Scrabble

Scrabble is Gamehouse's version of the popular wordy board game, faithfully transferring the board and tiles to cyberspace.

Scrabble uses a board that is divided into has fifteen by fifteen squares. Most of the squares are plain, but the others have various bonus points on them, from double letter points to triple word scoring. The player places words on the board, with the first player being required to use the central square, incidentally a double word score square. The next player must attach his or her word to the word already placed, and then it is the next player's turn. Two to four people can play at one time. Each letter tile has a value assigned to it, from one point for common letters to ten points for rare or hard to use letters like 'x' and 'z'. The total score of each word is added up, taking into account the bonus points on the board (placing a 'z' on the triple letter block can boost a player's score immensely) and noted down. Play continues until all the tiles are used up and then the points are added up to see who has won the game.

If a player manages to use all seven of their tiles in one word, they are awarded a fifty-point bonus. It is possible to make multiple words by placing one word through existing words, and the player then harvests points from all the newly made words, although players cannot reuse the bonus points from the board if they have already been awarded.

This digital version of Scrabble successfully captures the excitement of the board game, allowing players to play against the computer or against one another. Sadly, there is no facility for online play against someone who is at a different location. Players can exchange their current tiles, just as in the board game, and they can ask the computer to shuffle their tiles to see if that helps to come up with a good word. The players can also ask for a hint to help them out. There are two ways to play: Classic which is untimed and Speed which only allows a certain amount of time for each word to be placed.

Background music plays during the game, and this can be muted if so desired. One issue that might annoy players is that the dictionary is somewhere between the Family Edition and the US Miriam-Webster dictionary, with a lot of words left out. There is no facility to add words to the dictionary and words like 'oxer' are not allowed, despite being valid.