It’s a slow time of year for Custom Box Service. To kill time, Tony started playing Scrabout, a computerized Scrabble clone. Then Nick started to play it, then Jeff. Now I’m playing it too.
Here’s a screenshot from my best game (click to enlarge):
![[J.D.'s best game of Scrabble]](/images/scrabble.jpg)
During my first ten games today (against the computer on its highest difficulty level) I won three and lost seven. I averaged 295 points to the computer’s 325 points. During my second ten games today I won four and lost six. I averaged 313 points to the computer’s 332. Overall, I won seven and lost thirteen, averaging 304 points to the computer’s 329 points.
I’ve had a good two-day break. Tomorrow I’ll get back to databases.
All of the papers are touting Spider-Man’s $115 million opening as the “biggest weekend ever” for a film. It always bugs me when they do this. Of course it’s the biggest weekend ever: the damn film just opened on 3615 screens charging around $8.00 a seat. Adjust the figures for inflation! Tell me how many tickets were sold in comparison to past films! Tell me the per theater average adjusted for inflation. That would be a real telling figure. (I managed to google the top 100 films of all time after adjusting for inflation.)
Also: The president of Fantasyland: Bush vs. Science.
(The last two links are courtesy of crookdimwit.com.)
On 05 January 2003 (02:29 PM),
Kmhoup said:
I agree Scrabout is the best game ever. Unfortunately I just got a new computer and cannot find this game to download. Can you help me? If so please email me. Thanks a bunch!
On 03 February 2003 (03:34 PM),
Maxine said:
I need to download the Scrabout game and cannot find out how to do it. where do I find it> Thanks
On 09 February 2003 (12:54 PM),
J.D. said:
I can’t post a link to Scrabout or tell you where to find it. Trust me, though: it’s out there if you search hard enough. Use google to find a copy (it may take some work), or try your favorite file-swapping program. I have a copy, but I’m not about to incur the wrath of a giant corporation by distributing it.
On 25 May 2003 (07:13 AM),
Vina said:
Scrabout is the best game I ever played in a computer. I was able to play this game in a internet shop. I’d like to download one in my computer.. I cannot find this game to download from the net. I hope you can you help me? Please email me. Thanks so so much.
On 01 June 2003 (12:20 PM),
Paula said:
the best game i have love it !!!!! to find go to 100% freeware games and find the link goodluck
On 01 June 2003 (12:39 PM),
Paula said:
can anyone help me with import export????? keeps telling me ‘not in dic’ &%^* its frustrating
On 11 September 2003 (03:57 AM),
analiza said:
this game is the best!!
On 11 September 2003 (07:30 AM),
dowingba said:
Oh God. That picture is more emotional than you think. Windows 98! How I miss you!!
On 11 September 2003 (08:34 AM),
tammy said:
I’m still using windows 98!
On 11 September 2003 (08:37 AM),
dowingba said:
I wish I was. When I unwittingly switched to windows XP, I wanted nothing better than to format and get back to my happy Windows 98 life. But it’s been like a year or two and I realise that switching back to 98 would be folly. Sadly, windows 98 is becoming obsolete. XP sucks big time, though…
On 11 September 2003 (08:40 AM),
dowingba said:
It’s strange, JD, how it seems you are hooked up to two networks in that photo. Don’t workplace computers usually hook to one network and then the server hooks to the internet? How do you even use two networks? Is one of those a dial-up connection? I need answers!!
On 16 September 2003 (05:58 AM),
Mystiqik said:
hmm…interesting…scrabout and networdz…
On 21 October 2003 (11:31 PM),
Sanpaku said:
Scrabout/Networdz…..same format, same functions, etc
www.scrabbleon.org/get.htm
Cya there!
On 27 December 2003 (04:04 PM),
Dan said:
Can anyone help me in getting Scrabout back please? I have lost it and I have no idea where to find it again.
Thank you, Dan
On 09 December 2004 (01:22 AM),
newton kamchetere said:
i need srabout on my desk top so i can play it
On 18 January 2005 (04:10 AM),
C. said:
Hello:
I agree that Scrabout is an excellent game. After some searching around I finally found a copy of this download using dogpile.com (when google doesn’t find what you are looking for try this search engine). Anyway, this is a fully functional download guys. Enjoy!!!
http://www.thepixiepit.co.uk/scrabble/download.html
On 21 January 2005 (09:48 AM),
Yaw Fosu said:
I just want to download the scrabble
On 04 March 2005 (07:27 AM),
evzone said:
help! i can’t install scrabout! the game’s cannot run in winxp, i think.
On 19 June 2005 (05:26 PM),
Aaron said:
Here’s a copy of the imported dictionary files for scrabout, given a subset of the enable1 list generated with:
$ egrep “^[a-z]{2,12}b” enable1.txt >enable1max12.txt
If I include 13-letter words, the import fails.
http://216.231.49.82/share/scrabout-enable1-max12-dict.zip
On 04 July 2005 (02:39 AM),
Grace Aruta said:
hi! i am interested in dowloading and having a copy of SCRABOUT. I want my kids to learn from this educational board game.
I hope you can help me out how to have a copy of it
On 07 September 2005 (07:11 AM),
christine said:
want for my computer
On 07 September 2005 (07:11 AM),
christine said:
want for my computer
On 14 September 2005 (07:48 AM),
mathias sarauta said:
ardent player of the game. don’t know where to download.
On 07 October 2005 (12:44 PM),
christine said:
where can i get a free download of scrabout
i want to play scrabble too! can I play it now?
I NEED THE GAME PLEASE
email me for scrab out
luvreatta@hotmail.com
It appears that Scrabout doesn’t work with Windows XP, only previous versions. I’m very sad and miss it — would give up Windows XP and go back to 98 in a hurry just to get scrabout back. XP isn’t worth it. If anyone knows differently please let me know.
I’m using scrabout with XP—you can try to reinstall it, also try running it in a different compatibility mode.
I need to know how when one is playing scrabout
you can discard tiles & not lose your turn when
you have 4 of same letter? What keys do I use
on the computer? Thank you for answer this question.