Scrabble Deluxe Instruction Manual 1990

SCRIBBLE 7 CUR OFS.5 EE Y y po J INSTRUCTION MANUAL TABLE OF CONTENTS Game Setups). Ai ss es is ae Te Er ae 8 Standard Plays. svesseer oars. eo eee we es epUes es ate 8 Rules for Forming New Words ais cai cies va eg atae 10 SGOONNQE: G.tesieote deceased saiiate seem nore: Crap int sete aotearoa abl Examples of Word Formation and Scoring ..............-..-0005 12 Options and Features: ic is ccwisc oe 05 oa bee 28 Se ae es 13 SWAt6OY ecttesc ae se ameehnida et sa aealnente pee eee 18 Scrabble® Brand Crossword Game is a registered trademark of Milton Bradley Company. ©1990 Milton Bradley Company. All Rights Reserved. HISTORY For Scrabble® fiends the world over, the name Alfred Mosher Butts scores high. An out-of-work architect during the Depression, Butts was a life-long devotee of anagrams and crossword puzzles. In 1931, Butts invented a word game called “Crisscross Words.” This ingenious combination of strategy and luck was renamed Scrabble® in 1948. Although very-popular with his family and friends, nothing much really happened with the game until after World War Il, when Butts ran into his business-partner-to-be, James Brunot. Brunot worked out the kinks of the game and arranged for a professional to design the board. Produc- tion began in a little red schoolhouse and sales slowly increased. In the 1950's, Scrabble® Crossword Game erupted into a national pas- sion. People who had discovered the word game at summer resorts returned home to tell their friends about the new craze. Word spread, and the department stores, taken by surprise, began to deluge Brunot with orders. For the next year, people were lined up at store counters praying for shipments. This “overnight success” has since sold over a 100 million copies world-wide. There are an estimated 33 million leisure Scrabble® players in the U.S. and Canada alone. Among those 33 million are over 10,000 enthusiasts who belong to the 200 pius licensed NATIONAL Scrabble® ASSOCIATION clubs, which meet every week throughout the U.S. and Canada. Outside North America and Australia, only Israel, the home of the Dead Sea Open, plays by American rules. The British play a game that is almost cooperative in nature and adamantly refuse to accept The Official Scrabble® Players Dictionary as the final authority in word verification, preferring to use Chambers 20th-Century Dictionary. Today, there are several thousand people in the English-speaking world who compete in Scrabble® tournaments. Each year the over 80 sanc- tioned Scrabble® tournaments attract players of all levels from curious novices to experts and usually encompass ten rounds of play over a two-day weekend. Contestants are allowed up to three minutes per turn, with games limited to a total of 60 minutes. A normal game will have 13 to 19 turns per side. Advanced players use chess clocks to time their moves, using less than 25 minutes per player. Over 400 players are certified Scrabble® experts. To achieve this envia- ble status, players must average 350-400 points a game in club and tournament play. Most tournament standards are compiled by a combi- nation of won/lost record and margin of victory. Why has the popularity of Scrabble® endured? Afficionados adore Scrabble for its endless, unpredictable variety. According to one cham- 1 pion Scrabbler, “In your whole life you will never, ever repeat a game. You will never pick the same tiles and neither will your opponent. So, no matter how often you play, every game unfolds a completely new set of challenges.” Enjoy! THE DELUXE COMPUTER EDITION OF SCRABBLE® BRAND CROSS- WORD GAME This Deluxe Computer version of Scrabble® offers you the opportunity to match wits with friends or intelligent computer players, or a combina- tion of both. The game allows up to four players. If your opponent is the computer, you may assign it a skill level ranging from 1 (novice) to 9 (extremely skillful). Commands and features available to the user are easily accessed through the pull-down menu system employed by this game. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS The Deluxe Computer Edition of Scrabble® requires a full 640K of memory and, although it can be played using a floppy drive system, it is recommended that you copy it onto your hard disk. If you have an addi- tional 2.5 meg of room available on the hard drive, you can make use of the full Official Scrabble® Players Dictionary for definitions. The mechanics of the game employ the use of a mouse. While the joystick and keyboard options are offered and will, of course, work, it is strongly suggested for best results that a mouse be used. LOADING INSTRUCTIONS Before Starting: To inform the game exactly what kind of hardware you have and how you prefer the game to run, you must first run the setup program that has been supplied with the game, using the following procedure: 1) Insert the Scrabble® program disk into the floppy drive of your com- puter. If you have 720K disks, insert Disk 1 for EGA/CGA or Disk 2 for Tandy/VGA. 2) Select that drive (For example, if you are running a floppy disk in drive A, you must type A:). 3) Type INSTALL and press ENTER. 4) You will see a series of prompts on the screen, listing the options relating to video displays, input devices, and whether or not you wish to install the game on your hard disk drive. Use the arrow keys to move the selection cursor to whatever option you want to select, and press ENTER. If you change your mind, or make the wrong selection, use the arrow key to move back up the screen and reselect the correct setup. 