The official release of NIP Minesweeper, a remake of minesweeper game powered by a custom technology for 64-bit Windows.
This game demonstrates the developing NIPSYS64 technology working in text mode;
also this is my first standalone game project. It uses good ol' codepage 437
and my own 256-color palette to display the UI.
INSTALLATION NOTES
The engine is portable and does not require installation. Just unpack the
archive into a new directory and launch the executable. To restore default
game settings, just delete the MINES.CFG file before launching the game.
The engine is designed to be working in any properly configured 64-bit desktop
Windows OS environment, starting with Windows XP x64 Edition.
HOW TO PLAY
Your goal is to find all mines which are randomly placed on the board.
The board is initially undiscovered. Left click on any cell discovers it, but
if you happen to come across a mine, it explodes and you get hit.
The number inside a discovered cell shows how many mines are hidden in the
adjacent cells. You should logically deduce the placement of all mines and open
all free cells to finish the game. In some cases mines can't be exactly located
and must be guessed. When you run out of lives, the game ends. You can replay
the same board if you want to, or start another game.
The game can be controlled either by mouse or keyboard. You can reconfigure the
board the way you want, having options for dimensions, number of mines,
wrap-around mode, rectangular/hexagonal tiling, and custom layouts. Note that
the leaderboard functions only for simple rectangular boards which you complete
using no spare lives and in single attempt!
INGAME KEYS
Arrows Move around, adjust settings
Num -, Num + Adjust settings (fixed increment)
Tab Cycle focus through available options
Space bar Open cell
X Toggle flag
N New game
R Replay same board / Reset board / Return
B Best results
C Customize board / Clear records
Q Quit
S Toggle sound effects
= Speed up animations
- Slow down animations
ENGINE FEATURE KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS
Esc End current task and return to console
F10 Return to console keeping current task in background
F12 Save screenshot
CTRL + Space Autocomplete command
ALT + Enter Toggle fullscreen
ALT + F4 Exit NIPSYS64
ALT + F5 Toggle "hard realtime" mode (uses more CPU)
ALT + F7 Toggle framerate limiter (takes all available CPU time)
ALT + F8 Toggle parallel execution mode
ALT + F9 Cycle font sizes in text mode
ALT + F11 Toggle color correction (off by default)
CHANGELOG
2017-07-30
Alpha
- Feature freeze and closed tests.
2017-09-13
Beta
- Fixed assist mode ignoring the '?' marks.
- DPI-aware setting temporarily disabled to support UltraHD displays.
- Added key hint on the spinner options.
- Drawn a more pleasing window icon.
- Refined explosion effect (can handle multiple explosions at once).
- Board revelation effect now doesn't interfere with other animations.
- Refactored board layout editor.
- Some minor fixes to the UI.
2017-12-26
Release v1.0
- Moved to engine version 1.0.5.
- Removed unnecessary engine features from the build.
- Lo-fi sound without interpolations to simulate old games.
- Added win_scaler command for software scaling of text modes.
LEGAL NOTES
This software is licensed for free distribution, being a demonstrator of a new
technology. You're allowed to make any modifications to game resources, use and
redistribute the software and its derivative works as long as they are supplied
with author's original copyright info and licensing terms. The author is not
responsible for any harm caused by improper usage of the software.
CREDITS
Some sounds are based on samples from the Sony 1001 Sound Effects royalty-free
library, others I created myself.
The engine, game code and UI design (including the icon) all were done by me.
This game was alpha-tested by my fellows Alexander Nemov, Artem Brullov,
Eddy Zykov, and Evgeniy Bolshakov. Thank you folks for important feedback!
- Maxim "Lezing" Chinyakin (2017-12-26)
