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How stable/iPhone friendly is scrabble?

A

aerospace

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 26, 2007
661
0
I had about an hour to kill and was all set to get scrabble until I saw it only got 2.5 stars, most reviews complaining of stability issues.

How easy is it to play on such a small screen?
Has the update solved most/all of the stability issues?
Does it still allow words not in the official scrabble dictionary?

Thanks!
 
Rojo

Rojo

macrumors 65816
Sep 26, 2006
1,328
241
Barcelona
aerospace said:
I had about an hour to kill and was all set to get scrabble until I saw it only got 2.5 stars, most reviews complaining of stability issues.

How easy is it to play on such a small screen?
Has the update solved most/all of the stability issues?
Does it still allow words not in the official scrabble dictionary?

Thanks!
Click to expand...

It was one of the worst apps in terms of stability...

....BUT!!....

...it just got updated today, and is now working smoothly (at least for me).
 
A

aerospace

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 26, 2007
661
0
My spelling is horrible(wanted to use atrocious but wasn't sure the spelling LOL), this is a fun way to work ok it.

My main concern would be instability or the screen being so small making it not fun.
 
C

chipno

macrumors newbie
Jul 29, 2008
6
0
Scrabble

I have found scrabble to be very stable on the iPhone. One thing I have noticed though is to make sure you turn auto lock to never if playing a long game.

I play everyday with a co-worker and it takes is about three hours to finish one game and we never have any problems. The game looks slick and the animations and sounds are great. The screen auto zooms whenever you put a tile down. You can also pinch and double tap to zoom in or out as well.

Overall great game.
 
D

Dorfdad

macrumors 6502
Oct 26, 2007
474
54
chipno said:
I have found scrabble to be very stable on the iPhone. One thing I have noticed though is to make sure you turn auto lock to never if playing a long game.

I play everyday with a co-worker and it takes is about three hours to finish one game and we never have any problems. The game looks slick and the animations and sounds are great. The screen auto zooms whenever you put a tile down. You can also pinch and double tap to zoom in or out as well.

Overall great game.
Click to expand...

Great productivity at work I see!!!
 
thirdeyeopen666

thirdeyeopen666

macrumors 6502
Sep 16, 2007
460
128
The update today improved stability, also shortened the idiotic 35 second intro... but it still hasn't solved the problem of the computer's out-and-out cheating. It uses all sorts of made-up and foreign words. I'm fairly sure neither of these is allowed under official Scrabble rules. Despite that problem, it is definitely worth the money. In fact, it is the only paid app I don't have regrets about. I'm lookin' at you SMB!
 
A

aerospace

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 26, 2007
661
0
Bought it, my first paid app, very fun. Computer did use a few words I'd never seen but didn't feel like looking them up to see if they were real.

I think I did pretty good, game 1 was 214 points, best word dazed 51 points.
Post your high scores!

Also I REALLY REALLY REALLY wish they would let you push a button to show the definition of said word so you can learn as you go. Leaving the app to lookup on dictionary.com would be annoyingly slow and carrying a dictionary would be dumb since it should be an easy feature to add. At least let you somehow save the word for lookup later.
 
A

aerospace

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 26, 2007
661
0
apparently "june" is not a word?

*cough* ok then...

wonder if it will let you play "scrabble"?
 
H

HarryKeogh

macrumors 6502a
Jun 25, 2008
609
863
aerospace said:
apparently "june" is not a word?

*cough* ok then...

wonder if it will let you play "scrabble"?
Click to expand...

as cal6n has already said "scrabble" is a proper noun.

as for "june"...it's "June" and it's always capitalized so not a legal Scrabble word. :)

The update utilizes the 4th edition Scrabble dictionary. I'm pretty sure the computer doesn't play "phonies" and only plays words in that dictionary. ("phonies"...that's the term Scrabble geeks such as myself use for fake words when you try to trick your opponent...perfectly legal in Scrabble play, BTW...but useless against a computer opponent)

I think it's a great application. Two things I would add that I've seen on computer versions of Scrabble...place a marker (that has an arrow in it) on the board where you want your word to start, tap the marker to make the arrow go either left, right, up or down, then tap your tiles to place them automatically on the board.

Also, a running total of how much your word is worth as you place the tiles instead of just telling you how much the word is worth after you play it.

Other than that I think it's great. ONe of my top three apps.
 
kwjohns

kwjohns

macrumors 6502a
Jul 4, 2007
700
12
Anyone know if this is going to get an update to play someone online not on the same network? I know Hasbro is working on a scrabble game for Facebook now so it'd be really cool if you could play friends like you do through Facebook through this app.
 
thirdeyeopen666

thirdeyeopen666

macrumors 6502
Sep 16, 2007
460
128
The update utilizes the 4th edition Scrabble dictionary. I'm pretty sure the computer doesn't play "phonies" and only plays words in that dictionary. ("phonies"...that's the term Scrabble geeks such as myself use for fake words when you try to trick your opponent...perfectly legal in Scrabble play, BTW...but useless against a computer opponent)
Click to expand...

Just for your info... here are some words it's been playing against me:

kaif, orpos, and ayah... just to name a few. I can't imagine that foreign words (especially ayah which has several meanings in two and probably more languages) are legit. Regardless, its still very fun.
 
sgibson

sgibson

macrumors regular
Mar 24, 2008
130
0
blairb666 said:
Just for your info... here are some words it's been playing against me:

kaif, orpos, and ayah... just to name a few. I can't imagine that foreign words (especially ayah which has several meanings in two and probably more languages) are legit. Regardless, its still very fun.
Click to expand...

kaif - a state of dreamy intoxication induced by e.g. cannabis
orpos - ????? Spelling?
ayah - a Indian nursemaid who looks after children (usually employed by the British during their sovereignty)
 
D

DJ88

macrumors regular
Jul 5, 2007
201
27
Downtown Miami
I love playing this with my gf but where both anticipating a foreign language update maybe? If you could make spanish and english words it would be perfect.
 
H

HarryKeogh

macrumors 6502a
Jun 25, 2008
609
863
blairb666 said:
Just for your info... here are some words it's been playing against me:

kaif, orpos, and ayah... just to name a few. I can't imagine that foreign words (especially ayah which has several meanings in two and probably more languages) are legit. Regardless, its still very fun.
Click to expand...

Sometimes there are foreign words that become part of the English lexicon. For example "mullah"...it's a foreign word (it's a title given to some members of Islamic clergy) that English-speaking people use every day. It's allowed in Scrabble play.

Or franc (as in French $$$). It's a foreign word but we use it everyday because how else would we refer to their money.

Your example of "ayah" falls in the same category.

Also, if you look in the Scrabble rules there are all sorts of words allowed. Slang , exclamations, etc.

So there are no "made-up" words. The Scrabble dictionary is compiled from several leading English dictionaries and it evolves all the time ("blog" is in the 4th edition but not in the third)
 
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