Master Mind Game Online - Just All what you Need to Know

Master Mind or mastermind game online is an exciting game for 2 players. It was invented in early 1970s by Meirowitz, an Israeli telecommunications and postmaster expert. It is quite similar to the pencil-paper game that dates back one century or more.

It is played using:

A board (decoding board), with a shield enclosing a row of 4 big holes, and 12 (or 10, or 8, or 6) more rows having 4 big holes next to a set of 4 small holes;

Code pegs of 6 (or more; check Variations below) distinct colors, with circular heads, which are placed in the big holes on the board; and

The key pegs, some are white in color, some black, which have flat heads and quite smaller than code pegs; they will be inserted in the smaller holes on the board.

The 2 players agree in advance the number of times they are going to play, which is an even number. The first player will be the code-maker, and the other the code-breaker. The maker select a pattern of 4 Key pegs. Replicas are allowed, so a player can even choose 4 key pegs with similar color. The selected pattern is positioned in the 4 holes enclosed by the shield that is only visible to the code-maker. The code-breaker may have very difficult time guessing the code.

The key breaker games tries to figure out the pattern, in correct color and order, within 12 (or 10, or 8) times. Each prediction is made by positioning a row of code pegs on the board. Once they are positioned, the code-maker provides the feedback by positioning from 0 to 4 key pegs in the smaller holes with the guess. A black or colored key peg is positioned for every code peg from the prediction that is correct in both position and color. A white peg is used to indicate a correct color code peg positioned in the wrong place.

A software implementation (Color Code) screen short showing the example.

If there are replica colors in the prediction, they cannot all be granted a peg unless they correspond to the exact number of replica colors in the secret cipher. For instance, if the secret code is black-black-white-white, and the player predicts black- black-black-white, the code-maker will award 2 key pegs that are colored for the 2 correct blacks, a key peg for the white, and nothing for the 3rd black because the cipher lacks a third black.

Once the feedback is offered, another prediction or guess is made; predictions and feedback continue until either the code-breaker predicts correctly, or 12 (or 10, or 8) incorrect predictions are made.

The key-maker gets 1 point for every guess a key-breaker makes. An additional point is earned by the code-maker if the code-breaker does not guess the correct pattern in the last prediction. The quiz questions and answers games champion is the player who has more points after the fixed number of times the game is played.