Snook

v1.5

Installation Instructions

From the installation kit, select the .exe file for your color Pocket PC from the following table:

Pocket PC Device	Executable to use
ARM-based Pocket PC 2002 (iPAQ 36xx^*, 37xx, 38xx, Jornada 56x, Audiovox Maestro 1032, NEC MobilePro P300, Casio E200, Toshiba e570, e740, etc.)	Snook.exe (SnookDemo.exe for the demo version)

^{* For iPAQ 36xx Pocket PC 2002 upgrade (available
from Compaq) must have been applied.}

Once you have selected the correct .exe, copy it to the \Windows\Start Menu directory on your device. Do not try to execute the .exe on your desktop PC: it wont work!

Operating Instructions

You have a tray of 5 letters, which you use to form a single word on the board. The word you put down must touch at least one other word on the board, except when the board is empty at the start of the game, when the word may be placed anywhere. You place the letters from your tray onto the board by tapping and dragging each letter to the required position. As you do so, valid squares on the board will light up in green, and invalid squares in red. Once you have placed your letters on the board to form your word, then tap on the go icon

Your word must be valid and appear in the OSPD list used by Snook. This list contains about 80,000 two to eight letter words (see below). If Snook finds you put down an invalid word, you will have to withdraw your letters and think again (although you wont lose your turn). (Please note that this means you should only create words of length between two and eight letters: longer words may be perfectly good words in a standard dictionary, but will not appear in the OSPD.)

Shuffling Letters

You can shuffle the letters around in your tray by tapping on the shuffle icon

. You can also move the letters around in the tray simply by using the styus to move a letter on top of another, lifting the stylus, and seeing the letters swap place.

Exchanging Letters

If you are disatisfied with your letters, you can exchange them for a fresh set by clicking on the bag icon You will forfeit your turn to place letters on the board when you do this.

Passing

If you do not wish to play a word, or cannot think of one, and yet do not want to exchange your letters for new ones, you can "Pass" simply by clicking on the green arrow .

Word Scoring

Once you have placed a valid word, it is scored by adding the value of the letters in the word, and any other new words formed with it. If you use all 5 of your tray letters in making the new word, then an extra 30 points is added to the score for the turn.

Snook Skill Levels

After your turn, Snook tries to play a word, following the same rules. Snook can play at four different skill levels. Easy Snook usually only manages to use two letters from his tray. Good Snook manages up to three. Hard Snook goes up to four, and Evil Snook is a demon who frequently uses all his letters. However, even Easy Snook can make long words, by adding a couple of letters to an existing word on the board. To change which Snook you're playing against, simply tap the stylus on the Snook icon until you come to the desired Snook.

While Snook examines the board, you will see the words he's thinking of. Once Snook has selected a word, it will be placed on the board, and it will be your turn again. The green arrow will appear next to your tray. The last letters placed on the board, either by you or by Snook, are always outlined in yellow at the start of the next player's move.

Winning the Game

The game ends when there are no more letters left in the Bag. The letters left in the Bag can be seen as a stack of blue tiles to the left of the game board. The game also ends if you and Snook "Pass" a total of three times. The winner is the player with the most points at that time.

Letter Scores and Distribution

The score value of each letter, and the number of each letter in the bag at the start of each game, is shown in the table below.

Letter	A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H	I	J	K	L	M	N	O	P	Q	R	S	T	U	V	W	X	Y	Z
Score	1	3	3	2	1	4	2	4	1	8	5	1	3	1	1	3	10	1	1	1	1	4	4	8	4	10
In Bag	6	2	2	2	6	2	2	2	5	2	2	4	3	4	5	2	1	4	5	4	5	2	2	2	2	1

Word List Dictionary

The word list used by Snook is the OSPD list, a copy of which may be found at ftp://puzzlers.org/pub/wordlists/ospd.txt. In this list, there are 94 two letter words, 961 three letter words, 3857 four letter words, 8551 five letter words, 15055 six letter words, 22821 seven letter words, and 28000 eight letter words.

08/06/2002 J.J.Bunn, julian@equatesystems.com