Mine Hunter
 
Programmed By
Michael M. Mayer
New Century Software, Inc.

The idea for Mine Hunter was adapted from the MS-DOS Windowsä Entertainment Packageâ game "Mine Sweeper".

Purpose
The purpose behind Mine Hunter is to uncover all the open squares without setting off any of the mines in the shortest period of time.  The game is over when either all the unmined squares have been exposed (win) or a mine is exposed, detonating it (lose).

Play
[The following instructions are for right handed users.  If the mouse is set up for left handed use, reverse references to the right and left mouse buttons.]

A new game is started by selecting New from the Play menu or by clicking the New button in the game window.  Time starts running when the first square is clicked on.

Expose:
Clicking on a covered square using the left mouse button, uncovers it.  If the square holds a mine, you lose and the game is over.  If the square does not contain a mine then a digit from 1 to 8 is revealed.  This digit is the number of mines immediately adjacent to the square.  If no mines are adjacent then the square is blank.  If a blank square is revealed then all squares surrounding that square are exposed as well.  Should one of these squares be blank, then its neighbors are likewise revealed.  This continues until all blanks contiguous to the first blank revealed have been uncovered.

Flag:
Clicking on a square using the right mouse button (or by holding down the alternate key while clicking with the right mouse button) will flag a square.  Flagging a square indicates the belief that there is a mine beneath it.  Clicking a flagged square again (with the right mouse button) will unflag it.

Examine:
Clicking on a square while holding down both the right and left mouse buttons (or by holding down the command key while clicking with the right mouse button) will highlight the surrounding covered squares.  If a numbered square is clicked on and the number of surrounding flagged squares equals the square's number then all the covered surrounding squares will be exposed rather than highlighted.  If an error was made when flagging a surrounding square, the actual mine will be revealed (detonating it), ending the game.

Interrupting Play
A new game may be started at any time by selecting New from the Play menu or by clicking the New button.  A game may be paused by selecting Pause from the Play menu or by clicking the Pause button.  When the game is paused both the Pause menu item and the Pause button change to Continue.  The game is also paused whenever the game window is not the main window (indicated by an other than black title bar).  This happens whenever you select another window, hide the application or miniaturize the game window.

Levels
There are three levels of play available: Beginner, Intermediate and Expert.
	Beginner:  10 ´ 10 mine field, 10 mines
	Intermediate:  16 ´ 16 mine field, 40 mines
	Expert:  16 ´ 30 mine field, 99 mines
	Custom:
A playing field from 2 - 36 squares high and from 10 - 54 squares wide may be created at the custom level.  The number of mines may vary from 1 mine - 75% of the total number of squares.  So a 10 ´ 10 playing field (100 total squares) could have up to 75 mines.  The number of mines will be automatically adjusted if it exceeds the maximum allowable limit as the height and width are adjusted.

Levels may be changed by selecting the appropriate menu item from the Play menu.  When starting up Mine Hunter, the level will be whatever level was set when the player last quit.  This information is saved in the user's defaults database.

Scoring
If the time you took in winning a game was one of the ten fastest at that level, it will be recorded along with your name.  To look at the best times for other levels, use the pull down menu in the Best Times window to select another level.

Score File:
The location and name of the score file may be altered by selecting Preferences¼ from the Info menu and editing the name of the file displayed in the Preferences panel.  A complete pathname from the root directory (starting with '/') or a path relative from the user's home directory must be specified.  This file name is stored in the user's defaults database.

When running Mine Hunter for the first time, the program assumes the score file to be named ".HunterScores" and located in the user's home directory.  If a score file is not present at the specified location, one will be created when the user quits.

New Century Software, Inc.
P.O. Box 222536
Carmel, CA  93922-2536
408-624-5394

Copyright 1991, New Century Software, Inc.  All Rights Reserved.