Maybe if Mastermind had made the pegs green and yellow like Wordle squares I’d still have my old set. It was always the black ones that got lost first. Once you dropped below some critical number of surviving pieces the whole thing became impossible to use properly and eventually got thrown out.
Bit gutted about that now because I’d love to still have the original board game.
I do still like that style of deduction puzzle though. A lot of the daily puzzle games feel closer to trivia or vocabulary tests, whereas games the newer browser puzzles like Alphalock and Padlock help me get that “logical elimination” satisfaction I miss from the board game without the problem of the fiddly pegs!
Maybe if Mastermind had made the pegs green and yellow like Wordle squares I’d still have my old set…Bit gutted about that now because I’d love to still have the original board game.
https://www.ebay.com/shop/mastermind-pegs?_nkw=mastermind+pegs
Looks like some of those are in colors that exclude the black that you dislike, too.
I’d probably use a software version, myself, but if you enjoy the physical board game, that’d be one option.
Maybe if instead of pegs they used little wheels you could turn revealing 1 color at a time. Everything built in, no parts to lose.
Think of the game “guess who”, you just flip the portraits down, but they stay attached, that’s the design philosophy to match.
Also, there are definitely mastermind mobile games. I actually really like a deductive mobile game called “crossme”.
The 6 colors are necessary though… 2 colors would make it way too easy.
Sudoku is also another good logic game - but it can take me ages to complete! Any other good logic games people can recommend?
https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/puzzles/ has many good ones. It also has versions of Mastermind and Sudoku. 🙃


