Boggle is real multi-player, real-time word finding fun! This short document will introduce you to the basics of Boggle, especially on StarLink and DALNet, where your local games administrator is Eingang.
Boggle is high-speed word discovery game based on the board game by Parker Brothers. A group of players is presented with a group of letters arranged in a 4x4 matrix. The object of the game is to find as many legitimate words of length three or more in three minutes. The player with the most words at the end of the three minutes wins the game.
You will be presented with a grid of letters, and you must form words which are at least 3 letters long, created out of adjoining letters. Letters may not be reused. Note that it is valid to move across diagonally.
As an example, in the board:
a b c d
e f g h
i j k l
m n o p
The following words are valid:
In order to register your found words, simply preface the word, one per line, with the word "bog", i.e., bog mink <return> bog fink, etc. Correct words are acknowledged and incorrect words will result in a deduction of one point from your score. It is important to remember that only one person can get the points for each word. That is, only one player can score the two points for mink. Thus, it is important to type as many words as quickly as possible.
Most people prefer to play a version of Boggle that is a little more challenging, saving the three-letter words for times when they are playing alone. If you see several people on the Boggle channel, chances are that they will want to be playing with words of four or more characters each. We did introduce a 4+ version of Boggle, Big Boggle, but this only runs at one site. Until it is more widespread, please respect the wishes of the majority.
Scoring for Boggle is relatively simple. You score 1 point for each 3-letter word. For each additional letter, add one more point to your score. Thus, for example, if you find the word fab in the above matrix, you score 1 point for fab. If you find mink, you score 2 points, and so on.
Q) The board doesn't line up correctly.
A) If you're using a UNIX ircII client, make sure you type:/set continued_line + /set indent offNote that these are the default IRC settings for ircII clients. In general, if the board is "off by a character" you can set continued_line to nothing or to + or to ++.
A) If you're using a Mac or PC client, make sure that you're using a monospaced (or fixed width) font. Examples of these include Monoco (on a Mac) or Courier. These make every character take up exactly the same amount of space.
Q) I *still* can't see the board properly.
A) Try bog show long board instead.
Q) The board scrolls off the screen. What can I do?
A) If you're using a UNIX ircII client, the best solution is to use IRC windows. You need VT100 emulation to use this feature (you have VT100 if your screen has an inverse bar at the bottom of the screen above where you type). With multiple windows, you can /msg bogbot to show you the board in one window which won't scroll, while you play in the main window.
Type: /window new - create a new irc window /bind ^I next_window - That's carat-I, not control-I! Tab will now switch windows. An inverse ^^^ denotes the active window. Use tab to select the upper window. /join #boggle - Join channel in the upper window Use tab to select the lower window. /msg bogbot show board - Shows board in lower window Use tab to select upper window, play!Type /window kill to destroy a window.
Note: These commands do not work in mIRC clients; they are for ircII clients.
A)If you're using a Mac or PC client, try opening a query window to bogbot and issuing a show board or show long board command. You can then tile the windows so that the board window is always conveniently in sight.
Type: /query bogbot - to open a query window bog show long board - in the query window will send you board.
Eingang runs the games on StarLink and on DALnet. The following table gives you the channel names and server names for the various trivia games.
Network Server Game Channel
DALnet viking.dal.net Boggle Not running
EFnet Boggle #boggle
StarLink denver.co.us.starlink.org Boggle Not running
Undernet us.undernet.org Boggle #boggle
Big Boggle #bigbog
A number of commands can be issued by players to BogBot. The following list of commands should be sent via a private message to Bogbot. This can be done by typing /msg BogBot cmd, where cmd is one of the following:
* show board
Sends a private message to you with a copy of the current board
in play. This board is all on one line and works with IGM and
80-column text-based IRC clients.
* show long board
Send a private message to you with a copy of the current board
in play. This board is sent one line at a time and provides an
alternative for those who don't use IGM or can't get the regular
show board to work.
* show scores
Displays the current points accumulated by the players for the current
game.
* show top wins
Will send you the list of the 10 players with the greatest number of
wins. On StarLink/DALnet, this list is of the
top ten high scores generated while playing with at least two
people.
* show top scores
Will send you the list of the 10 players with the greatest number of
points in a single game. This list is of the
top ten high scores generated while playing with at least two
people.
* show stats nickname
Will send you a summary of a given user's number of wins and highest
score.
* show top indy scores
This command shows you the top scores generated
while players were playing alone.
* show top indy wins
This command shows you the top number of
individual wins.
* show top percentages
Shows you the ten players who have found
the highest percentage of possible words while playing against
other players.
* show top indy percentages
Shows you the ten players who have
found the highest percentage of possible words while playing
alone.
* hard mode
This instructs the bot to no longer
accept 3-letter words as of the next game.
* easy mode
This instructs the bot to once
again accept 3-letter words as valid answers of the
next game.
Channel operators are users entrusted to maintain order on the channel as well as correct errors and notify the administration in the event of errors or mishaps. If you are not on the bot op list and think that you qualify, contact the appropriate game administrator.
We cannot stress the importance of operators behaving appropriately. With so many games running, it is impossible for the game administrators to monitor all the channels all the time. As such, we rely on the operators to enforce the rules, particularly the rules regarding language and conduct on the channel. The games are designed to be family-friendly. If you are an operator or would like to be an operator, please be sure that you are also committed to this.
If you think someone is abusing their operator privileges or perhaps using them to cheat, please feel free to contact the appropriate game administrator with details of the problem.
For more information on becoming an operator, consult the How To Become a Channel Operator guide.
Thousands of people have played our games, from countries all around the world, at many different times of the day and the night. In order to make sure that everyone has a good time, we have formulated the following rules which lay out guidelines for proper behaviour from all the users of our game channels. With so many games running, it is impossible to monitor all the channels all the time. Therefore, we rely on the operators to enforce the rules, particularly the rules regarding language and conduct on the channel. The games are designed to be family-friendly, which means we do have restrictions on language and content, for the comfort and enjoyment of all.
Channel operators are users entrusted to maintain order on the channel as well as to correct errors and notify the administration in the event of errors or mishaps. If you think someone is abusing their operator privileges or perhaps using them to cheat, please feel free to contact Eingang with details of the problem.
For a complete list of rules, please check our Acceptable Use Policy
The Boggle games were originally developed by Mach. Mach was a Ph.D. student in computer science at the University of California at Davis. He is now working for Intel in Portland, Oregon. The DALNet/StarLink versions of Boggle were adapted from the original MachBot code by Eingang in 1997. Eingang is a Ph.D. student in computer science at the University of Sussex in Brighton, England. She works with her husband at their Web design firm.
Mach's e-mail address is kenrick@acm.org. Eingang's e-mail address is eingang@eingang.org.
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