PROGRAM: MINEFIELD AUTHOR: Adisak Pochanayon SilverFox Software 2525 University Avenue Suite J Madison, WI 53705 LANGUAGE: AMOS (COMPILED Stand-Alone) Special Requirements: None. MineField : the game by Adisak Pochanayon History: MineField was inspired by an addicting PD game for IBM PC's that I ran across at work. Rather than waste my time at work playing, I made an Amiga version with better graphics and sound so I could waste my time when I wasn't at work as well. It's a very fun game to play when your brain requires a little challenge. The Rules to MineField: The rules to MineField are very simple -- just walk through the entire MineField without stepping (clicking) on a mine!!! Here is everything else you need to know: The MineField A collection of tiles in a rectangular area which has a Width of 2-30 and a Height of 2-16. Each tile represents one square in the MineField which may or may not have a mine underneath it. There are two types of tiles: covered and uncovered. Covered Tiles Covered tiles have a "raised" 3-d look. They are tiles that you haven't stepped on. There are three flavors of covered tiles: plain, flagged, and questioned. Plain tiles can be uncovered by clicking on them with the left mouse button. Clicking on a plain tile with the right mouse button flags the tile. Flagged tiles are tiles that you think have a bomb underneath them. You can not uncover a flagged tile by clicking on it with the left mouse button. If you click on a flagged tile with the right mouse button, it will turn into a questioned tile. ( NOTE: you are only allowed as many flagged tiles as there are mines. The number of flagged tiles you have remaining is in the upper left corner of the screen. When this number reaches zero, flagged tiles will begin to be replaced by questioned tiles. ) Questioned tiles are for squares that may or may not cover a mine. You can not uncover a questioned tile by clicking on it with the left mouse button. Clicking on a questioned tile with the right mouse button returns it to a plain tile which can be uncovered. (See Mines for more on flags). Uncovered Tiles Uncovered tiles have a "depressed" 3-d look. Like covered tiles, they come in three flavors: plain, numbered, and explosive. Plain: If you uncover a plain tile, MineField will "automagically" uncover all the tiles next to that plain tile (since a plain tile is next to zero bombs and that's the first thing you would do anyway). Numbered: Tiles that are numbered lie next to explosive tiles. The number on the tile tells you how many mines are adjacent to the numbered tile (including diagonals). Explosive: The explosive tiles contain little bombs and blow you up -- which unfortunately ends your game quite abruptly. Mines These little tiles have a picture of a bomb on them and are hidden beneath plain tiles. They are the explosive tiles that you really want to avoid. The number of mines on each MineField is selectable by you (but must be in the range of One -to- (Width * Height)/2 ). You have as many flags to mark tiles as there are mines and the counter in the upper left corner of the screen reflects how many mines you haven't flagged. CountDown It seems that all the Mines in the MineField have been set to go off at a specific time. The CountDown tells you exactly how many seconds you have to discover the remaining mines until the entire MineField blows up -- taking you with it. The countdown clicks away in the upper right corner until it reaches 0 and then BOOM!!! You can set the countdown anywhere from 1 second to 9999 seconds (over 2.5 hours which should be enough for any game). The CountDown can be stopped by clicking on the Pause button. Pause This handy dandy feature lets you stop the countdown. It's the button at the top of the screen with the "Paws" on it (I got that idea from Lemmings). Every game begins with Pause on. You can turn Pause off by clicking on Pause again or by clicking on any tile in the MineField. This will allow you to continue an intense game after a phone call or sudden bathroom break. "?" (Control) Clicking on the "?" button at the top of the screen brings up the control screen. At the control screen, you can change parameters, begin a new game, continue the game you just left, or EXIT MineField. While you are in the control screen, the current game is automatically paused. Parameters The following parameters can be changed on the control screen: Width (the width of the MineField = 2-16) Height (the height of the MineField = 2-30) Maximum Time (the number of seconds in the countdown = 1-9999) Number of Mines (the number of mines that are hidden in the MineField. Allowable range is one through ((Width * Height) / 2). To change a parameter, point at the digit you wish to change and click the left mouse button to raise the value and the right mouse button to lower the value. Example, to change the Maximum Time from 100 to 200 seconds, click on the 1 in 100 with the left mouse button. To change the 100 to 99 you would click on the right zero with the right mouse button. This may take a little while to get used to at first but after a little practice, it is a very fast way to change values. MineField will automatically scale all parameters to within acceptable values. Depending on the parameters, you choose, a game of MineField can be easy or next to impossible and last for seconds or hours!!! Experimenting with different values will allow you to adjust the depth and difficulty of the game to your levels. Control Options There are three buttons on the control screen labelled "NEW", "CONTINUE", and "EXIT". Clicking on "NEW" will begin a new game with the parameters you have entered. Clicking on "CONTINUE" will return you to the game in progress -- if no game is in progress then clicking on "CONTINUE" will have the exact same effect as "NEW". Clicking on "EXIT" will quit MineField (but we don't really want to do that do we?). If you run out of time or you step on a mine you blow up and your ends. When your game ends, all the hidden mines are revealed so you can see where you were right and where you where wrong. If you put a flag on a tile that didn't have a mine, then a crossed out mine will appear to tell you that you guessed incorrectly. If you put a flag on a tile that did have a mine then the flag will remain. If you put a question on a tile and there was a mine under the questioned tile, then a mine will appear, otherwise the questioned tile will remain. This will allow you to see where you went wrong and improve your strategy for the next game. In order to win a game, you must uncover all the tiles without mines beneath them. You can not win by merely flagging all the mines. (Flagging the mines is mostly used to make sure you don't accidentally click on that tile). That's about all there is to this game. If you don't understand completely how to play, then just play a few games and learn as you go. HINTS: Although each game begins as a game of pure chance, after a few moves, it becomes a game of intense strategy and careful thinking! In order to improve your speed (for quickly timed levels), learn to recognize patterns. If there are no obvious safe tiles to uncover, carefully check all the tiles next to uncovered tiles to put together clues towards which tiles are safe or deadly. You'd be surprised how many tiles can be deduced from even a very difficult situation. Also, don't try to set the parameters at a level much too difficult for you to handle. It's fun to win a game every once in a while! This Version of MineField: This version of MineField was written in AMOS on an Amiga 500. It will run on any machine with at least 512K (which should be just about every Amiga owner). After you have run the program, if you wish to multitask with other programs, pause the game. Then press Left-Amiga-A, to return to the workbench screen. Press Left-Amiga-A again to return to MineField.