[esXXI]

Hehe me and Chris have been busy! Over the past two days we've been discussing ideas for updates on miniMineSweep as well as miniOandX (which I dubbed "Version 2" since it'll have some nice new stuff).

So he told me to post a teaser to show off the new looks.. Hope you enjoy, I know some people will dislike the folliage on miniMineSweep but can't please everyone eh?

Questions, requests and other nic-nacs are welcome.

[spauldingg]

Sweet.
Love the look of OandZX, and I don't mind the funky foilage, just thinking though that minesweeper, I thought, was based on the ocean. Maybe a curling wave would be cool.

[vmirce]

Very nice!

I like the jungle theme of minesweeper, as that's where mines usually would be found right?

I question with minesweeper where number of mines is shown? Usually as I get close to finishing a game, and I have flagged 95% of where I think the mines are, I find it pretty important to check if there is one mine or two left for instance.

And with the time, I assume you flip it over to see the time on the back? That would pause the time correct? (so you don't waste time looking at it!)

Fantastic work here, Mac users will be spoiled when Tiger comes out having all these pretty gadgets

[esXXI]

@spauldingg; Thank you, I went with the jungle-look as apposed to a water-y one, mostly because I thought a change of colour was needed (since blue (Aqua!) is heavily tied in with OS X).

@vmirce; Thanks again, to answer some questions;
ï There will be a "number" of mines shown against flags (ie; 2/10), I'll most probably tell Chris to put it centered on the glossy-bar. Don't worry about that.
ï I believe we're going to reverse the way time works. Depending on the difficulty you place, you get a time-limit. Your aim should be to clear all free spaces and flag the mines within that time - thus increasing the difficulty on Hard/etc games. Obviously this means high-scores are backwards (the more time remaining (or the faster you did it) the better).
ï The display for the time is the circle next to the flip-button, as time decreases it becomes less and less transparent (starting invisible), and as time becomes critical (ie; the last 10 seconds), it begins to flash. I'll suggest to Chris making it flash every 10 seconds (so you can estimate how much time has gone).

Thanks again.

[Jeremy]

I believe we're going to reverse the way time works. Depending on the difficulty you place, you get a time-limit. Your aim should be to clear all free spaces and flag the mines within that time - thus increasing the difficulty on Hard/etc games. Obviously this means high-scores are backwards (the more time remaining (or the faster you did it) the better).

Good idea! Good to see you two thinking outside the square, minesweeper is a classic game, but there's always room for an original version of it. I always found the unlimited time limit in Minesweeper a bit of a bore!

[Madmandan]

Those actual size?

[esXXI]

@Madmandan; Yes.

[esXXI]

Okay miniOandX 0.8 has been sent in, should be available tonight. There are few bugs which are foxing us (well Chris, the codeMonkey, hehe), once those are fixed it should hit 1.0

[pyrotoaster]

They look excellent.
Can't wait to try them out.

[Jeremy]

Chris or Rick - I noticed that in miniOandX, there is one broken image. It's on the back of the gadget, the 'pressed' state of the grey flavour (when you click to select that one) the image is missing.

...Still can't beat the computer either

[esXXI]

That's Chris' coding that is.. I double checked that I included all the images in the zip I sent him.

Tsk tsk!

And I think there's only two specific ways to beat the computer.. Keep trying!

[Chris]

Hmm... never noticed there was a broken image. There was, however, a wee bit of a problem when I copied the gadget to a USB pen drive I've got, so i think it's that (plus copy/paste in Tiger is pretty whacked, for me - there were a few broken images at one point).

Unfortunately, the gadget doesn't play too well with the dashboard at the moment - and I have no idea why. Doesn't seem to stay in it and it won't allow changing of controlRets/Circles it seems. It's probably me since it works for miniPatience. I'm going to have a look tonight, but I spent an hour yesterday on it and got too frustrated...

Anyway, hope you enjoy it - it's incredibly 'eye-candyish'

Edit: Just had a look at it, and I can't see any broken images. Maybe I sent the wrong one to Jeremy. Whoops.

[spauldingg]

miniOandX is really nice. I love the fade-in animation, looks real organic.

[Chris]

Could I ask the people running the gadget in the dashboard to let me know all the problems occuring. Here's what I think some are:
1. There's a missing image on the back (I know this one because it was mentioned above - but which one?)
2. It doesn't save preferences (can someone confirm)
3. It doesn't stay in the dahsboard
4. It doesn't form the controlRects/Circles properly.

If anyone would like to tinker with it to solve these problems, it would be much appreciated. (it will likely just be some oversight by me - I tend to write these gadgets when I'm bored at work/home/drunk, so there sometimes not a lot of thought going into them in places... I probably shouldn't say that ). If not, gimme as much feedback as possible!

Cheers guys.