Talk:Mastermind (board game)

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I'm sure this is needlessly pedantic, but ... the picture on this page shows red and white pegs used to communicate the results of guesses, whereas the text talks about black and white pegs. Which is the original / the most common? Should the text or the picture be changed?

Pedantry is good! I changed "black" to "colored" in the text. (Speaking of pedantry, it is helpful when making comments in Talk pages to include a signature with ~~~~ (four tildes), because it includes the date and time stamp. That way, if somebody comes across this page in a month or a year, they'll know that it's an old comment that doesn't need to be immediately addressed) DavidWBrooks 16:38, 21 Jun 2005 (UTC)

I always played this game using five pegs rather than four. Presumably this was a mark II version. The rules given in the article refer consistently to four pegs and I don't know when the five peg version came about, so I'm not sure how to edit it in order to include this. Shantavira 07:24, 22 July 2005 (UTC)

Game time about 20 minutes? Last two games I played each were over 2 hours!!!!! Lochok 00:02, 9 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Algorithm

The algorithm provided is really extremely unhelpful and does not specifically relate to Mastermind in any way. Removing. -Fuzzy (Sorry... forgot to sign it a few edits back)

I prefer the Super Mastermind, and still do it in less than 10 minutes. A more challenging game is played with the 5 holes, using a blank hole as a "color" for a total of 9 colors, and allowing doubles. - 163.238.45.107

Piker! I pay Super-Extra-Special Mastermind, with 127 colors including two in the ultraviolet spectrum, and do it in less time than it takes to say "ultraviolet spectrum." - DavidWBrooks 20:02, 8 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Name and variants

Why does the article give "Mastermind" only as one word? In the Invicta editions at least, it was always "Master Mind", and this suggests that it was the original name. There was:

• Master Mind (code length 4, 6 colours, 10 guesses)
• Mini Master Mind (travel version, code length 4, 6 colours, 6 guesses)
• New Original Master Mind (code length 4, 8 colours, 10 (?) guesses)
• Super Master Mind (code length 5, 8 colours, 12 guesses)
• Word Master Mind (code length 4, 26 letters, 10 guesses)
• Number Master Mind (code length 4, 6 digits, 10 guesses)
• Grand Master Mind (which I've never seen)
• Master Mind for the Blind (which I've never seen, nor experienced by whichever sense that game relies on :-) )

And I just noticed "Duplicates are allowed, empty allowed". Allowing empty holes has never been part of the standard game IMX, although the rulebook for Super Master Mind suggests it as a more challenging variation. -- Smjg 11:01, 27 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Moo

I moved the "moo" reference to the bottom, and I'm not sure it belongs at all. We can't just imply that Mastermind was somehow influenced by moo, as we did - we need to supply some backing evidence. - DavidWBrooks 18:04, 7 May 2006 (UTC)