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— 1993-06-03
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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.