scrabble

Prepare to witness one of the most expensive board games ever made.

When the Prague Mind Sports Festival kicks off December 1, gamers can play on a high-tech Scrabble setup unlike any other. The festival -- which hosts tournaments for the popular word game plus bridge, backgammon, poker, League of Legends, and Counter Strike: Global Offensive -- introduced to the world this week a carbon fiber Scrabble system with LED lighting that cost more than 20,000 pounds ($31,732) to create. … Read more

Most games on my iPhone keep my interest for awhile, but then they enter a state of sitting on my home screen until I remember to revisit them. If they sit long enough, I'll delete them knowing I can always redownload if the urge strikes me. But there is one category of games I never stop playing.

When I get a moment, I'm always catching up with word games on my iPhone. I constantly have a Scrabble (iOS|Android) game going along with both Scramble with Friends (iOS|Android) and Words with Friends (iOS|Android). When I have … Read more

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- Zynga and Hasbro announce board game versions of the most annoying Facebook ones.

- Will.i.am and Simon Cowell considering X-Factor style show, for tech.

- New Ninja Turtles cartoon replaces Cowabunga with....

Bathroom break video: Longboarder attacked by a deer.… Read more

If you're one of the millions of people who play Scrabble regularly, you surely know that you can't use proper nouns in the hit game. So how is it that words like "Alaska," "Berlin," "Bolivia," and even "Jane" are legal moves?

Anyone who has spent any time reading the Official Scrabble Players Dictionary (OSPD) knows that each of those words has an alternate meaning that satisfies the game's rules. And it was just that kind of information that author David Bukszpan was after when he began working on "… Read more

Scramble With Friends (99 cents), a new game from Zynga, has rocketed to the top of the iTunes App Store with classic Boggle-like gameplay so you can challenge your friends.

Gaming company Zynga has enjoyed huge success with hit iOS games including Words with Friends, Hanging with Friends, and Texas hold-'em game Zynga Poker. A new word game from the company took the tried and true classic board game, Boggle, and made it into an iPhone-friendly multiplayer game that's as addictive and fun as the original.

Like Boggle, the object of the game is to find as many … Read more

There's plenty of live video broadcasting platforms to choose on the Web these days, but today we're chatting with one of the pioneers.

Justin Kan is one of the co-founders of Justin.TV, and he drops by our studio today for a full episode about the origins of life streaming and how the site paved the road to Justin's new project for live video gaming, TwitchTV.

We'll also talk to Justin about his participation in Y Combinator, a start-up incubator that helps green entrepreneurs through the first three months of genesis.

The boot camp gives founders the seed funding they need for general living expenses, allowing them to focus on the business idea. YC also guides them through the media pitching process and how to grab the attention of venture capitalists and seed investors.

Some of the headline-grabbing companies to grow from Y Combinator include Scribd, Loopt, Grubwithus, and Justin.TV itself.

Tune in to hear about how TwitchTV is bringing competitive gaming to a much larger audience, not to mention a few tips on what it takes to earn a spot in the next Y Combinator batch!… Read more

Scrabble for iPad is a faithful adaptation of that classic board game much beloved by logophiles, with tons of cool extras and several easy options for multiplayer games.

What Scrabble for iPad does best is simulate the look, feel, and even sound of the original game, with sharp HD graphics, gratifying sound effects (letter tiles pop into place with a subtle click), and an interface that will put Scrabble-lovers right at home, including a virtual tile rack that lets you rearrange letters. (And in party play mode, individual players can even use their iPhones and iPod Touches with the free … Read more

If Scrabble and Boggle had a digital love-child, and that love-child were then adopted by Bejeweled, Dropwords would be it.

To start, you get a five-by-five board of lettered tiles, with each letter worth a certain number of points, a la Scrabble. Your objective is to use these letters to make words and score as many points as possible within the allotted time. A word can be made up of any number of connected tiles, and can go in any direction, just like in Boggle.

But what makes this game different from Boggle is that after you find a word … Read more

Dropwords for Android is the digital love child that Scrabble and Boggle never had. In other words, it is a word nerd's dream come true. To start, you get a five-by-five board of lettered tiles, with each letter being worth a certain number of points, as in Scrabble. Your objective is to use these letters to make words and score as many points as possible within the allotted time. A word can be made up of any number of connected tiles, and can go in any direction, just like in Boggle.

But what makes this game different from Boggle … Read more