Tips and Tricks
Private Games
A game can be designated as private by assigning a special password to
the game. Thereafter, any person who wishes to join the game
will have to supply this password. This mechanism allows people to play
games with specific opponents. You just think up a password and create the
game with that password. Then you tell your other players what the password
is and they can join. After the game is started, the special password is no
longer used.
Watch
The "Watch" option on the menu allows you to look at other games in
progress. Obviously you will not be able to play in those games, but you
can observe the progress of the game. You can also get information
on other users from this page.
Some O.L.D.s (Obscure Little Details)
- On the game board, the player whose name is highlighted is expected to
play next.
- All players' names are clickable. If you click on a name, you will be
presented with information on that player.
- On the game board, the score box also includes a single digit other than
the score. This represents the number of tiles in that player's rack.
- On the game board, if you click on the logo in the top right-hand
corner, you will go back to the control panel.
- If you have a Java-enabled browser, you can move re-arrange the tiles
on your tile rack by clicking and dragging them.
Expiry of Games
Any games that are dormant for 14 days will be erased from the server. This
includes all games, irrespective of whether the game has been started or
not.
Any user that doesn't play a game for 90 days will be erased from the
server. This is no big deal since you can register again. However, your game
statistics will be gone.
Passing
Just like in the normal game, you can pass when it is your turn. This
entails clicking on the "Pass" button. You will be presented with a list of
tiles and you can choose the ones you want to exchange. Alternatively, you
can opt to keep all your tiles. If all the players in the game pass without
exchanging tiles then the game assumes it is deadlocked and it ends
automatically.
Challenging
Any word played can be challenged by the following player. If the word is
valid, then the challenger loses his/her turn otherwise the challengee loses
his/her turn and takes back his/her tiles from the board.
There are three different challenging modes, selectable when a game is
being created.
In the first mode (always check), all words are checked up in the
internal
dicationary and invalid words are not allowed. Challenging a word in this
mode is sheer stupidity because the dictionary has already validated the
word. However, if you feel you know more than the dictionary then you can
challenge the word and your opponent may or may not agree with you. If your
opponent decides that you are right then he/she can forfeit the last word
and the game removes the tiles and passes play to the challenger. If your
opponent chooses not to forfeit, then you lose your turn.
In the second mode (check on challenge), words are only checked in the
internal dictionary if a player challenges the last play. If the word is
valid then the challenger loses his/her turn - if not the challengee loses
his/her turn as before. This time the players have no control over whether
the challenge is valid or not - the server makes the decision.
In the third mode (never check dictionary), the internal dictionary is
never used. The players have total control and challenges are manually
executed just as in the first mode.
Modes 4 and 5 are similar to modes 1 and 3. However, challenging is not
allowed in these modes. Since that eliminates the possibility of forfeiting
your turn, you are given new tiles immediately after playing a word.
Dictionary
The dictionary used internally is OSPD3. However, the dictionary listed on
the game boards is Websters. Therefore it is possible for a word to be in
OSPD3 but not in Websters (or the other way around). The Websters
dictionary is provided simply because it gives meaning of words,
unlike any other online dictionary.
Advanced Play List Options
If you select the advanced options in the playing list menu, then a number
of other options become available to you. Be very careful when using these
options! If you dont know what you're doing, dont mess with them.
In front
of the name of each game there appears a number of buttons, varying
according to the type of game.
- "R" removes a game from the playing list. Be very careful with this
because it is difficult to get a game back once it is removed from your
list
- "D" deletes a new game - this is only applicable to games that haven't
been started yet
- "Up" moves a game to the top of the list
- "Down" moves a game to the bottom of the list
In addition, an input box at the bottom of the page allows you to add
arbitrary games to the list. However, you have to know the ID-code of the
game. The easiest way to get this is to go to the "Watch Games" page and
check the URL that would be loaded for a game - the ID-Code is preceded by
the word "FILE=". You can use this feature to add games that you aren't
playing in - then clicking on those entries will be equivalent to "watch"ing
the game. However, once the game expires, you will have an empty entry in
your play list. This can simply be removed.
Local Images Files
This option, if set, allows you to use images files that are on your local
hard drive, instead of loading each image from the internet. This can be
considerably faster as only the text will need to be transferred. The
local directory has to be specified as a "FILE:" URL.
eg. file:///home/hussein/images/
on a Unix machine, or
file:///D|/games/images/
on an MS-Windows machine
It is crucial to get the directory specification right or no images will
load. The trailing slash is absolutely necessary. On DOS-based machines, the
drive letter is specified first, followed by a vertical bar (Shift-\)
instead of the usual ":".
This feature depends totally on your browser - it has only been tested
on Netscape. Also, if the images in the game get changed at any time, your
local images may not work properly any longer - if that happens, simply
download a fresh copy of the images.
To set up your computer for this feature, you have to download the
images and put them into an empty directory. Then change your user info to
point to that directory and enable the option to use the local images.
Images.ZIP (128k)
This file is compressed. You may need WinZip to uncompress it if
you're using MS-Windows. On Unix, there's generally a command called "unzip".
Local Images Files (for MAC users - by Jeff Boulter)
If you don't already have Stuffit Expander, get it first at:
http://hyperarchive.lcs.mit.edu/HyperArchive/Archive/cmp/stuffit-expander-401.hqx
Download the the mac version of the images:
images.sit.hqx
After you finish downloading and Stuffit Expander does its thing, you
should have a folder called images.
Move the folder to right inside your Hard Drive next to (but not in) your
System Folder.
Go to NetScrabble and click the "Info" button once you log in.
Set "use local image files" to yes and type in your local image directory
below.
On my Mac, the the local image directory is file:///Jobs/images
"Jobs" is the name of my hard drive and "images" is the name of the
folder that my images are in. Spaces need to be replaced by "%20".
So if your hard drive is called "Macintosh HD", use
file:///Macintosh%20HD/images
Save your settings, redisplay the control panel, and things should be a
lot faster.
Rematches
In order to have a rematch of a particular game, each player has to agree to
the rematch. If the finished game is viewed, a "Rematch" button will be
displayed, together with a list of the people who have already agreed to the
rematch. Clicking on the button will add your name to the list and remove
the button in future.
Once all the players agree, the rematch information will be removed from
the old game. A new game is created and started with a different playing
order but all the same options. The name of the game is simply the previous
name suffixed with "2". If the previous game has a number as its last word,
then that number is incremented. Thus, a second rematch would have a suffix
of "3", etc.
Back to Help Index