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WordBox 3 User Manual
WordBox v3 (aka WordBoXtreme) is a great game of fast paced word finding for up to 6 players. Based on Parker Bros. game Boggle (tm), WordBox is hands down the best implementation on the planet for PalmOS with more features, more options, more FUN and more CHALLENGE than any other: up to 6 players, 3 board sizes, 4 scoring options, "Real Board" simulation of letter cubes, player specific options (including handicaps!), word list of over 175,000 entries, AND the ability for your PalmOS device to SOLVE THE BOARD!
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User manual Online Hall of Fame Register
Sections:
Installation
If a previous version of WordBox is installed on your PalmOS device you must remove ALL WordBox related files from the device prior to installing WordBox v3. The dawg.pdb file should be installed first followed by the wordbox.prc file. WordBox will create a 2 database files: The High Scores database and the Saved Game database. The size of the saved game database is about 29k but the size of the high scores database grows as you play more games with the various combination of options.
back to topFirst Run/New Game
When you run WordBox for the first time (and every subsequent execution until a valid registration key is provided) you will see the registration reminder screen which tells you how many days you have left in your evaluation:
Following this screen you will be taken the new game screen. This is where you will set all game options and players:
At the top of the new game screen are all the options for the game:
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| Board size | The number of letters in the word box, one of: 3x3, 4x4, 5x5, 6x6 |
| Number of players | Number of players for this game, from 1-6 |
| Base game time | Time limit for this game, from 2-5 minutes in 1 minute increments |
| Scoring method | Method of scoring each word, linear or exponential. In linear scoring, words are scored as follows:
|
| Score unique only | Score all words found or only unique words (words no other player in this game has also found) |
To add a new player (a maximum of 100 players can be entered), select the desired player slot (for your first run, these slots are filled with dummy names like Player 1, Player 2, etc) and then select (New) from the list of known players. A text field with then appear for you to enter the desired name (20 chars max).
There are a few options that can be set per player, and these options are remembered for the player for which they are associated. Use the Options button next to the desired player to change that player's options.
The letter selection diameter is the number of pixels in the range of the center of a letter that form that letter's selection zone (the default of 16 will suit most players). The selection method refers to how letters are selected, either by dragging the styles from letter to letter and lifting to enter the word, or by tapping on each adjacent letter with a double tap on the last letter to enter the word. Lastly, each player can have a handicap - extra time in addition to the selected base time for their game. So if the game time is set to 3 minutes and you set your handicap to 30 seconds, you get a total of 3 minutes and 30 seconds for your turn. Note that games played with a handicap are not eligible for inclusion on the online Hall of Fame. On the new game screen you can find an abbreviated indication of each players' options between their name and the Options button. The first number is the selection zone, the letter in the middle is D for drag or T for tap selection, and the number on the end is the handicap in seconds.
Playing
After all options and players have been configured you'll see the main game screen.
Game buttons:
| Button | Description |
|---|---|
| Sort | Normally the word list of words found by the current player is kept in the order in which the words were entered, and this button will sort this list in ascending order. Once sorted, this button will change to "Unsort" so that the original order can be restored.
|
| Rotate | Rotates the board display 90 degree clockwise. Sometimes it helps a player to find words if the board is rotated, especially if the "Random letter orientations" options is selected. Each press of this button will rotate the board another 90 degrees clockwise, so 4 rotations restores the original board orientation. |
| Pause | Anytime during a turn this button can be used to temporarily pause play. Pressing again will resume play. Also note that if the WordBox application is suspended for any other reason (power down, switching applications, etc) the current game in progress (if any) will automatically be paused. |
| Cancel | Cancels the current player's turn, subject to a confirmation dialog box. |
Words are formed by selecting adjacent letters within the box. A letter can only be used one time in a given word formation. If the word formed is less than the minimum length selected then a message will be displayed in the area below the board indicated this. If a word is not valid (not in the word list) that will be indicated in the same area. If the word is valid then it's score is displayed here as well. Directly below the board is the time remaining in the current turn. To the left of this time display is the current player's total score for this turn.
back to topEnd of Game
Once all players have completed their turns the score summary screen is displayed which shows all players and their scores. For each player, the scores are displayed as: #words, u: unique total, a: all total.
Buttons:
| Button | Description |
|---|---|
| Highs | Go to the high scores list for the current combination of game options.
|
| New | Go to the new game screen to start a new game. |
| Solve | Lets your PalmOS device solve the puzzle by finding all words in the word list and scoring them. This function may take a while to run, and while your PalmOS device is solving the puzzle this button will change to "Wait". |
| Box | Redisplays the puzzle board (in case you don't believe some of those words are actually there!) |
| Words | Go to the player words screen where you can look at all player's found words.
|
High Scores Lists
For each combination of game options a top 10 list is maintained. Any game from any top 10 list can also be replayed at any time, so if your friends want to try to top that great score you had a few weeks ago, they can try! And if you have a truly exceptional game, your entire top 10 database .pdb file can be submitted to us for inclusion in our online hall of fame! Note that any game that has been replayed is automatically ineligible for the online hall of fame, to prevent playing over a single game many times simply in order to get a better score.
Only two player's word lists can be displayed side by side at one time. Additionally, once the "Solve" button has been used the computer's word list is available to be viewed as well.
The high score database can become quite large - in fact, if you filled each list (1344 in all!) with 10 entries (which also means you'd have to play 1344 games, one with each combination of options) the high score database would consume over 1.4 megabytes on your PalmOS device:
3 puzzle sizes * 4 time options * 4 min word lengths * 2 scoring options * 2 board orientations = 192 non-unique lists
192 combinations * 6 players = 1152 unique lists
1078 bytes per list * 1344 lists = 1448832 bytes!
However this is not likely to happen unintentionally as most users will only play with a handful of option combinations on a regular basis.