5) At any time, you may abort the INSTALL program by pressing ESC. Loading From a Floppy Disk Drive: Before you are able to run off floppy, you must run the INSTALL pro- gram as detailed above and choose ‘‘(S)ET UP AND CONFIGURE.” 1) 360K — If you have ordered the 360K diskettes from Virgin Master- tronic, you must install all the files from these disks onto a hard drive in order to play the game. 2) 720K — One of the two disks will be appropriate for your system (Disk 1 for EGA/CGA or Disk 2 for Tandy /VGA). Insert the appropri- ate disk into the drive and select that drive (eg., ‘A:”). At the DOS prompt, type SCRABBLE and then press RETURN. 3) 1.2 Meg — First, run the INSTALL program and then type SCRABBLE. Press RETURN. Loading From a Hard Disk Drive: At the C > prompt, change to the Scrabble® directory, then type SCRABBLE and then press RETURN. Example: CD SCRABBLE <RETURN> SCRABBLE <RETURN> When you install the Deluxe Scrabble® program onto your hard disk, all four graphic modes are installed: TANDY, CGA, EGA and VGA. Since you only really need one graphic mode installed on your hard disk to play the game, you may wish to delete the other files. For example, if you are playing with a CGA graphic card and you wish to delete the EGA file to create more room on your hard drive, follow the steps below: Type DEL EGA’*.* at the DOS prompt. Follow the same procedure for any of the following files you-wish to delete using the file names listed below: NAME OF GRAPHIC MODE FILE NAME TANDY TDY CGA CGA EGA EGA VGA VGA NOTE: It is possible to delete the game program entirely if you do not follow the above instructions carefully. 3.5” Users To upgrade from floppy or hard drive just run the INSTALL.EXE file from one of the following: Disk One for EGA or CGA Computers Disk Two for VGA or Tandy-16 Computers Hard Drive (if you have already installed the game on your hard drive) 5.25” Low Density Users Due to the compressed state of the 5.25” low density version of Deluxe Scrabble, you must completely re-install the game when upgrading hardware. To do this, delete all of the files in the /SCRABBLE directory and then run the INSTALL.EXE file from Disk One. 5.25” High Density Users To upgrade from floppy or hard drive simply run the INSTALL.EXE from one of the following: Disk One for EGA, VGA, CGA, Tandy-16 Computers Hard Drive (if you have already installed the game on your hard drive) WARNING: DO NOT COPY FILES TO THE HARD DRIVE IF YOU HAVE ALREADY INSTALLED DELUXE SCRABBLE ONTO THE HARD DRIVE, AS THIS MAY CAUSE PROBLEMS LOADING THE GAME. General Information 1. Deluxe Scrabble supports printers which can print the standard IBM character set. 2. If you are playing with a mouse, be sure you have already loaded the mouse driver before starting the game. 3. When running on a Tandy 1000SL series computer, the opening graphics screen will not be displayed. There will be a slight delay before the screen changes and the game starts. Do not panic, this is normal when running on a SL computer. 4, Using Definitions. If you would like to use the word definitions that are included in this package you must do the following. You must have a hard disk and you must copy the definitions to the hard disk during the initial installation procedure. To do this, select your video display, select your input device, check on copy files to hard disk, and check on copy definitions. If you do not wish to change the default installation drive and directory, select setup game. Note: You may only copy definitions to the hard drive during the initial installation. You cannot install the definitions if the game has already been installed on the hard drive. Joystick Users: If you are using a Joystick with a Tandy machine, be sure that it is plugged into the left joystick port. Mouse Users: Due to the incompatibilities of some mouse drivers, Deluxe Scrabble has a feature that will allow you to toggle, or adjust, the sensitivity or travel of the mouse cursor. Press the F2 key if your mouse cursor only travels twice the distance of the screen when you wanted it to halt sooner. GAME CONTROLS Mouse: The mouse is used to move the hand cursor. FIRE - Left mouse button Joystick: The joystick is used to move the hand cursor around in the direction that the joystick is being pushed. FIRE - Fire button one Keyboard: The arrow keys, or the numeric keypad, will move the hand cursor around in the direction indicated on the arrow. FIRE - ENTER or Space Bar Note: No matter how many human players there are in a game, (up to four players are allowed) all players must use the same input device. For example, if a joystick is selected in the setup pro- gram, then all players will use the same joystick during gameplay. PULL-DOWN MENUS Once the Scrabble® program is loaded, the program titles are displayed and the main play screen appears. Starting from the upper left corner, you will see the words File, Play, Timer, Arbitrator, Skill and Special. Under each of these headings, you will find option menus. To access these pull-down menus, you will use one of the following CLICK and DRAG methods: With a Mouse: Use the mouse to move the hand cursor up to the menu heading of your choice and hold the left mouse button (FIRE) down as you move the hand cursor down the menu. When the option you wish to use is highlighted, release the FIRE button. With a Joystick: Use the joystick to move the hand cursor to the menu heading of your choice and hold the FIRE button down while you move the hand up or down the menu. When the option you wish to use is highlighted, release the FIRE button. With a Keyboard: Use the arrow keys or the numeric keypad to move the hand cursor to the menu heading of your choice. Hold the space bar or the ENTER key (FIRE) down as you use the arrows to move the hand