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Forum Index : Microcontroller and PC projects : Minesweeper Game

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William Leue
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Joined: 03/07/2020
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Posted: 09:47pm 22 Sep 2020
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I have written a version of the classic MS Minesweeper for CMM2. It is not exactly the same as the MS version but reasonably close. Instead of using a mouse pointer, it supports various keyboard keys for navigation and commands.

I hope you like it!
-Bill

Minesweeper.zip
 
William Leue
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Posted: 09:52pm 22 Sep 2020
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I should mention that the flood fill is a bit slow. I will work on speeding it up but it works if you are a bit patient.

-Bill
 
thwill

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Posted: 12:46pm 23 Sep 2020
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Hi Bill,

Very nice.

Legality aside what are your thoughts regarding including this on the "Welcome Tape" ?

On the legal side "Minesweeper" has so many antecedants and clones that I don't think it represents a problem given that the implementation is entirely yours (including the graphics?) ... or at least it's one I'd be prepared to take the risk of a Cease & Desist on. I can't find a record of Microsoft ever having chased anyone.

Does anyone else have an opinion on what should be included on the "Welcome Tape" or am I "Benevolent Dictator for Life" as far as that is concerned, please add comments to: http://www.thebackshed.com/forum/ViewTopic.php?FID=16&TID=12495

Best wishes,

Tom
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William Leue
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Posted: 12:55pm 23 Sep 2020
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I really don't think there is a problem with ownership. As you mention, there are hundreds of clones of the original Minesweeper. Since Microsoft no longer distributes Minesweeper or any other games with Windows, I doubt that they care.

I would be honored to have my humble game included in the Welcome Tape!

-Bill
 
William Leue
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Posted: 01:01pm 23 Sep 2020
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thwill, you might also consider including my Hunt the Wumpus game in the Welcome Tape. I wrote this from scratch, having only the Wikipedia description of the game to go by, so I think it qualfies as a 'clean room' implementation.

-Bill

Wumpus.zip
 
thwill

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Posted: 01:04pm 23 Sep 2020
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Thanks Bill, you are a gentleman and a scholar.

Can you confirm under which license you would like it covered. The default is the Unlicense (effectively tries to put it in the Public Domain and there is nothing to stop someone stripping your name and (c) from it and selling it), but if you want MIT, Apache v2, or something else then let me know.

And meaning no offence but I also don't believe M$ would chase small-fry over such a simple game, that really would be biting the hand that feeds them and if nothing else would generate unnecessary bad press amongst the developer community.

Thanks again,

Tom
Edited 2020-09-23 23:05 by thwill
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William Leue
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Posted: 01:07pm 23 Sep 2020
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Unlicense is fine. I would think you would want to keep all the code in the Welcome Tape under the same license to maintain your sanity.

I really try not to let my ego run my life. If someone strips off my name and claims the code as his or her own or sells it, well, that's their karma, and I am not going to get my knickers in a twist about it.

-Bill
 
thwill

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Posted: 01:18pm 23 Sep 2020
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  William Leue said  Unlicense is fine. I would think you would want to keep all the code in the Welcome Tape under the same license to maintain your sanity.


Quite right, but I'm no longer wedded to enforcing it with an iron hand . I'm still trying to decide whether something I am working on needs to be under GPL v3 because I used a reference document that belonged to a GPL v3 project.

  Quote  I really try not to let my ego run my life. If someone strips off my name and claims the code as his or her own or sells it, well, that's their karma, and I am not going to get my knickers in a twist about it.


Ditto, at least outside of my day job.

Best wishes,

Tom
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Womble

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Joined: 09/07/2020
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Posted: 01:21pm 23 Sep 2020
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  William Leue said  I really don't think there is a problem with ownership. As you mention, there are hundreds of clones of the original Minesweeper. Since Microsoft no longer distributes Minesweeper or any other games with Windows, I doubt that they care.

Quick search showed that there have been many minesweeper incarnations, this refers to some of them. and this microsoft were not the first to implement minesweeper.
 
vegipete

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Joined: 29/01/2013
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Posted: 08:19pm 25 Sep 2020
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Your minesweeper plays very nicely.

Minor typo, at the end of line 559, the value 54 should be changed to 52. This is to allow the "4" key to shift the cursor left.

Could the mine field be centered on the screen?
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bigmik

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Posted: 08:15am 26 Sep 2020
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Hi William,

It is a VERY nice rendition of the game..

I have had some fun playing it..

My only suggestion is that after clearing a bunch of spaces the yellow outline disappears.. so you have to move to see where you are.

Great job,

Kind Regards

Mick
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William Leue
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Posted: 09:44pm 26 Sep 2020
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Thanks to vegipete and bigmik for bug reports and suggestions! I will have an updated posted soon.

-Bill
 
PeteCotton

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Posted: 06:23am 27 Sep 2020
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William: Re: Minesweeper. Good job. Very nice.

With regards to legality of reproducing games. I have looked in to this for another project and the general conclusions are:

You cannot copyright a game idea. i.e. I can make a Galaxians like clone. The same obviously goes for minesweeper.

But... the graphics, sounds, unqiue text etc. can be copyrighted. So I cannot use any the original Galaxians sprites or music, or call it Galaxians.

Such differences must be "obvious". So it's not sufficient for me to alter the original Galaxians sprite and change the Red component of the RGB by 10%. It has to be visibly different.

Those are the laws in most Western countries (my research centered on North America and Europe).

