## GNOME Mines Manual

2001
Tim Riehle

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license can be found here.

Many of the names used by companies to distinguish their products and services are claimed as trademarks. Where those names appear in any GNOME documentation, and those trademarks are made aware to the members of the GNOME Documentation Project, the names have been printed in caps or initial caps.

This is version 1.0 of the GNOME Mines manual.

## Introduction

GNOME Mines is a variation of the popular logic puzzle minesweeper.

GNOME Mines is included in the `gnome-games` package, which is part of the GNOME desktop environment. This document describes version &version; of GNOME Mines.

## Objective

The object of GNOME Mines is for the player to flag all mines hidden on the playing grid and to uncover all the remaining squares. If the player mistakenly uncovers a square containing a mine the game is lost. Winning games are ranked by how quickly the play was completed.

## Usage

This section describes how to use this application.

### Basic usage

Starting GNOME Mines opens the Main window, shown in .

#### GNOME Mines Main Window

GNOME Mines Main Window

The bottom of the window shows a game timer on the right and a counter on the left showing how many flags have been placed and how many mines exist.

Play proceeds by uncovering squares with the left mouse button and placing flags with the right mouse button. Successfully uncovered squares yield information: the number of mines in the adjacent squares. Figure shows a game in play. Note the numbers in the cleared squares and their relation to flags.

#### GNOME Mines In Play

GNOME Mines In Play

Using the information gathered from the uncovered squares the player forms hypotheses about the location of undiscovered mines.

As flags are added the middle mouse button may be used on the previously uncovered squares. If the number of flags adjacent to that square satisfies the number expected the middle mouse button will automatically uncover all remaining adjacent squares. If a flag has been placed by mistake this action will uncover a mine and end play. Figure shows the result of just such a mistake, note the flag in the top row.

#### GNOME Mines Showing A Failed Game

GNOME Mines Showing A Failed Game

If flags have been correctly placed on all the mines, and the remaining squares have been uncovered the game is won, as shown in .

#### GNOME Mines Showing A Won Game

GNOME Mines Showing A Won Game

### Basic Strategy

The geometrical arrangement of uncovered and flagged squares often limits the possible locations that can contain hidden mines. Figure shows how the location of a mine, pointed to by the arrow, has been inferred using the square on the outside corner showing the numeral one. The geometry of the corner has left only one uncovered square next to the one.

#### Inferring the location of a mine at a corner

Inferring the location of a mine at a corner

The same strategy has been used in figure where the square showing the number three has only three remaining uncovered squares that can hold mines. to

#### Inferring the location of mines next along a wall

Inferring the location of mines along a wall

In the previous cases we found the location of mines using the information from a single uncovered square. More advanced play comes from combining information from two or more uncovered squares. Consider the arrangement of squares in figure .

#### Inferring the location of mines using information from several squares

Inferring the location of mines using information from several squares

If we focus on the leftmost square showing "1" we know that only a single flag can be contained in the three uncovered squares highlighted in green in figure , thus we can infer where the second flag for the square showing "2" must be placed.

#### finding the first mine by using the leftmost square showing "1"

finding the first mine by using the leftmost square showing "1"

We can now repeat the same process with the rightmost square showing "1" to place the second flag, see Figure .

#### finding the second mine by using the rightmost square showing "1"

finding the second mine by using the rightmost square showing "1"

## Menus

The menu bar, located at the top of the Main Window, contains the following menus:

Game

  This menu contains:

  - CtrlN New game — Start a new game of GNOME Mines.

  - Scores... — Display the local GNOME Mines score statistics.

  - CtrlQ Exit — Quit; exit from GNOME Mines.

Settings

  This menu contains:

  - Preferences... — Bring up the GNOME Mines Preferences dialog, as shown in This allows you to choose the size of the playing grid and the size of the squares.

    ### GNOME Mines Preferences Dialog

    GNOME Mines Preferences Dialog
Help

  This menu contains:

  - About... — Bring up the GNOME Mines About window. If you need to know what version of GNOME Mines you are running, who wrote it and who owns the copyright, or you just want it summed up in a pithy sentence then this menu item is for you. No rambling; no beating about the bush. The About window tells it like it is.

## Known Bugs and Limitations

This application has no known bugs.

## Authors

GNOME Mines was written by Pista (szekeres@cyberspace.mht.bme.hu). Please send all comments, suggestions, and bug reports to the GNOME bug tracking database. You can also use Bug Report Tool (`bug-buddy`), available in the Utilities submenu of Main Menu, for submitting bug reports.

This manual was written by Tim Riehle (tkriehle@citilink.com). Please send all comments and suggestions regarding this manual to the GNOME Documentation Project by sending an email to docs@gnome.org. You can also add your comments online by using the GNOME Documentation Status Table.

## License

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

A copy of the GNU General Public License is included as an appendix to the GNOME Users Guide. You may also obtain a copy of the GNU General Public License from the Free Software Foundation by visiting their Web site or by writing to

        Free Software Foundation, Inc.
        59 Temple Place - Suite 330
        Boston, MA 02111-1307
        USA