cursor down the menu. When the option you wish to use is high- lighted, release the FIRE button. TO START THE GAME Move the hand cursor to the File menu heading. Click and drag until you are highlighting the New Game option. Release the FIRE button (the left mouse button, the joystick fire button or the space bar or ENTER key) to activate that option. CHOOSING PLAYERS Next, you will see a screen that says Number of Players. Move the hand cursor down to the box which contains the number of players (human, computer or a mixture of both) you wish to have in the game. Press the FIRE button. Next, you will be asked to enter the name of Player 1. Once you have typed in the name, move the hand cursor down to the “OK” box and press FIRE. Now you must select the skill level of Player 1. For Computer Players: Choose levels 1-9, 1 being the least difficult and 9 being the most challenging. Move the hand cursor to the skill level of your choice and press FIRE. . For Human Players: Move the hand cursor to the box marked HUMAN, and press FIRE. Use the above method for any additional players. GAME SETUP After you have selected the number of players, given names to each of these participants and assigned skill levels to the computer players, the game starts. The game automatically starts with the Thinking option on and the contents of each player’s rack displayed. If you don’t wish to see what tiles the other players have and you don't wish to have your rack displayed either, move the hand cursor up to the Arbitrator menu heading. Click and drag until the Racks Off option is highlighted. Releasing FIRE will than activiate the Racks Off option. Similarily, if you would prefer not to see a listing of the words that the computer player is thinking of using, move the hand cursor to the Arbitrator menu heading. Click and Drag until the Thinking Off option is highlighted. Releasing the FIRE button will activate the Thinking Off option. Initially turned off, the game has a built in Timer feature which the players can use to make the game more interesting and to limit the “thinking time” available to all participants. The time limits allowed for a player’s turn range from 10-seconds to 1 hour. With the pull-down menu, the timer can easily and quickly be set, reset or turned off for any player at any point in the game. A complete explanation of all the Options and Features available in this deluxe computer edition of Scrabble® will appear later in the manual. STANDARD PLAY Object: In Scrabble®, players form interlocking words, crossword fashion, on the board using letter tiles of different values. Each player competes for high score by taking advantage of the letter tiles, as well as the premium squares on the board. In a 2-player game, a good player scores in the 300-400 point range. THE PLAY Each participant is automatically given seven tiles from the bag. 1. The current player’s rack, along with their name and word score, is displayed at the bottom of the screen. HUMAN PLAYERS Taking A Turn The first player combines two or more of their letters to form a word and places them on the board to read either across or down with one letter on the center square (indicated by a pink square with a star in the middle of it). Diagonal words are not permitted. You must move the hand cursor to the rack of large tiles at the bottom of the screen. Pressing the FIRE button will cause the hand to pick up whatever tile it is resting on. Move the hand cursor with the tile onto the Scrabble board. When the tile is placed on the board where you want it, press the FIRE button again to release it. To pick the piece up again and move it to another place, or to return it to the rack, just re- press the FIRE button. If you have placed a few tiles onto the board and wish to start all over again, move the hand cursor to the “CANCEL” icon on the lower left part of the screen and press FIRE. All tiles which were placed during this turn will be returned automatically to the rack. When you have finished placing the tiles on the board, move the hand cursor to the “OK” icon and press FIRE. If the word is not.found in the User Dictionary, you will see the following icons: “CANCEL,” “ADD” or “OK.” You may cancel the word and continue playing by moving the hand cursor to the “CANCEL” icon and pressing FIRE. If you would like to go ahead and play the word, move the hand cursor to the “OK” icon and press FIRE. If you select the “ADD” icon, the computer will not only allow you to play the word, but it will add it to the User Dictionary so that all subsequent uses of the word will not be challenged. If the word played is found to be legal, it will be accepted, and the game will move on to the next player. As the player is placing the word on the board, an ongoing score is shown in the lower left of the screen so the player can see how many points he will earn at any given time. Once a word has been played, tiles are automatically drawn from the bag to replace the one just used. In the lower left corner is a representation of the tile bag with the number of tiles still left after each turn written on it. Once all the tiles have been drawn the game is over. SUBSEQUENT TURNS The second player, and then each in turn, adds one or more letters to those already played to form new words. All letters played on a turn 9 must be placed in one row across or down the board, to form one complete word. If, at the same time, they touch other letters in adjacent rows, they must form complete words, crossword fashion, with all such letters. The player gets full credit for all words formed or modified on his/her turn. RULES FOR FORMING NEW WORDS 1) New words may be formed by: a. Adding one or more letters to a word or letters already on the board. b. Placing a word at right angles to a word already on the board. The new word must use one of the letters already on the board or must add a letter to it. c. Placing a complete word parallel to a word already played so that adjacent letters also form complete words. 