Manual page for BOGGLETOOL(6)
boggletool - play a game of boggle
SYNOPSIS
/usr/games/boggletool
[
number
] [
+[+]]
[
16-character
string
]
AVAILABILITY
This game is available with the
Games
software installation option. Refer to
[a manual with the abbreviation INSTALL]
for information on how to install optional software.
DESCRIPTION
boggletool
allows you to play the game of Boggle (TM
Parker Bros.) against the
computer. The
number
argument specifies the time limit in minutes (the default is 3
minutes). If a 16 character long string is placed on the command
line, it is interpreted as a Boggle board: the first four letters form
the top row, the next four letters the second row, etc. If no letters
are specified, a board is randomly rolled by the computer from a set
of Boggle cubes. The
+[+]
argument is explained below under
Advanced Play .
PLAYING THE GAME
Rules of the Game
The object of Boggle is to find as many words as possible in a 4 by 4
grid of letters within a certain time limit. Words may be formed from
any sequence of 3 or more adjacent letters in the grid. The letters
may join horizontally, vertically, or diagonally. Normally, no letter
in the grid may be used more than once in a word (see
Advanced Play
for exceptions).
Playing the Game
When invoked, boggletool displays a grid of letters and an hourglass.
To enter words, simply type in lower case letters to spell the word you
want. Use any whitespace (SPACE,
TAB,
or
NEWLINE)
to finish a word.
To correct mistakes you make, use
BACKSPACE
or
DEL
to delete the last
character, or use
CTRL-U
to delete an entire word.
boggletool
verifies that words you enter are both in the grid and are
valid English words. If you type in a character which would form a
word which is not in the grid, the display will flash and the character
you typed will not be echoed. When you type any whitespace to end the
current word,
boggletool
will verify that the word is three or more
letters long and that it appears in the dictionary. If the word you
typed is illegal for either reason, the display will flash and you will
have to either erase the word or change it.
If you try to enter a valid
word which you have already entered, the display will flash and the
previous occurrence of the word will be highlighted. Again, you will
have to erase the word before continuing.
As you enter words, the ``sand'' in the hourglass will fall. At the end
of the time limit, the display will flash and you will no longer be
allowed to enter words. After a moment, the computer will display
two lists of words: the words you found, and other words which also
appear in the grid. To play another game, just type any capital
letter (or use the pop-up menu).
Using the Menu
The pop-up menu is invoked by pressing the
RIGHT
mouse button. There are four
items in it, and they work as follows.
- Restart Game
-
Create a new boggletool a new board, reset the timer, and allow you
to start from scratch.
- Restart Timer
-
Allows you to cheat by reseting the hourglass timer to zero.
- Give Up
-
End the game and print the results
immediately.
- Quit
-
Allows you to quit running the boggletool program. A prompt appears
asking you to confirm the quit; when it does, click the
LEFT
mouse button
to quit or the
RIGHT
mouse button to abort the quit.
Advanced Play
There are two options for advanced players. If a single
+
appears
on the command line, letters in the grid may be reused. If two
+'s
are on the command line, letters may also be considered adjacent to
themselves as well as to their neighbors. Although it is far easier
to find words with these two options, there are also many more possible
words in the grid and it is therefore difficult to find them all.
FILES
- /usr/games/boggledict
-
dictionary file for computer's words
Created by unroff & hp-tools.
© somebody (See intro for details). All Rights Reserved.
Last modified 11/5/97
