Welcome to the WordTris Webpage

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What is WordTris?
WordTris is a one player word game for the Palm Pilot III and later models. It is (very) loosely based around the popular Tetris family with some elements of board games such as Scrabble.

WordTris is played on a 5x5 board with a notional bag of 98 letters. Letters are removed one-by-one from the bag and placed at the top of any column. If the last letter placed makes a word across or down then this word can be claimed to score points. The letters of the claimed word are removed from the grid and the remaining letters fall down to fill any gaps.

Each bag of 98 letters is thought of as a level in WordTris. You have 300 seconds to complete each new level by placing all the letters on the grid and claiming words. The game will be over if you run out of time or if the grid is full and no words can be claimed.

You are given 40 move points at the start of each game but 1 move point is lost every time you place a letter. Move points are awarded for each word that you make but will not exceed 50 at any time. The game will be over if you run out of move points even if you still have time left and grid space.


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Downloading WordTris



Click here to download a zip archive containing the WordTris game and dictionary file. Unzip the archive to access these files and then hotsync them to your Palm Pilot in the usual manner. The WordTris icon will appear in your launcher as below if you have installed its .prc file correctly. Click the WordTris icon to run the program.



If this window appears when you run WordTris then the dictionary file was not installed with the program. Please make sure that your hotsync included "wordtris.prc" and "dictionary.pdb" from the zip file you downloaded.


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Registering WordTris
The version you can download here is a limited preview which has several features disabled. To enable these features and qualify for future upgrades you must register WordTris at PalmCentral. Registration costs 6 US Dollars and entitles you to the following extras:

Full use of all current features.

Unlimited free upgrades when available.

An additional PC program for creating custom dictionaries.

Technical support by email as required.




In order to register your copy of WordTris you should click on the Menu button and then select Register WordTris from the Options menu. This will open the Register WordTris window to allow you to enter your registration code. Your code will be of the general form ABCD99DEFG.



The About screen is displayed after you have entered your code so you can see if you entered it correctly. If the About screen still shows "Unregistered Demo" then you have entered the code incorrectly.


Please send an email here to request your free dictionary creator program, quoting the registration number that you received from PalmCentral. You will then receive a zip file by email with the dictionary creator and its instructions.


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Playing WordTris
Download WordTris to your Palm Pilot and click on its icon in the application launcher. The screen should appear as below if you have downloaded the game and its dictionary correctly.








From here you can click the Start button to start the game or the HiScrbutton to view any high scores. These options are also available from the Game menu. The high score table is empty when you first download WordTris so you might as well click Start to begin.




The WordTris title bar shows your score and the level you have reached.

In Bag shows the number of letters that are still in the bag at this time. The first letter ( 'X' ) is now waiting to be played so there are 97 letters still unseen.

Moves shows the number of move points that you currently hold. You lose move points for placing or skipping letters and gain them for claiming valid words.

Time shows the number of seconds remaining to complete this level.


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Making a Move
Three basic options are available for your first and all subsequent moves.

1. Normal Moves
Tap the lowest unoccupied square in the column you wish to move to. This will have the following effects.

The letter will appear in your chosen square.

The next letter will appear below the board

You will lose 1 move point.

The in-bag count will be reduced by 1.

2. Skipping a Letter
Tap the Skip button to the left of the next letter display. This will have the following effects.

The letter is moved to the back of the bag.

The next letter will appear below the board.

You will lose 5 move points.

Skipping can be useful to delay using a letter that would spoil your position on the board but this option should be treated with care as it will cost you 5 valuable move points. If you do not have at least 5 move points left then the Skip option will always be ignored.

3. Move-Ups
Tap on the icon at the bottom of a column to execute the special move-up option. This will have the following effects if the column is not already full.

The letter appears at the bottom of the column

All other letters in the column move up

The next letter will appear below the board

You will lose 1 move point

The in-bag count will be reduced by 1.

The icon is redrawn with one bar removed.

At the start of a new game of WordTris there are two bars in the move-up icon for each column. The bars are removed one-by-one when you click on the icon to execute a move-up. If you execute a move-up when no bars are left then the icon for that column will disappear. You will not be able to move-up in that column again for the duration of the current game of WordTris.


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Blanking Letters
Two 'Blanks' are provided for each level allowing you to remove a single letter from the grid. Any letters above the letter you remove will fall down as before to fill the gap. You may play your blanks at any time during each level or you may choose not to play them at all. Unused blanks are not carried forward between levels and you do not receive a bonus for keeping them.




Click on the letter you wish to remove to open the Remove This Letter? prompt. Choose Yes from here to remove the highlighted letter or No if you clicked on the letter accidentally.



The highlighted letter is removed from the grid if you choose Yes and the other letters fall down to close any gap.