2) No letter may be shifted after it has been played. (Except when using the diabolical Edit Board option, which will be described fully in the OPTIONS AND FEATURES section.) . 3 The two blank tiles may be used as any letters. When playing a blank, you must indicate which letter it represents by moving the hand cursor to the alphabet screen that comes up when the blank is played. Pressing FIRE on the letter of your choice will select that let- ter. It remains that letter for the rest of the game. 4 A player must use a turn to exchange all, some or none of the let- ters in his or her rack. To do this, move the hand cursor to the Play menu heading and Click and Drag until the Change option is high- lighted. Release the FIRE button to activate this option. Next, you will be shown a small rack on which you must indicate the tiles you wish to exchange. Move the hand to the large rack of tiles at the bottom right of the screen and select which letters you wish to exchange by pressing FIRE. To de-select any of your letters, move the hand cursor over the small rack and press FIRE on that letter. If you select CANCEL, the operation stops. If you select DONE, the exchange is complete and you must wait until your next turn to make a play. 5) Any words found in The Official Scrabble® Players Dictionary or the User’s Dictionary included in the game are permitted except proper names, (usually commencing with a capital letter), those designated as foreign words, abbreviations and words requiring apostrophes or hypens. 6 Ending the Game: The game ends when all letters have been drawn and one player uses his or her last letter; or when all possible moves have been made. 10 COMPUTER PLAYERS The computer player will consider its best play based on the status of the board and the tiles held in its tray. The computer selects words depending on the “weight” a particular word has and the skill level assigned to that player. Each skill level has a minimum weight that must be met before the word is selected. The computer will use the first word it finds to meet its skill level “weight.” SCORING 1) The score for each turn is the sum of the letter values in each word formed or modified on that turn, plus the additional points obtained from placing letters on premium squares. TILE VALUES (A,|B,|C,)D,|E,|F,|G,)H,) | [N, O, P,/Q,, R, Ss, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z,, } q e A é r = é DISTRIBUTION OF TILES 27274 e273 2 ANWAWA"\WA WA 3A PAS) 6B N2N1 N64 7674 NI /o)|/P|_/a\ Y/R) S|) u N 1/\2 z 2) Premium Letter Squares: A light blue square doubles the score of a letter placed on it; a dark blue square triples the letter scores. 3} Premium Word Squares: The score for an entire word is doubled when one of its letters is placed on a pink square; it is tripled when one of its letters is placed on a red square, Include premiums for double or triple letter values, if any, before doubling or tripling the word score. If a word covers two premium word squares, the score is doubled then re-doubled (4 times the letter count), or tripled then re-tripled (9 times the letter count). NOTE: the center square is pink, which doubles the score for the first word. 4 Letter and word premiums count only on the turn in which they are placed. On later turns, letters already played on premium squares count at face value. 5 When a blank tile is played on a pink or red square, the value of the word is doubled or tripled, even though the blank itself has no score value. an 6) When two or more words are formed in the same play, each is scored. The common letter is counted (with full premium value, if any) for each word. z Any player who plays seven tiles on a turn, scores a premium of 50 points (a BINGO”) after totaling his or her score for the turn. 2 Unplayed Letters: When the game ends, each player's score is reduced by the sum of his or her unplayed letters. In addition, if a player used all letters, the sum of the other player's unplayed letters is added to that player's score. EXAMPLES OF WORD FORMATION AND SCORING In the following, each word added in successive turn is shown in a box. The scores shown are the correct scores if the letter R is placed on the center square. In turn 1, count HORN; in turn 2, FARM; in turn 3, PASTE and FARMS; in turn 4, MOB, NOT and BE. TURN 2: Score 9 TURN 1: Score 14 =) CO CAC? M, —) TURN 3: Score 25 TURN 4: Score 16 F, F, — — A, A, eas —) H,)|0,)|R, RN, M, O, B, P, A, Ss, T 1 E 1 12 HOW TO WIN The player with the highest final score wins the game. In case of a tie, the player with the highest score before adding or deducting unplayed letters wins. OPTIONS AND FEATURES Under File New Game: At any time, you can start up a new game with the New Game option. If the game is already underway, you will be asked if you wish to abandon the current game. Load Game: At any time, you can load a saved game and start up where you left off. If a game is already under way, you will be asked if you wish to abandon the current game. Save Game: You may save a game at any point. After you select Save Game option, you will be asked to type in the name of the game you wish to save. Save Options: Many of the options mentioned are likely to be used over and over again. Rather than always re-selecting the same options, you can use the Save Options option and save the desired option setup. At the beginning