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Scrabble and Palm OS PDAs
—by Joshua Kassel
I have a Palm OS handheld. I love the thing because I am anal retentive in nature, but most importantly I love my Palm OS handheld because of what it does for my Scrabble game. There are a few applications I've installed that are invaluable.
LAMPWords allows you to do all the anagramming, word fitting, etc., that you'll ever need. Plus LAMPWords supports TWL2 and LWL, OSW, and SOWPODS with multiple and upgradeable dictionary files. Paul Sidorsky has earned a place in heaven for building and maintaining this application, not to mention providing it free of charge. If I ever have a chance, I am buying him dinner.
Crosswords is a fantastic, free, open-source "Scrabble-like" game for Palm OS and PocketPC platforms. There are two levels of competition: one that uses a "Smart robot" and plays at an expert level and another that plays at about a 1400 level. The dictionary file for this is completely configurable (TWL2 and SOWPODS files are available as well as dictionaries in 10 languages). If you have a PDA and play Scrabble, get this now.
RoadLingua is a pocket dictionary viewer that has a free trial version (you'll need to register the application in order to stop getting the registration nags). Once you have RoadLingua, download the free OWL2 package, a database from our pals at cross-tables.com of all OWL2 words that includes definitions for all 2-8 letter words as well as some words of 9+ letters in length.
Niggle is a black and white version of Scrabble for Palm OS that is also free and plays at a very competitive level. The interface is a bit hard to read, but the competition level is worth it.
Scrabble for Palm OS was released by Handmark software and retails for about $15. It has high resolution graphics and is slick and spiffy looking. Unfortunately, its "expert" level only plays at about the same level as a 1200-rated player. Where it is useful is that is has a built-in OSPD3 WITH definitions. With the addition of RoadLingua and Crosswords, I can't in good conscience recommend this application to anyone other than a beginning player who might otherwise be frustrated by the level of competition offered by Crosswords.