Scrabble Deluxe


Title           Scrabble Deluxe
Publisher       Leisure Genius/Virgin (1984-1991)
                ['Board Genius' Compilation - Beau Jolly (1991)]
Game Type       Strategy (Board Game)
Players         1-4
HD Installable  No
Compatibility   All Amigas (disable caches)
Submission      Dennis Smith dmss100@hotmail.com

Review
Scrabble is far and away the most famous word-based board game, in which
opponents take turns at placing letter-tiles on to the board to make
words, scoring points based on the individual scores for the different
letters and on 'premium' squares on the board which may double or triple
the score of the letters or words which are placed over them.

Against human opponents, the game is a faithful rendition of the board
game, the only real advantages being the built-in dictionary (though this
is a mixed blessing), timer and automatic scoring. The main disadvantage
is the inability to move the letters about on your rack - you can jumble
them randomly, but there's no way to manual shuffle them.  Against the
computer, the game is more worthwhile, providing lonely Scrabble-fans with
up to three computer antagonists with eight different skill levels, the
first being pathetically easy to beat, the eighth being fully conversant
with all of the oddest of the words in the dictionary.  The dictionary is
less than perfect, however, and you'll likely find yourself having to
confirm once or twice a game that ordinary words (such as 'guild' and
'safety') really exist, even though it doesn't bat its electronic eyelids
at Scrabble favourites like 'zo' and 'ee'.  Furthermore it leads to the
computer playing one or two words you won't find in any dictionary and you
can't challenge it; can someone explain to me what 'dones' means, for
example?

Apart from these minor quirks, it does provide a worthy opponent at the
higher skill levels, though it lacks long-term strategy, which leads to a
tendency for the board to become cluttered with little words, no space to
branch out with longer words.

There is a more recent updated version, which comes better recommended if
you can find it - one with the entire contents of 'Official Scrabble
Words' (the list of all allowable words at the highest UK competition
levels) as its dictionary, eliminating most of the older version's
problems. 

Category list.

Alphabetical list.