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Conference bulova::decw_jan-89_to_nov-90

Title:	DECWINDOWS 26-JAN-89 to 29-NOV-90
Notice:	See 1639.0 for VMS V5.3 kit; 2043.0 for 5.4 IFT kit
Moderator:	STAR::VATNE

Created:	Mon Oct 30 1989
Last Modified:	Mon Dec 31 1990
Last Successful Update:	Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:	3726
Total number of notes:	19516

3428.0. "Scrabble game?" by MU::PORTER (things snowball) Wed Oct 03 1990 16:18

I'm looking for an online Scrabble game.   Anyone got such a thing?
I'm primarily interested in a program where the computer just
provides the board - the actual players are all human.  Preferably,
each player will use a separate workstation, and the wonders of
networking will tie it all together.  

Thanks.

(Is this the right place for such requests?  Didn't seem to be
 any other applicable file listed in 3.*)

T.R	Title	User	Personal Name	Date	Lines
3428.1	The GAMES conference is located at...	PEACHS::MITCHAM	Andy in Alpharetta (near Atlanta)	`Wed Oct 03 1990 16:24`	3
	Games PICA::GAMES 255 -Andy
3428.2		MU::PORTER	things snowball	`Thu Oct 04 1990 11:17`	7
	Thanks. GAMES wasn't much help - there's a you-play-the-computer, VT100-graphics Scrabble game, but that's all. What I'm looking for is a fancy X-windows networked Scrabble board. Before I start to write it myself (sigh), I thought I'd ask around, since it seems probably that someone's done this already.
3428.3		LESLIE::LESLIE	Andy Leslie, CSSE/VMS	`Thu Oct 04 1990 16:02`	4
	Oh well, announce it here when it's in Daves_Bitshop, eh? /andy/
3428.4		YRDARM::finnegan	Neal, DECdecision - mail to: via::finnegan	`Fri Oct 05 1990 10:23`	5
	Another good location for posting/finding games and examples is the ELKTRA::DW_EXAMPLES conference. I don't remember a scrable game in there but you might find some network game or example that would be a good starting point. Neal
3428.5	You won't find a Scrabble game, or at least you should not find one	CVG::PETTENGILL	mulp	`Tue Oct 09 1990 00:45`	8
	About a decade ago a group of hackers in DEC developed a Scrabble player; the hackers were known by P?S. This program was a super player, it even knew how to cheat. They were going to submit it to DECUS, but just to be on safe side, the owners of Scrabble were contacted (I know the name but can't come close to either spelling it or pronouncing it). There lawyers contacted our lawyers and the final agreement was they wouldn't sue us if we destroyed all copies of the computer game. I noticed a year or two ago that they have finally developed a computer version, but I don't know how successful it is.
3428.6	Oh, yeh, there was an alternative....	CVG::PETTENGILL	mulp	`Tue Oct 09 1990 00:47`	5
	We could pay them a license fee of something like $100,000. No one seemed to be inclined to pay that fee so that it could be submitted to DECUS and at the time, no one would have believed it possible to make any significant money selling it.