[fuzzfactor]

I'm in an older generation, but like some other commenters started young with logic games as a preteen. I got into a school that was recognized for its academic games program but that was years before Mastermind came out.

By then I was in college with some of my high school buddies when one of them got the original board game. These were not actually that common even among those who liked thinking games since they were about $10, for $1 worth of plastic. And the box was way small compared to the full-size popular board games which were about $5.

It was quite interesting that there were diverse international people pictured on the cover and it didn't take long to realize this was a game where no players need to speak the same language at all.

By the time I got my Atari computer, this was the only game I ever coded since it's absolutely perfect to play having the computer in the role of "codemaker". I had never seen or heard of a computer mouse but I had my trackball for playing Centipedes and Missle Command so used it to point & click, then before I was done I was dragging & dropping the colors from their repository to the hot spots. I was simulating picking & placing like the board game.

Eventually I used two columns so two players could play against the Atari simultaneously, each with their own trackball or joystick. Since it was always basically a "one-player" game doing the solving, then two people could solve at once. I was going to suggest trying it that way next time but I don't know if it's as straightforward to use two mice and associate one with each player.