Word Game

Input's word game comes from the same stable as 'Hangman', being a game for two players, involving guessing words or phrases. The game is more interesting, and more fun to play than Hangman, and is just as educational. You can play it somewhat like Hangman, with a stated subject area, or you can have words with a stated number of letters, you could have quotes from Shakespeare, or whatever takes your fancy.

The Game

First enter the names of the two players. You then have the option of choosing the number of words in the phrases that each person enters. One interesting facet of the game is that the longer phrases are sometimes the easiest of all to guess because there are more clues - try it and see. Once you have picked the number of words, you have to choose the number of turns that will constitute the game.

Now the first player has to dream up a phrase and enter it. The letters will not appear as they are typed in but, if you have a cooperative opponent, you can take the option for the letters to appear on screen as they are typed. Having the letters on screen alleviates the problem of mistyping the phrase, and the ensuing arguments when it appears. There should only be a single space between each word in the phrase. The maximum length for any phrase is 80 characters.

Once the phrase is complete, the enter key is pressed and the main screen appears. At the top are the scores for both players. At the beginning of the game each player has 200 points, and the total may go up or down as play progresses. Under the scores is a table of letter values, more common letters having high values, and less common letters having lower values. The mystery phrase is shown as a row of asterisks, with a flashing underline cursor. At the bottom of the screen display are a set of instructions, and space for entering your commands and guesses.

Strategy

There are three options given to the guesser: buying letters, guessing a letter at a specific position, or guessing the whole phrase.

In the earliest stages of guessing, a good choice is to buy a space - make sure that the phrase contains more than one word, though! Press Ctrl-B to select the buy option, and then press SPACE. How to proceed now is up to you. Vowels are expensive, but have a very high probability of occurrence; the cheaper letters are risky because of their rarity. The words are easier to guess once you've found some consonants - a liberal splattering of vowels is not always too helpful.

As the phrase takes shape, you will probably find that you are able to guess a letter at a specific position. For example, you may have a word that looks like this: T*E. A central H is a fairly safe guess. It's now that you can score points. A correctly chosen letter will add its value to your score, while if you guess wrongly, the loss is only half the letter's value. Insert your guess by using a cursor as prompted.

With several letters in place, you may get a flash of inspiration and want to guess at the whole phrase. To do this, type Ctrl-G, and you can enter the whole phrase. If it's correct, the score for the whole phrase - the remaining letters only, of course - is worked out and added to the player's score. If the guess is wrong, then 50 points are subtracted instead. Too many wild guesses will soon erode your score.