AP Java 2 Assignment 1:
Minesweeper

Background

Program Requirements

1. Your minesweeper game will be a two dimensional array of buttons. Use constants for the number of rows and columns.
2. The number of bombs should also be specified by a constant, e.g., nBOMBS.
3. If you click on a cell that contains a bomb, the game ends and all the bombs are displayed
4. If you click on a cell that does not contain a bomb, a number appears at that location indicating the number of neighbors that DO contain bombs. Recall that each position has at most 8 neighbors. Note that the cells on the boundary have fewer than 8 neighbors. For example, a corner has only three neighbors.
5. if the user clicks on a cell and no number appears, then there are no bombs surrounding that cell. Your applet should then recursively keep marking those surrounding cells that are not surrounded by bombs.
6. The game should end when all the cells that do not contain bombs have been marked (assuming that you have not been blown up by then!)
7. Your game must use the Random class to randomly place the mines.
8. Submit your .java file (as an attachment) with the URL of your finished applet to mrsimon@lycos.com.

Alternative Assignment: The Game of Life

• http://www.bitstorm.org/gameoflife/
• http://www.math.com/students/wonders/life/life.html
• http://hensel.lifepatterns.net/

Hints to help you complete this assignment

• You may find it helpful to review the Example of an array of buttons
• There is no place to "hide" a mine in a Button. Write a new class Cell that extends Button and add three new member variables: a boolean bIsAMine and two ints myRow and myCol. You will need to write some methods for Cell as well: a constructor as well as others. (Thanks to Timmy Yee for suggesting this hint)
• In actionPerformed you can find out the row and column of the button that was pressed with code like:

  int nRow = ((Cell)e.getSource()).getRow();

• Your program will have two classes: Cell and the "Applet" class.
• You will need an instance of the Random class in the "Applet" class. Don't forget import java.util.Random;
• My "Applet" class had the following methods:
  • public void init()
  • public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e)
  • public void changeBackground(int nRow, int nCol) //Changes the background of a button that has been clicked normally
  • public int countBombs(int nRow, int nCol) //counts the bombs in the 8 neighbors--(remember to check to see if the cell is "on the edge")
  • public void setBombs() //randomly places the bombs
  • public boolean isWon() //determines if the player has won the game
  • public void displayWinMessage() //uses setLabel to change the labels of the buttons to display a winning message
  • public void displayLosingMessage() //displays the positions of all the bombs and displays a losing message
• The changeBackground method is tricky: if the cell contains a bomb it's background should be changed to red, otherwise it should be changed to white. If a white cell has no neighboring bombs, it should recursively call itself with the neighboring positions that are yellow.
• In actionPerformed you can check for "non-normal" clicks (e.g. shift-clicks) with the following code:
  if(e.getModifiers() != 0)