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- WHAT IS BOMB SQUAD ?
- -----------------------------------------------------------------
- Many people who have the most popular of the "graphical user
- interface" operating systems installed on their computers told me
- what a great time they have with one of the games that comes with
- it. I tried the game, and sure enough it was pretty neat. However,
- I don't have that graphical user interface installed on my computer
- (and since I have a '286 with only 2 meg of RAM, I probably never
- will). But I do have a mouse, A VGA monitor and nothing to do after
- midnight, so I wrote BOMB SQUAD.
-
- The object of the game is simple. There are a certain number of
- "bombs" hidden in a 9 row by 27 column playing field. Your job is
- to make the playing field safe for humanity by marking the location
- of each of the bombs without setting one off.
-
-
- SETTING THE LEVEL OF DIFFICULTY
- -----------------------------------------------------------------
- After you've started the game and passed the opening screen,
- you'll be asked to select how many bombs you want to have in the
- playing field. Since the size of the playing field stays the same,
- you make the game more or less difficult by hiding more or fewer
- bombs. You can select either a fixed number of bombs (10, 20, 30,
- 40 or 50), or you can let the computer select a random number of
- bombs in the range of 20-50.
-
-
- "CLEARING" A SQUARE
- -----------------------------------------------------------------
- After you've selected the number of bombs you want, the game board
- will be drawn and the game timer will start. You have two options
- with each square on the game board. You can either "clear" the
- square (that is, mark it as having NO bomb) or mark the square as
- having a bomb. To "clear" a square, place the mouse cursor over it
- and click the left mouse button. If there is no bomb under it, you
- can continue. If there is a bomb under that square, the game is
- over and you'll be given a chance to play again.
-
-
- WHAT THOSE NUMBERS MEAN
- -----------------------------------------------------------------
- Many times when you "clear" a square, you'll see a number in it.
- That number indicates how many bombs (total) are in the eight
- squares around the one with the number. In the example below,
- the square in the middle has been "cleared" and you know that there
- are two bombs somewhere in the eight squares around the middle.
- The number 2 doesn't tell you where the bombs are, just that there
- are two of them. But, by clearing a few more squares you can
- probably figure out where the bombs really are and mark those squares
- (if you don't blow yourself up first).
-
- | | | |
- -+-+-+-+-
- |X|X|X|
- -+-+-+-+-
- |X|2|X|
- -+-+-+-+-
- |X|X|X|
- -+-+-+-+-
- | | | |
-
-
- In the second example (below), there is only one uncleared square
- touching a cleared square that has a 1 in it. That tells you that
- the uncleared square has to be a bomb. (This is easy, isn't it?).
-
- | | | |
- -+-+-+-+-
- | | |X|
- -+-+-+-+-
- | |1| |
- -+-+-+-+-
- | | | |
- -+-+-+-+-
- | | | |
-
-
- "MARKING" A SQUARE
- -----------------------------------------------------------------
- Once you've figured out where you think a bomb is located, you can
- "mark" that square by placing the mouse cursor on it and clicking
- the right mouse button. When you do this, a black and red marker
- will appear in that square to remind you that you've marked it as
- a bomb. But be careful, just because you've marked a square as
- having a bomb doesn't mean that you've defused the bomb. If you
- mistakenly press the left mouse button while the cursor is over a
- marked square you'll blow up and the game will end.
-
-
- "UNMARKING" A SQUARE
- -----------------------------------------------------------------
- If you mark a square as having bomb, but later decide that it
- really doesn't have a bomb, you can "unmark" the square by placing
- the mouse cursor over it and pressing the right mouse button again.
-
-
- "DRAGGING" TO CLEAR MANY SQUARES QUICKLY
- -----------------------------------------------------------------
- If you click the left mouse button to "clear" a square that does
- not have any bombs touching it, no number will appear in that square
- and all the remaining uncleared squares surrounding it will be
- cleared. If you notice other squares touching that one that don't
- have any numbers in them, you can simply hold down on the left mouse
- button and "drag" the mouse cursor through those squares to clear
- them. But, be careful. If you accidentally drag the cursor over
- a square that has a bomb, you'll blow up.
-
-