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SQUABBLE is a version of the game Scrabble in which players compete against one another to make words on a board using lettered tiles taken from a sack. SCRABBLE is a registered trademark of JW Spears & Sons LTD, under licence from Mattel Europa BV, a subsidiary of Mattel INC, Copyright Mattel 2009. In SQUABBLE a single player competes against the computer, taking turns to make words on the board using randomly allotted letter tiles.
- Simple user interface
- Choice of difficulty rating
- Two stage hint option
- Choice of game times
- Dictionary of 117,508 words
- Source code included
The program uses a built-in dictionary, which contains 117,508 relevant words. It was derived from Grady Ward's MOBY project by merging all words of lengths 2 to 15 letters found in the files 4160offi.cia and 113809of.fic. This is stated to be equivalent to "the official crossword list compatible with the second edition of the Official Scrabble Players Dictionary.
When SCRABBLE is played with a board and tiles there can be doubts about the acceptability of the words made by players and they can be challenged by their opponents and the words checked in a dictionary. If the words are found to be incorrect they are removed from the board and the player forfeits that turn. In SQUABBLE the player has a choice. The program will only accept words from its dictionary, but it will allow the player to keep trying words until one is acceptable. Hence the player does not forfeit the turn. However, if the player wishes to observe the standard rules they can simply punch the clock immediately after attempting to place an unacceptable word.
The Toolbar icons were obtained from the Softicons site and were designed by Turbomilk and released under the Creative Commons licence. Thanks.
You play against the computer, each taking turns to make words on the board using randomly allotted letter tiles. The first word placed on the board must cross the central square and all subsequent words must cross or touch at least one previously laid word.
As marked on the tiles, each letter has a score. The score for a turn is the sum of the scores for all new words created by the placed tiles, and is increased by double and triple letter squares (dark and light blue, respectively) and double and triple word scores (red and pink respectively). You also get a bonus of 50 if you manage to use all your tiles in a single turn. The sack contains two blank tiles which are wild cards that can take any letter value when played and retain that letter throughout the game. They are also given the score of the assigned letter.
Please refer to Figure 1. Each player has a clock which counts down from a maximum value (by default 25 minutes). The clocks only count during a player's turn. Your clock and tiles are at the bottom of the display, those of the computer at the top. If your clock is running and showing a yellow background, it is your turn. The program's clock does not tick but its thinking time is subtracted each time it finishes a turn.
The File menu at the top of the window allows the maximum time to be changed and for the difficulty level to be set. It also allows the toggling of an option which will show the maximum possible score each turn. If this is "on" the program will write the best possible score in your turn score box when it starts your clock. The difficulty level is termed the program's IQ, and ranges from 10 to 100. Winning against IQ 100 is very, very hard. The four buttons next to the file menu start a new game (star), request tile swapping (blue arrow), request a hint (wand), and punch the program's clock (clockface).
Start a new game by clicking on the blue star. The program randomly decides who gets first turn. If your clock (bottom of window) is ticking, it is you. Type your word in the Entrybox to the right of your clock. When you type "Enter" the program will check the word. If the Entrybox turns double word score pink the word is unacceptable. You can edit it or enter another. If the Entrybox removes the word it is accepted. Note that even if you are only adding a single letter to an existing word you must enter the complete word.
Now you have to to tell the program where to put the word. To place a word you click on the square or tile at the position of the beginning of the word. A left-click means the word should be placed across the board, a right-click means it should go down the board. If the position and direction are accepted the tiles will be drawn on the board. If the Entrybox goes double letter blue you've made a mistake: either the wrong square or the wrong direction. Note, you must enter the word before defining its position on the board. Once the word has appeared on the board punch the program's clock by clicking on the clockface in the Toolbar. This will also stop your clock and update your score. The program will then take its turn and then restart your clock.
If you are unable to go or are unhappy with your current tiles you can replace any number of them (while there are still at least 7 in the notional sack) by clicking on the blue arrow and then typing the letters of the tiles you want to discard into the Entrybox. Again finish with "Enter". If the Entrybox turns triple word score red the letters contain an error. Otherwise the tiles will be replaced. Punch the program's clock.
You can also ask for a hint by clicking on the wand in the Toolbar. If it is possible for you to go the program will type the best word in the Entrybox. You can then click on the appropriate position on the board, or if you cannot work out where the word goes, a second click on the wand will cause the program to place the word for you. Punch the program's clock.
The game ends when the tiles run out or you and the computer have been unable to place a tile for 6 consecutive turns. If one of you finishes all their tiles the game ends and the program will finalise the scores.
There are two minor problems which I've been unable to cure. First the program takes longer than I would like to analyse the board on my ancient machine: typically it takes a total of 3 minutes to complete a game. That is, the total time subtracted from the program's clock at the end of a standard game will be about 3 minutes. This is not much out of a typical game duration of 25 minutes, but still more than I'd like. Secondly, while the program is having its turn (ie analysing the board) the busy cursor should be shown. On Linux this works fine, but on Windows the cursor only shows "busy" if you click on the game's window. I don't have enough experience of using Windows to know if this is normal behavior, but I find it odd. It is for this reason that I colour the active clock's background yellow: just to emphasise whose turn it is.
