Outwit your opponent in a head to head code-cracking clash to win the Mastermind title
November 25, 2004 2:50 AM   Subscribe

Outwit your opponent in a head to head code-cracking clash to win the Mastermind title, which is not to be confused with this television imposter. The board game was a really simple test of code cracking and deduction. I remember playing this game for hours and hours in my childhood. The new packaging is (of course) not as good as the old - and theres even a story about that old cover!

If you cannot find the board game - then you can always play the game online (mind your eyes there) or with a java applet, at least online you don't drop the little black and white pegs down the side of the chair!
posted by mattr (12 comments total)
 
good game! but then that comes from someone that would have a hard time beating an online chess game against an abacus.
posted by stirfry at 3:00 AM on November 25, 2004


Great link. I remember the old cover. Brings back a lot of childhood memories. I too played it a lot as a kid. Time to bring it out again is suppose.....

I bet mum still has it home somewhere.
posted by Grums at 3:06 AM on November 25, 2004


Heh - I still have the original, in that exact box somewhere around and my folks' place... Used to waste many hours on it with my father, and later on computerised versions. Good times.
posted by benzo8 at 5:34 AM on November 25, 2004


I played that game against my brothers a lot as a kid. Mostly I just stared at the cover. It looked like something out of a James Bond film.

/"No Mr. Bond, right color wrong place!"
posted by NoMich at 6:53 AM on November 25, 2004


I always wondered about that cover. Still have it (with the game, too) at the cottage.
posted by DrJohnEvans at 7:34 AM on November 25, 2004


My brother still occasionally reminds me of how I cheated at this game by learning how many pieces there were of each colour and then counting to see which ones were missing. Good times...
posted by leibniz at 7:38 AM on November 25, 2004


I loved this game too. That update of the picture is fascinating. I always wondered if the old one brought up any issues with interracial affairs at the time, or if it predated the Asian fetish trend. I was too young to have any idea.
posted by fungible at 8:58 AM on November 25, 2004


Thanks for the nostalgia!

And yes, I have that old-ass box sitting in my basement somewhere. Simply bizarre, that design.
posted by Kleptophoria! at 3:17 PM on November 25, 2004


I've won Mastermind (against a human) in one move, once. Four yellow pegs.
posted by krisjohn at 8:03 PM on November 25, 2004


I wonder if there's an optimal strategy for this game?

(Well, I'm sure there must be one... I wonder what it is?)
posted by painquale at 11:15 PM on November 25, 2004


Here's a better online version of MM.
posted by nchicha at 4:55 AM on November 26, 2004


Man, you guys are not gonna believe this, but during my 48-hour involuntary exile from MeFi at my in-laws, I came across this game just a few hourse ago in a stack of old board games (recently grabbed from yard sales) and persuaded my 11-year-old to play it with me. I managed to crack his code in 8 steps, then cunningly picked a Christmas-themed code that he cracked in 2 steps (sheer luck, of course... but still!).

Anyway, I always have enjoyed this game and thought of it as a purer (one-sided, of course) version of Chess, where you can make descisions that are based purely in logic trees, but sometimes it pays to just trust your gut and plow ahead.

And painquale, if you're willing to give up on the concept of winning in under 5 turns, there's a lot to be said for the methodical opening, starting with a random assortment of different colors and shifting them over by one as you go, through the first four steps. Often I can get it in six by this method, because I have such a rigorous database of right/wrong info to draw on after that. Other times, um, not so much.
posted by soyjoy at 8:10 PM on November 26, 2004


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