MineSweeper For the Atari ST/TT Computers A Vulgar Power Production By Stig Petter Olsr³d Copyright 1993 Shareware This program is shareware, that means that you can copy it and test it. But if you decide that you enjoy using it I would really appreciate if you sent me some money. I have decided to charge 50 NOK for this program. This is at the time of writing (17.06.93) about 5 GBP, 7 USD, 12 DM. Those of you who decided not to pay the shareware fee are more than welcome to send me a letter, postcard or E-mail. I want to hear what made you decide not to pay, especially if it was something you did not like about the program. I would of course also like to hear from people who enjoy my little game. I can be reached at the following places: Snail-Mail: Stig Petter Olsr³d Romolslia 35B N-7029 TRONDHEIM NORWAY E-Mail: stigpo@lise.unit.no You can pay the shareware fee to me by mail, use the "Service des cheques postaux, Avis de versement VP1", transfer card. How to Install the program MineSweeper can be used both as a Desk Accessory or as an Application. All you have to do to make it a desk accessory is to rename the file to mineswep.acc, then copy minswep.acc AND mineswep.rsc to your boot disk. This is the most likely way to run MineSweeper on a machine not running MTOS, although you can use it as an application. If you are using MTOS you may want to use it as an application, to prevent it from using memory when it is not needed. All you have to do to use MineSweeper as an application is to ensure that mineswep.app (or minesweep.prg) is in the same folder as mineswep.rsc. MTOS note: This program needs to be set to Super protection mode!!!!! If you fail to do so, the system may hang!! How to Use Minesweeper MineSweeper uses GEM and you should confront you GEM manual if there are anything you don't understand in this document. If this does not help, feel free to send me a letter or email, and I will try to help you as best I can. MineSweeper is invoked in two ways depending on the form you chose in the installing. If you installed it as a application you should double click on the mineswep icon. If you installed it as a desk accessory you should find the entry MineSweeper in the Desk menu. Choose it and a window will pop up. The window consists of three parts. The menu, the display and the mine field. The Menu: The menubar have one entry, Game, you can invoke the menu by moving the mouse pointer over the it and clicking the left mouse button. (you could also press the right, but this is not standard GEM so use the left!! :-) The menu have several entries: About MineSweeper gives you information about the program. Beginner chooses the easiest level with a mine field of 8*8 squares covering 10 mines. Intermediate chooses the second level with a mine field of 16*16 squares covering 40 mines. Expert chooses the hardest level with a mine filed of 30*16 squares covering 99 mines. User Define gives you the opportunity to make your own field. The field maximum size is 30 by 32 squares and minimum 8 by 8 squares. You will not make your way onto the best times list this way. Reset Times resets the best times list. Easy way to get on that list if you can't manage to beat the best time:) Show Best Times displays the best Minesweeper on the diffrent levels. New Game restarts the game. Covers up the mines and gives you a second chance to beat the best time. (there is a better way to do this!) Quit closes the MineSweeper window (you could also press the closer in the left corner of the window border). The Display The display have a clock which displays the time you have used so far on this mine field. And a counter which keeps track of how many mines there are left on the mine field (if you have marked more mines than there should be the display shows ---) And the last little thing in the display area is the smiling face. It have four states: A smile while your playing, a hold my breath while you open a square, a smile with sunglasses if you made it and sad face if you uncovered a mine. This face can also be used as a New Game button. So just click the mouse button while the pointer is over the face and you will get a new game. The Mine Field This is the area in which the game itself takes place. You can do three things in this area: Pressing the left mouse button over a covered square uncovers that square. Pressing the right mouse button over a covered square marks or unmarks that square as a mine. Pressing both buttons simultaneously in a square with a number, will uncover all the squares around it if you have marked the number of mines displayed in the square. Rules of the Game You goal is to seek out and mark all the mines and to uncover all the other squares. This is done by opening squares and marking squares you know are mines. When you open a square (using the left mouse button) you either find a mine and the game is over, or you uncover a number. This number shows the number of mines surrounding the uncovered square. This number can be a maximum of 8, see the figure below. In this example one mine is hidden among the 8 squares surrounding the square which displays 1. _____________ | | | | ------------- | | 1 | | ------------- | | | | ------------- If there are no mines surrounding a square all the surrounding squares will be opened, because there can not be any mines under them. When you think you have found a mine you should mark it using the right mouse button. This will display a flag. When you have marked the number of mines that a square shows, eg. a square shows 2 and you have marked two mines among the surrounding 8, you can move the mouse pointer over the square with the 2 and press both buttons, this will uncover all the squares that are not marked. NOTE: You may have to hold down both buttons for a longer period than you normally would for a single button click! When you have marked all mines and uncovered the rest of the squares the game is over, and you have succeeded. If you were faster than the best person so far, you will be prompted to enter you name, and you will get on the Best times list!!!! Final Note I hope you will enjoy this game and have many hours of fun with it. But if there are something you don't like or if you have found bugs or typos in this text, please send me mail and tell me what you have found. That is the only way for me to make this a better product. Thanks to my brother for betatesting, J³rn Moe and Erling Henanger for hints during the development of this program. Yours sincerely, Stig Petter Olsr³d