SSCrabble

27 January 2004

142 comments

A Blue Perspective: SSCrabble

» SSCrabble « (full SOWPODS dictionary)
» Offline SSCrabble « (284kB ZIP)

I think that I might go a bit overboard sometimes.

It started after visiting Pholph's Scrabble Score Generator. I thought that maybe an XHTML/CSS Scrabble name converter would be more useful than using images, and so proceeded to open up TextPad to style some tiles (rhyme!). After whipping up the tiles in a couple of minutes it struck me as a bit trivial to implement just the generator and thought it might be cooler to be able to place the tiles on a board. After making the board ... what the hell, I might as well just do the whole game.

Randomly picked tiles, words from the dictionary, proper connections and scoring. A full game of solitaire Scrabble on a web page, no Java applets, no Flash.

All the functionality is performed using JavaScript, so your browser will have to have it enabled in order to do anything. The bulk of the file size is taken up by the dictionary. The default version uses the UNIX dictionary, which contains 25,000 words, approximately 200kB. However, I've also made a long dictionary version – in case you're a bit of a wordsmith – that uses the Official Scrabble Player's Dictionary; 80,000 words, 600kB. Want the freedom that only off-line Scrabble playing can deliver? Download the zip [207kB] to play it locally.

Probably the hardest part was the logic behind calculating where words start and end: intersections with other tiles, multiple words, etc. The rest of the code involves manipulation of the Document Object Model to draw objects when the user selects and places them. Definitely the biggest JavaScript project I've worked on; most of the time it's one-off functions for checking forms.

There's probably a few errors in there somewhere, as my brain was getting a bit muddled towards the end. But I've played a few games and they all turned out OK, so alpha-testing has passed :o] If you do happen to find any errors, just tell me here or here. I should be adding a few small features over the next couple of days, so you can include wishlists there as well.

As per usual it's pure XHTML/CSS using relative units, so feel free to resize text as your bi-focals require. Tested in IE 6 (Win), Opera 7.11 (Win), Mozilla 1.5 (Win).

UPDATE: Olly Betts has spent a fair bit of time debugging the original scripts and even included functionality such as a more comprehensive dictionary, tile swapping and game saving/loading. This has now been uploaded for everyone to enjoy.

SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. This web page and associated experiments are not associated with any of the owners.

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Comments

  1. 1/142

    RMCox commented on 28 January 2004 @ 01:30

    You are either: a) insane or b) genius.

    Might be fun to track high scores?

    [Works in Safari 1.1.1 & Firebird 0.7/Mac, but not in IE5.2/Mac (big surprise)]

  2. 2/142

    The Man in Blue commented on 28 January 2004 @ 01:48

    A little from column A, a little from column B :o]

    On high scores, I was already going to put in "Your high score:" but were you thinking global Internet scores?

  3. 3/142

    The Man in Blue commented on 28 January 2004 @ 01:55

    BTW, bugs I'm aware of and fixing:

    - If you get to the end of all the tiles it keeps looking for more

    - Swapping tiles doesn't quite work behind the scenes (I ended up with 30 "A"s on the board :o] )

  4. 4/142

    Unearthed Ruminator commented on 28 January 2004 @ 01:56

    Wow! That's an amazing piece of work!

    I don't think I'd have the patience to code this.

    I only found a couple of bugs in the long dictionary version (a couple of times it told me that I had to start next to an already placed,word, which I had done; if you place a tile on a bonus square and then have to take it off again, the text disappears; when you run out of tiles, the square is labeled undefined).

    Are the letters randomly generated? I didn't hit any Q or Z tiles.

    597 points (0 tiles left).

  5. 5/142

    RMCox commented on 28 January 2004 @ 02:51

    Yep, I was thinking of global high scores, the all-time top ten or something. You may have to code in a score punishment for swapping tiles and possibly add a timer which would also impact the score.

  6. 6/142

    fisher willaredt commented on 28 January 2004 @ 03:26

    this is beautiful. but the dictionary is lacking...as a word freak, i'm frustrated.

  7. 7/142

    fisher willaredt commented on 28 January 2004 @ 03:35

    i realize i should give examples:

    grids came up as not in dictionary;
    mons came up as not in dictionary;

    also...when you create 2 separate words, one across and one down, for example:

    pa
    o
    u
    r

    it only calculates one word in one direction.

  8. 8/142

    RMCox commented on 28 January 2004 @ 05:46

    fisher willaredt, in the post above, there's a link to the long dictionary version:

    http://www.themaninblue.com/experiment/SSCrabble/long.htm

  9. 9/142

    The Man in Blue commented on 30 January 2004 @ 02:29

    Alllllllllrighty ... I think I've caught all the bugs -- at least the one's mentioned anyway. So now multiple word scores are in full effect, and you'll get the whole range of letters. So get SSCrabbling!

    (My best score so far is 599, I won't count the one where I turned the dictionary off :o] )

  10. 10/142

    Lucian commented on 30 January 2004 @ 05:44

    Great work! One more bug. Bonus tiles are only good once. When I make a word using the letter already on the bonus tile, I get the bonus again.

