Oh it isn’t? I was sure it was, I used to play a lot of minesweeper. In some of those versions, you definitely didn’t have to uncover all empty squares. The goal was just to uncover enough information to tell the game where the mines are. But if that’s not a universal rule, then that’s not really helpful lol. But then again I don’t think I ever played any versions where this could happen because, like the other guy suggested, the puzzles I used to play were all meant to be solvable without guessing.
The one most people know from the 1990s (Definitely on Windows 3.1, and probably Win 95) specifically was won only when all non-mine spaces were safely revealed. I know in my own case at least, I determined early on that flags were superfluous and ignored them in favour of better times.
But maybe at some point there was a game mode that let you finish by marking flags only, even when clear squares weren’t all revealed? It wouldn’t be the main game mode (or even present in the version I know), but I could see if that existed out there somewhere.
edit
I saw it confirmed by someone below there are indeed people playing newer versions of the game that have a “guess-free” mode.
Oh it isn’t? I was sure it was, I used to play a lot of minesweeper. In some of those versions, you definitely didn’t have to uncover all empty squares. The goal was just to uncover enough information to tell the game where the mines are. But if that’s not a universal rule, then that’s not really helpful lol. But then again I don’t think I ever played any versions where this could happen because, like the other guy suggested, the puzzles I used to play were all meant to be solvable without guessing.
The one most people know from the 1990s (Definitely on Windows 3.1, and probably Win 95) specifically was won only when all non-mine spaces were safely revealed. I know in my own case at least, I determined early on that flags were superfluous and ignored them in favour of better times.
But maybe at some point there was a game mode that let you finish by marking flags only, even when clear squares weren’t all revealed? It wouldn’t be the main game mode (or even present in the version I know), but I could see if that existed out there somewhere.
edit I saw it confirmed by someone below there are indeed people playing newer versions of the game that have a “guess-free” mode.