll break my record within the next week.
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05/31/01 01:03:58 PM  
Name: matt mcginley
Comments: Way to go Ben. A couple days ago I had forgotten how I held the mouse. However weird that may sound, I just couldn't get comfy. I have since found a new comfy position and have gotten today: 17, 18, 20x6, 21x2 I have six 17's now, so I figure Im long overdue for a 15 or 16....
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05/31/01 08:29:37 AM  
Name: Ben Van Calster
Best intermediate: 19
Comments: Hi all, after 20x8 and 21x11 and loads of 22-25's and a 19 in the League version, finally a 19 in the original version came up. What a relief! Unbelievable. I don't know what to do with myself right now, although I know I have to work. Bye people and thanks for motivating me!
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05/30/01 11:19:50 PM  
Name: Joe Nuss
Best expert: 77
Best intermediate: 19
Best beginner: 2
Comments: *joins stuntastic mackarific pimp players list* aaaahh.....that is nice. finally under 80, finally under 100 total, finally all three scores are respectable, finally beating matt mcginley in something. :) come back damien! im good now! :) 2, 3x7 19, 22, 23x2, 24x4, 25x7 77, 80, 83, 84, 85, 86x2, 87x3, 88x2, 89x6 put those in my profile on your page, matt. im 18 now too, so update that too. well, on monday i will be. damn im old.... minesweepr is my friend again! yeeah!!
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05/30/01 06:51:31 PM  
Name: Kyle Simpson
Best intermediate: 94
Best beginner: 8
Comments: i'm unable to download some of the other minesweeper games. i'm only 14 and i've been playing it since windows 95 first came out!! it's the best game ever!
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05/30/01 11:29:57 AM  
Name: Owen
Comments: Just a quickie to say that i found your recent cool site Matt

05/30/01 09:55:39 AM  
Name: Roelof Smit
Best expert: 82
Best intermediate: 21
Best beginner: 3
Comments: Hello there, I've got a new mouse. I'll have to accustom to it, so don't expect me to break my scores the next couple of days (or weeks). When I'm used to it I might write a review about it.
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05/30/01 09:02:44 AM  
Name: Eugénio Gavinhos
Best expert: 84
Best intermediate: 25
Best beginner: 5
Comments: Hello people, you minesweepers lovers, today for the first time in my life I've scored 84 in the expert.
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05/30/01 07:08:29 AM  
Name: David Barry
Comments: Just to let everyone know that Sriram is unlikely to play much Minesweeper, at least for the next few months, as he has decided that his tennis is more important than Minesweeper, and he won't have access to a good computer and mouse whilst he is in India over the summer. My own sweeping has been up and down of late - my old mouse broke, and with a new model (Trekker; Matt I may get a review of it written soon) I have got back down to 52, but only once under 55 in the past week.
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05/29/01 12:33:46 PM  
Name: matt mcginley
Comments: Hey Owen, I know you meant this page's videos. I wonder why they dont work for you? Oh, ummm...Sriram doesn't have a video for my site. I dont know where you got that. About only being able to see the list of players...you're being REALLY vague, so the only thing I can guess is that you're using an old browser that doesn't support some of the things I have up there (i.e., style sheets, etc. not available in netscape). If you dont have the appropriate browser, everything looks really bad. Links in French? What? Just email me if you want to clarify what you're saying, because I odnt have a clue.
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05/29/01 11:26:04 AM  
Name: Owen
Comments: Hi Matt, I went to your page and all i can see is the players list of sub 20 poeple. I also went to links that were in french that i didn't know what they were about.... Do you have other things? The link for srirams 14 vid wouldn't work for me

05/29/01 11:21:30 AM  
Name: Owen
Comments: there seems to be alot of talent coming through.... It Appears that if you don't move up the list , you'll move down the list! here are my scores for today taking in mind that i haven't played in 3 days now : 4, 4, 24, 27, That's all Matt, i think you might have misunderstood me. I meant the vids on this site mainly don't work - not yours. Foxer Keep up the playing guys and girls!