  11. 11/142

    HTodd commented on 30 January 2004 @ 10:39

    The "words must be touching" bug is still there. (I came across it attempting to place the first letter of a horizontal word above the last letter of another horizontal word.) Otherwise hugely impressive!

  12. 12/142

    The Man in Blue commented on 30 January 2004 @ 13:00

    That's weird, never come across it ... what browser you using? I'll look into it.

  13. 13/142

    zooey commented on 31 January 2004 @ 05:25

    Isn't the first word supposed to be a double word score?

  14. 14/142

    Melissa commented on 31 January 2004 @ 07:52

    It's beautiful. You did a wonderful job. Thank you for such a great way to alleviate boredom. :)

  15. 15/142

    Ken commented on 31 January 2004 @ 10:02

    Nifty.

    It doesn't know the word "belts". Does it not know suffixes? I imagine that would be a little tricker to do.

  16. 16/142

    Dave Bug commented on 31 January 2004 @ 10:48

    It would be handy to be able to drag around letters on my rack for brainstorming purposes.

    And, yeah, the first square is technically a double-word bonus.

  17. 17/142

    d&m commented on 31 January 2004 @ 12:30

    Thanks for creating this! We reached 655 here... can't wait to try with the long dictionary version.

  18. 18/142

    d&m commented on 31 January 2004 @ 14:12

    737, 2 tiles left... time for bed (it's 5am here in jerusalem...) this was great fun!

  19. 19/142

    LD commented on 31 January 2004 @ 15:10

    Very cool!

    However, I used all my letters on the first word and didn't get the 50 pt bonus. Also as someone stated earlier, the first word is a double word score.

    But, it is very beautiful and fast! Great job.

  20. 20/142

    Nick Douglas commented on 31 January 2004 @ 17:28

    I'm running Firebird 0.8.0+ on Windows XP. I put "EKE" going down so the last "E" touched a "B" to make "BE" across. I got the "At least one of your pieces must touch..." error.

    Why bother with the UNIX dictionary, which doesn't have "FARMS," when everyone loves the Scrabble Dictionary version?

  21. 21/142

    The Man in Blue commented on 31 January 2004 @ 20:07

    Bug Fix 5.0a:

    - Bonus points for all letter usage

    - Bonus tiles only score on first usage

    - Double word score on first word

    - "Words must be touching" now touching!

    Also, there's a more explicit link to the official dictionary version at the top of this page.

  22. 22/142

    Dave Bug commented on 1 February 2004 @ 03:32

    Excellent, glad to see the improvements. If it's not possible to use the actual Scrabble dictionary, would it be possible to manually eadd to the dictionary any of the missing 96 2-letter words? I noticed ER isn't in (the "long") dictionary.

    Here's a list:
    http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~davidj2/sc/2s.html I suspect probably 80 of these are already in the list, so it shouldn't be too hard to make it complete..

  23. 23/142

    d&m commented on 1 February 2004 @ 04:54

    769, no tiles left. amazing what not studying for exams can do to you.

  24. 24/142

    kara commented on 1 February 2004 @ 09:02

    Has anyone tried it in Netscape yet? Was going to send the link to my Mom - u know how Moms like playing this game ; )

    425 ( first game)

  25. 25/142

    Joy commented on 1 February 2004 @ 14:41

    It seems like you can't put any plurals in at all. It didn't know wages or vanes, but gave me wage and vane. Very annoying.

  26. 26/142

    tonu commented on 1 February 2004 @ 17:08

    Can't take plurals --- also wouldn't accept emu--- wonder what would happen with en or em --- but enjoyed otherwise.

  27. 27/142

    The Man in Blue commented on 1 February 2004 @ 17:26

    Errrr ... whoops, had the wrong links at the top of the page. Fixed now.

    The long dictionary should contain all the plurals, etc. but if it doesn't I don't want to hear any more complaints; it's the only official Scrabble dictionary I could find.

  28. 28/142

    Ro commented on 1 February 2004 @ 18:07

    This is great so far! I do agree with a previous comment that you need to add a high score mechanism.

  29. 29/142

    cashmere commented on 2 February 2004 @ 05:13

    great game! suggestion: make the board smaller?? so we with smaller screens can see the whole thing.

    also, add the word faux to the dictionary.

    thanks!

  30. 30/142

    patrick commented on 2 February 2004 @ 08:41

    >>great game! suggestion: make the board smaller?? so we with smaller screens can see the whole thing.

    In most non-IE browsers, you can do ctrl+/- to zoom the board.

  31. 31/142

    dude... seriously commented on 2 February 2004 @ 10:09

    okay... i scored 435, which i doubt is particularly good...
    i wasn't able to place a 'B' or a 'D', so that leaves me with 430, I guess...

  32. 32/142

    dude... seriously commented on 2 February 2004 @ 10:10

    i placed the B, so, 437 :)

  33. 33/142

    Ursula commented on 2 February 2004 @ 11:18

    This is totally amazing. The only thing need I'd say is ability to track high score.

