NAME
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 Installing the SunOS 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 mis-
takes you make, use BACKSPACE or DEL to delete the last
character, or use CTRL-U to delete an entire word. bog-
gletool 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 com-
puter 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 but-
ton. 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