luminesweeper is still $220 cheaper

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Contents

  1. Rationale
  2. Download
  3. Installation
  4. Game left
  5. Game right
  6. Discuss

Rationale

Where I come from, nobody I know can afford Sony's new portable video game system. So I decided to criticize the high price of the PSP and save my fellow players the 220 USD + tax that a PSP system with a memory card and game costs by making a homebrew game for the Game Boy Advance handheld video game system. It appears that a lot more people have a GBA or Nintendo DS than have a PSP, and GBA compatible flash devices capable of running multiboot games have come down far in price.

It's pronounced like "luminous sweeper" or (if you speak Japanese) ルミネスイーパー. Another reason for making this video game is to make fun of those who mispronounce "Lumines" as "Loo-mines" as if it were Minesweeper.

It has two modes: left and right.

Download

You are free to reproduce and distribute verbatim copies. Here is a brief changelog:

Installation

With music

To run luminesweeper on a home computer, use a GBA emulator such as VisualBoyAdvance or NO$GBA. To run it on a GBA or a Nintendo DS, use a GBA flash card such as Flash2Advance, EFA-Linker, EZ-Flash, or G6, or a "ROM compatible" CF or SD card adapter such as SuperCard or M3 Perfect. As it is a GBA program, it does not require any of the DS passthrough methods.

Without music

A version without music is also included (file name suffix .mb). On a slower PC, running this version may result in smoother emulated gameplay. It is also capable of running on "multiboot" methods such as the MBV2 cable (GBA and GBA SP only), the XBOO cable (GBA and GBA SP only), or the inexpensive GBA Movie Player. Note: GBAMP users should delete the .gba file, rename the .mb file to end in .mb.gba, and then look in the Game menu.

Game left

[screenshot of left mode]

This mode of luminesweeper will be familiar to anybody who has played Lumines.

Square pieces, each made of four blocks where each block is colored dark or light, are falling into a 16x10 block well. Move and rotate them to arrange them into squares (four blocks of the same color arranged in a 2x2 square) so that the sweeper, which moves from left to right across the well every 3 to 6 seconds (depending on the tempo of the song), will erase them as it passes. Let the blocks fill to the top, and the game is over.

Controls

Scoring

There are three ways to earn points:

Done

Not done

While you wait

Play Gleam for GBA, Verticube for Microsoft Windows OS, Sweep for Java applet platform, Zoomines for Microsoft Windows OS and Mac OS X, or any of several Puyo Puyo clones.

Game right

[screenshot of right mode]

This mode of luminesweeper will be familiar to anybody who has played Minesweeper.

The playfield is between 8x8 and 30x16 spaces, some of which contain a hidden explosive. Click on a space, and it'll tell you how many explosives are in the 3x3 square centered on that space. You can place a flag to mark where an explosive is so that you don't accidentally click it. The sweeper passes from top to bottom and extends the area you have uncovered, pointing out the location of explosives. Click a space with an explosive that hasn't been swept, and the game is over.

Some experienced winmine players may not understand the rationale behind the sweeper in this game. It's needed in part because play with a D-pad isn't as fast as play with a mouse.

Controls

Done

Not done

While you wait

Start > Run > winmine

Discussion