  34. 34/142

    Lila commented on 2 February 2004 @ 17:07

    What great fun!! Agree that it would be nice to be able to see the whole screen at one time and also to be able to arrange the tiles prior to play. Maybe it would help to run the tiles down the side instead of underneath. Excellent results for a lot of hard work.

  35. 35/142

    geo commented on 3 February 2004 @ 05:24

    Where do I store the score? 559 long

  36. 36/142

    Greg S. commented on 3 February 2004 @ 09:55

    532 and 0 tiles left.

  37. 37/142

    Tivo commented on 3 February 2004 @ 09:59

    735 long. No complaints so far. Nice coding.

  38. 38/142

    Ricardo commented on 3 February 2004 @ 17:02

    We should have the best scores with a snapshot of the board posted on this site. I scored 799 on my second game. Anyone top 1000?

  39. 39/142

    Andrew commented on 4 February 2004 @ 08:04

    Yeah, plurals seem to be a big problem for the dictionary in general.

  40. 40/142

    ACJ commented on 4 February 2004 @ 11:55

    Awesome. Great job.

  41. 41/142

    Ricardo commented on 5 February 2004 @ 17:51

    888 long....

  42. 42/142

    Bob commented on 6 February 2004 @ 01:58

    I downloaded the offline version. At first it didn't want to work at all so I put all of the files into one folder (I also left the files in their seperate folders) and it started working but when I click on the Submit Words button, I get a "error on page" message and it doesn't do anything. I have WinXP. Got any ideal what the problem is or what to check???

    Thanks, it is a good game.

  43. 43/142

    Sarah McEvoy commented on 6 February 2004 @ 04:38

    This is absolutely wonderful - the next best thing to a real game! I can't find anyone to play Scrabble with at the moment, at least nobody who can beat me, so I am having tremendous fun trying to improve my score. My highest score so far is 868, and my arithmetic mean score is 771 (to nearest whole number).

    Thank you so much for taking the trouble to write this and put it up on your site. :-)

  44. 44/142

    Colleen O'Neill commented on 6 February 2004 @ 10:17

    Just amazing. what a treat! I feel like a real ingrate to even make improvement suggestions - and this may already have been suggested - I haven't read through all the comments. Here it is: it would be fun to be able to re-order the tiles on the tray. thanks so much for doing this. (another great way to waste time!)

  45. 45/142

    Eric Devlin commented on 6 February 2004 @ 12:42

    Hi,

    Thanks for what seems to be a great program. Is the game set to be played as two person with the computer taking the position as your opponent?

    I tried a few times, entering the first word and waiting for the computer to enter a word (to no avail).

    Thanks,

    Eric

  46. 46/142

    The Man in Blue commented on 6 February 2004 @ 14:10

    Nup, single player.

  47. 47/142

    Joe commented on 6 February 2004 @ 19:29

    Seems like a bug in the triple word score routine. I create a word in the triple word score that used an S to link to another pre-existing word. Both words were calculated with triple word score bonus, even though only one of them should have been.

  48. 48/142

    Marleen commented on 7 February 2004 @ 04:41

    Its very difficult if you're not english dut i still got addicted (dutch is my native language).

    Highscore's would be very nice.

  49. 49/142

    chris commented on 7 February 2004 @ 05:18

    I love this--thanks.

    Feels ungrateful to point out any bugs, but the scores are inflated: I encountered the triple-word score bug Joe reported in comment 48. Also, the colored squares should only count the first time they are played--this program seems to count them even in later additions to the word. Once a square is covered, it shouldn't multiply points again. E.g., If you play "bit" on a double word score, you get 10 points (5 points, doubled). If, on a later turn, you place an "e" at the end to make "bite," you should only get 6 points, since the 2W square was already used. The program often gave me 12 points instead.

  50. 50/142

    Ricardo commented on 7 February 2004 @ 14:21

    I noticed that the triple tile will count the first word triple it and then triple that amount on the second word if a letter is placed on it to create to separate words.

  51. 51/142

    Dave commented on 10 February 2004 @ 04:28

    Horrible dictionary. Won't allow zo, zho, dzo or dzho which have been my standbys for years. Excellent though. I'm hooked

  52. 52/142

    Bob commented on 10 February 2004 @ 14:41

    Has anyone gotten the offline version to work??? I still get "error on page".

  53. 53/142

    Pathfinder commented on 11 February 2004 @ 03:34

    I love this game.

    Score: 1068 long.

    thanx so much

  54. 54/142

    bruce commented on 11 February 2004 @ 11:29

    great game. one annoying feature. the "submit word" should be the default button for when you press enter. i don't konw how many times i naturally went to enter and ended up losing my word because it went to "swap tiles".

  55. 55/142

    Charles Lloyd commented on 11 February 2004 @ 12:04

    I would like to play with another player remotely. This would require some hosting and session management on your part, I suppose. For this I would not want the dictionary feature -- the other player would challenge if word is suspicious.

  56. 56/142

    Neil C commented on 15 February 2004 @ 09:39

    Great fun. 636. Guess I need more practice (Damned Q's!)

