HEXMINES
ST/STE version 1.2
by Jean-Etienne DOUCET
January 6, 1993
About the game
--------------
Hexmines is a game where you have to locate mines (or bombs) in a field:
pretty original, isn't it ? What is new is that the tiles forming the mine
field are hexagons instead of squares: this little detail changes the
game greatly.
(By the way, there are two very good mines games (with square tiles):
- Demolition Man, by Clayton Walnum, color;
- MineSweep, by Uwe Poliak, monochrome;
you should look at these too...)
Hexmines *must* be played in low resolution...
How does it work ?
------------------
Right after starting the program HEXMINES.PRG, a dialog box allows you
to set the game parameters:
- Field Size: S(mall), M(edium) or L(arge); there's no XS or XL !
- Density (of mines): L(ow), M(edium), H(igh);
- Empty zones (when starting the game): 0, 1, 2;
- Lives: 1, 2 or 3.
This should enable you to adjust the difficulty level from very simple
(S,L,2,3) to very hard (L,H,0,1).
Once this has been done, the game starts and the field is drawn. Only mouse
buttons are used (except in one case -- see below):
- left: to see what's in a hex; if it's a bomb, you're dead unless you
have some lives left; anyway you lose one life: the game is
over when you lose your last life; otherwise, the number of bombs
in the adjacent hexes is shown; BTW, there's at most one bomb per
hex. Be this number zero, all adjacent hexes are explored
(recursively) until finding non zero hexes.
- right: to mark an hex as containing a bomb, or to unmark it; it's not an
error to flag an empty hex; however, you only have as much flags as
there are bombs: their number is indicated in the upper right
corner of the screen, along with the number of remaining lives.
When used on a *white* hex, a right click gives the current score.
Unless you're dead before, the game ends when all hexes are shown (i.e. no
more dark hexes).
The one case where one doesn't use mouse buttons is to quit the current
game by pressing the ESC key.
Informations you have during a game are:
- upper right of screen: number of remaining flags (NOT bombs!) and lives;
- lower right: percentages of explored hexes(T), of set flags (B) and of
remaining hexes containing bombs (F); I'm not quite sure this is a vital
info but here it is...
At the game's end, you get either the Boom or the Yeah panel; use either
mouse button to dismiss it, but they're not equivalent: see "Scores" below.
You have then the whole field: here you can start a new game (with the same
settings) by clicking the left mouse button; if you click the right button,
you get a dialog box asking what to do now:
- Save your score: see next paragraph about Scores;
- Modify the settings: change the parameters, then start a new game;
- Quit the game: guess what ?
Put in another way, at the end of a game: use the left button for quick
(default) operation, and right button for detailed operation.
One gets used quickly to this weird way to do.
It's not that hard, is it ?
Scores
------
During a game, you can gain points depending upon the hexes you open:
a blank hex gains nothing, a 1 hex gains 1 pt, a 2 hex 6 pts,...
In short, a N hex brings you 6**(N-1) points.
Warning: open hexes due to the initial clear areas do not score any point.
You can also lose points: each consumed life divides your current score
by 6: it's a way to downgrade opened hexes by 1, i.e. it's like an N hex
was accounted for as a N-1 hex. The hexes you will open after this will
however keep their normal value.
This way of scoring permits to access to a high score even when playing
so-called "weak" games (small field/low density) but chances are low...
Escaping a game sets your score to 0.
Scoring system is slightly unusual: as you play, Hexmines will keep your
best score from all the games you've played so far. This score will be
displayed if it beats the current best score, or you've cleared up the
end game panel with the right button.
At the end of a game, you're given the ability to "Save this (best) score"
into a table containing the "Best 10 Players & Scores since the Universe's
Birth".(Or, at least since the last deletion of the scores file...)
Saving score resets the best score to 0, but this can only be done if your
(best) score is better than the 10th from the list...
BTW, the best best score to date is 20044 pts: tell me if you get better ?
Resetting the Best 10 scores is done by deleting the HEXMINES.SCR file.
During a game, you can see your current score and the current best one by
clicking the right button on a white (or zero) hex. You can dismiss the
panel with a left click.
Technical details
-----------------
HEXMINES is written in GFA Basic 3.07F and is 1000 lines long.
Graphics are made with CrackArt v1.20 (still waiting for v1.40...).
I'd like to address thanks to:
- Steven Ourada for his quite neat (and quick) method to find a selected
hex: this gives a more comfortable touch to the game;
- Thierry Grellier for suggesting the use of the ESC key: more ease of
use here also.
- all people who sent postcards, letters, e-mail, checks (err, noone at
this time...): they all have been truly appreciated !
Improvements I'm currently working on:
- music !
- sounds !!!
If you have suggestions, you can send them to me via e-mail or snail mail:
I'll try to take them into account if they're not unfeaseable.
Commercial things
-----------------
HEXMINES is totally FREE! You can distribute it as you like, but please keep
the PRG and the DOC files together.
However, to send a postcard would be fair: it's a great pleasure to receive
some, showing that people elsewhere appreciate your game enough to take
10 minutes from their time to send a card.
For suggestions/remarks/bugs reports/etc..., e-mail is prefered: send posts to
doucet@laas.laas.fr
Postcards (whatever is written down on them) should be sent to:
Jean-Etienne Doucet
38 chemin Malclabel
31500 Toulouse
France
Uploading of next version(s) on a.a.u.e. will be announced on
comp.sys.atari.st (which I daily read when our news server is not down...)
Have fun...
JED.
PS: have you tried SPIDER (a cards solitaire), another game of mine ?
If not, you can find it on atari.archive.umich.edu, cs.ruu.nl and very soon
on sun.rz.tu-clausthal.de; other sites may have it too.
2ndPS (Jan'93): a new game is under work: it's called MOLECULE and is
widely inspired by an old board game named Black Box. More on it in the docs
of the version 2.0 of Hexmines, real soon now :-)