Contents

1. For Absolute Beginners
2. Opening And Flagging
3. The Three Stages
4. The Different Modes Of The Game
5. Menu
   • File-Menu
   • Board-Menu
   • Help-Menu
6. Sound
7. Contact

For Absolute Beginners

There are a number of mines which are hidden on the board. If you are open a cell with a mine the game is over. The goal of the game is to uncover all fields without a mine as fast as possible. Open cells give you a hint, how many neighbour-cells contain a mine. With analysing the open cells, you can draw conclusions about some uncovered cells.

Opening And Flagging

The left mousebutton is for opening the right for flagging cells. A click on a covered cell has a reaction on this cell, a click on an uncovered one has a reaction on all covered neighbours. I will call the second method quick opening respectively quick flagging. The condition for quick opening is, that all mines must be found, e.g. that the number in the cell are the same as the number of flagged neighbours. The condition for quick flagging is, that all possible cells are open, e.g. that the number in the cell are the number of covered neighbours. If the conditions aren't fulfil, nothing will happens.

Before	Action	After	Comment
			Opening one cell
			Flagging one cell
			The one mine is found -> all covered neighbours will open
			All unmined cells are open -> all covered neighbours will flagged

The Three Stages

The difficulty to find a new cell, which can be open or flagged, can differ a lot. Mines-Perfect has a classifying with three stages. In the first stage, it is possible to find a new cell with analysing only one uncovered cell. If such a cell exists, then you can use the quick open or flag method for the neighbours. In the second stage you must two, in the third stage you must three or more open cells combine. Mostly a board contains more than one group with different stages. In that case the simplest one determine the stage of the board and will be shown by the smiley:

Stage	Smiley	Example	Description
1			The covered mine must contain a mine. This will be determined by only one open cell.
2			The two left covered cells contain one, the three left two mines. Therefore the third cell must contain a cell. This was determined with the analyse of two open cells.
3			There are one mine in the two covered cells below just as in the right two cells. All five contains two cells. Consequently there can't be a mine, in the cell right below. For that conclusion we are needed three open cells.
-		-	It isn't possible to determine the state of one or more cells. The further behaviour depends on the Mode. The left smiley will appear in the Immune- or Lucky-, the right in the Original-Mode. There are no such situation in the Hint- or Start-up-Mode.

The Different Modes Of The Game

The core of the program consist of a high-optimised solving-algorithm, which can solve every game, that is solve-able. This algorithm is be used to recognise dead-end situations and help the user. The exact way of the help depends on the mode:

1. Original-Mode: As the original game, nothing will happen in such a situation and there is no protection against the mines.

2. Hint-Mode: The program will open or flag a cell automatic.

3. Immune-Mode: The next step of the user is protected. That means, if he opens a mine-cell, then the game will go on.

4. Lucky-Mode: The user will have 'luck' at his next step. That means he cannot open a cell with a mine (try it with the undo-function). If need be the solve-algorithm will reorganise the mines (the numbers of the open cells will keep valid!!). That is only possible in a dead-end-situation. Therefore this mode and the reduction of the max. stage couldn't be turn on together.

5. Start-up-Mode: Before the game it will open and flag enough cells, so that such a situation cannot appear.

Which mode the user choose, depends only on his personal taste. It is even possible to change the mode in a running game. But that's not always convenient. For example, if you change from the start-up- to the hint-mode then there will never be a hint.

Besides it exist an option called Murphy's Law. It is the counterpart of the lucky-mode: Open the user a cell which can theoretical contains a mine, then there will be a mine.

Menu

File-Menu

Board-Menu

Help-Menu

Sound

If you want sound on special events, then you can copy a *.wav-file with the name of the event in the Mines-Perfect-directory:

Contact

email: mail@czeppi.de

homepage: www.czeppi.de