THE SPECTRUM GAME DATABASE
SCRABBLE
PUBLISHER
Psion
AUTHOR
Psion and Peter Turcan
YEAR
1983
DESCRIPTION
The name says it all. This is an extremely competently written
version of the popular board-game with the added benefit that
everybody can always see the board the right way up. The game has
a fairly sizeable dictionary and will play against you in one of
four levels. The fourth level should be enough to beat all but
the most serious Scrabble hack, and I find level two more about
my limit.
Although the dictionary is large, it doesn't have *every* word
in the dictionary so be prepared to be challenged on some pretty
common words. The dictionary is optimised for playing scrabble,
so it contains a lot of small words most of which defy belief.
There is also the option of 'watching the computer think' which
basically means that you will see various words tried out on the
board before the computer finally makes up its mind. Nice touch.
All in all this is one of the best board games conversions I've
ever seen and is well worth trying out.
CONTROLS
Cursor movement 5,6,7,8
Play word across a
Play word down d
Then type in the word you wish to place. To play a BLANK press
SPACE then the letter you are nominating for the BLANK.
INLAY CARD TEXT
This is an excerpt from section B of the booklet accompanying the
game:
------------------------------------------------------------
B. PLAYING COMPUTER SCRABBLE
Load and run the program by typing
LOAD "scrabble"
If you are unfamiliar with the rules of SCRABBLE, read the
preceeding sections of this booklet - but don't worry, the
computer will not allow you to make an illegal move.
After loading the program you will be asked a few questions
to determine various parameters such as how many players you wish
etc.. These questions and the required responses are listed
below:
1. Is you television colour or black and white: press C
for colour or B for black and white.
2. Do you wish to load a previously saved games: press Y
for Yes or N for No.
3. Select total number of players: press 1 to 4.
For each player in turn:
4. Do you wish the spectrum to play as this player: press
Y or N.
5. If yess then at what level do you wish the computer to
play: press 1 to 4 where 4 is the hardest level.
6. The name of the player: type the name then press ENTER
(a maximum of 8 letters for human players and 7 for any computer
players).
Finally,
7. Do you wish to see the computer thinking: press Y or
N. Selecting N means you don't see any computer players trying
words on the board, nor is the computer's letter rack displayed
on the screen during the move.
8. Do you want the computer to wait between its moves:
press Y or N.
The computer will then randomly choose who is the play
first, draw the SCRABBLE board and load the letter racks with the
letters - again selected completely at random. You can trust it
not to cheat!
The screen will then show the SCRABBLE board with a panel
to the right displaying the players' names and scores, along with
a list of options. There is also a full size display of the
current player's letter tiles, and his name will be flashing. A
description of the options available is given below:
OPTIONS
The various options are selected by pressing SYMBOL SHIFT
and the option letter eg. The option "VIEW RACKS" is selected by
typing SYMBOL SHIFT and V together. The options can be selected
at any time during the game, except when the computer is taking
its turn.
The options are:
V - VIEW RACKS this option displays the letters of all players
in the side panel. Restore the OPTIONS panel by pressing SYMBOL
SHIFT and O.
S - SYMBOLS this option calls up another display that indicates
the premium value squares. Return to the OPTIONS panel by
pressing SYMBOl SHIFT and O.
R - REARRANGE allows the current player to rearrange his letter
tiles on the racks. Having selected this option simply type your
letters in the order you wish to see them.
C - CHANGE if desperate you can change any or all of your letter
tiles, but this uses up your turn. Having selected this option
you are prompted to simply type the letters you wish to change.
If you make a mistake use the DELETE key. When satisfied press
ENTER. If you wish to PASS just press enter without having typed
any letters.
J - JUGGLE instructs the computer to rearrange the current
player's letter tiles in a random manner.
T - TILE VALUES displays the alphabet with corresponding scoring
values. Return to the OPTIONS panel with SYMBOL SHIFT and O, or
view the letter DISTRIBUTION with option D (SYMBOL SHIFT and D).
D - DISTRIBUTION displays the number of tiles of each letter that
are available at the start of the game.
Q - QUIT abandons the game and allows yo to either start another
or save the current game on a seperate blank cassette for
completion at a later date.
MAKING A MOVE
Once you have thought of a word you wish to play you need
to show the computer where to place the word. Move the cursor
with the keys 5 to 8 to where you want the word to start and
press A or D to indicate whether the word is to run Across or
Down the board.
