MINEFIELD V1.0 © 1993 Arun Kumar G.P. MineField is a challenging game of strategy and luck (inspired by a similar but more colourful game called MineSweeper for MicroSoft Windows 3.1 on the IBM PC). Your objective is to locate all the mines in the mine field presented to you on a grid, as quickly as possible. You do this by uncovering the squares on the board that do not contain mines and marking the ones which do contain a mine. If you uncover all the squares without mines, you win; if you uncover a mine instead of marking it, you lose the game. BOARD : ----- Start a New Game Time in Seconds No. of Mines | | | | Show all Mines| MENU +---|--------|------|----------|---+ +-----------------+ | v +--v--+ +-v--+ v | | New Game N | | MINES | NEW | |SHOW| TIME | | v Beginner | | +-----+ +----+ | | Intermediate | |+--------------------------------+| | Expert | || || | Custom | || || | v Mark(?) | || M I N E || | About | || || | Quit Q | || F I E L D || +-----------------+ || || || || || || |+--------------------------------+| +----------------------------------+ The counter in the upper left corner of the window initially indicates the number of mines hidden in the mine field. Every time you mark a square as a mine, this number decreases by one, even if you incorrectly mark a square. The counter in the upper right corner of the window is a timer, which displays the playing time in seconds. The timer only starts to tick when you click in the mine field area. (NOTE : If the MineField window is made inactive when a game is in progress, the time is not maintained on the window, but as soon as the window is made active the timer starts ticking again and shows the actual time !) You can click on the NEW button whenever you want to start a new game. This also resets the board if you are already in midst of one. If you have had enough and you want to see all the mines in the mine field, you can click on SHOW button. This shows all the mines in the mine field and you cannot continue to to play the same game. Menu Options : ------------- The menu options let you start a new game or choose any of the three standard playing levels (Beginner, Intermediate or Expert). These levels have different playing areas and number of mines. You can also set up your own mine field size and number of mines by using the Custom Setup option. There is also an option to disable marking a square with a '?' (See below for more details). How to Play the Game : --------------------- Read this confusing bit carefully and try it out first !!. - To clear a square in the mine field you click on it with the Left Mouse Button. If it is a mine, you lose. If it is a blank square (meaning no mines around), all the other 8 squares around it is also uncovered. If it has mine(s) in the neighbouring 8 squares a number appears. This represents the number of neighbouring mines. You continue to uncover squares until only the squares containing mines are uncovered or flagged. When this is done, the game ends. - Once you have pinpointed a covered mine, you can flag it by clicking on the square with the Right Mouse button. (NOTE : The pointer has to be in the mine field for this to work. Otherwise the menu bar will be shown at the top of the screen). A Flagged square cannot be cleared by clicking on it with the Left button. You can clear the flag by clicking the Right button twice when pointing to it. If you click on a Flagged square once with the Right button it is marked with a '?'. - If you are not sure about a square, you can mark it with a '?' by pointing to it and clicking on the Right Button twice. You can clear a marked square by clicking on it with the Left button. You can flag a marked square by clicking on it twice with the Right Button. - Understand this, as this will speed up your clearing of mines. You can also clear around an uncovered numbered square whose mines have all been flagged. To do this, you point to the numbered square and click and release both mouse buttons at the same time. If there are covered neighbours of these squares whose mines have been flagged, they will be uncovered for you. You are not allowed to clear around a square which is covered or if you have not flagged enough mines in the surrounding eight squares. You are also not allowed to clear around a numbered square if you have flagged more squares than the number shown in it. If you clear around a square and there is an unflagged neighbouring mine (meaning you have flagged a wrong square !), the mine is uncovered and the game is over. Hints : ------ - If an uncovered square is labelled 1, and there is only one covered square touching it that covered square will be a mine. - If an uncovered square already has the correct number of adjacent mines flagged, and you are sure it is correctly flagged, clear around it. - Don't guess. If you can't figure out what to do, approach it from a different direction or mark the square with question marks. About : ------ This is the first version of MineField (and also my first game on the Amiga). MineField is copyright © Arun Kumar 1993. This program is Public Domain and may be freely distributed, as long as this doc file is distributed with it, but all rights remain with the author. All use is at your own risk. No liability or responsibility is assumed. Bug Reports and feedbacks are welcome. Write to Arun Kumar 27, Durand Road, Earley, Reading RG6 2YU Berkshire, United Kingdom. (Until Feb 1994) My permanent address is Arun Kumar 174/5C, 10th Cross, Third Block, T.R. Nagar, Bangalore 560028 INDIA (But I am not sure whether I will be here after Feb 94, but any correspondence will reach me after some time) Hardware and Software Used : Amiga 1200HD and an old T.V. DiceC C Compiler (PD Version !) VI editor (Yes! on the Amiga, I can't do without it) DPAINT III The C Encyclopedia on Disk (for Reference) Compatibility : This program will run on all models of the Amiga (PAL) and all versions of the Kickstart i.e Amiga 500, Amiga 500+, Amiga 600 and Amiga 1200. It has not been tested on the Amiga 1000 (who owns one ?), Amiga 4000 (Big bucks!) but I am sure there won't be any problems. ****IMPORTANT**** : There is no inbuilt stack checking and if you have started the program from CLI, and if you are going to play with Big! minefields, a stack of 15K or above is required. Otherwise the program may/will crash !!. Acknowledgements : ---------------- Thanks to - Kevin Bryan of Amigaholics (for Beta Testing this) If you want to be a member of this group, write to : Kevin Bryan Amigaholics Club 49, Coutts House, Charlton Church Lane, Charlton, LONDON SE7 7AS Tel: 071-580 2000 Ext 240 - Mathew Dillon (for his great Compiler) - Nico Francais (for his Powerpacker group of utilities) - Anders Bjerin (for the C Encyclopedia) - Bram Moolenaar (for the VI editor) - and to the Amiga, the best Computer I have ever worked on. - All other Copyrights acknowledged. - Spread by ESI of WECC (dd338@cleveland.freenet.edu) Also by the same Author : ----------------------- 1. FileLogger V1.0 - This is a sort of a database into which you can log selected/all files of disks in your collection into a Log and later search, sort and print logged details. A few features : - A filetype and remarks can be given to each logged file. - Optionally can guess the types (For example an Executable, Text, PowerPacked Data, IFF Picture, IFF Sample or IFF Anim) of the files. - A particular disk/file in the Log can be searched using wild cards - Can be sorted on disk name, filename, filetype and remarks. - The full log or the Selected/sorted part can be printed. - The number of files in the log is only limited by the memory. You can try the Demo version which is Public Domain and if you like it send 5UK Pounds to the address above to register yourself and get the full working version.