PDA Software Library/pdasoftwarelib.iso/PSION/GAMES/MINES/MINES.TXT

Text File | 1992-07-07 | 16.7 KB | 334 lines

                   MINESWEEPER for the Psion Series 3
                   ==================================

                              VERSION 1.2
                              ===========

                  Copyright Chris Hennings - July 1992

                  Email: [e-mail]
                         [e-mail]

                  Voice: UK 01-856-8643 (Home)
                         UK 0322-23488 x2440 (Work)

                  Home : 45, Kenilworth Gardens,
                         Shooters Hill,
                         London, SE18 3JB
                         United Kingdom

===========================================================================

Changes in Minesweeper Version 1.2 (Notes for Upgraders)

     Minesweeper v1.2 provides improvements to playability especially
     for scrolling window games and is substantially more battery
     friendly, there's also a minor bug fix.  In detail ...

     * Support files & Installation - If you are upgrading from v1.1 you
       need only download and replace Mines.opo in the \OPO directory or
       where ever.  New users or upgraders from v1.0 should place
       Mines.opo in the \OPO directory and the 2 support files Mines.pic
       and Mines.fon in the \OPD directory ON THE SAME DRIVE as
       Mines.opo.

     * Navigation - holding down the PSION key in conjunction with the
       cursor keys now enables you to move directly to the first/last
       row/column of the grid.

     * Scrolling Windows - The Smiley icon now displays pointers
       indicating in which direction the window can scroll over the grid
       - should help to avoid false tests/marks due to forgetting about
       cells offscreen.

     * Incorrect display of X (showing wrongly placed flags in endgame)
       when using the small font is now fixed.

     * Gametime display and keyboard actions are now handled by
       asynchronous form of GETEVENT and TIMERS.  This means that the
       prog no longer burns round a TESTEVENT loop which used to waste
       cycles and your battery.

     * Manual Poweroff & Gametime - The Setup dialog now allows the
       purists among you to capture the manual poweroff key PSION-1 to
       ensure that the gametime is always corrctly handled if you switch
       off with Minesweeper in the foreground.

     With respect to the last 2 items, see also item (b) in the section
     titled PSION Series3 Specific Features / Design Issues in the main
     documentation below.  In particular credit here is due to David
     Wood of PSION UK.

     Thanks again to everyone on CIX and CIS for their comments.  As
     always keep them coming and have fun.  Unless I get reports of bugs
     to fix, I feel Minesweeper now does about everything it can.  So
     what else would you like to see?  Card games? -  I guess a .FON
     file of a 52 card pack would be useful for anyone attempting to do
     this.  Is anyone going to do an agenda to/from delimitted text
     converter?  A time recording/billing app might be interesting for
     S3 users who like me do a lot of project/client oriented work - why
     not let me know what you think (or if you're already doing it)!

     Cheers,
     Chris    7th July, 1992

===========================================================================

Changes in Minesweeper Version 1.1 (Notes for Upgraders)

     Since releasing version 1.0 of Minesweeper, I've actually had a bit
     of time to play the game, this and the feedback from CIX/CIS has
     led to version 1.1 which is actually a fairly major upgrade.  Junk
     version 1 and use version 1.1, you won't regret it.  Heres why ...

     *  Support files & Installation - The big and small fonts
        previously contained in .PIC files are now contained in
        MINES.FON (Thanks to DavidW of PSION on CIX for posting the font
        compiler) this seems to give a speed improvement and reduces
        code size.  The icons are contained in MINES.PIC and these 2
        support files should be installed in the \OPD\ directory on the
        same drive as MINES.OPO.

     *  Game Setup - The mine field can be any size up to 32x32 in either
        font.  If the field is > 20x7 (Big font) or 25x9 (Small font)
        the window will scroll over the larger field.  Note that for a
        given size of field, the small font require less memory.  Note
        also that for games involving scrolling, the SETUP dialog allows
        you to choose whether just the window or the whole field is to
        be scanned during autoclear (ie when a cell is found with 0
        neighbouring mines).  I leave this set to window only as it can
        take some time to clear a big grid and nothing seems to happen
        while cells are being cleared outside the window.  Note that if
        you play with a scrolling game ... remember to scroll to make
        sure all the relevant area is shown before testing/marking a
        cell (obvious I know but I caught myself out a couple of times).

     *  Game startup has been improved by (a) a massive increase in the
        speed with which the field is drawn and (b) the mines are
        scattered only after a cell has been tested/marked.  This means
        you don't die on your first test.  I've also fixed a bug which
        meant the initial number of mines was not shown for new games
        involving a change of font.

