WHAT IS BOMB SQUAD ?
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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.

