First and Simplest Game

The first and simplest game that I remember playing would probably be minesweeper. It's about as simple as you can get and is similar, I suppose to the 'Lights Out' game which involves pressing buttons and (exactly what it says on the tin) turning lights out. But I digress. The object of minesweeper is, basically, you have a grid of squares (varying sizes of grid, depending on your difficulty level) and you have to click each square so that it lights up without hitting any of the mines which are hidden randomly on the grid. If you hit a mine it's game over. You are helped by numbers which appear on squares you click, telling you how many mines are touching that particular square. You are not, however, told which of the surrounding squares contain the mines so, already, the game has an element of suspense. It also takes a lot more strategic thinking than you would guess because you have to take into account which numbers are where in relation to others. By comparing numbers, you can calculate the possibility of which squares hide mines.

Whenever a mine is hit and the game is over, the impulse for the player to start again is very high. It's the feeling of "I will beat this! I will win!" that drives the player to keep on playing, despite the game's incredibly simple objective and even simpler layout. Even now, I still find myself getting addicted to playing it and trying to work out different strategies of avoiding the mines.