The Tungsten PDA

To increase our collection of games for Palm, and continue to decline proportionately our productivity, today we will see how we play on the Palm Scrabble, the game of crosswords. But as always, with quality: using free software and also with the words in Spanish. Let's start knowing a little more about this game:

Scrabble is a popular board game for 2 or 4 players, which scored forming words from tokens that represent individual letters, placing them in a 15x15 board. The words are formed in vertical or horizontal, like crosswords, and must appear in the dictionary standard (nothing personal names, for example).

The game, originally called "Criss-Crosswords" was created by architect Alfred Mosher Butts in 1938 as a variant of another game also invented by him, Lexicon. Both share the chips and the scores of each letter, which Alfred carefully calculated on the basis of their frequency of use in written English, using texts from the New York Times. He had no luck marketing, but in 1948 the lawyer James Brunot bought the right to manufacture it in exchange for a percentage of the proceeds of the sale by each unit. Brunot left the game virtually untouched, except boxes bonus, which redistributed, in addition to simplifying the rules. It also changed the name to "Scrabble". In 1953, unable to generate sufficient sales, Brunot sold the manufacturing rights, which went hand in hand up to Hasbro and Mattel.

To learn more about the origins and history of this game, you can visit the page itself Mattel on the game (they are the holders of the patent), a very interesting reading.

A provision of Scrabble

The basic rules are as follows:

• The game is to form words of two or more letters and put them on the board, horizontally or vertically, so that they can be read from left to right or top to bottom. After the initial move, every word must be linked with any of the incorporated.
• At the start line, the first player withdrew seven sheets of the bag. After combining two or more of your letters to form a word, and placed on the board horizontally or vertically. It is obliged to put one of the letters forming his word in the central box marked with a star.
• All the chips played on a turn must be placed in a vertical or horizontal line and have to form a complete word. If these chips are in contact with letters of adjacent rows or columns, also with them should be complete words. The player gets points for all new words that formed during his turn.
• The words can be formed in the following ways: by adding one or more chips to a word that is placed on the board; placing a word that is crossed with another on the board (the new word must use one of the letters of the word and is on the board), or placing a complete parallel to another word that's already on the board, so that the chips are also contiguous whole words.
• The Scrabble includes two blank sheets, or wild, which can be used to replace any letter. The player who puts a wildcard should indicate aloud the letter that this represents, which can not be modified during the game. It is allowed to use the two wildcards on the same floor. The prize awarded 50 points for using all seven sheets of the lectern is granted even using the two wildcards.
• The value of wildcards is zero (0) points to calculate the value of (s) word (s) formed (s). Wildcards can replace one letter has already been used, although there is only one of them in the game. For example, can be placed "zuzen" using a wildcard and zeta, or the two wildcards, but has already been used previously zeta.

The ratings system works as follows:

• The value of each letter is indicated by a figure in the bottom of the tab. The total score obtained on each shift is calculated by adding the value of the letters used in the words that have been formed at that time, earned more points for having placed one or more chips in boxes with a prize.
• By placing a chip into a box azure (both double letter), doubling the value of that letter and to place it in a navy blue box (both triple letter), triples its value. By placing a call using a pink box (both double floor), doubling the value of that word, and to place it using a red box (both triple word), triples its value. In making the counting of points must add a word was first prizes letters, and then double or triple the value of the word, as the case may be.
• The prizes for letters and words apply only when you first took the prize box. Subsequently, the files that occupy these boxes counted simply because of their face value.
• When a player form the same turn two or more new words, joins scores of them all. The (s) point (s) policy (s) between them account (n) in every word, including the premium, if any (n).
• When a player puts all 7 of his lectern chips in a single turn, has achieved what is called a scrabble, and thus gets 50 extra points as a reward. These points are added to the score obtained during that time, after doubling or tripling the score, as appropriate.

To know more about the operation and details of the game, I suggest page of the International Federation of Scrabble in Spanish.

Crosswords Scrabble is a free for Palm

There are many commercial implementations of Scrabble for Palm OS, such as Handmark. But the version of Scrabble for Palm is that I want to recommend Crosswords (Xwords) is free; is optimized for PDAs with ARM processor, but is also compatible with the processor-based Motorola 68K; available opportunity to undo and redo moves ; Can hide our chips for the Palm pasarsle the next player also can show us suggestions game, based across the board, or one in which you indicate, and many more functions.

There are dictionaries of words for a multitude of languages, including Spanish. No more having to play with the English dictionary. Moreover, the dictionaries use the format BYOD ( "Build Your Own Dictionary"), which allows us to create our own, or download and use the others who have already made. There is an additional tool, called DAWGShow that allows us to navigate through these dictionaries and search.

Creating a new game

Crosswords allows both play with other people (including infrared), as against the machine itself. There are two levels of difficulty, but to have a total domination of the dictionary, it's better to play on the basic principle if we want any chance of winning. Another interesting option is to choose the words with which to begin, and then continue the game normally. This is useful for solving games coming proposed in newspapers or magazines.

To learn the operation of Crosswords, we have a comprehensive manual on the program page, which explains a one of the buttons and menu options, the options when presonalizar a new game, and the operation of the program.

Finally remember that, when combined with a dictionary, is a good way to broaden our vocabulary while we spent a while entertaining. And if you begin to appear all the chips at the bottom with questions is because they are upside down, the option of Volta is on the menu.

By: Mark Gonzalez Troyes in Analysis
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