The PDA of tungsten

In order to increase our collection of games for Palm, and to continue diminishing proportionally our productivity, today we will see how play in our Palm the Scrabble, the game of the crossed words. But as always, with quality: using free software and in addition with the words in Spanish. We begin knowing a little more near this game:

Scrabble is a popular table game for 2 or 4 players, in whom it scores forming words from cards that represent individual letters, placing them in a board of 15×15. The words form in horizontal vertical or, in the style of crucigramas, and have to appear in the standard dictionary (nothing of own names, for example).

The game, call initially “Criss-Crosswords” was created by architect Alfred Mosher Butts in 1938, like variant of another game also invented by him, Lexical. Both share cards and the scores of each letter, which Alfred calculated meticulously from its frequency of use in the English writing, using texts of New York Times. He did not have luck commercializing it, but in 1948 the lawyer James Brunot bought the right to make it in exchange for a percentage of the gains of the sale in each unit. Brunot practically left the game without touching, except the squares of advantage, that it redistributed, besides simplifying the rules. Also it changed the name to “Scrabble”. In 1953, incapable one to generate the sufficient sales, Brunot sold the manufacture rights, that happened of hand in hand until arriving at Hasbro and Mattel.

In order to know more about the origins and the history of this game, you can visit the own page of Mattel on the game (they are the possessors of the patent), a very interesting reading.

A game of Scrabble

The basic rules are the following:

• The game consists of forming words of two or more letters, and placing them in the board, horizontal or vertically, so that they can be read of left to right or above downwards. After the initial play, each word must league together with some of the built-in ones.
• When beginning the game, the first player retires seven cards of stock-market. Soon it combines two or more of his letters to form a word, it vertically places and it in the horizontal board or. It is forced to put one of the letters that form their word in the marked central square with a star.
• All the cards played in a turn must be placed in a horizontal or vertical line and must form a complete word. If those cards are in contact with the enemy with contiguous letters of rows or columns, also with them they must form complete words. The player obtains points by all the new words who forms during his turn.
• The words can form of the following ways: adding one or more cards to a word that is placed on the board; placing a word that is crossed another one in the board (the new word it must use one of the letters of the word that already is in the board); or placing a complete word paralelamente to other than already one is in the board, so that the contiguous cards also form complete words.
• The Scrabble includes two cards in target, or jokers, which can be used replacing any letter. The player who places a joker must aloud indicate the letter that this represents, which cannot modify during the game. He is allowed to both use jokers in a same word. The prize of 50 points granted to use seven cards of the lectern is even granted using jokers both.
• The value of the jokers is of zero (0) points to calculate the value of (s) the words (s) formed (s). The jokers can replace a letter already used, although one of them in the game only exists. For example, it can be placed “to zuzar” using a joker and the Z, or both jokers, although already the Z has been used previously.

The system of scores works of the following way:

• The value of each letter is indicated with a number in the part inferior of the card. The obtained total score in each turn calculates adding the value of the letters used in the words that have formed in that turn, plus the points obtained by to have placed one or more cards in squares with prize.
• When placing a card in a celestial blue square (double as much of letter), duplicate the value of this letter; and when placing it in a square navy blue (triple as much of letter), its value is tripled. When placing a word using a pink square (double as much of word), duplicate the value of this word; and when placing using it a red square (triple as much of word), its value is tripled. When doing the count of points of a word is due to add the first prizes of the letters, and soon to duplicate or to triple the value of the word, according to is the case.
• The prizes for the letters and words apply only the first time that takes care the square of prize. Later, the cards that occupy those squares count simply by their face value.
• When in a same turn the player forms two or more new words, the score of all of them is added. (S) the letter (s) common (it is) among them is counted (n) in each word, including the prize, it has if it (n).
• When a player places 7 cards of his lectern in a single turn, he has obtained what a scrabble is called, and for that reason obtains 50 points extra like prize. These points are added to the score that it has obtained in that turn, after duplicating or tripling the score, when it corresponds.

In order to know more in depth the operation and details the game, I suggest the page to you of the Federation the International of Scrabble in Spanish.

Crosswords is a free Scrabble for PalmOS

Many commercial implementations of Scrabble for PalmOS exist, like for example the one of Handmark. But the version of Scrabble for Palm that I want to you to recommend is Crosswords (Xwords): he is free and gratuitous; it is optimized for PDAs with processor ARM, although 68K is compatible also with the cradles in Motorola processor; it has possibility of undoing and of remaking plays; the Palm to the following player can hide-and-seek our cards for pasarsle; also it can show suggestions of game, cradles to us in all the board, or only in which we indicate to him; and many functions more.

Dictionaries of words for multitude of languages exist, among them the Spanish. Having finished playing with the English dictionary. It is more, the dictionaries use format BYOD (” Build Your Own Dictionary”), which allows us to create our own ones, or to unload and to use those that already have done others. An additional tool exists, DAWGShow call that allows us to sail by these dictionaries and to make searches.

Creating a new game

Crosswords allows so much to play with other people (even by infrared), like against the own machine. It has two levels of difficulty, although when having a total dominion of the dictionary, is better to play at the outset in the basic one if we want some possibility of winning. Another interesting option is the one of being able to choose the words with which to begin, later to follow the game normally. This is useful to solve games that come proposed in newspapers or magazines.

In order to learn the operation of Crosswords, we have a complete manual in the page of the program, where the bellboys and options of the menu explain themselves one by one, the options at the time of presonalizar a new game, and the operation of the program.

In order to finish you remember that, combining it with a dictionary, it is a good way to extend our vocabulary while we happened entertained awhile. Y S.A. to begin appears all the cards in the part inferior with questions, is because they are mouth down, the option to turn around them is in the menu.

By: Analysis
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Labelling: game, palm, pda, scrabble

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