Editorial Review
Now you can play
Scrabble, one of the most popular and beloved word games, on your Palm OS device! Designed to play like the board game, you select tiles using drag-and-drop functioning. This version also offers an intuitive interface, a built-in
Official Scrabble Player's Dictionary, and automatic scoring for every game. It even saves partially completed games that can be continued at a later time.
Practice your Scrabble skills against the automated computer opponent; choose from beginner, novice, intermediate, or expert levels. Or, play against up to three opponents using just one device. The program even hides your tile rack automatically. You can also play against others using multiple Palm OS devices with infrared (IR) beaming. This lets you study your tiles while your opponents take their turn, just like playing the board game.
Play in either Friendly or Tournament mode. Friendly mode plays like a casual, low-stakes Scrabble game: no stress, no tension; you can accept or reject entries outside the rules and use the clever Suggest Move option. Tournament mode, however, is a different beast. It plays by the classic rules, includes challenges, and even checks words against the Official Scrabble Player's Dictionary.
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Customer Reviews
Download Troubles 
2002-11-07
I downloaded the software, but it would install on my system. Even though I had the correct version it wouldn't install on my system. I'm running Win98. First thing the install wizard looked for was Palm OS drivers. Since they weren't on my system, no installation....
Good way to learn, but expert level is inadequate 
2002-07-07
The following refers to version 1.1, which has hi-res support and looks great. The interface is easy to use and there are helpful features like word lookup, score history, and hints. The hints, though, are often not very good, because the AI even at expert level is simply not a sound player. It seems to rely on its vast knowledge of the official Scrabble dictionary (which is a maddeningly inconsistent book, but at least it's a standard) without paying much attention to strategy. For example, it will routinely play an "s" for 5 or 6 points rather than keeping it in hand for a killer move; and when it discards letters, it always seems to discard all 7. It also frequently overlooks obvious better plays.
If you routinely score 300 points or better, you won't have much trouble beating this game. But it does give good practice, and it's a great way to learn obscure but handy words for your next game against a human opponent.
Fun new way to play scrabble 
2002-05-20
I just got this game a few days ago and already love the way it looks on my new visor prisim. The ability to beam each turn is espically nice when we are waiting for the movies or anytime we are stuck in traffic. The board is easy to see (in color) and can switch between IR and single player mode. I highly recommend for people who like scrabble to get this game if they have color- I did not like the trial version on my grayscale PDA.
Fun, but needs work. 2002-01-22
Scrabble for Palm is fun, easy to use, and entertaining. BUT, it uses words, like "doura" and "pe," not found in the Oxford English Dictionary. And doesn't recognize common words that are, like "di," and "ur." It also misscores sometimes.
Pretty Mediocre Overall 
2002-01-04
It is definitely not challenging. It might exercise the abilities of a complete beginer but I can't see this version of this game providing stimulation for anyone who regularly scores even 250's in the regular game.
I found the tiles hard to read (and I use an M505).
It's levels are not configurable (you can't tune the computer to play "smarter" or "dumber" to match your abilities). The developers need to work harder on this one. Until then, I will be returning it to the store.
Not bad, but... 2008-01-20
Handmark has not updated this to the new dictionary and when asked said it has no plans to do so. Serious club and tournament players will also be annoyed that it uses the official dictionary and not the club/tournament word list. On the other hand, with top-level play chosen, using a Windows PDA, it plays low expert-level Scrabble at good speed, it gives hints, and it includes the definitions: if you're carrying a PDA anyway, there's no need to carry the official dictionary (except of course for new and "dirty" words). I do wish there were a new version.
The computer makes an interesting opponent 
2003-05-21
Very enjoyable, so long as you understand that the computer opponent plays differently than a typical human opponent. Even when you set the opponent's level to "Novice", it will frequently come up with obscure words like "xu", "jiao", "tyee" or "aioli". It's also better that most casual players at finding places to create multi-word combinations. It knows that a well-placed 2- or 3-letter word will often score higher than a larger word somewhere else. But it's still beatable and fun, and it will probably help make you a better player.
Scrabble Dictionary Needs Improvement 2003-05-11
I was very happy with the Palm OS Scrabble game until I discovered that MANY words were not included in the game's dictionary.
Often, words were not cross-checked, so that a word, acceptable for the palm, when made plural, would be counted as wrong for the non-Palm player, even though it was correct in a regular dictionary (e.g. daydream/daydreams.) I also found that a word would be considered right for the Palm, but wrong for the player. This was frustrating and discouraged further play.
I would love to see an expanded and accurate dictionary created soon.
NOT for Win 95/95/XP/2000 2003-03-30
This is ONLY for the Palm OS. In some places, it says WIn 95/98/etc. Well, it's NOT!
USELESS
Great, but not OWL 2003-02-01
I think this game is great and the implementation on PalmOS PDA is fantastic. Not only is the color usage great, but fitting everything onto a small pixel screen is amazing. I never feel that it is too small, though.
My only complaint is the dictionary. It does not use OWL (Official Tournament and Club Word List) but some version of OSW (Official Scrabble Words) or OSPD (Official Scrabble Players Dictionary), the combination of which is usually called SOWPODS. Grrrr. So, on some words that I know are words accepted in professional play, I end up hitting "accept word" after I get the popup saying it is not a word. [edit: Turns out to be OSPD, which is still quite limiting]
The latest version has the definitions, but I don't care for that. Many people will, though, and it is a great feature. I either know the definition or don't care, but I do not have the memory space in my PDA with all my other applications. Perhaps when I upgrade my PDA I will add in the defintions.
Complaints aside, this is a great implementation of a great game and have it on my PDA. You should, too. Definitely a five-star game.
