Design and Implementation of Computer-Based Scrabble Game
Chapter One
Objective of the Project
The objective of this study is stated as follows:
To make a Scrabble game join most other games in the computer “world”
To handle cheating in the Scrabble game and to standardize the game.
To simulate the Scrabble game using the computer.
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
In 1938, American architect Alfred Mosher Butts created the game as variation on an earlier word game he invented called Lexiko. The new game, which he called “Criss-Crosswords,” added the 15×15 gameboard and the crossword style game play. He manufactured a few sets himself, but was not successful in selling the game to any major game manufacturers of the day. In 1948, James Brunot, a resident of Newtown, Connecticut – and one of the few owners of the original Criss-Crosswords game – bought the rights to manufacture the game in exchange for granting Butts a royalty on every unit sold. Though he left most of the game (including the distribution of letters) unchanged, Brunot slightly rearranged the “premium” squares of the board and simplified the rules; he also changed the name of the game to “Scrabble”, a real word which means “to scratch frantically”. In 1949, Brunot and his family made sets in a converted former schoolhouse in Dodgingtown, a section of Newtown. They made 2,400 sets that year, but lost money. According to legend, Scrabble’s big break came in 1952 when Jack Straus, president of Macy’s, played the game on vacation. Upon returning from vacation, he was surprised to find that his store did not carry the game. He placed a large order and within a year, “everyone had to have one.
In 1952, unable to meet demand himself, Brunot sold manufacturing rights to Long Island-based Selchow and Righter, one of the manufacturers who, like Parker Brothers and Milton Bradley Company, had previously rejected the game. In its second year as a Selchow and Righter-built product, nearly four million sets were sold. Selchow and Righter bought the trademark to the game in 1972. JW Spears began selling the game in Australia and the UK on January 19, Thecompany is now a subsidiary of Mattel. In 1986, Selchow and Righter was sold to Coleco, who soon after went bankrupt. The company’s assets, including Scrabble and Parcheesi, were purchased by Hasbro. In 1984, Scrabble was turned into a daytime game show on NBC. Scrabble ran from July 1984 to March 1990, with a second run from January to June 1993. The show was hosted by Chuck Woolery. The tagline of the show in promo broadcasts was, “Every man dies; not every man truly Scrabbles.” In 2011, a new TV variation of Scrabble, called Scrabble Showdown, aired on The Hub cable channel, which is a joint venture of Discovery Communications, Inc. and Hasbro. Scrabble was inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame in 200.
CHAPTER THREE
METHODOLOGY AND SYSTEM ANALYSIS
Methodology is the systematic, theoretical analysis of the methods applied to a field of study, or the theoretical analysis of the body of methods and principles associated with a branch of knowledge.
General Analysis of the System
Before advancing into designing of the scrabble game, serious feasibility studies of the manual system were carried out.
In manual play, each player keeps score, with a running tally, and these are compared from time to time throughout the game. Some players like to make these comparisons upon every play. This is found to be annoying and distracting. The going-out scoring in manual play is slightly different from the rules, which come with Scrabble sets. When the bag of tiles is empty and a player clears out his/her rack, the game is over and that player who just went out doubles that value of the tiles in the opponent’s rack. Manual scrabble is played using tiles, when it is a player’s turn, he shuffles the tiles in the bag or any material used and placed or submit on the board. If a tile is selected it must not be place on any other square except on the center start square which is pink, and always double the score for the first word. The game end when all possible play have been made, or when each player’s scores zero points (by passing, exchanging or losing challenges) the three consecutive turns.
CHAPTER FOUR
Objective of Design
The system design aimed at developing software that can be used by people to play scrabble game. The objective of the design includes:
- Design a software that simulates scrabble game
- Design a well formatted graphic interface for the playing of the game
- Maintain a two player or more setting for the game
- Scoring of players
- Determining the winner at the end of the games
CHAPTER FIVE
SYSTEM IMPLEMENTATION AND TESTING
System implementation is the process of defining the user requirements and designing a system to meet them. This is the stage of systems development in which hardware and software are acquired, developed and installed.
CHAPTER SIX
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Summary
At the end of this project work, the software that can successfully simulate scrabble game was developed. The graphical interface was beautified, and the logic simulation well structured as to maintain a high level of accuracy in game scoring and declaring of the winner.
This project work also will serve as a stepping stone for people who wish to research more on this topic. The procedures for developing games are difficult, but has a lot of fun attached to it as there are so many things to benefit from playing computer games, especially the scrabble game as explained in the earlier chapters.
Conclusion
The development of computer games involves many phases. The approach used is a top-down, one concentrating on what first, then how and moving to successive levels of details.
The first phase started with a detailed study of the problems and rules for playing games. In the course of this project, many problems were discovered to have hindered the effectiveness of the existing system. These problems, information needs, and activities were documented and later used as the basis for system design, which immediately followed the first phase. The design phase was concerned primarily with the specification of the system elements in a manner that best met scrabble game rules. During this phase, strict adherence was made on proven software engineering principles and practices. To implement this design, a computer program was then written and tested in the visual basic 6.0 programming environment. This software product is designed to run under the Microsoft Windows operating system environment. It is hoped that effective implementation of this software product would eliminate many problems discovered during systems investigation. This will no doubt result in improved game simulation and catching of fun among players.
Recommendations
The following recommendations are made:
Playing of scrabble game should be encouraged as it helps to build students logical reasoning.
Scrabble game should be simulated and marketed so as to gain popularity among computer games.
The use of computer in playing games helps to reduce stress and should be encouraged.
REFERENCES
- Appel, A.W., Jacobsen, G.J. (1985). The World’s Fastest Scrabble Program,Commun. ACM, 31(5).
- Banks, J., Carson, J.S., Nelson B.L., and Nicol D.M. (2000). Discrete Event System Simulation, 3rd Ed., Prentice-Hall.
- Gordon, S. A. (1993). A Faster Scrabble Move Generation Algorithm, Software – Practice and experience, Vol. 24(2).
- Ingalls, R.G. (1998). The Value of Simulation in Modeling Supply Chains. Proceedings of the 1998 Winter Simulation Conference.
- Ingalls, R.G., Eckersley C. (1992). Simulation Issues in Electronics Manufacturing. Proceedings of the 1992 Winter Simulation Conference.
- Law, A.M., Kelton W.D. (2000). Simulation Modeling and Analysis, 3rd ed. McGraw-Hill.
- Manning C. D., Raghavan P. (2008). Introduction to Information Retrieval, Cambridge University Press.
- North American SCRABBLE Players Association official tournament rules, http://www.scrabbleplayers.org/wiki/images/a/af/Rules 20110605.pdf, April 2012.
