MacGrid is an addictive program based on simple logic. Your objective is to determine which squares on a grid contain mines and which do not.
To do this, begin by clicking on any square in the grid. If you are lucky, it will not contain a mine, but will instead change to either a number or a blank square. This number or empty square tells you how many mines are in the immediately surrounding eight squares (five if you clicked on a side square, or three if you clicked on a corner square). If the square is empty, it means that there are NO mines in the surrounding squares. You then continue clicking on squares using the numbers they provide, trying to click on all safe squares and avoiding all squares with mines.
To aid you in remembering which squares have mines, you can hold down the Command key and click on a square that you think contains a mine. This will put a "flag" on that square, and from then on you cannot click on the square accidentally (the game just won't let you!) If you think you "flagged" a square incorrectly, simply Command-Click it again, and the flag will disappear.
At the bottom of the game board, you will see an icon for a watch, a mine, and a <R>estart button. The timer on the left starts when you click on the first square. You can 'pause' the game if necessary, either by selecting 'Pause' in the Game menu or by clicking outside MacGrid's game window. The board will be hidden until you 'unpause', either by clicking back in the MacGrid window or by selecting "pause" from the menubar again. The Restart button lets you abort and restart the same level. The mine icon and associated number indicate how many mines you have left to flag. Note: the number is based on the number of FLAGS you have set -- this counter doesn't care if the flags are right or not!
The game ends when either you reveal a mine, or you have found ALL the safe squares AND have flagged ALL the mine squares. If you reveal a mine, the program will "explode," and then show you where all the mines are. Any squares that you marked as mines that are not really mines will have a yellow X on them. If you want to continue playing MacGrid, you have to start a new game. If you win, and your score is fast enough, you will be asked for your name. (If you want to clear the high scores, simply drag the 'MacGrid Prefs/Highs' file that is in "System Folder:Preferences" folder to the Trash. The game will automatically create a new, empty file.) Your name and time will be placed in the appropriate Roster for the level you completed. You can then start a new game, or quit.
In the Preferences dialog, you can set the level that MacGrid starts at when it is first launched. You can also set a default on/off setting for the audio effects, and can tell MacGrid whether or not to use the "hand" cursor (for those of you who like the boring old arrow!) The final setting, "Use Speedy Clicks" sets a flag that allows you to click in the game window before it is fully drawn. This is for those of you who want really fast times, as you can clear a few squares before the board is really ready. However, you run the risk of hitting a good run AND hitting a mine before you can see what you did, and if you do hit a mine, the game ends like it is supposed to do!
1) Sometimes the Preferences dialog is shown off-center. I have no idea why, nor do I know why it is sometimes aligned with the left edge of whatever game board is behind it. I'm working on a fix, but for now you will have to live with it. (The dialog WORKS fine, it just shows up in an odd location!)
*** In MacGrid v1.2, you won't even see this bug, as I have put in a small routine that hides the game window while the Preferences dialog is onscreen. I did this because I wanted to make sure that the dialog didn't end up offscreen on the Classics and Powerbook Macs. ***
Requirements:
1) MacGrid requires System 7.0 or later.
2) MacGrid works only on machines with Color Quickdraw. Note: It will still run in black and white, and will work on the Mac Classic II and newer Powerbooks that have CQD in ROM, even though thay come with B&W displays only.
This game was written in THINK Pascal 4.0 during early 1993. I missed playing "Minesweeper™" for Windows™ in the PC world, and so decided to implement my own version for the Macintosh.
Many thanx go to the readers of 'comp.sys.mac.programmer' for their answers to my late-night questions on random number generators, memory allocation, traps, and dialog boxes! Additional thanx go to my roommate, Dan Hatola, for putting up with late night typing and occasional swearing at the interpreter, to Tyler Langlois and Sven Gukes for beta testing and their numerous ideas, and to Ken Chen for forcing me to play my own game (not to mention catching several bugs). SarahT (a fellow Cornellian -- YAY!) suggested the close box on the game window, which led to a variety of other additons and cosmetic changes that really had to be done. A round of applause goes to Lim Unlimited for Lloyd Lim's "Default CDEF," a very handy routine for putting outlines around the default button in a dialog box. (The "Default CDEF" docs are included in the official release of this package, and you can extract the CDEF using ResEdit -- its the only CDEF in MacGrid.)
MacGrid has been written and tested on a Mac IIsi under System 7.1, and tested on Mac LC II's, Classic II's, IIvx's, IIci's, and SE/30's. I have run it under B&W, 4, 16, and 256 colors with no problems (it looks MUCH better in 256) and it seems to background with no problems. However, I take NO RESPONSIBILITY for any problems occurring due to the use of MacGrid.
You can use MacGrid for as long as you like, but if you find yourself playing extensively (read "Are you addicted yet?"), please send me a postcard or even just e-mail! I'd like to see how far this thing gets, not to mention bug notifications and those really cool ideas you come up with while playing at 2:00 am!
I'm a 19-yr-old freshman at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY, and probably will be majoring in Computer Science. I program mostly in Pascal, and occasionally fiddle with C and Unix.
-- Erik --
p.s. "Friends don't let friends run Windows™!" -- Anonymous
College address (until May 21,1993): College Address (August 1993 - May 1994)
Erik Schwiebert Erik Schwiebert
Room 4, Founders Hall Room 6154, North Campus #6
Cornell University Cornell University
Ithaca, NY 14853-5106 Ithaca, NY 14853-6004
Home address (mail will be forwarded to me at college):
Erik Schwiebert
R.D. #1 Box 1326
Brandon, VT 05733
E-mail:
Internet: evs1@cornell.edu
Fidonet: Erik Schwiebert @ 1:325/111 or 1:325/202
(I don't read my Fidonet mail much anymore, but I do check into the above places about once a month. I read my internet mail about 3x a day usually, so that's the fastest way to reach me! Also, if you do write to me at my home address, please indicate on the outside of the envelope that my parents are to forward it to me at college (note: my parents, not the Post Office!) Again, the internet is probably the fastest, and I can ALMOST guarantee a response!)
