XlibSweeper-Final DL Available!

[Floodkiller]

This is a small side project that I am doing while I am thinking out how I am going to make Rainbow Six: Red Dawn not have a repetitive combat system, as the one that I worked out and tested was a point and shoot format that didn't have any bullet physics, cover, and other stuff. I might end up scrapping it if I can't think of some way to encorporate a cover system at least.

Anyways, XlibSweeper is just another Minesweeper program, made in Xlib of course, but what is innovative is that this one will have preset modes as well as a custom board mode. It will also feature greyscale (:D), but I have to work out a system so that the greyscale is either interupted during operation of other functions, or something else for it.

I have some minor 8x8 tiles of the graphics already done, and worked out the greyscale pattern for it. I have also made the variable adjusting minefield creator, which will take variables from any mode, custom or preset, and load a random mine placement into the matrix, as well as the number system for going around the mines, all in 231 bytes.

Checklist for what still must be done:
-Gameplay Mechanics (scrolling screen, cursor, progress bar)
-Menu
-Figuring out how to adjust the pic as to encorporate the last row of pixels, as to reduce complications later on in the formulas.


Edit: The final download is here !
http://www.savefile.com/files/553484
No screenshots at the moment. When I do get the time to make them, I will upload it to ticalc.org

[kalan_vod]

Sounds like fun, you could look at a tutorial by CDI (he made a gs xlib mine sweeper) and I made a poor rendition of one before that (which I one day need to incorporate the new system). Good luck, and have fun!

[Floodkiller]

Over the weekend, I finished half of the movement system and almost all of the display system. I plan on first finishing up the display system (medium difficulty, since xLib is creating more than the amount of pics that I need, and making them glitch pics :S), then working on the rest of the movement system (medium-hard difficulty, I need to come up with a scrolling algorithm that will work with the system while not coming up with tilemap errors), the selection system (easy, just some unmasking of matrix parts through transfer), and a info header for gameplay (?), as well as a custom game options screen.

Alot of work ahead, and Ive got finals this week .

Edit: I finished the graphics display, albeit in a different way than I expected to. Since real(9,0,... creates 6 glitch equations in TIOS that will crash the system if you delete them and take up quite a bit of space, and real(9,... without the 0 won't work 3/4 of the time, I went with a much longer process of determining if the screen is saved in a certain pic.

Also, I completed the main menu system for the game, so it can now be easily accessed.

[Floodkiller]

During today's finals, I coded in most of the gameplay mechanics and display functions, as well as fixed some slowdown/memory limit bugs that occured. List to complete:
-"0" opens all spaces around it (as well as all other 0's around the original 0 following the pattern)
-Winning conditions
-Custom Board menu
-Timing and High Scores
-The smily face (optional)
-Maybe a graphics rework if I get the chance

If I get most of these done (winning conditions and custom board for sure), I'll try to get out a beta download this weekend.

Edit: Winning conditions and custom board menu are done, as well as timing. I also put in a x,y location and amount of mines left for simplification (I couldn't put time in, cause the amount changes so fast that it is shaded in an almost unseeable greyscale. If somone could make a cooler custom board menu where you select an option and change the amount instead of just inserting the amounts, then please do so, for this one that I made is very crappy. Otherwise, I just need to get the 0 exception opening done.

Edit Edit: I fixed some more bugs, as well as made a black and white only version for the people who dislike greyscale (don't know who would). Also, I am planning on reworking the graphics to a less epileptic seizure like method. Still no progress on the 0 opening yet, as the only way I can think of would be quite a giant pause in gameplay.

[Floodkiller]

ok, over the weekend I revamped the graphics on the greyscale for a more appealing look than epileptic seizure flashing. I also added a base for the opening of blank spaces, and will have to work on it more with some lists and other variable twists to get it to work all the way.

I also didn't get a beta out because I forgot my transfer cable at my other house when I went to my working comp. I'll see if I can force feed my bad comp the program and get it online.

[tr1p1ea]

When was the last time you downloaded xLIB from ticalc.org? The one that is currently there has been fixed as far as the real(9 bug is concerned.

