How can I find the data structure that represents mine layout of Minesweeper in memory?

Question

I\'m trying to learn about reverse engineering, using Minesweeper as a sample application. I\'ve found this MSDN article on a simple WinDbg command that reveals all the mines b

Answer 1

It is fairly reasonable to assume that information about mines is layed out contiguously in memory at least for rows (i.e. it's a 2D-array, or an array-of-arrays). Thus, I would try opening several adjacent cells in the same row, making memory dumps of the process as I go, and then diff them and look for any repeating changes in the same memory region (i.e. 1 byte changed on first step, the next byte changed to exact same value on the next step, etc).

There's also possibility that it's a packed bit array (3 bits per mine should be sufficient to record all possible states - closed/open, mine/no-mine, flagged/non-flagged), so I'd look out for that too (the patterns would also be repeatable, though harder to spot). But it's not a convenient structure to deal with, and I don't think memory usage was a bottleneck for Minesweeper, so it is unlikely that this sort of thing would be used.