     *  The mine field now has gridlines making it much easier to see
        neighbours and increases playability.

     *  Cells marked with a ? can now be tested and are properly handled
        by the autoclear routine.

     *  The game time is now shown in seconds (a la MS-Windows) which
        reduces code and improves responsiveness.  I've also fixed a bug
        which meant that game time did not handle the event of a manual
        (PSION-1) poweroff.  Game time is frozen immediately if the game
        moves to the background (you can trap this event with GETEVENT)
        but if you do a manual poweroff, game time at the next poweron
        will be increased by up the game timeout period.

     *  The End Game - I've fixed the bug which meant that you could win
        game by simply marking every cell (ooops).  You now have to mark
        all the cells containing mines (and ONLY those cells) to win.
        Previously, when you lost, cells not containing a mine that you
        had incorrectly marked with a flag were shown as exploding mines
        along with the cell you trod on to die.  This clearly was a bit
        confusing (well wrong actually) and these cells are now shown
        with a big X to mark your error.  Wins are now signalled by 3
        rising tones and deaths by 3 falling tones.  I'd really like to
        provide cheers and explosions to be played throught the
        loudspeaker via the LDD supplied in SNDFRC.ZIP (Thanks again
        David) or even a bit of the death march / Beethovens 9th but
        I've no idea how to digitise and am totally un-musical ... Any
        offers?

     *  Lastly, I've left in a feature I used for testing - a cheat key
        which sounds a high tone if the current cell contains a mine.
        For the cryptic minded, the key sounds a bit like "a personal
        computer floating offshore".

     Thanks again to everyone on CIX and CIS for their comments.  As
     always keep them coming and have fun.

     Cheers,
     Chris    20th June, 1992

===========================================================================

                     MINESWEEPER v1.1 DOCUMENTATION
                     ==============================

Introduction & Conditions of Use

     Minesweeper is based on the game supplied with Windows v3.1.  It's
     a fairly close copy but don't expect mouse support.

     Minesweeper is my 2nd S3 app (you may have seen CHARSET.ZIP my full
     screen ascii table) and I'd like to recognise the high quality of
     the debate in the CIX Psion,Series3 conference which I've found
     very useful (see discussion of timeout/power off below).

     You may use Minesweeper completely free of charge, however, I will
     accept no liability arising from such use.

     You may distribute Minesweeper provided no charge is made other
     than for distribution and all the files included in MINES32.ZIP are
     distributed unchanged.

     If you enjoy Minesweeper and want to make a contribution ...

        a) Let me know what you think of it.
        b) Write something else for the Series3 and post to CIX/CIS.
        c) Remember to buy me a drink if we should ever meet.
        d) If you're really desperate, I won't be offended by money :-)
           5 UK pounds or more gets you a binmail of the source code.

Installation

     Simply copy the program file MINES.OPO to your \OPO directory and
     the 2 support files MINES.PIC and MINES.FON to the \OPD directory
     on the same drive.  Any drive should do.  MINES.OPO looks for its
     support files in the \OPD directory on the same drive from which it
     was executed.

Objective (For those unfamiliar with the game)

     You must try to clear mines from a minefield represented by a grid
     made up of rows and columns.  A status window shows the number of
     mines remaining, your playing time and other status information.
     You play by testing cells within the grid.  If the cell contains a
     mine - that's it your dead.  If the cell does not contain a mine,
     the cell is cleared and displays the number of mines in
     neighbouring cells which enables you to deduce their locations.
     When you think you know the location of a mine you can mark that
     cell and the number of mines remaining is reduced.

     You can customise the game in terms of grid size and number of
     mines.  Try to reduce your time to clear a given setup.  Why not
     let us know your best scores?

Keyboard & Display

     Untested cells are dark.  Tested cells with no neighbouring mines
     are shaded.  Marked cells are shown by a flag.  You can also mark a
     cell with a question mark while you're working things out.

     When you die, any undiscovered mines are shown as (surprisingly
     enough) mines.  The mine that killed you is shown as an exploding
     mine and any incorrectly marked cells are shown with a big X.

     The status window shows the number of remaining mines, your playing
     time and the icon shows other status information.

     Use the up/down/left/right keys to navigate around the grid.  If
     the grid is bigger than the window.  The grid will scroll. If you
     are at the edge of the grid, a beep will sound. Use SPACE to toggle
     marking for a cell you think contains a mine. Use ENTER to test a
     cell.

     Both the HELP and MENU keys are active. Menus give access to the
     following features which can also be called by their hotkeys.