of each game, as the computer is loading in all the items needed, it looks for the OPTIONS.DAT file. If it finds this file, it uses the options contained therein. If it doesn’t find the OPTIONS.DAT file, it uses the default settings. It will also use the default settings if the command line which invoked the game contained the “/n’” override. Quit: At any time, you may opt to quit the game. Under Play: Hint: If you’re stumped, you may request a hint using the pull- down menu or CONTROL-H. The computer will look for a word that can be played with the player’s tiles. When a word has been found, the player can cancel the whole request, ask it to look for yet another word, or opt to use the hinted word. Juggle: Using the pull-down menu (or CONTROL-J), the tiles of the human player can instantly be juggled about. This is very useful for making possible words more apparent. There is no limit to how many times your tiles can be juggled. G/L, |S, /E,|J.|/G. vl) [lide U,]/G,/G,]L,//E,/s Change: If you are not happy with the tiles in your rack, you can exchange your tiles using the pull-down menu or CONTROL-C. You will be shown a small rack and you will be told to select the tiles you wish to exchange. Move the hand cursor to the large rack of tiles at the bottom right of the screen and select which letters you wish to exchange by pressing FIRE. To de-select any of your letters, move the hand cursor over to the small rack and press FIRE on that letter. Pass: At any time during your turn, you may opt to “PASS” for any reason. Tile Values: Through the pull-down menu (or CONTROL-V), the values of all tiles can be displayed at any time. Distribution: The distribution of tiles in the beginning tile bag can also be seen at any time by using the pull-down menu or CONTROL-D. Premiums: Use the pull-down menu or CONTROL-M to display the pre- mium tiles. Force: If you wish, you may use the pull-down menu or CONTROL-F to force the computer player to use the best word it has found up to that point. If the computer player hasn’t found anything by that point, it will either pass or change tiles. Under Timer: Initially turned off, the game has a built-in timer feature which the players can use to make the game more interesting and to limit the thinking time available to all participants. The range of time limits availa- ble is from 10-seconds to 1 hour. With the pull-down menu, the timer 14 can be easily and quickly set, reset or turned off at any time for any player. Under Arbitrator: Edit Board: If you are unhappy with the status of the board and wish to change it, or to preset it in a certain way, you can use the very power- ful “EDIT BOARD” feature. If this feature is selected, you will be shown a replica of the game board, each of the player’s racks, and all of the unused tiles. Using the hand cursor, pick up and move to any valid location any of the tiles. This includes pulling tiles from the racks and even from the board. This continues until you are satisfied with the racks and the board. Pressing the button while on the CANCEL icon, will return the game with the old status restored. Pressing the button while on the DONE icon will return to the game with the newly selected status. NOTE: IT IS REQUIRED THAT ALL THE CURRENT RACKS BE FILLED AS LONG AS THERE ARE TILES LEFT. Printout: A complete history of the current game is kept in the com- puter log. Using the “Printout’ option, the user can send this history to the printer in an easy to read format. This printout starts with the cur- rent setting, showing the board status as well as what is in each of the racks. Then there is a play-by-play of each player’s moves. The printout shows the tiles the person had at the start of the play, what tiles were played where and what new tiles the player got as replacements. No 2-Letter Words: Some players look with disdain upon those players who seek to play a simple two letter word by tacking one letter onto an existing letter. With the “No 2-Letter Word” option, just a single 2-letter word cannot be played. At least one 3+ letter word must be played. No S-words: In certain circles, it is considered unscrupulous to simply tack on an “S” at the end of a word and claim full credit. If the “No S- Word” option is chosen, the players (computer and human) cannot sim- ply add this letter to the end of the word and nothing else. NOTE: If another word is formed by putting the S at the end of a previ- ous word, then the play is acceptable. For example, a player can play the word “soft” down by putting an S at the end of the across word “wind,” thus making two words and a legal play. Just putting the S at the end of the across word WIND would not be considered legal. Racks Off/On: With the “Racks On” option, the left side of the screen shows the tiles that each player has in their racks. With the “Racks Off” option, these tiles are not visible. The former is more interesting. The latter results in more difficult, and realistic play. 15 Change Sides: If you are dissatisfied with your status in the game, you may switch scores and status with any other player. When the “Change Sides” option is selected, move the hand cursor to the left side of the screen in the region of the desired player (i.e., next to his/her name or rack) and press the FIRE button. The switch is instantly made. Fast/Slow Game: Speeds up the game a bit by removing any delays that occur after messages pertaining to the computer players appear. Messages for human players are unaffected by this option. Sound On/Off: Allows you to toggle the sound effects on or off. Centering Off: When placing tiles on the board, the program will try to intelligently guess which square the tile should