  57. 57/142

    Alex commented on 15 February 2004 @ 22:13

    Pretty amazing stuff there, congrats. Must have taken a while to do.

    :)

  58. 58/142

    Laurence Lombard commented on 16 February 2004 @ 00:43

    I have found what I think is a miscalculation of points.
    N
    A
    WEAL

    I added the "W", "A" and "L" to create NAW and WEAL. I got about 30 points for WEAL (10x3) which is correct but the score for NAW was also multiplied by 3, which is incorrect. Any comments.
    Laurence Lombard

  59. 59/142

    Laurence Lombard commented on 16 February 2004 @ 00:50

    Comment 58/58 refers. I forgot to add that the "L" fell on the 3W block on the middle right.

    To repeat - in the example

    N
    A
    WEAL

    I added "W", "A" and "L" to create NAW and WEAL with the L falling on the 3W block in the middle right and got a 3W score for both words. NAW does not qualify for a 3W score.

  60. 60/142

    Rick commented on 16 February 2004 @ 17:02

    finally I reached the 1000 mark- scoring 1195 with the long dictionary. I saved a screenshot of it to show anyone how I did it.

  61. 61/142

    Cassie commented on 18 February 2004 @ 04:29

    Fantastic stuff - wasting literally hours of my company's time every afternoon (not that they deserve it, the ungrateful pigs!)

    Please please please think about adding official scrabble dictionary words (why not contact the publisher - I'm sure they'd be glad of the publicity?) It's really frustrating having such a limited list. Also a hall of fame top scores lists would definately give show-offs like me even more of an ego boost!

  62. 62/142

    Matt commented on 18 February 2004 @ 10:49

    This is a great piece of code. I play Scrabble online at http://www.thepixiepit.co.uk/scrabble/but their interface looks dated compared to yours, though you can type your words in and shuffle tiles in your rack.

  63. 63/142

    Matt commented on 18 February 2004 @ 11:37

    I'm also getting the same random letters each time I fire it up. I think you might need to seed the Random number generator with the current time or something?

  64. 64/142

    Russ commented on 18 February 2004 @ 12:55

    Great tool to sharpen your skills.

    I found out that the following are "words":

    sizar - to do with oxford
    tedding - to do with farming
    zarf - ???
    taw - ???

    Without the automatic checking, I wouldn't have tried them out.

    Idea: allow for an override capability for long words (& get super 9X megapoints!)


  65. 65/142

    ryan commented on 19 February 2004 @ 10:37

    Very cool. Just don't be an idiot like me and attempt to type command-t (mac, new tab) and accidentally hit command-r...

  66. 66/142

    Neil C commented on 20 February 2004 @ 15:43

    Bug: If you hit Swap Tiles when there are no tiles left you lose the tiles you selected

    HTH

  67. 67/142

    Neil C commented on 22 February 2004 @ 09:14

    Another one. Lets you have more than one instance of a word.

  68. 68/142

    Rick commented on 28 February 2004 @ 18:25

    1195 , long version....I am addicted

  69. 69/142

    zoe commented on 2 March 2004 @ 08:28

    Being a scrabble fan, i tried my luck.
    Scored 674, a v left.
    Very proud of myself. English is not my mother tongue and i 'm not living in an english speaking country And this is a first playing scrabble in english.
    Very good ego rubbing.

  70. 70/142

    Zuzana commented on 7 March 2004 @ 21:11

    Great fun! Perfect to practice your English. Greetings from the Czech Republic,

    Zuzana
    709 so far and determined to get better

  71. 71/142

    Adam Lasnik commented on 7 March 2004 @ 21:39

    Pretty neat!

    I'd also love to see a two-player version (though I guess sitting at a computer together is a little geeky).

    Er, maybe over the Internet? Hmm!

  72. 72/142

    Matt commented on 8 March 2004 @ 00:21

    Multiplayer Internet Scrabble is here: http://www.thepixiepit.co.uk/scrabble/
    matt

  73. 73/142

    Graham Toal commented on 8 March 2004 @ 02:45

    Welcome to the jolly band of Scrabble programmers. If you haven't already found it, can I encourage you to join the wordgame-programmers@yahoo.com mailing list?

    Nice work.

    Graham

  74. 74/142

    Dan commented on 9 March 2004 @ 12:49

    Highest score thus far - 969. On triple word score, end word 1 space before trip word square, drop in another word that also ends in letter "s" (placing the "s" on the triple word square) and watch the points ring up!

  75. 75/142

    Jeff Walden commented on 12 March 2004 @ 15:00

    First:
    I'm a member of the National Scrabble Assocation in the US, so I'll try to respond to as many of the questions and issues posted here as I can.

    Post #6: as in a Stefan Fatsis Word Freak? (Word Freak is a book by a Wall Street Journal writer about competitive Scrabble. It's an excellent read if you don't know much about Scrabble tournaments.)

