Board game tests PC graphics to limit

Unable to display Scrabble

Just how difficult can it be to write a version of the board game, Scrabble, that could be viewed on a regular, XP based PC? Too difficult for Ubisoft, it seems.

It seems fairly reasonable to assume that if you're a keen games player, you do a bit of research and get yourself a decent graphics card allied to a pretty reasonable display.

That surely applies to a contemporary shoot-em-up game but to Scrabble for Heaven's sake? All it needs to do is display a board and a few tiles (chips).

Yet this INQ hack wasted a couple of hours trying to get Ubisoft's Scrabble 2005 to work and to no avail.

The irony is that the game was bought purely because an ancient version – also by Ubisoft – refused to load under XP, having run happily under Windows 95 and 98.

Does everybody have to possess the graphics industry knowledge of a Fudo to get a PC game to work, the INQ wonders?

Another irony is that a close friend of the INQ, Dr Peter Turcan, made his name by creating a version of Scrabble that could run on a Sinclair ZX80!

Just for the record this is what the PC has: a SiS Mirage 3000+ display adaptor, married to a Video Seven (V7) L17GM LCD display.

The game requires DirectX – for which the drivers have very definitely been loaded.

At this rate, going back to playing the game with a physical board and tiles seems to be the most sensible option.

(c) www.theinquirer.net