go on based on which square the tile is covering the most. If you choose to turn the centering option off, the upper-left corner of the held tile will determine which square is targeted for placement. Edit User Dictionary: In addition to the lengthy The Official Scrabble® Players Dictionary, the game has a User Dictionary. When the human player plays a word that the computer can't find in its dictionary, it tells the player so. The player can “CANCEL” this word and continue playing, click on “OK” to tell the computer to use the word anyway or click on “ADD,” which not only uses the word but also adds it to the User Dictionary so that subsequent uses of the word will not be challenged. Using the “Edit User Dictionary” option, the player can move through the dictionary to examine the words contained therein and to delete any words he/she no longer wants to have included. To Delete a Word: Move the hand cursor to the word to be deleted and press FIRE. To de-select the word, press FIRE again. Selected words are highlighted. When you have finished, select the “OK” icon, and the newly modified User Dictionary is again saved to disk. The User Dictionary has the file name “USERDICT. DAT.” The player can always just delete that file and throw away all the old words. Any subsequent additions to the dictionary will be to a brand new file. Take Back: The “Take Back” feature is one of the most powerful fea- tures included in this game. The feature displays a VCR style button dis- play with which the player can pick the “Rewind,” “Play” and “Forward” options. Rewind moves the player back one move at a time, all the way back to the beginning of the game. Forward moves the player forward to the present time. 16 Play causes the game to stop the “Take Back” feature ard restart the play at that point. This feature allows you to review all previous moves and start over from any point. For example, you can use the “rewind” option to return to a previous move and throw out that move and all subsequent moves. Under Skill: At the beginning of the game, the user selects the players and specifies their skill levels. Using the Skill pull-down menu during gameplay, you can modify these skill settings. You can even change a computer player to a human one and vice versa. Positional Off: The computer player weighs each word as it considers it for possible play. It uses the value of the tile and the value of Premium squares that would be used. If the “Positional Weighting” option is picked, additional weights are used based on other factors such as using hard-to-place letters (like Q and Z) and being near, but not using, premium squares. Edit Weights: The weights assigned to each factor as used in the com- puter player’s selection (and the Hint mode) can be modified. Hint Level: The skill level used in the Hint search can be modified through the “Hint Level’ option. The skill level concept is the same as used by the computer players, thus a low skill level will cause the Hint mode to pick just about any word it finds, while a high skill level will make it far more selective. Under Special: Anagram: The “Anagram” feature lets the user search through The Offi- cial Scrabble® Players Dictionary for matches. The player enters in up to 8 letters. The computer will then scramble these letters into every pos- sible combination and then look into the dictionary to see if the combi- nation is a legal word. Once the searching is done, the player can see all these words in the viewing window, scrolling up and down through the list as needed. Crossword: The “Crossword” feature is similar to the Anagram feature above. The player enters the word desired, using the *** (astericks) to mark wild cards characters. The computer then looks through the dic- tionary for matches. For example: If the player entered MI*E, the computer will look for any four letter word which starts with M and | and ends in E. Entering ***L*, will cause the program to search for any five-letter word which has an “L’ in the fourth position. Definition: The “Definition” feature is available only to those who have enough room on their hard drive to hold the 2.5 meg definitions file. To use, the player enters the word he/she wishes to have defined. The computer will then look through the dictionary for that word and, if it is in there, will display the entry exactly as it is found in The Official Scrabble® Players Dictionary. Define Last Word: The “Define Last Word” feature uses the Definition feature on the last word displayed in the game. Location of the Dictionary: The game assumes, unless told otherwise, that the dictionary file used to play the game (DICTION.DAT) is located on the same drive and in the same subdirectory as the rest of the game. It is possible to move this file to some other location to speed up the play of the game (such as to the hard drive if playing on a floppy system or to a Ramdisk). If this option is desired, the user must first copy the DICTION.DAT file to the desired location. Then, when loading in the game, the user can type after the command SCRABBLE the parameter ‘/Dx’’ where “x” equals the new path. Examples: SCRABBLE/DF: - would look for it in the root directory on drive/ramdisk F: SCRABBLE/DC: \TEMP - would look for it in the subdirectory TEMP on the drive C: STRATEGY A scrabble master is not born; like the alphabet he uses, he is made. An enormous amount of training lies behind his apparent gift. First, all of the OSPD’s two-letter words must be memorized. Also learned are which ones can be pluralized and which ones cannot. For instance, ka can take an s but xu can't. Next, all three-letter words, like kab, and those that stand alone, like