You are now ready to play your word by simply typing it and
pressing ENTER when you've finished (you don't need to type any
letters that are already on the board, the computer will do it
for you).
Assuming that you haven't tried an illegal move the computer
will then score the move and ask you if you want to accept it or
try another: press Y for Yes or N to have another attempt. Once
you are happy with your move and have answered Yes the computer
will move your letters from the large rack on to the board and
refill your rack. After a brief pause to let you see your new
letters the computer will move on to the next player, but
remember you can still view your rack in the side panel by asking
the next player to select option V.
PLAYING A BLANK - when it comes to playing a blank letter the
procedure is slightly different. To play the blank letter press
the SPACE key once and the cursor will not move. Then type the
letter you wish the blank to represent and continue with the rest
of the word as normal. You will see that the blank tile displays
the letter you have nominated, but in inverse video to indicate
that it is a blank (with zero scoring value).
ILLEGAL MOVES - the computer will not let you use letters that
are not on your rack, so you can't cheat. Similarly it will not
accept words that are placed on the wrong part of the board and
will allow you to try again.
CHALLENGING - once you have made your move the computer will
search its vocabulary of over 11,000 words. If it can't find the
word, or any of the new words formed by the move, it will ask you
to confirm that the words are legal. Being a trusting computer
it will accept the word if you type Y, and reject it if you type
N. In the latter case you score nothing and lose your turn, as
per the rules.
This facility allows for challenges by other human players
who must not let the computer player type Y until the challenge
is settled! The computer itself cannot be challenged but it can
only play words that have been stored in its memory, and these
have been carefully checked for legality by a SCRABBLE expert.
FINISHING - at the end of the game the computer will reduce each
player's score by the sum of his unplayed letters, and if one
player has used all his letters his score will be increased by
the sum of the unplayed letters of the other players.
SAVING - a partly played game can only be reloaded from within
the main program so make sure you have loaded Computer SCRABBLE
from the original cassette first. Then take the QUIT option, from
where you can choose to reload an old game. This facility if also
available at the start of the program. you will be prompted to
enter the file name of your saved datafile, then press ENTER and
start your tape running.
STRATEGY - the computer has an element of strategy programmed
into it, so even at the hardest level (4) it may not play the
highest scoring word it can, perhaps hoarding a useful letter
like an S for a more profitable move. However it does not play
a negative strategy such as avoiding opening up a premium score
square to an opponent - it can beat you without adopting tactics
like that.
VOCABULARY - the computer's vocabulary contains over 11,000
words, an unprecedented achievement on a relatively small
computer. In order to ensure that the computer could play a
sufficient number of high scoring words some simple words in
everyday use have been omitted - so if the computer challenges
you and you are sure it is a permitted word, just answer Yes when
it asks if the word is acceptable. And remember, the computer's
vocabulary has been carefully checked by a SCRABBLE expert, so
it can't play any illegal words itself.
PSION acknowledges the contribution of Peter Turcan who has
worked with PSION and whose analysis of SCRABBLE forms the basis
of this program.
Computer SCRABBLE for the Spectrum has been written by PSION
under licence from LITTLE GENIUS Ltd (the exclusive licensees for
computer programs).
SCRABBLE trademark and copyright licensed by Scrabble
Schutzrechte und Handels Gmbh (a J.W. Spear and Sons PLC
subsidiary).
Copyright 1983 PSION Ltd. All rights reserved. No part of this
program, packaging or documentation (!) may be repoduced in any
form. Unauthorised copying, hiring, lending or sale and
repurchase prohibited.
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SCORES FOR LETTERS
A 1 N 1
B 3 O 1
C 3 P 3
D 2 Q 10
E 1 R 1
F 4 S 1
G 2 T 1
H 4 U 1
I 1 V 4
J 8 W 4
K 5 X 8
L 1 Y 4
M 3 Z 10
Blank 0
CHEATS
Obvious really - just put down any letters you want. The
computer will question it but will allow you to over-ride it.
However, this does defeat the whole object of the game.
SCORES RECEIVED
URL
ftp://ftp.dcc.uchile.cl/pub/OS/sinclair/snapshots/s/scrabble.zip
GENERAL FACTS
NOTES
You may want to push the speed of your emulator up a bit if you
have given the computer a high difficulty level, since it does
sometimes take a while to come up with a word.