C&VG


Scrabble
By Leisure Genius
BBC Model B

 
Published in Computer & Video Games #39

Scrabble

Scrabble must be the last word in the long-running BBC vs Spectrum debate.

Scrabble on the Spectrum was licensed from Leisure Genius and written by Psion. Now, Leisure Genius has brought out the game for the BBC.

With only 32K compared to the Spectrum's 48, you'd assume that the game wouldn't be quite as good. In fact, there's no comparison.

The list of words which the computer knows has been reduced from 11,000 to 8,000, although you can still challenge the computer if it doesn't recognise one of your words.

The game is for one to four players and the idea is to form words from the letters you are given. The words must be placed on the board in crossword fashion, so that it links to another word already there.

You can select which, if any, of the four players will be played by the computer. If any are, they can be given one of four skill levels. If you don't really feel like playing a game, set up a match with the computer playing all the parts. Then, just sit back and watch the machine play itself.

Apart from the limitations, the game plays as well as any other version. If it's a game of Scrabble you want and you don't care what the screen looks like then you'll enjoy this. But screen layout is so bad, obviously to conserve memory, that it becomes tedious to stare at it for any length of time.