     PSION-N  Starts a new game with the current setup
     PSION-S  Starts a new game and allows you to customise the setup
     PSION-P  Pauses the game and stops the clock.
     PSION-T  Sets the timeout in seconds before the game is
              automatically paused.
     PSION-H  Gives online help
     PSION-A  Gives program information
     PSION-X  Exits Minesweeper

PSION Series3 Specific Features / Design Issues

     a) Screen Size - We're not dealing with VGA here.  The screen will
        show up to 20 columns by 7 rows using the big font and 25x9
        using the small font.  Grids can be up to 32x32 in either font
        and larger sizes with involve the window scrolling over the
        grid.  The default game is 24 mines in a 20x7 (big) grid.  The
        characters for both fonts are contained in MINES.FON

        The Setup (PSION-S) dialog controls these setting and also
        allows you to fix whether the auto clearing of cells with 0
        neighbouring mines should apply to the whole grid or be limited
        to the area displayed in the window.

     b) Timeout/Poweroff - With version 1.2 Minesweeper uses an
        asynchronous form of GETEVENT together with a asynchronous TIMER
        to give realtime updating of the elapsed time displayed in the
        status window.  This technique is demonstrated in the file
        GETEVA.ZIP posted to the CIX Psion,series3 conference by David
        Wood of Psion UK this is much more battery friendly than the
        previous burning round a TESTEVENT loop BIG THANKS to DW.  This
        process still will not to the sysnull: process which triggers
        the S3 poweroff routine.  The timeout feature handles this by
        putting Minesweeper into pause mode which stops the clock and
        puts up a dialog box if no events have occurred within the
        timeout period.

    The default timeout period is 60 seconds which should be less
        than most peoples poweroff time (mine is 5 minutes).  If your
        poweroff time is less ... remember to do a PSION-T after
        Minesweeper loads.

        Calling menus, the help system, sending Minesweeper to the
        background or manually calling pause mode (PSION-P) all stop the
        clock and therefore will not get in the way of a auto poweroff.

        The only event which can't directly trapped by the GETEVENT
        technique is a manual poweroff (PSION-1) while Minesweeper is in
        the foreground which means that depending exactly where the prog
        is in the loop, gametime may or may not be correctly
        stopped/started.  To handle this you can optionally via the
        setup screen cause Minesweeper to capture the PSION-1 key using
        a call($c58d,$2003,0,0,0,0).  When this is in effect pressing
        the PSION-1 key will simply stop the clock, stop capturing
        PSION-1 and issue an OFF command to switch the S3 off.  The next
        time the clock is switched on by poweron, the key capturing
        begins again.  With this option in effect, PSION-1 is captured
        ONLY while the timer is on, so will not take place when menus,
        help or pause mode are in force or if Minesweeper has been moved
        to the background - so it's not too invasive.  Only one app can
        be capturing a given key at any one time so if you try to run
        Minesweeper with this option when another prog is already
        capturing PSION-1 you will get a dialog telling you that the
        option is not available.  At the end of the day I guess we don't
        have to be too worried by the accuracy of gametime but I really
        wanted to be able to crack this problem for it's own sake.  And
        you can probably guess who did it - More BIG THANKS to DW again.
        By default poweroff capturing is switched off and I guess most
        of us will leave it that way.

     c) Low Memory - If you test a cell which has 0 neighbouring mines,
        all neighbours are safe to test.  Minesweeper will do this
        automatically for you using recursive calls to the test routine.
        Recursion uses additional memory.  This should not be a problem
        in most realistically challenging combinations of rows, columns
        and mines.  However, few mines in a big grid may result in
        several levels of recursion which may become a problem if you
        have <12k free memory.  Minesweeper handles this by backing out
        of the recursion leaving some areas which are logically possible
        to clear uncleared and you have to do them yourself.  As I say,
        I don't really expect this to be a problem, for example 15 mines
        in a 30x12 grid with only 6k free memory still gives 80-90%
        clearup.  Minesweeper itself requires about 25k and I guess if
        your running with <30k free you're either about to buy more disk
        or you've got more important things to do than play Minesweeper
        :-)

     d) Support files - As noted above, the big and small character sets
        are contained in the .fon file.  The other file MINES.PIC
        contains the various icons used in the status window.  Those
        with bit editors might like to improve on my art work ... if you
        come up with a real goodie why not share it.

        I considered implementing an .ini file to save and restore your
        preferred game setup and a high score table but for now I
        decided that these wouldn't add all that much particularly given
        the need to handle elegantly / avoid problems for those such as
        myself who intend to run Minesweeper from a FLASH card.  Let me
        know if you think this is a big weakness.  Someone could always
        start a highscore thread :-)

Conclusion

     That's all folks ... Have fun!

     Chris