neb. After this, all four-letter words that hook to three-letter words (for example, rani and taro) must be memorized. Then all four-letter words are memorized. Short words are not a majority of all words in the language, but they are disproportionately important in Scrabble. In a typical game they account for three quarters of the words put down and for more than half the points scored. Knowing these two-, three- and four-letter words makes possible the dumping of unwanted letters and the hoarding of important ones. This is known as rack management. Learning all the English words of four letters is the most valuable of the memorizing operations. Just knowing which ones are verbs and which 18 ones adjectives increases the likelihood of making ‘“‘bingos” — that is, laying down all seven letters in one’s rack, thereby earning fifty bonus points. For instance, if you know that foit is a verb, then you can make a bingo with toiting. Or if you remember that /ogy is an adjective, then logiest can clear your rack. Mastering Scrabble does not, however, end at the fours. All five-letter words that hook to fours, like ranid and taroc, must be learned. How- ever, not even champions can memorize all five- and six-letter words, and these play a small role in the game. In fact, the only predictable situation in which knowing a five-letter-word list comes in handy is that of wanting to join a triple-letter square to the double-word-score square five places away. Master players concentrate their efforts on the memorization of useful words only. To begin with, they learn longer hooks. For instance, chore can become chorea, which can become choreal. Also, they concentrate on learning what to do with vowel- or consonant-heavy racks. Four con- sonants and three vowels are the best combination for a seven-letter word. Think about it: how many five-letter words do you know with four vowels in them? A Scrabble master knows them all. Putting down oorie, ourie, aevia, oidia, or zoae cleans out a vowel-heavy rack and gets points. How many words do you know with no vowels whatsoever (other than y)? The Scrabble master knows nth, cwm, crwth, phpht, and tsktsks, among others, and so can deal with a consonant-heavy rack. He learns bingo words that are overbearingly vowelish. Ask a Scrabble grand master what five 8-letter words contain six vowels and he will answer, as if bored by the obviousness of the inquiry, eulogiae, epopoeia, aboideau, aboiteau, and aureolae. Next to be studied is the so-called three-percent list. The three-percent list was pioneered by a psychologist, Michael Baron, of Albuquerque. It is based on the assumption that of the 76,000 bingos listed in the OSPD, most can be discarded as unlikely ever to appear on a Scrabble rack; a few thousand, however, will appear over and over again. There are, for example, two Vs in a Scrabble set. Trying to memorize bingos with Vs in them is inefficient, because picking one is relatively unlikely. However, there are twelve Es in the game, eight Os, six Rs, six Ns, and so on. The chance that on your first draw you will pick any of the twelve letters contained in Baron's list of bingos is three percent or bet- ter — hence the name. Baron also discovered that certain six-letter combiantions occur with uncanny frequency. By learning the six-letter words and all the possible sevens that can be made from them, players can digest an enormous number of new words and immediately find the bingo when a familiar combination is picked. The letters in satine can form sixty other words with the addition of a seventh letter, and the letters in retina can form almost as many. Consider the word amines, meaning certain chemical compounds. It has six letters, and by adding a seventh you can make a bingo. Try it. Okay, 19 you've failed. But if you were familiar with the list, you wouldn’t have fumbled with the letters, arranging and rearranging them for the solution. You would say amines with a d is sideman or maidens. With a git's seaming or gamines; with an J, seminal; with an r, seminar or marines; and so on. The strategy is to assemble a six-letter word known to be fertile territory for seven-letter words and just add the missing letter from memory. Thus, the astute player assembles satine or amines, recalls his list, and makes estesian or samisen. Another tool is the Scrabble “bonus-word” list, which was assembled by three competitive players, Stuart Goldman, David Schulman, and Edward Andy. Schulman is a contributor to the Oxford English Dictionary and the author of An Annotated Bibliography of Cryptography. He has writ- ten many articles about words for American Speech magazine and would be expected to be a Scrabble star. Goldman holds the record for the most official Scrabble games played in a lifetime, but neither he nor Andy has anything in his background extraneous to Scrabble to suggest a mastery of words. The Scrabble bonus-word list is similar to the three- percent list, but it takes into account all letters, even the rare high- scoring ones. It is not as mathematically precise as Baron's list but rather reflects the combined instincts of three great Scrabble players. It's arranged in alphabetical order. For instance, if you have AAABLST on your rack and you're stumped, and after the game you look at the bonus list, you will discover, to your amazement, that you had not one but three bingos: atabals, balatus, and albatas. Whatever the regimen recommended by the experts, the fact remains that memorization is a highly personal act. One memorizes more easily what one relates to or finds congenially systematic. A common tool for word memory is mnemonics, or association. One example is the