UG: MineHunt (Rev #2, changes)

Starting Mine Hunt

Mine Hunt is in the Diversions directory on your hard disc or network. To start the application, double-click on the !MineHunt icon.

To start the game, click on the Mine Hunt icon on the icon bar. The main window will open.

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The counter in the top left of the window shows the number of hidden mines. The counter in the top right shows your playing time. Clicking on these counters changes the colour of the text.

Playing Mine Hunt

To start a new game, select New game from the main menu, or click on the central ‘player’ icon at the top of the board.

To uncover a square, click Select over it. The timer will begin to count from your first click. If the square you have uncovered contained a mine, then the game is over, and Mine Hunt will show you the locations of all the mines. The mine with a red background is the one you just uncovered, the mines with green backgrounds are the ones you correctly marked, and all the others are ones you hadn’t found yet.

If the square you uncovered did not contain a mine, then Mine Hunt will turn it into number indicating how many of the adjacent squares contain mines. If any of these adjacent squares are blank, then Mine Hunt will uncover all of them too.

Keep going until you have uncovered all the squares and hit none of the mines. Once this happens, you have won.

High scores

If you have achieved one of the five lowest times for the level you are on, then you will be asked to enter your name for the high score table. You can look at the high score table any time by clicking High scores > Show from the main menu. You can also clear the tables by clicking Reset.

Marking squares

To mark a square that you know contains a mine, click Adjust over it. The square will then be marked with a red flag, and the mine counter in the top left of the window will reduce by one. Flagged squares cannot be uncovered by clicking Select, and so are safe.

If you click Adjust again on the same square, the flag will turn into a question mark. This can be used to indicate that a mine might be present, but that you’re not sure. These squares are not safe – clicking Select will uncover them.

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Clicking Adjust a third time will clear the question mark and return the square to normal.

Clearing squares faster

If a square has the correct number of neighbouring squares marked as mines, you can quickly clear around it by either clicking Select whilst holding down the Shift key, or clicking Adjust. This has the same effect as if you had clicked on all the other uncovered neighbours individually. If any of the neighbours are incorrectly marked, then clearing around will cause you to uncover a mine and the game will be over.

Choosing a level

There are five predefined levels:

Name Size of board Mines % mine squares
Beginner 8 by 8 10 15.6 %
Better 16 by 8 20 15.6 %
Intermediate 16 by 16 40 15.6 %
Good 24 by 16 60 15.6 %
Expert 30 by 16 99 20.6 %

In addition, you can set up a custom level by going into the Level>Custom dialogue box.

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The maximum size of the game area is 64 × 64, but Mine Hunt will not let you go any bigger than the current screen mode will allow. If you click on the ‘Auto mines’ button, Mine Hunt will choose a suitable number of mines for you.

Choices

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The main menu allows to control a number of the game features.

Question marks turns question mark availability on or off.

Safe corners ensures that when you start a new game, the corner squares are always free of mines.

Sound You can click on this to control whether sound effects are played, or use the submenu to control the volume.

You can save all game choices, including the level size and counter colours, by clicking Save choices from the icon bar menu.