    Post #16/#44: I like the ideas. My head aches just thinking about all the time put into this already, tho, just to make it work correctly. *ouch*

    Post #27: an accurate copy of the Scrabble dictionary *is* rather hard to find, thanks to the Hasbro/Mattel ownership of the game and the fact that it would compete with the dictionary sales. When I need the list, I use the copy at <http://www.isc.ro/commands/lists.html> It seems to be nearly error-free, and I've only ever heard of one mistake in the full list (it's been corrected). (See also my response to post #51.)

    Post #43: if you think you're good, try playing at <http://www.isc.ro/>(if you're on Windows - nothing for Mac/Linux yet). There are cheaters, but it's the best I've found to date. It's also the source of the dictionary file mentioned above.

    Post #47: got that bug too.

    Post #51: dzo/zho/zo/dzho are all valid words in international (formerly British) Scrabble (North America and Israel use a somewhat different dictionary). The Official Scrabble Players Dictionary is North American, so it doesn't have such international-only words. See the response to post #27 as well for the lists for comparison.

    Post #61: see response to post #27; Hasbro/Mattel won't make it publicly available, so your best bet is in post #27.

    Post #64: a ZARF is a type of small cup. I'm not sure about TAW, but you can check it (and all other North American Scrabble words) at this handy link: <http://www.yak.net/kablooey/scrabble.html>
    Post #67: huh? You can play the same word more than once, if that's what you mean. If we couldn't play the 2-letter words more than once, the game could easily get rather difficult in no time.

    As for my own comments: crazy! I can't believe the work you had to put into this to make it work! Also, if you could update your dictionary to the one I linked that would be good -- I tried playing the common word YO (as in "Yo, Adrian! Come here!") and was told it was invalid. It's been in since the third edition of the OSPD. I also noticed KEV was in there, and it's not valid either. Perhaps you have an old version of the dictionary? The linked dictionary is up-to-date and solves both these problems. Finally, I'm a member of a Scrabble e-mail list, so I'll pass this along to them. Thanks for a good time!

  76. 76/142

    Liz commented on 15 March 2004 @ 10:24

    Fantastic site, but Yes isn't in the dictionary!

  77. 77/142

    Liz commented on 15 March 2004 @ 22:51

    Oops - sorry - it is in the long dictionary, but I have noticed another couple of things - no blank tiles and I thought it was 20 points for finishing your tiles? I just got an extra 50 for putting down "It" to finish my last tile because I used all my tiles up!

  78. 78/142

    Lynn! commented on 23 March 2004 @ 04:56

    First time playing online -- 722 points, no letters left, no "swapping"..... I felt like I got off to a kind of lame start, since I hadn't played in awhile, but it looks like that score wasn't so bad. Musta had pretty good racks.

  79. 79/142

    Daniel commented on 23 March 2004 @ 20:46

    New high score, using words where I could drop in an common letter to two words on the triple word score tiles. Previous highs for me were 772, then 926, then 972, now 1027. I don't think I can get much higher than that! dlb

  80. 80/142

    Nathan James commented on 7 April 2004 @ 09:51

    834. Bugs:

    - As mentioned with WEAL, counts TWS's both ways, even when the hook isn't on the TWS. This is wrong.

    - Gave me the 50 point bonus when I played one tile out. That's only for using seven letters.

  81. 81/142

    Tari commented on 8 April 2004 @ 21:27

    Interesting way to play Scrabble! Good work! Would love to see this version as a two/three/four player game! I didn't have any dictiontary problems after switching to the long version, short version wouldn't even let me play the word bells...!? Being able to move tiles around in the rack would be helpful, I didn't notice the scoring problem mentioned above, I was probably too busy wondering why I was leaving myself such bad leads, heh!

    Thanks for creating this, I really enjoyed it!

  82. 82/142

    Tari commented on 8 April 2004 @ 22:13

    ahem....dictionary.

  83. 83/142

    Lynn! commented on 9 April 2004 @ 06:46

    Woohoo! 1069! (Admittedly assisted by the very generous bonus system when making multiple words at a shot.... I like it! Don't fix the bugs -- make scrabble(R) conform! :) )

  84. 84/142

    Annie commented on 12 April 2004 @ 15:12

    dude, arent triple/double word scores supposed to be once direction only ?
    but yeah we can get scrabble (R) to reform

  85. 85/142

    Lynn! commented on 14 April 2004 @ 05:02

    I could get very, very VERY addicted to the bugs in the triple word score (I made four words at a shot, and though only two "should" have counted as triple word scores, one counted as triple-word... the other three were multiplied by 9!!!!!) Woohooooooooooooo. Love it love it love it and I'll miss it if and when it's fixed. I mean, it's a solitaire game -- not like there's another player to get all miffed because you got more than your fair share. It's just like Christmas every day. heh heh. :)

  86. 86/142

    Rillibee commented on 21 April 2004 @ 11:39

    OK, you all making me feel like a piker, I've only been over 500 once. But this is a far better way to waste my time than solitaire. I notice that I do a lot better in the morning than in the evening.

  87. 87/142

    Dan commented on 21 April 2004 @ 13:11

    My first word was PARTNER, with the T resting on the center yellow square. So far, so good, and I get the bonus 50 points for using all 7 letters. Then, across the botton of this vertical word, I create GOVERN using the bottom R in PARTNER. I get the double word score square left of vertical. However, when I then add MENT to create GOVERNMENT I get a message that GOVERNMENT is not in the dictionary. This has happened to me three times, trying to add MENT to the end of such a word and therefore get another double word score, but the word with MENT is not recognized in the dictionary, even though it is a correct word and spelled correctly. This, by the way, is using the more expansive dictionary. Any reason why adding MENT seems to automatically disallow the word? Thanks, Dan

  88. 88/142

    Adam Rabinowitz commented on 23 April 2004 @ 09:03

    have been playing with my students (fifth grade, 10 and 11 year olds). We are having a great time. We are also having a board scrabble tourney. Any way to come back to a game after quitting the browser?

  89. 89/142

    J commented on 23 April 2004 @ 09:28

    Great game... though I wasn't clear on full dictionary/short dictionary at first.

  90. 90/142

    The Man in Blue commented on 23 April 2004 @ 11:43

    Glad it's fun AND educational, Adam :o]

    There's no way to come back to a game after closing it, that would require way too much coding.

  91. 91/142

    Jem commented on 24 April 2004 @ 21:20

    Very Cool bit of programming. Inspiring, really.

    I didn't read all the comments (about half!) but in your last comment you said it would be too difficult to store a game.

    couldn't you populate an array with the game pieces on the board, and record the tiles on the rack, not yet selected, and the score.

    Then, when reopening the game repopulate the board from the array, and the rack and 'well' from the stored lists.

    I'm not a programmer, so I'm not sure if this is doable in javascript without somekind of server side involvement. Could the arrays be stored in cookies?

    And yes, even if what I say is possible, it still might be a ton of coding :)

    Not meaning to criticize in ANY way. What you've done here is truly fantastic. Here's to creativity and wondering, "Hmmm... I wonder if I can do that?"

    Cheers,

    Jem

  92. 92/142

    The Man in Blue commented on 24 April 2004 @ 22:54

    Yep, that's pretty much how you'd do it, but I've frozen development of the game, so it ain't going to happen :o]

  93. 93/142

    Delma commented on 30 April 2004 @ 15:02

    Love to play alone or withsome one else. My goal always is to finish all the tiles. Don't care much if dictionary doesn't accept. Gives me an opportunity to sharpen my skills! I keep the game on and do other things and come back to it whenever there is time. You see, I am in the classroom and seldom there is free time. Thanks for creating it.

  94. 94/142

    lcgh@aol.com commented on 8 May 2004 @ 03:58

    The dictionary has a paucity of long words including no WRESTLING, no ELECTORAL, no MACERATED, no
    TREASURER, and no UNREQUITED. It also doesn't have certain short words like TEEMED (the dictionary teemed with lots of weird 2 letter words, though).

    It is a fine game. I find sometimes the corners have scored 9 x the scores, though - - not just 9 x the corner words themselves, but also those words made by various letters in the corner word, which all seems very odd.

  95. 95/142

    Belle commented on 23 May 2004 @ 12:48

    Thanks for this site! It sure helps pass the loooong hours I spend working overnight! I just scored 725! My personal best!

  96. 96/142

    Olly Betts commented on 28 May 2004 @ 03:23

    Nice piece of work!

    As many have noted above, triple (and in fact double) word scores are miscalculated sometimes. Here's a patch to fix it:

    http://www.survex.com/~olly/fix_2w_and_3w.patch

    I also have a version of the SOWPODS list converted to work with this if you're interested. It's more than 3 times as large as the "long" dictionary, but a lot of words could be pruned because they can never be played without blanks.

  97. 97/142

    Jeff Walden commented on 29 May 2004 @ 04:47

    The fun's just as good now as when I first stumbled on it...this could be some real fun if implemented in an extension for Firefox. I'll have to add that to the list of Good Ideas(TM) to consider for my free time.

  98. 98/142

    Kevin Jordan commented on 29 May 2004 @ 06:45

    Aah, good fun with Scrabble. I love Scrabble (second only to Monopoly - can't beat a good entrepreneurial game whose goal is making money), and this is about as close to the real thing as I can get in a limited time without playing another person. Thanks!!!

  99. 99/142

    The Man in Blue commented on 19 June 2004 @ 20:38

    UPDATE: Olly Betts has supplied me with updated files, removing some bugs and adding some nice functionality, so have a play!

  100. 100/142

    Cara commented on 20 June 2004 @ 01:10

    It looks like the updates will make play a little easier, but unfortunately it's not accepting my play.

  101. 101/142

    Olly Betts commented on 21 June 2004 @ 08:25

    Cara - not all the files were updated correctly at first. This should be fixed now, if not please say.

  102. 102/142

    S. Johnson commented on 22 June 2004 @ 05:11

    The upgrades are wonderful. This is my favorite web site. Thanks so much. S.

  103. 103/142

    Joe commented on 25 June 2004 @ 16:21

    Try to add a new feature, find the best move.

  104. 104/142

    Chris commented on 26 June 2004 @ 03:16

    Love the updates, but I would also like to see a global highscore link. Is it possible to include screenshots of the boards of say, the top 10?

    Very good site. My complements.

  105. 105/142

    j commented on 27 June 2004 @ 12:16

    I have played this game once and it was cool. However, the next time I went to play, it wouldn't work. The board and buttons come up but the letters don't appear. I have no idea what's wrong. Refreshing doesn't work and I tried pressing all the buttons.

    I'm not sure if it's a bug or not but it would be cool if you could add an extra button called "new game" or something. I don't know if that would fix my problem but nothing else seems to.

  106. 106/142

    Olly Betts commented on 28 June 2004 @ 09:35

    j - What web browser and version are you using? I think this must be a problem with some javascript feature being used which isn't supported by it - probably in the code which reads your highscore from a cookie. If I know what the problematic feature is, I should be able to avoid using it.

    If you can work out how, check the javascript console to find what the error is. Typing
    javascript: (note the trailing colon) into the "location" box does the trick with Netscape and some other browsers at least...

  107. 107/142

    Olly Betts commented on 28 June 2004 @ 09:53

    j - I've had a quick look, and I suspect that you're using MSIE 3, in which case the problem is that this doesn't support split.

    It's going to be fiddly to fix not to use split, and it may be a while before I have enough free time. If possible, using a newer browser is a workaround.

  108. 108/142

    j commented on 28 June 2004 @ 16:08

    I downloaded a newer version of IE and it seems to work now. Thanks.

  109. 109/142

    Lynn! commented on 30 June 2004 @ 01:51

    Hey!!!! You've added features and stuff!!!! What a nice present out of the blue.

    You've made a person you don't even know very very happy.

  110. 110/142

    Lynn! commented on 30 June 2004 @ 03:38

    k, just finished my first game on the new board. Shameful, shameful score. I miss "cheating," taking full advantage of the old bugs in the program. Farewell, unjust multiple triple and double word scores. I shall remember you fondly.

    But you're making an honest woman of me, and it's interesting readjusting the strategy back to proper play. Blank tiles... I know I can make better use of these guys.

    Thanks again. What fun.

  111. 111/142

    Olly Betts commented on 1 July 2004 @ 02:46

    I've sent "the man" an update which changes the cookie reading code so it should work on MSIE 3 (I don't have MSIE 3 to test with though). If it works, then you'll be able to play more than one game! Loading and saving games still won't work with MSIE 3 (that code is harder to rework).

    Note: It might be a few days before the update goes live.

  112. 112/142

    Rhonda commented on 11 July 2004 @ 10:41

    I was looking for something to do today and did not feel like logging on to play online Scrabble, so found your site accidently. Enjoyed the play. Will continue, if for no other reason than to beat my high score.

    I play Scrabble in a club and this is great practice!

    Thanks!

  113. 113/142

    kaponata03 commented on 1 August 2004 @ 18:47

    Thank you for a great game. I have been playing it from the start. The improvements are great, there's always room for more but it takes time. THANK YOU for trying, and giving us a chance to have fun and exercise the grey cells.

  114. 114/142

    Jana commented on 5 August 2004 @ 12:32

    When I zoom down to get the entire board into my tiny screen, the V and Y look exactly alike. A new computer with 17" screen is on my wish list, but until then?

  115. 115/142

    David commented on 13 August 2004 @ 02:23

    Thanks for a wonderful fun gift. I have been looking for an easy to play game for one... and you have created the perfect game for me. Thank you so very much from David in San Diegi, CA.

  116. 116/142

    Eva commented on 10 September 2004 @ 02:48

    Itīs really great! I learn English and this is very useful for me. I played it yesterday evening and during whole night I dreamed about Scrabble. You created very useful game. Thank you.

  117. 117/142

    BonusWords.com Scrabble Dictionary Accessory commented on 29 September 2004 @ 17:39

    A magnificent Solitaire Scrabble game! My full commendations to you. After I spend a few more days giving it a thorough workout, I'll consider adding it to my reviews of online Scrabble game sites at http://www.bonuswords.com/play_scrabble_online.htm

  118. 118/142

    Craig3410 commented on 12 October 2004 @ 05:57

    Congratulations. I've been looking for a long while for something I can do to kill off a few hours a day.

    Thanks for making this!

  119. 119/142

    Annie commented on 22 October 2004 @ 16:51

    Thank you! Something productive to do at work, finally!

  120. 120/142

    Stephanie commented on 28 October 2004 @ 01:55

    This site is great!! The only problem i had was the board is too large for my screen and I couldn't find a way to scale it down. Can it be done?

  121. 121/142

    Sherri commented on 22 November 2004 @ 20:33

    STPEHANIE wrote;
    "The only problem i had was the board is too large for my screen and I couldn't find a way to scale it down. Can it be done?"

    Turn your text size down works in Firefox; I just made it teensy LOL

    THANKS Man-in-Blue! I'll use this to help increase my speed since I've become spoiled to turn-based games LOL

  122. 122/142

    Lucretia commented on 3 December 2004 @ 22:04

    Press F11 to increase page space so it all fits. Absolutely brilliant. Thanks.

  123. 123/142

    laurie commented on 4 December 2004 @ 00:01

    i wish i hadn't found this as my wife and i will now spend hours playing thank you for a great game

  124. 124/142

    laurie commented on 4 December 2004 @ 00:01

    i wish i hadn't found this as my wife and i will now spend hours playing thank you for a great game

  125. 125/142

    deano commented on 16 December 2004 @ 12:06

    very nice. hope to keep my mom entertained with this ....
    A slight inconvenience was that the javascript prevented me pressing F11 in Firefox to get fullscreen (contrary to Lucretia's comment).
    Here is a fix (to allow ALL function keys) to main.js that worked for me (fix works in FF1.0 and IE6).
    Just insert the following code before "if (key > 96)" statement:

    if(event.charCode == null || event.charCode == 0)
    {
    if (nKeyCode >= 112 && nKeyCode <= 123)
    {
    return true;
    }
    }

  126. 126/142

    deano commented on 16 December 2004 @ 12:13

    actually noticed that (for me) only FF(1.0) wasn't handling function keys. IE6 was handing ok with original JS code.
    Must be a mozilla thang.

    ps/fyi. i based that fix on stuff i found at this link:
    http://www.faqts.com/knowledge_base/view.phtml/aid/32261

  127. 127/142

    Mary commented on 21 December 2004 @ 08:07

    Thx for the great game. I am addicted. My son keeps trying to kick me off the computer. Ha, now it's my turn!!

  128. 128/142

    Sable906 commented on 27 December 2004 @ 12:01

    916 (long) thanks to Brenda Jones.

  129. 129/142

    jadeashlyn commented on 28 December 2004 @ 13:51

    this rocks, great work!!

  130. 130/142

    Richie commented on 1 January 2005 @ 20:08

    Really good. Had hours of fun.

  131. 131/142

    Valerie living in Finland commented on 4 January 2005 @ 03:11

    Thankyou for enabling me to enjoy a game of scrabble every now and then, though it's becoming addictive!

  132. 132/142

    Ester commented on 6 January 2005 @ 02:49

    I would love to play your game because I love this game, but it seems that all my buttons work but the submit word button. Well, no one else has a site like yours. Guess I will never get to play the game I love so much.

  133. 133/142

    Sam commented on 9 January 2005 @ 23:26

    My son got Scrabble at Christmas and keeps beating me, now I have discovered your site I can put in lots of practice and try and redeem some dignity, thank you!!!

  134. 134/142

    Brandy commented on 19 January 2005 @ 18:31

    When my two-year-old son is having a great time he looks up at the nearest adult and shouts "Yahoooo!" We recognize this as both a celebratory statement, and a warning that he is probably about to hurt himself. I feel this way about your game: it's so much fun it's dangerous! THANKS, and YAHOOOOO!

  135. 135/142

    Bella commented on 1 February 2005 @ 05:34

    Used up all my letters. Got score of 512!! Anyone beat me on that?

  136. 136/142

    kirsten commented on 10 February 2005 @ 09:43

    Top score 816.  3 times 'used all letters' and lots of triple letters and words with  Z's and Q's etc. Just love it.  I am 12 yrs.

  137. 137/142

    Kirsten's mum commented on 10 February 2005 @ 09:46

    Her top score was actually 881. I was amazed because she beat my previous high score of 786.  We are both totally addicted.

  138. 138/142

    Marge commented on 25 February 2005 @ 09:50

    Using Mac's Safari...When a game is finished... "Load" doesn't work...have to reboot the game. Sometimes the same 7 letters keep coming up to start the game..but if I hit "Experiment" a few times I can get a new starting set. Is there any easier way I'm missing?
    Love the game..Just scored my highest with a 650..I'm sure I'll beat that soon.

  139. 139/142

    Melissa commented on 27 February 2005 @ 18:43

    I found out about your site via metafilter.  Thanks for investing the time to code it and to Olly Betts for the debugging.  It's fantastic.

  140. 140/142

    Lawrence commented on 4 March 2005 @ 13:16

    Whoa! Cool! first attempt total 755...kept forgetting that I'm playing with myself here (no pun intended), so next time I shall leave myself plenty of extensions for 9 timers! No complaints... say, is the mysterious Man In Blue from IBM? shades of Deep Blue here? lol... but seriously, a great piece of work, if only :

    1) i can play multiplayer

    2) using full SOWPODS...

    that's my Xmas wish list anyway

    Thanks for something to do when I get sick of getting thrashed on isc!

    Lawrence aka buylow on isc... challengers are welcome! cya there

  141. 141/142

    wanda gooch commented on 23 March 2005 @ 02:35

    Do you get to play with other people or is this just by yourself

  142. 142/142

    Paul commented on 23 March 2005 @ 17:20

    Isn't the first word supposed to be a double word score?

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