Path: chuka.playstation.co.uk!scea!greg_labrec@interactive.sony.com
From: dblee <dblee@netmagic.net>
Newsgroups: scea.yaroze.freetalk,scee.yaroze.freetalk.english
Subject: Mine Field Preview available...
Date: Tue, 24 Feb 1998 03:29:57 -0800
Organization: SCEA News Server
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Hiya all,

My latest project has been a conversion of Windows Minesweeper to
the Yaroze.  Finally, in the past few days, I've gotten the core
code to run without errors and so I've assembled a playable demo
of it.  The "production" release is still at least 2 weeks away.
This post is a little long because I haven't gotten around to writing
the README file yet... :P

What the Preview has:
	- a compiled binary (minefld.psx) and its batch file
	  (auto)
	- logo, menu, death, and winning screens
	- fully-playable game loop with the first level installed
	  (10x10 grid with 10 bombs)
	- a decent mouse cursor :P
	- the main graphics---there's going to be a lot more
	- pseudo scrolling of backgrounds and playfield
	- most of the source code---my extra sprite/pad/printing
	  libraries are not included and the ones on my web site
	  are incompatible
	- synced to 60 fps---sorry, no 50 fps PAL version yet

The basic controls:
	- tap O or START to jump to the main menu
	- highlight PLAY and tap O
	- move the cursor around with the pad.  Tap L1 or L2 to
	  increase/decrease speed, respectively.
	- tap O to clear a tile
	- tap /\ (triangle) to toggle the marking on a tile
	- tap [] (square) to Power Clear a 1-tile radius around the
	  cursor---see minefld.c for info on how that works.
	- tap START during the game to bring up the QUIT/RESUME
	  "dialog"

The objective of the game (in case you don't know) is to clear out
every tile in the playfield without uncovering a bomb.  Start out by
picking any tile (and pray it isn't a bomb).  It should uncover a 
number which indicates how many bombs are in the 1-tile radius
surrounding the cleared tile.  Using those numbers, you should be
able to tell which tiles are hiding the bombs.  It really helps if
you mark the tiles you think have bombs in them---hit /\.  A
checkmark means you think it has a bomb, and the question mark means
you think there is a bomb there but aren't sure.  Not only is it
easier to avoid making mistakes by marking the playfield, if you have
uncovered a tile (which shows a number) and the surrounding tiles in
a 1-tile radius are marked only with the same number of checkmarks,
you can quickly clear out that area with the Power Clear function.

Anyways, if you want to get it, please e-mail me.  You'll get a ZIP
file of about 70k which expands to 200k.  There's about 138k that
gets downloaded to the Yaroze.  Takes about 20-30 seconds at 115200.

- e!
  tenchi@netmagic.net
  http://www.netmagic.net/~tenchi/yaroze/