History of minesweeper.org
1999 — The Original Site
minesweeper.org was launched in 1999 by Richard Cross, then a Physics PhD student teaching himself web development. The technology was a Java 1.1.5 applet — it required Netscape 4.0 or Internet Explorer 3.0, crashed browsers regularly, and reset its high scores every day at 0 Swatch internet time. Richard's sister Becca helped write the instructions.
From the very first version, the site was about more than a puzzle game. Right there on the homepage was a photo of Princess Diana and a link to support her campaign to ban landmines. A banner across the top urged visitors to support the HALO Trust. That's why it was called Lady Di's Mines.
The Wayback Machine still has the original 2002 snapshot — treat it as a museum piece:
the Java applet, the daily scores, Diana's photo, and the HALO Trust banner are all there.
web.archive.org — minesweeper.org (April 2002)
Why Diana?
In January 1997, Diana walked through an active minefield in Huambo, Angola, wearing HALO Trust body armor. She met children who had lost their limbs, spoke out despite political criticism, and visited mine-clearance operations in Bosnia just weeks before her death in August 1997. Her efforts helped build the momentum that led to the Ottawa Mine Ban Treaty, signed by 122 nations in December 1997. Diana didn't live to see it.
Minesweeper was one of the most-played games in the world, bundled with every copy of Windows. If even a few of the people who visited the site paused to think about real mines — or clicked through to learn about the HALO Trust — it was worth doing.
2026 — The Return
Twenty-five years after the original launch, minesweeper.org was rebuilt from scratch using Python, FastAPI, and modern web technologies. It works on desktop and mobile without plugins. Every feature and every line of code is original work, built by Richard Cross and the team at Regis Consulting with contributions from Earl Gero and William Murray.
The game has grown far beyond Easy, Medium, and Hard:
- Rush — clear as many boards as possible in 60 seconds
- Duel and PvP — real-time 1v1 multiplayer
- Tentaizu — a Japanese star-chart logic puzzle, new daily
- Mosaic — Fill-a-Pix style daily puzzles
- Variants — Cylinder, Toroid, Hexsweeper, Worldsweeper, and more
- A global leaderboard that resets at midnight UTC
- No Guess mode — every board is logically solvable, no 50/50 guesses
- Available in ten languages
The Diana connection is still there. Activate the dedicated theme at minesweeper.org/?theme=diana — it wraps the classic grid in a deep blue background with the Lady Di's Mines logo, and works across all game modes.
The Cause Hasn't Gone Away
The HALO Trust has destroyed over 14 million explosives across more than 30 countries since its founding in 1988. The minefield Diana walked through in Huambo is now a neighborhood with homes and schools. But the conflict in Ukraine has brought a devastating resurgence of mine-laying, and dozens of countries remain contaminated.
Diana's wish that all landmines be banned in her lifetime did not come true. If you'd like to help, consider supporting the HALO Trust — the world's largest humanitarian mine clearance organization and the charity Diana worked with directly in Angola.
Read More
The full story — including Diana's walk through the Huambo minefield, the original Java applet, and how the site came back — is in the blog post: She's Back: The Return of Lady Di's Mines.