Description:
There is a game on the iPhone called Lights Out where the object of the game is to light up or knock out all the lights in a 5x5 grid. When a square is selected that square and its four immediate neighbours, above, below, and to each side invert. There is no wraparound. The object of the game is to get all the squares black.
It is an example of minimalist programming on WM. Written in Embedded C++ as a Win32 application it is targetted at ARMv4 chipsets. As such it should run on all PPC versions from Windows Mobile 2002 onwards. The menu is limited to two main items, so WM 5/6 will display it as a WM 5/6 app. Minimalist programming means it can be distributed as as a single .EXE file of a mere 9.5 Kb in size. The DLLs it calls are already on your device, there is no need for a .CAB installation.
It has 5x5, 7x7, 9x9, and 11x11 grids, all are solvable.
I hope you enjoy it. It will keep you quiet but it might drive you totally nuts!
SmartPhone users:
Welcome aboard! The white square is the target square. Move it to the square you want to change with the D-Pad/Arrow buttons, then press 'Enter' to change it.
Smartphones do not have a 'File Explorer' app. Use ActiveSync when connected to your phone and drop the unzipped 5x5.exe file via the 'Explore' option into the \Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Games\ directory, and it will appear alongside Solitaire and BubbleBreaker in the games menu of your device. Smartphone 2002/2003 users need to use Storage\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Games\.
Pocket PC users won't see any change, just tap the square you want to change. The program looks at which platform it is running on, and behaves accordingly.
Update Description:
v1.3:
- Now also runs on both Pocket PC and SmartPhone devices. Now runs on any sized screen, even those that have not been released yet! The blank screens that were reported in later posts are now a thing of the past. Here's the method, take the width and height of of the client area and size the game to 90% of smaller of the two. Why did I not think of that in the first place?
v1.2:
- 11x11 grid added. It is solvable, but it took me a while to figure it out! You may need a stylus as fingers may be a bit too awkward. For that reason, I do not intend to go to 13x13 and beyond.
- The short display glitch on initial program load now fixed.
- Game and drawing code optimised. (There are often better and faster ways to do things, if you take the time to look.)
