Now, Word Factory wasn't a game I'd readily let a friend borrow no matter how close we were. It had 25 letter cubes--a single missing cube will just be plain ugly. And it had an hourglass too, which, to a 11-year-old, is highly breakable. Still, that didn't stop my classmate from letting me take her Word Factory home for a night. Which is why I'll be forever grateful to Ellaine, wherever you are.
I didn't break the hourglass; I didn't lose a single cube, I returned her game in perfect working condition, I was a good borrower. A few days later my mom bought me my very own Word Factory. Curiously enough, the sand in the hourglass was pink.
* * *
The first time I saw Boggle, I thought they must be joking--it had only 16 letters. For someone who's used to Word Factory, Boggle seems ridiculously easy and rather limiting. Were they just scrimping on the letter cubes? Word Factory doesn't even believe in three-letter words. Sure, we can find the usual dog, god, rats, star, etc. in Boggle, but when it comes to the long words that are supposed to score you big (doggedly, demigod, muskrats, startling, for instance)--the probabilities become pretty slim.
Just when I thought Boggle was just for kids, apparently you can actually play Boggle as if it had a 6 x 6 instead of the usual 4 x 4 grid, just with a little imagination and something called the periodic boundary conditions (or PBC), as seen in the picture. You just imagine the grid extending one more row and column on either side. The letters on opposite sides, you simply exchange with each other, as in the case of F & I, Y & Z, and so on.This is a heady game. I'd rather stick to my old Word Factory.
* * *
I recently broke my pink hourglass. I must find a new one because my phone's timer is just not the same.
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar