The programme that checks and scores your answers.
Scrazzle has an inbuilt dictionary called LEXIS of well over 20,000 words of two to six letters.
Scrazzle is a crossword style of game with four levels of play, and a Hall of Fame at each level which saves the best games.
For each game there is a unique random 12 by 12 symmetrical crossword square, and 144 letter tiles which are shuffled, and from which is randomly discarded a number of tiles equal to the number of blank squares on the board.
The current game can be saved at any stage.
Those are the basic tools.
The game gives you one letter tile at a time which must be placed in a permanent position on the blue board playing area to make words.
When the board is full, the game scores your effort, keeps a record of the best five players names and scores, and a copy of the best square.
See `Scoring' at the bottom of this file.
That sounds easy, and is the basic play. With the availability of the Scrazzle look-up dictionary it is also a fantastic educational tool. Now for the bells and whistles.
Requirements.
Amiga 500, 1000 or 2000 with at least 1meg RAM. Scrazzle works OK with 1meg.
Leave the Scrazzle disk intact, do not move files. Scrazzle needs a number of the files, also games and scores are saved in special files.
Hard disk users. See `Hard disk users' under `Requirements' in the `Disearch.doc'.
Boot up using your usual workbench disc. Scrazzle is not bootable.
Double click the Scrazzle disk icon, double click the Scrazzle icon.
Click ` NO ' on the `Do you want to load old game ' requester.
The object is to make words with the letter tiles as presented to you. The game shows "Next Tile;" on the right hand side. Click on the blue board's playing area in the square you would like that letter tile, it will be placed there and you'll be presented with another tile. You are unable to move a tile once it is placed.
Prior to play you will be asked to CLICK on your handicap; Clean Sheet, 5 Letters, 10 Letters or 20 Letters. That is you can start with a number of letters already in place. Random letters in random places each time.
The game saves the best five scores with the player's name, in The Hall of Fame for each of the levels of difficulty.
At the top right hand corner is a blue area marked "Quit/Save". Click on this during play and you will be given the chance to save the game as it currently stands. Only one game can be saved at a time. Any new save will replace any previous save. You will then be given the opportunity to quit the game or re-start.
At the bottom right hand side of the play area is another blue area marked "WORD HELP". A click on this will take you to a new screen from which you have access to the fantastic Scrazzle dictionary, `LEXIS'.
On to the MENUS.
Only the menu `LEXIS' is available during play, and only whilst you are on the Lexis screen obtained by clicking on `Word Help' on the playing screen. From the LEXIS menu selecting `Find word(s)' gives an on-screen prompt for an entry of 2 to 6 letters and ?'s. Pressing <RETURN> with no other entry returns the program to waiting for a menu selection.
To look for a word to fit your problem, enter the known letters and a `?' in the place or places of unknown letters.
Examples.
You want 4 letter word starting `u' enter u??? followed by a RETURN and the program will find the answer and offer you a number of words.
OR
You may want all 3 letter words ending `i' then enter ??i followed by pressing RETURN. That's a hard one to ask as the first ??'s mean a search of A to Z, but you'll get about ten.
To stop search at any time press the <ESC> key.
Maximum number of words collected at any time is 100.
The words you have found will be held in memory until the next search so you may come back to this screen later and select `Show Words' to see the last lot of words searched for.
Selecting `Print Words' will send them to your printer.
Selecting `Return to Scrazzle' will take you back to your game.
Two other menu items are for information only one is marked `Rules' which gives a rules summary, and those letters that give bonus word value. And `Alphabet' which lists the numbers of each letter that MAY be available. (There are 144 letters available but for any one game random letters are withdrawn to correspond to the number of blank squares.)
The first menu `Word' only becomes available for you to select at the end of your game when you may like a printout of all the scoring words of your puzzle. You select it's only item, `printout'.
End of your game.
When your game is finished you will be given the opportunity to print out the square. This may be the only time you can, as only the all-time best is available for printout when you are offered it for review at the beginning of the game.
You are then asked if you want to try for the Hall of Fame, unless you are absolutely disgusted with your effort click `yes'. Only by this way does the program score your entry giving the results on the screen. It is at this point you are offered a printout of your words and results by selecting the item `printout' on the `Word' menu.
Scoring.
Scoring is done by adding all correctly spelt words one point for each letter with BONUS scoring for words beginning with certain letters;
Words beginning with a J K or V double in value.
Words beginning with a Y or Z triple in value.
Words beginning with a Q have their letter value multiplied by 4.
Words beginning with an X have their letter value multiplied by 6.
These values are shown at the bottom of the `RULES' menu.
Play.
The most challenging play is to play the game through to the end without saving. But of course with the Save option the game can be replayed from any point. If the game is saved before the first letter is played then, if you obtain a printout of the finished game, you'll know all the letters in that particular game and could try and make a `perfect' square, (that is all letters counting). Then see the score.
Saving games played under handicap does not change the handicap placements.
As all scores over-write lesser scores, you may not want to mix the two forms of play, (that is playing the game through or saving and replaying.) then make another copy of the disk.
This is a shareware program. If you play this game or use it for educational purposes then please send your donation to;
Mr C. J. Edwards JP
2 Star Street,
Grenfell,
N.S.W. 2810
Australia
A self addressed envelope and $A25 donation will ensure you the latest version of Scrazzle and the Scrazzle source code. Please quote the date shown on the `About' window, obtained by selecting `About' from menu, and ask for Scrazzle. Get in early in case we go commercial.
Written in AmigaBasic. Compiler AC/Basic by Absoft Corp (c) 1987