Having said that, most companies (with the notable exception of Nintendo) turn a blind eye to fan games as long as they are not being sold. So it is technically illegal, regardless of whether it is being sold or not. However, if you are not selling it, they tend to leave you alone (or at worst you will get a cease and desist letter).

However if you try and sell a game called Pacman/Galaxians/Donkey Kong etc. prepare to be sued for all of that money and more.

Things get even more complex with franchise tie-ins like Star Trek. So the old Vectrex Console released their back catalog to the public domain for people to use with emulators. However they had a Star Trek game in that library. They couldn't release that game because although they 100% owned the game code, the license to sell Star Trek merchandised games expired decades ago. So that game is still out bounds. Paramount/CBS owned the Star Trek name but not the source code, so they cannot release teh vectrex Star Trek game either - it requires both companies to jointly agree to release it. I suspect this is why there are so many classic Star Trek games missing from GOG.COM.

Ironically Star Trek have been very lenient with fan fiction and fan movies and games etc. Recognising that fans are actually celebrating the franchise, and not trying to cash in (usually). So again, if you tried to sell a Star Trek game, I am sure they would come down on you like a tonne of bricks. However if you are doing a remake of the BASIC Star Trek games from the 80's I am sure they are going to be fine with it.
 
thwill

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Posted: 12:26pm 27 Sep 2020
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  PeteCotton said  But... the graphics, sounds, unqiue text etc. can be copyrighted. So I cannot use any the original Galaxians sprites or music, or call it Galaxians.


Level design can also be copyrighted.

  Quote  Ironically Star Trek have been very lenient with fan fiction and fan movies and games etc ...


At least up until 2016, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek_fan_productions:

"On June 26, 2016, during the Axanar lawsuit, CBS and Paramount released a set of guidelines for Star Trek fan films to follow. Notably, these restrictions require films to: Be no more than 15 minutes long and have no stories longer than two installments (for a total of 30 minutes); play on YouTube without commercials; and all participants are required to be amateurs who have never worked on Star Trek or another licensee of CBS or Paramount Pictures. The creation and release of Axanar would only be allowed on these terms."

To be honest it was getting a bit out of hand with amateur productions that approached professional studio quality. I suspect CBS was starting to get worried that they might lose control of the IP completely.

Best wishes,

Tom
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lizby
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Posted: 12:48pm 27 Sep 2020
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  thwill said  Level design can also be copyrighted.

In this context, what is "level design"?
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lizby
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Posted: 12:50pm 27 Sep 2020
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  thwill said  Level design can also be copyrighted.

In this context, what is "level design"?
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thwill

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Posted: 12:54pm 27 Sep 2020
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  lizby said  
  thwill said  Level design can also be copyrighted.

In this context, what is "level design"?


I only researched this briefly, but the map in a 3D shooter, or the initial arrangement of blocks in a puzzle game.

Edit: In the context of Minesweeper I assume the levels are randomly generated so their design is not copyrightable.

Additionally I believe Atari/Hasbro have somehow copyrighted the entire idea of Pong and Breakout ... I'm not sure how they achieved this, a combination of money plus a dozy judge I suspect.

Tom
Edited 2020-09-27 22:55 by thwill
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PeteCotton

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Posted: 05:18pm 27 Sep 2020
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  thwill said  
At least up until 2016, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek_fan_productions:

"On June 26, 2016, during the Axanar lawsuit, CBS and Paramount released a set of guidelines for Star Trek fan films to follow. Notably, these restrictions require films to: Be no more than 15 minutes long and have no stories longer than two installments (for a total of 30 minutes); play on YouTube without commercials; and all participants are required to be amateurs who have never worked on Star Trek or another licensee of CBS or Paramount Pictures. The creation and release of Axanar would only be allowed on these terms."

To be honest it was getting a bit out of hand with amateur productions that approached professional studio quality. I suspect CBS was starting to get worried that they might lose control of the IP completely.


Ha ha - That is a whole other story that I couldn't retell in such a short space of time. I have been following Axanar since it's inception. Basically a guy (who shall remain nameless) decided that he could do a mutli-million dollar fundraiser for a Star Trek fan film. The cash was never accounted for (it has been spent, there is no film). He also started selling Star Trek branded coffee, board games, badges, etc... basically he was sublicensing the Star Trek IP to other companies as if he owned it. Needless to say this came to the attention of CBS (along with all of the disgruntled backers who had lost their money).

He even started to treat the name Axanar as if it was his own IP (the name and main character came from a late TOS episode). Issuing take down notices for anyone else who was critical of his work (in video clips). CBS finally took action against him.

Notably, although they produced those guidelines, CBS have not taken action against other fan films that break them (and there have been a few). Those guidelines were very much to stop Axanar from raising more money. Interestingly, they are still breaking the guidelines, doing monthly fund raisers from their ever dwindling supporters.... with still no sign of a movie being produced.

There is a lot more to it than that, it is a fascinating story, but that is the gist.

https://us20.campaign-archive.com/?u=2d0411ecf0787fd9d4dc8dc5c&id=019d9f1bed#cbs
Edited 2020-09-28 03:20 by PeteCotton
 
William Leue
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Posted: 05:47pm 06 Oct 2020
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Here is version 1.0.1 of Minesweeper.

The changes are:
1. A bug fixed in the navigation buttons that caused the '4' key not to work for moving the cursor left.

2. The board is now centered on the screen.

-Bill


Minesweeper.zip
 
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