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Claiming Words



After placing a letter on the board you can claim any words in which the letter appears. To do so, you must tap on the Claim button before you go on to play the next letter.



When you choose Accept to claim the word that was offered its letters are removed from the grid. Points and extra moves are awarded and the remaining letters fall down to fill the gap.

WordTris will scan its built in dictionary for 3-5 letter words that include the most recently played letter. Each claim may include one word running across and/or one word running downwards. You will gain double points for the most recent letter if you can make a word across and down at once.

Sometimes the word that is offered may not be the one you wish to play. You may click the Decline button to reject the offered word and move on the next valid alternative. 10 moves points are lost if there are no valid words or if you turn down all the words that are offered.


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WordTris Scoring System
Each letter in WordTris has the same basic value that is awarded to the letter in Scrabble. The value of the letters in each word are added up to give the total points value for the word. The word is multiplied by 1.5 for four letter words and by 2 for five letter words.

2 move points are awarded for a 3 letter word, 6 for a four letter word and 10 for a five letter word. Your move points will slowly sink downwards unless you make 4 or 5 letter words fairly often.

Word
Letter Score
Multiplier
Total Score
Move Points

TOT
3
1
3
2

FISH
10
1.5
15
6

FOOD
8
1.5
12
6

QUEEN
14
2
28
10







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End of Level



When all of the letters in the bag have been played the level is completed sucessfully. Two points are awarded for every blank square but the points value of the visible letters ( clutter ) is subtracted. The award is then multiplied by the level number and added to the score for this game. No points are added (or lost) if the penalty is greater than the bonus.




The next level begins with a shuffled bag of letters and the countdown timer is reset to 300 seconds. One extra move-up bar is awarded to each column which has a visible move-up icon with less than two bars.


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Game Over



The game is over when one of the following events occurs.

You run out of time.

You run out of moves.

You fill the last free space without making a valid word.



WordTris will attempt to claim a word automatically when you run out of moves or free space. This allows the game to continue until no further valid moves are possible.


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High Scores


WordTris keeps a table of the ten highest scores and will remember them when the Palm Pilot is switched off. This prompt will appear after Game Over if your score was sufficient to qualify.

Use the Graffiti letter area or the virtual keyboard to enter your name in the text field. Your name may be up to ten characters using any of the available symbols.



The updated High Score table will appear straight away when you have entered your name and tapped OK. You may also view this table before starting a new game by tapping the HiScr button from the main screen. The table will not be completely full until you have played the game at least ten times.


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Additional Information
i) Letter Scores and Distribution
The letter scores and distribution for WordTris are the same as for a standard game of Scrabble. Each bag contains 98 letters of which 56 are consonants and 42 are vowels. The option to remove two letters in each level is to compensate for the lack of any blank tiles in WordTris.


ii) Shuffling the Bag
The bag is shuffled semi-randomly at the start of each level with a few limitations to make the game fair. The process is similar to doing the following with a real set of Scrabble tiles and three bags.

Separate the consonants and vowels into two bags.

Give each bag a good shake.

Draw out four consonants and three vowels and place them in a third bag.

Give the third bag a good shake.

Draw out the tiles from the third bag and play them.

Repeat stages 3-5 until you run out of tiles.

This means that the vowels will be spread fairly evenly without the order being completely predictable. Players will then have a reasonable chance to continue making words throughout each level.

iii) Dictionary
The WordTris dictionary was assembled from word lists that are freely available on the internet and was converted with a separate PC program into the format that is used by the Pilot software. The dictionary contains 17,700 words made up of 1,127 three letter words, 4,799 four letter words and 11,744 five letter words.

Registered users may request an extra program to create custom dictionaries on a PC. Please send an email here to request your free dictionary creator program, quoting the registration number that you received from PalmCentral. You will then receive a zip file by email with the dictionary creator and its instructions.

iv) Suggestions
Improvements to WordTris may be made from time to time and provided free of charge to registered users. Please email any suggestions and/or bug reports here.


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Credits
Game Design:
Miriam Moss & Graham Auty

Programming:
Graham Auty

Documentation:
Graham Auty

Program Testing:
Graham Auty

Gameplay Testing:
Miriam Moss



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Copyright
WordTris and its associated documentation are © Copyright 1999 Jaffasoft. All rights reserved. No part of the program code or documentation may be reproduced, transcribed, transmitted, decompiled, disassembled or translated into any language without the prior written consent of Jaffasoft.


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Disclaimer
Jaffasoft reserve the right to revise and change, as they see fit, the specification of any software and documentation without giving prior notice to any person or organisation. Jaffasoft make no guarantee as to the fitness of any computer hardware, software or supporting documentation to fulfil any specified function. Neither does it accept liability for any loss or damage resulting from, either directly or indirectly, the use of any hardware, software or documentation. Users are strongly recommended to make regular copies of all data.

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