A BRIEF HISTORY OF SCRABBLE ÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜ i The Scrabble (tm) Word Game The Scrabble (tm) word game has its origins in the depths of the Great Depression. Alfred Butts, an unemployed architect in upstate New York, had time on his hands. It was 1931, and his career prospects were understandably dim. What better thing to do than to try to invent a new board game? Butts attempted to combine the elements of anagramming and crossword puzzle solving in his new game. Skill would predominate, but random chance would also play a part. He called it Criss Cross. Butts made Criss Cross sets by hand for friends, who received it with enthusiasm, and sent samples to game manufacturers, who ignored it. By then architects were again in demand, and he returned to the practice of his profession. By 1948, Butts was willing to give up manufacturing rights to family friends, James Brunot and his wife. The Brunots revised the game and changed its name to the now familiar Scrabble (tm). The game's popularity grew steadily over the next few years, but it was still not a money maker. Finally, Brunot managed to consign some sets to the Macy's department store in 1952. Macy's featured the game and the orders began to pour in. Brunot's small company could no longer keep up with the demand and he assigned marketing and distribution rights to the Selchow and Righter Company. During the 1950's, Scrabble (tm) became a national mania, being featured in the media and becoming the family game of choice. Its popularity continued on a gradual upward curve into the '60's and '70's. The last decade has seen something of a decline in Scrabble's (tm) fortunes as the younger generation has taken to video and computer games. Scrabble (tm) remains, however, the premier board game, a synergistic blend of letter pattern combinations and geometric abstraction. It is about building words from random letter combinations, bringing forth order from chaos, and it is about conquering time and space. It is one of those rare games that allows its players to take part in a magic ritual for just a little while. ÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜ ii Computer Versions of Scrabble (tm) The first generation of personal computers was scarcely powerful enough to support as complex a game as Scrabble (tm). The Commodore Pet, TRS-80 Model I, OSI Challenger, and Apple II typically had between 4K and 16K of memory, cassette tape storage, and limited graphics. The main programming language available, BASIC, was hardly suitable for anything but fairly simple games. This was to change quickly. In its April 1980 issue, CREATIVE COMPUTING magazine published a listing of "Perquackey" written in DISK BASIC for the TRS-80 Model I, by David E. Powers. The game had much of the feel of Scrabble (tm) and hinted at greater possibilities. This version of computer Perquackey was very playable and did not produce boredom unless played to excess (more than 5 hours at a time). In its December 1981 issue, BYTE Magazine featured a version of Scrabble (tm) written by Joseph Roehrig in generic MBASIC in the annual games award issue. After spending many hours typing in the long listing into my 16K "Trash 80", I was rewarded with a very crude and slow simulation of what I barely recognized as Scrabble (tm). Disappointing. The big breakthrough came in May of 1981. Personal Software Inc. released Monty Plays Scrabble (r) for the disk-based 48K Apple II. The graphics were low resolution (it did *not* use the Apple's hires mode and it was actually necessary to keep track of play on a game board), the game played s-l-o-w at the higher levels, and that little disk drive kept grinding away as "Monty" looked up words to play. All the same, "Monty" played a remarkably strong game, averaging about 350 points per game at the top level and scoring about a Bingo per game. This was an astonishing achievement for that generation of computer hardware. The advent of the more powerful IBM PC brought more sophistication to games. Virgin Games brought out its version of Scrabble (tm) in the late '80's. It played almost as strong a game as "Monty", and the graphics were somewhat better. Around 1990, Virgin Games released Deluxe Scrabble (tm), for PC compatibles with hard drive, mouse, and a VGA monitor. The graphics were greatly improved, the game play was strong, averaging maybe 380 points per game, and the game playing interface the best so far. After 10 years, Monty was finally beaten. Virgin Games Deluxe Scrabble (tm), was issued on CD ROM, and cost in the neighborhood of $35 (discounted considerably at computer flea markets, if you can still find it). It provides good practice for game play against humans, especially in its timed mode. It has many extra options and features as a bonus. The word list is only OSPD1 compatible with about 200 errors in it. May no longer be available. In late 1987, Vic Rice wrote a freeware Scrabble (tm) program using EGA graphics. It is difficult to set it up to run on newer computers with extended memory, but it plays an interesting game. His address (still valid?): 4026 Bayou Grove Rd. Seabrook, TX 77586. In early 1988, Chris Hall of Austin, Texas programmed a simple version of Scrabble (tm) and released it as freeware. It allows human players to use the computer as a surrogate for the game board and pieces when competing against each other. There is *no* computer opponent. This is an interesting, if limited program. It may still be available for download from some BBS's. As of January, 1988, Chris Hall's address was: PO Box 9802 #230 Austin, TX 78766. There is a very good shareware version of Scrabble (tm) available, called Scramble. It can be downloaded from many BBS's and is offered by some shareware distributors. Scramble has a very intuitive player interface, superior even to that of Virgin Games' commercial version. The graphics are only adequate, and important features such as a save-game option and a game timer are missing. Still, at $15 to register it is a bargain and highly recommended. Scramble may be ordered directly from: Diana Gruber Ted Gruber Software PO Box 13408 Las Vegas, NV 89112. Finally, there is Wordsworth. This shareware game is a mind-blowing new approach to computer Scrabble (tm). It eliminates the some of the limit- ations in classic Scrabble (tm) by allowing the player to configure the shape of the board and even to choose the letter distribution. The graphics in the highest resolution mode are a bit hard on the eyes and the dictionary could be larger (15,000 words in the unregistered version, only 65,000 in the registered), but all the same this is a noble attempt to breathe some life back into this venerable game. Also has a number of subsidiary anagram and pattern matching utilities. Highly recommended, even if a bit pricey. Costs $25 U.S. (75 Rand South African) to register. May be ordered directly from: Graham Wheeler P.O. Box 15525 Vlaeberg Cape Town 8018 South Africa ============== Email: gram@aim1.aztec.co.za