Help

### 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

File | Boards | Help

New | Ctrl+N | Start a new game.
Open | Ctrl+O | Open a saved game.
Save | Ctrl+S | Save a game.
Beginner | . | Start a simple game.
Intermediate | . | Start a somewhat more complicated game.
Expert | . | Start a difficult game.
Selfdefined | . | Start a userdefined game.
Original | . | Set the Original-Mode.
Hint | . | Set the Hint-Mode.
Immune | . | Set the Immune-Mode.
Lucky | . | Set the Lucky-Mode.
Start up | . | Set the Start-up-Modus.
Murphy's Law | . | Toggle the Murphy's Law.
Best Times | . | Shows the best times of the actual board. From here you can delete the entries or send them to the global hiscorelist.
Exit | . | Exit the game.

#### Board-Menu

File | Boards | Help

File | Square | Board with squares.
File | Hexagon | Board with hexagons.
File | Triangle | Board with triangles.
File | ... | and more

#### Help-Menu

File | Boards | Help

File | Boards | Hint | . | Ctrl+H | Shows one or two open cells which can be used to determine the state of a covered cell in stage one and two. Shows some covered cells which can be open or flag in stage three.
File | Boards | SolveOne | . | Ctrl+L | Solve one move.
File | Boards | SolveAll | Stage1,2,3 | Ctrl+1,2,3 | Solve all cells till the chose stage (inclusive).
File | Boards | SolveAuto | Stage0,1,2,3 | . | Execute SolveAll after each action.
File | Boards | MaxStage | Stage1,2,3 | . | Reduce the max. stage. On this way, help will grant earlier (not together with the Lucky-Mode).
File | Boards | Show Mines | . | . | Show or hide Mines
File | Boards | Undo | . | Ctrl+Z | Undo the last move. This can take some time, cause the whole game will replayed.
File | Boards | Redo | . | Ctrl+Y | Redo the last move.
File | Boards | Undo All | . | Shift+Ctrl+Z | Restart at the beginning (quicker than Undo).
File | Boards | Content | . | . | Shows this file.
File | Boards | Homepage | . | . | Open www.czeppi.de
File | Boards | About | . | . | Shortinfo about the game.

### 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:

Event | Wave-File
--- | ---
New game | new.wav
Open a cell | open.wav
Flag a cell | flag.wav
Dead-end-Situation reach (higher priority over open or flag) | deadend.wav
Game won | won.wav
Game lost | lost.wav

### Contact

email: mail@czeppi.de

homepage: www.czeppi.de