Talk:Mastermind (board game)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Knight chess piece This article is within the scope of WikiProject Strategy games, an effort by several users to improve Wikipedia articles on strategy games. For more information, visit the project page, where you can join the project and/or contribute to the discussion.
Start This article has been rated as start-Class on the assessment scale.
Mid This article is on a subject of mid priority within strategy games for inclusion in Wikipedia 1.0.
Strategy games To-do:
This article is part of WikiProject Board and table games, an attempt to better organize information in articles related to board games and tabletop games. If you would like to participate, you can edit the article attached to this page, or visit the project page, where you can join the project and/or contribute to the discussion.
Start This article has been rated as Start-class on the quality scale.
Mid This article has been rated as mid-importance on the importance scale.


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)

Contents

[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 play 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)

[edit] Magnus Magnuson/John Humphries?

I have a mastermind box somewhere with who I think are the presenters of Mastermind on the BBC. It is a fairly old box, during the Magnus era, but the man on the front looks like Humphries, but he has an assisstant. Can anyone shed any light on this, as to whether the man on the front is Magnusson, Humphries or just an archetypal mastermind evil villain? ~~Lazyguythewerewolf . Rawr. 10:22, 20 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Knuth algorithm

As i've been spending the past long while trying to parse the text given for the Knuth algorithm, i think i can say with confidence that it is supremely nonsensical. Can somebody who understands how the algorithm works better explain? Dreamer.redeemer 06:12, 13 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Fair use rationale for Image:Codebreaker widget won.png

Image:Codebreaker widget won.png is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.

Please go to the image description page and edit it to include a fair use rationale. Using one of the templates at Wikipedia:Fair use rationale guideline is an easy way to insure that your image is in compliance with Wikipedia policy, but remember that you must complete the template. Do not simply insert a blank template on an image page.

If there is other fair use media, consider checking that you have specified the fair use rationale on the other images used on this page. Note that any fair use images lacking such an explanation can be deleted one week after being tagged, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you. BetacommandBot (talk) 19:56, 22 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Ambiguity about white pegs feedback info

I feel that the role of white pegs as was described:

a white peg indicates the existence of a correct color peg placed in the wrong position

is not really helpful. For example, if the secret code is RBBB and the guess is GRRR, clearly the 2nd, 3rd and 4th R pegs are exaclty in the same situation: there exists a R peg in the secret code, but in another position. But we do not give as feedback 3 white pegs, but one, if I am not wrong. So, I think the role of white pegs should be rephrased, as something like: "The number of white pegs is the extra number of black pegs that it is possible to get using exactly the pegs in your guess". What do you think? User:zeycus 11:34, March 29th, 2008 (UTC)

No feedback in two weeks, so I am going to be bold and make the change in the article. User:zeycus 14:04, April 13th, 2008 (UTC)