ZX Computing


QL Scrabble
By Leisure Genius
Sinclair QL

 
Published in ZX Computing #25

QL Scrabble

Psion produced an excellent version of Scrabble for the Spectrum a couple of years ago, and now Leisure Genius have produced one for the QL. The game itself is almost identical to Psion's Spectrum version, though the extra memory has allowed the programmers to cram around 20,000 words into the QL, which gives it a huge vocabulary to play with.

Up to four players can take part and the computer can control any or all of these, playing on any of eight skill levels. I found that the first couple of levels weren't that hard to keep up with, but on higher levels its ability to create words like oojimaflip with incredibly high scores looks suspiciously like cheating to me.

Graphically, the layout of the board and letter racks is clear and quite colourful and the option which allows you to watch the computer 'thinking' as it tries out different words on the board is fascinating to watch. Personally, I'd rather play Scrabble lying on the floor with a packet of biscuits but there's no denying that this is one game that does the QL justice for a change.