05/29/01 07:08:10 AM  
Name: matt mcginley
Comments: http://inthalloffame.8m.com or click on this button down here
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05/29/01 06:38:55 AM  
Name: Andrew Washburn
Best expert: 74
Best intermediate: 18
Best beginner: 4
Comments: matt, what's the URL for your website again?

05/28/01 12:54:05 PM  
Name: Roelof Smit
Best intermediate: 21
Comments: Well, mister Washburn, you gave me new hope again; just take a look at my intermediate score. Matt, I agree with Dan. b.t.w my mouse does it's work again. I might trash my scores very soon.... That was brag. See you, Roelof
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05/28/01 12:26:20 PM  
Name: Dan Cerveny
Comments: Matt, I like your new site much better.
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05/28/01 10:14:32 AM  
Name: matt mcginley
Comments: Well, well, well, dont I feel so incredibly stupid. Missing one amazing board is bad enough, but when you miss two, that's when you know you're doing something wrong. It's not discreditable when you miss on a guessing situation, but when you miss when the pattern is incredibly obvious......well, you're (I'm) a moron. If you want the video, email me. I dont think I want to put it up on my site... Washburn, well done, welcome to the club! Updated my website, well about to update it, just as soon as I finish posting this, Ill put the finishing touches on it and let you guys have access to it. Im a moron....
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05/28/01 09:09:11 AM  
Name: Andrew Washburn
Best expert: 74
Best intermediate: see below
Best beginner: 4
Comments: Holy shi**!!!!!!!!!!! I was playing int. today, just listening to Destiny's Child (Survivor), and started flying through this board, right...and when I finish, I notice a dialog box I haven't seen in ages...I had forgotten what it looked like! When it registered in my brain that I had broken a record, I was like GOOD GOD!! But here is the REAL shocker; my old record was 21, so I naturally assumed my new record was 20...not this time. Andrew Washburn's new best intermediate time is an 18.

05/28/01 08:36:15 AM  
Name: Dan Cerveny
Comments: I'm curious if anyone else uses a wrist rest when using their mouse. Last Fall I started using a folded up sock in front of my mouse pad, about an inch tall, so my wrist would be at the same height as the rest of my hand while playing minesweeper. I think it has helped quite a lot.
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05/27/01 05:32:32 PM  
Name: Dan Cerveny
Comments: Lanyje, if you keep up this pace you are going to put the expert record out of reach for the rest of us. Last year I had hopes of one day breaking your, then, record of 52. I'm now encroaching upon that score, but it looks like mid 40's might be the new goal.
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05/27/01 05:26:52 PM  
Name: matt mcginley
Comments: Hmmmm....the videos work for me Owen
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05/27/01 02:33:08 PM  
Name: Owen
Comments: Did anyone notice that nearly every video on the video page has a broken link? I haven't played yet today and won#t cause i'm going to bed soon. I got 72 yesterday though....... :)

05/27/01 04:56:39 AM  
Name: Lasse Nyholm
Best expert: 47
Best intermediate: 15
Best beginner: 3
Comments: I had a great day of sweeping yesterday. At first I played with camtasia for a while and I caught a 15-inter and a 50-expert on video. Later I played for a couple of hours listening to REM's previous album UP (great music for minesweeping) and got 15-20 sub-60s in 90 minutes, among them a 48 and a 49 (now eight sub-50s all in all). Happy sweeping guys - Lanyje
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05/26/01 01:03:48 PM  
Name: matt mcginley
Best intermediate: Should be 13.....
Comments: Im so pissed.... I had the most incredible board today in int. I was flying through it and had to guess near the end. I had two squares left to go with 12 on the clock. I video'd it and saw that I lost just as it was changing from 11 to 12 and Im sure that at MOST i should have had a 14. Email me or wait another wek or two when my site is updated and you'll get the video.....argh.
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05/26/01 12:31:54 PM  
Name: Owen
Comments: Hi All. Matt, when i get the vids by floppy of cian and corm i'll definately send them to you. today i got another two 25s by left clicking only as their right click is wrecked. I should have gotten some 20s or so but i always seem to buckle and wreck those games today i got 72 in exp I understand now lasse!! i hope you beat your record and everyone else as long as they don't demote me in the top players list!! hehe



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