Specifications

Scrabble for Mac OSX

In this issue Marcel Dufresne and I will be reviewing a couple of

games. Me ﬁ rst. Neither one of us is the type to spend hours run-

ning virtual mazes while slaughtering gruesome aliens with an

arsenal of bazookas, blasters and phasers so these reviews won’t

be for that kind of game. The game I will review is the new OSX

release of Scrabble from MacSoft, a part of their new BoardGame Trio pack

featuring Scrabble, Monopoly and Risk II. This new Scrabble game has all of

the simplicity of the original board game but it also has an adjustable artiﬁ cial

intelligence opponent, really great graphics, and a set of entertaining word-

play mini-games. Thanks to Al Schilling and the other people at MacSoft for

sending me this copy of Scrabble to review.

Everyone already knows how to play Scrabble: players are allotted a private

cache with seven random letters in it and given the task of spelling words on a

15 X 15 grid. Each letter varies in worth, with highest value given to seldom-

used letters like J, Q and X, and the board is littered with point multipliers that

double or triple letter or word values when they are covered by a word. As

you use up your letters you replace them from the bank. There are only a set

number of letters and the highest score when there are no letters left wins the

game. Knowledge and strategy matter in this game of mental power.

Scrabble’s single-player mode provides an adequate challenge

for even the most advanced players. Players may engage up to

three computer personalities when playing alone, or go without

opponents if they prefer. The artiﬁ cial intelligence opponent is

called Maven. Maven’s skill can be set in the Preferences for

each game and altered between ﬁ ve preset levels, and play-

ers can also custom set Maven’s brains on a 900-2100 scale.

Games can be saved and the game keeps a record of wins and

losses, with scores.

MacSoft Scrabble comes equipped with a bunch of mini-

games. Eleven different options are available under the mini-

game menu, most of which are geared towards improving your

Scrabble skills. The “Professor Maven” and “Review Games”

options aren’t really games at all - both actually analyze your

past Scrabble matches and offer exhaustive feedback on how