What is WordJudge?

WordJudge is a FREE Scrabble® tournament Word Judging program. It replaces the need for a large number of human word judges.

Is it reliable?

WordJudge was written from the ground up to be as reliable as possible.

WordJudge has been tested in numerous tournaments around the country and is now regularly used at many large venues including the Stamford CT Spring & Fall Classics, and the Boston Area Tournaments (BAT).

To date, no word judging problems have been reported.

What word list(s) does it use?

WordJudge is currently only available for North American play. It uses the TWL98 as well as the recent Long Word List. It will adjudicate all NSA acceptable words from 2-15 characters in length. The list was crosschecked with a list that came directly from John Chew, member of the NSA Dictionary Committee, to attain the highest accuracy.

Is WordJudge approved by the NSA?

UPDATE: As of 2004, the NSA has including new rules allowing for electronic word judging at tournaments. While "WordJudge" has not specifically been listed as an "approved" program, the NSA has announced they will be using WordJudge exclusively at the 2004 Nationals in New Orleans. Can I offer WordJudge for download on my website or distribute/sell WordJudge through some other medium (CD, Floppy, etc.)? No. While WordJudge is free to use and download, you cannot offer it for download on a third party website, distribute it in an archive, or sell it without express written permission from Versimedia, Inc.

You may however offer a link to Metagrams.com on your website showing users where they may download WordJudge.

What if I find a problem?

First, even though it has been well tested...

Caveat Emptor ("Use at your own risk").

While I have made every attempt to make this program as safe and reliable as possible, and I feel highly confident that the program is error free... something can always go wrong. I make no warranties or guarantees as to the accuracy of this program.

Lastly, if you do find a problem, please contact me immediately and report as much information about the problem that you can.

Current Version Notes:

The latest version is WordJudge v1.3. This version includes the standard US TWL as well as the new LWL (Long Word List). It has been crosschecked with a list directly from John Chew of the NSA dictionary committee as of 05/19/03. Please report any inconsistencies directly to me at john@babina.com.

The screen should now "blank" after 60 minutes instead of 5 minutes. If the screen blanks earlier, it is due to a setting in your computers BIOS and is out of my control.

If the screen has blanked, just press space or enter and it should turn back on within a second or two.

40x25 screen mode should now work properly on most laptops. This vastly improves screen readability. To try this mode, type "./start40" after the disk has booted up. (Instructions are displayed on the screen after bootup).

About Word Judge:

Before reporting errors, please read the list of known problems (mainly computer hardware issues; IE: the program not running on a particular machine). You can report problems, errors or make suggestions to me at john@babina.com.

WordJudge runs on Intel based computers and laptops (also referred to as PC's). It installs on one floppy disk for ease of use. Any old Pentium class laptop should work fine -- I suggest looking around eBay (www.ebay.com) for a used laptop. With a little searching you should be able to find one for under $50 that will work fine.

REQUIREMENTS: 8 Megs of Ram, Pentium Processor, Working Internal Floppy Drive (avoid laptops with external floppy drives)

NOT REQUIRED: Windows Software and/or a hard drive are NOT required.

Known Hardware Problems:

WordJudge may not load on sub-notebooks that have external USB based floppy drives (such as the 3 pound Sony Vaio). This is a OS problem and a technical issue due to the storage size of the floppy drive. I hope to fix this problem in future versions.

WordJudge has an option to try and run in a larger font size than the standard 80x25 to improve readability. This may not work on all computers and may cause inexpected visual results. If you try one of these options and the screen becomes garbled, just turn off your computer and reload the software.

Common Questions:

Question: "How do I quit WordJudge when I am done or get to Windows?"

Answer: Just turn off the computer. WordJudge runs under an operating system called UNIX -- you will not hurt any data on your computer (for example Windows or DOS) by turning off your computer when WordJudge is running. Also, even if there was a way to "quit" WordJudge, you would not be able to access Windows or DOS without rebooting.

Question: "Why would I want to have computer word judging?"

Answer:

PROS:

* Less money spent on human word judges & more for prize funds
* More accurate results & less need for second opinions
* Stops people from sneaking extra thinking time in a tight game by challenging a play.
* Quieter playing room -- less commotion over challenges.

CONS:

* People must get up from their seats -- more playing room required
* Computer equipment required (although the cost is minimal now)

Question: "I don't have a computer and they are expensive... what do I do?" Answer: Any old laptop will do -- even one with a broken hard-drive will work since WordJudge is completely self contained on a floppy disk. You should be able to buy a computer on eBay for under $50 which will do the job.

Installation Instructions: