How can I play Scrabble online on the Internet?
competition/games/online/online.scrabble Added material
Problem
How can I play Scrabble online on the Internet?
Show solution
Announcing ScrabbleMOO, a server running at 134.53.14.110, port 7777 (nextsrv.cas.muohio.edu 7777). The server software is version 1.7.0 of the LambdaMOO server code. To reach it, you can use "telnet 134.53.14.110 7777", and sign on. You will have a unique name and password on the server, and directions are provided in the opening screen on how to accomplish signing on. The first time, you will need to type "create YourName YourPassword", and each time thereafter, "connect YourName YourPassword". There are currently 5 Scrabble boards set up, with global individual high score and game-cumulative high score lists. Games can be saved, and restored at a later time. There are complete command instructions at each board (via the command "instructions"); usage is simple and intuitive. There are commands to undo turns, exchange tiles, and pass, and there are a variety of options available to change the way the board and rack are displayed. We do not yet have a dictionary for challenges installed on-line, and that is coming very soon. I am seriously contemplating using the OSPD.shar wordlist that Ross Beresford listed in a recent Usenet article. It seems to have the full wordlist from the 1st edition of the OSPD, plus longer words from some other source. I have personal wordlists updating the OSPD to the 2nd edition, for words up to 4 letters long, and will have the longer words in the near future. Usage of a certain dictionary for challenges is not enforced, and really can't be. Many of the regular players there have their personal copy of the OSPD. It's all informal, and for fun. Players agree what dictionary to use on a game-by-game basis, though the OSPD is encouraged. There are even commands to enable kibitzing, if watching rather than playing is what you're into. Come by and try it out. We have all skill levels of players, and we welcome more!
Additional material
[ Editor: an announcement of April 1995 about another crossword-game server. ] Barring unforeseen technical difficulties, the public crossword game server MarlDOoM<*> will move from its current address of seabass.st.usm.edu port 7777 to a new address of eel.st.usm.edu port 7777 at around midnight EDT<*> this evening. This change is being made to improve server performance and reliability. While seabass<*> has served us well for a while now, continued problems with quirks in Linux<*> network code and competition for system resources with a bbs application have adversely affected service quality. Neither of these should affect us on our new SPARC machine, so I have hopes for improved service. My continued and profuse gratitude go to system administrator Ray Seyfarth<*> and MarlDOoM<*> wizard Marlene<*> Milkent<*>, without whom the Internet<#> would be short one excellent server and the world a less interesting place for it. -- John Chew (poslfit<*> on MD/WD/PD) <jjchew@math.utoronto.ca> Ol' Strider from University of Utah Computer Center Student Mail Machine writes: >I hear there is a scrabble mud out there...all i got was a partial >address: "phoenix.aps.?????" anyone help me with the address??? The full address for ScrabbleMOO is phoenix.aps.muohio.edu 7777. ScrabbleMOO has been running for almost 5 months, with well over 1000 players in its short history, and something on the order of 200-250 players connecting each week. It's a version 1.7.5 MOO dedicated to Scrabble playing, with many English boards, and boards in 5 other languages. It has an in-house ratings system patterned closely on that of the North American Scrabble association, and an online OSPD2, the Official Scrabble Player's Dictionary, for resolving challenges of words through 8 letters in length. There are regular players of all skill levels. It has a home on a fast, stable machine, and it is not a MOO for building or programming. (Scrabble(R) is a trademark of Hasbro, Inc.) -- Jim Miller <jgm@umcc.umich.edu> (September 1993)