[Floodkiller]

Well, I have version .601b, I haven't checked recently however.

Also, I have finished part of the variable twisting. What it does right now is detect if a square around your blank square is blank, and stores its coordinates into a list. It also detects if a space is open or closed, and will skip across that space if it is opened, thus preventing a loop. Of course, it doesn't do much past that yet, and I will have to have a backup list for if there are yet more blank spaces around that blank space that is around the original blank space, then swap back and forth between lists until eventually coordinates run out.

Edit: Some bad news and good news. The bad news is that the blank space routine above that i finished ended up in a disaster of time. It took 30 seconds just to open a semi-large blank area, and I know that nobody has the time to wait through that, so I will have to find a different method. The good news is that I am almost done optimizing the board info. Instead of requiring two matrices in order to save and display board info, I am using decimal places instead to save the board data to recall later. This will cut out the extra board and allow for larger customization. However, there still is a couple bugs in originally storing the information, so I will have to mess around with that.

Edit Edit: Ironed out all the bugs in the decimal system. What I plan on doing now is trying a new method of opening up blanks that I tried, and another graphics rework to get smother greyscale.

[Floodkiller]

I think I have the program up to quite a reasonable point, although there are some bad parts:

-Methods I have tried in opening large spaces due to blank tiles have failed for taking too much time to perform. Instead, I have a quicker command that just opens the surrounding 8 spaces if you land on a blank space (or click on one that is open).

-Graphics look like buzzing flies in greyscale, but it looks worse when using a xor method, or my original method, so I will just keep it where it is.

Other than that, it is ready for a beta. I will *attempt* to get a beta up this weekend, but no promises.

[leofox]

During today's finals, I coded in most of the gameplay mechanics and display functions, as well as fixed some slowdown/memory limit bugs that occured. List to complete:
-"0" opens all spaces around it (as well as all other 0's around the original 0 following the pattern)
-Winning conditions
-Custom Board menu
-Timing and High Scores
-The smily face (optional)
-Maybe a graphics rework if I get the chance

If I get most of these done (winning conditions and custom board for sure), I'll try to get out a beta download this weekend.

Edit: Winning conditions and custom board menu are done, as well as timing. I also put in a x,y location and amount of mines left for simplification (I couldn't put time in, cause the amount changes so fast that it is shaded in an almost unseeable greyscale. If somone could make a cooler custom board menu where you select an option and change the amount instead of just inserting the amounts, then please do so, for this one that I made is very crappy. Otherwise, I just need to get the 0 exception opening done.

Edit Edit: I fixed some more bugs, as well as made a black and white only version for the people who dislike greyscale (don't know who would). Also, I am planning on reworking the graphics to a less epileptic seizure like method. Still no progress on the 0 opening yet, as the only way I can think of would be quite a giant pause in gameplay.

I prefer B/W over GS for performance reasons (6mhz calc). Also, CDIs tutorial should have some information on how to do floodfill with the 0 opening.

[necro]

there are an awful lot of mine sweeper clones...any chance of some unique features? Maybe add things to chase the cursor, add levels and walls, something more than just mines and not mines?

[crzyrbl]

How about the game is timed, and every time you hit a mine it severly cuts your time.

[tr1p1ea]

The fixed version is still 0.601b however. Unique features would be cool, but still a straight minesweeper is fine. Its all about learning, and actually completeing something always feels really nice .

[Floodkiller]

@everyone with unique gameplay suggestions:Well, what I was planning on doing was completing a normal minesweeper clone first to get the feel on how it works. Then, I might work on some other projects that I still have going. Then, I would come back and work on an advanced minesweeper, which would be like playing advanced battleship, which is lots of extra stuff.

@leofox: That's why I made a b&w version as well so that it would have smoother gameplay and capabilities that a greyscale game wouldn't accomplish on, say, a TI-83+.

@tr1p1ea: I don't know why my command doesn't work then .

[Floodkiller]

http://www.savefile.com/files/454268

Here is the dl link to the beta.

[tr1p1ea]

You have redownloaded xLIB from ticalc.org in the last 3 months? Real(9 should work fine.