ladder trick—building words by adding a letter at a time. Here are three examples: he, her, herm, therm, therme, thermel, thermels pa, pal, opal, copal, copalm, copalms lo, log, logy, ology, oology, zoology All these words, by the way, can be found in the OSPD. Joel Wapnick is a professor of music at McGill University and Canada’s Scrabble champion. He has memorized more than 16,000 bingos and is considered one of Scrabble's top theoreticians. In the Scrabble Players News he had some words of wisdom for those who might wish to memorize almost 20,000 mostly ridiculous words: There are many mnemonic devices that all of us use to simplify the memorization process. Suppose for some strange reason you want to memorize the following nine words: victoria, ophid- 20 ian, diplopia, fixation, miaowing, hominian, himation, hospitia and pavilion. Those happen to be my list of 8 letter words that have the four vowel aiio plus two high point tiles. If you simply rehearse them over and over again, it’s not likely that they will be remembered over a long period of time. Instead you might look for some structure in the words. For example words 6, 7 and 8 begin with the letter H. Words 1, 2, 3 and 4 have a pattern in their last letters: a-n-a-n. Or perhaps the number 41243 can be remembered—it stands for the tile value of the first letter of words 1 through 5, and can serve to cue these words in. Knowing many words is invaluable in two ways. First, it saves time. In tournament play each competitior has only twenty-five minutes to com- plete a game. If he goes over the time limit, he is penalized ten points per extra minute. Second, it reduces the importance of luck as a factor in the game. Because the letters are chosen randomly, anyone can get bad ones. It is estimated that the outcome of high-level Scrabble games is determined by luck in one game out of six. The percentage, of course, increases with ineptitude, and with ignorance of useful words. Because of the recent upsurge in word knowledge, owing to the introduction of new word lists and memorization schemes, Scrabble strategy has changed completely during the past decade. It used to be considered smart to block or clog up a board so that no one could put down a bingo. Today the top players hate it when their hard memory work goes for naught, and they tend to play wide-open, aggressive Scrabble in the hope of putting down a three-percent word they have learned. One strategy that has been the subject of recent debate is the hoarding of certain letter combinations. For instance, if your rack held, E, R, and S, you would play the other four tiles and pick again, since many four- letter words can take an ers suffix or an re at the beginning and an s at the end. (The idea is eventually to draw letters that in conjunctions with ERS will produce a bingo.) The ERS combination is usually still hoarded. But what if you pick ING (or NG and see an open | on the board)? Do you play your other letters and hope that the next draw will provide a verb to which you can add the ING? There is serious controversy in the Scrabble world over ING. Many of the best players say, “Break up the combination if it means better points and position. | know so many words that | can keep digging for new letters instead of wasting my time hoping for a verb.” Some very good players demur, arguing that so many bingos end in ing that it’s a mistake to break the combination up. To be in favor of breaking it up shows that you have great confidence in your vocabulary. In the view of some players, it also shows that you have a lack of common sense. 21 Other questions, too, have yet to be answered definitively—for example, the proper use of the Q in midgame. Without a U, the Q is almost use- less. Only a few words accept q without its natural mate. (They are qaid, qoph, qindar, qintar, and faqir.) Because the Q is commonly exchanged—at the cost of a turn—it often appears in the end game. Any player unable to rid himself of it is not only prevented from making a bingo but also loses twenty points if the letter is still in his rack when his opponent runs out of letters. The Q has been considered more thoroughly than any other consonant except the S. Its frequency of appearance at every position in a seven-letter word has been tallied. Still the arguments rage. When is it wise to dump the Q? When is it wise to hold onto it? How can | stick my opponent with it and avoid hav- ing it boomerang into my rack again? There are aspects of Scrabble that are still dominated by luck. For instance, if two players of good but equal ability pair off, the one who picks the lowest letter and starts first has a substantially better chance of eventually winning. And there is no explaining the existence of streaks and slumps, which most players have experienced. Furthermore, there have been many average players who have surged beyond expec- tations and played like champions, only to regain typical form and never do so again. Yet ultimately, the best players have reduced the element of luck con- siderably. When not making lists, they are inventing new challenges and puzzles to keep their minds flexible and their word knowledge growing. —From “Master of the Tiles,” an article written by Barry Chamish for the June 1987 edition of THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY. 22 CREDITS FOR THE DELUXE COMPUTER EDITION SCRABBLE® BRAND CROSSWORD GAME PROGRAMMER Randall Don Masteller GRAPHIC ARTIST Rob Landeros COMPUTER GAME DESIGNER Steve Clarke MANUAL WRITER Lisa Marcinko Special thanks to Laura Obenour and Cathy Meredith at Hasbro Licensing and to Barry Chamish. 1DS-1. 18001 Cowan Street, Suite A, Irvine,CA 92714 714-833-8710