What i will attempt in this multi part post, is to write an application that will be able to play and solve Microsoft Minesweeper. I know it feels ambitious but i think we can make it happen. Since this is my first post where i don’t actually know how and what will i do, i cannot promise i won’t change technologies or frameworks in the meantime. So strap yourselves in and lets think it through.

I approach this like any other larger scale work i need to do, i break it down to smaller more manageable items, then devise an approach for each of them.

1. I need to get the current image of Minesweeper. Whenever you press ALT + PRINTSCR in a window, the contents of that window gets copied into the clipboard. I know i will find something in WinAPI that will help me with that.
2. I need to analyze the image and extract the current state of the board. I can approach this by doing pattern matching on the image either writing it myself or using an image analysis library like OpenCV
3. I need to write the logic which detects where the mines are. I will probably use an approach like what i used in the Solving Sudoku post.
4. I need to make actions in the game. In the past i worked with moving the mouse and issuing click commands from my application using WinAPI

A lot of time past since my last post and you probably think i was slacking off. It’s nothing like that. I had this idea a while ago and i spent some time researching each problem we need to solve, in my after work and after family hours.

I’m looking forward to this and see you soon.