Talk:Boggle
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Is Boggle Ultimate played widely? It's consuming a large amount of space in the article, and I'd like reassurance that it's played outside Oregon. Ventura 16:30, 2004 Aug 4 (UTC)
- I've never heard of "Boggle Ultimate", but it is mildly interesting and I vote to keep the description of the rules. I'm less interested in the strategy section, because it doesn't give me any useful information about how to decide when to turn over the timer. Personally, I expect that the quicker player would always turn over the timer immediately. When I played with my sister in high school, our standard Boggle timer was broken, so we used timers borrowed from other games. When we used a timer of 2.5 minutes I won nearly every game, and when we used a timer of 3.5 minutes she won nearly every game. I was quicker but her vocabulary was larger. Therefore, if I played "Boggle Ultimate" against my sister, I would immediately turn over the timer on every game, and it would be no different than regular Boggle. Yawn. Maybe the whole section can be compressed to two sentences. --Fritzlein 18:38, 5 Aug 2004 (UTC)
I've removed the Boggle Ultimate section. Unless there is verification that this variant is well known, it should not be reinstated. Peter O. (Talk, automation script) 00:29, Jan 1, 2005 (UTC)
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[edit] Boggle Variants
I added information about Boggle variants, including some details I'm not entirely sure about.
1) I changed the Boggle Master section to state that SOME editions of "Boggle Master" include the optional 4x4 adapter. My copy of Boggle Master was not sold with an adapter.
2) I added the "Boggle Challenge Cube" variant. I purchased this set used, and it included only 16 cubes (15 white cubes, plus the red challenge cube). From the picture on the box, I believe this set was originally sold with a total of 17 cubes (the standard 16 white cubes plus the extra red cube). If anyone can confirm this, I would be interested.
3) I added the "Body Boggle" variant. I have this game, and have read the instructions, but have never been inclined to play it.
4) I added the "Boggle Bowl" section. I have NOT seen this game recently, nor have I read the rules. I'm only guessing that it is vaguely like Scrabble.
5) I have not seen Math Boggle game myself, but I remember seeing it on eBay years ago. If anyone can confirm or deny its existance, I would be interested.
6) Are there other variants I don't know about? I seem to recall seeing "French Boggle" once, but I don't feel confident about that one. Please let me know if you have information about others.
I think regular Boggle (4x4 or 5x5) is a wonderful game, but these ill-conceived variants are just interesting peculiarities.
[edit] Trivia entry may not be correct for all versions of boggle
Harkening back to my ill-spent youth, I distinctly recalled forming inappropriate words that started with 'F' and rhymed with "truck". So, I dusted off my Boggle game, and here are my dice:
- V-I-T-E-G-N
- A-C-E-S-L-R
- V-A-Z-E-D-N
- I-C-A-T-A-O
- N-O-D-U-K-T
- E-N-I-P-H-S
- O-R-I-F-B-X
- K-U-L-E-G-Y
- E-Y-I-E-H-F
- E-S-U-T-L-P
- E-W-O-S-D-N
- P-E-C-A-D-M
- A-L-I-B-T-Y
- S-A-H-O-M-R
- J-A-B-O-M-Qu
- U-R-I-G-L-W
As you can see, 'K' and 'F', while occurring only once each, occur on separate die. At least they do in my set. Unfortunately, there does not appear to be anything to indicate the age of my game except that I've had it for as long as I can remember and there is a (c)1976 on the box.
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You've actually got two K's there, and two F's, not one of each. All the more likely for making your inappropriate words. The newer version (see below) has still 2 F's, but only 1 K. And these three are all on the same cube, making this particular word impossible.
Psymann 13:35, 20 August 2007 (UTC)
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I recently played a game with friends on their set (a pretty recent UK version with a blue box). I was amazed how easy I was finding it to get words. So I went and compared it to my old version (c1986, yellow box, sold in the UK). They've very different indeed.
New Version | Old Version AAEEGN | AACIOT ELRTTY | AHMORS AOOTTW | EGKLUY ABBJOO | ABILTY EHRTVW | ACDEMP CIMOTV | EGINTV DISTTY | GILRUW EIOSST | ELPSTU DELRVY | DENOSW ACHOPS | ACELRS HIMNQU | ABJMOQ EEINSU | EEFHIY EEGHNW | EHINPS AFFKPS | DKNOTU HLNNRZ | ADENVZ DEILRX | BIFORX
Distribution: A: vi | viii | -2 B: ii | iii | -1 C: ii | iii | -1 D: iii | iiii | -1 E: xi | x | +1 F: ii | ii | . G: ii | iii | -1 H: v | iii | +2 I: vi | vii | -1 J: i | i | . K: i | ii | -1 L: iiii | v | -1 M: ii | iii | -1 N: vi | v | +1 O: vii | vi | +1 P: ii | iii | -1 Q: i | i | . R: v | iiii | +1 S: vi | v | +1 T: viiii | v | +4 U: iii | iiii | -1 V: ii | ii | . W: iii | ii | +1 X: i | i | . Y: iii | iii | . Z: i | i | .
As you can see, the new version has removed many of the more awkward B, C, D, G, K, L, M and P which don't tend to help form long words, and have added more H, N, R, S, T and W, which tend to form longer words. It's also amended the vowels, taking a less helpful A and I to become a more useful E and O.
The new version is so easy that my friends had long-ago decided not to allow three-letter words at all - and even with this rule, in the few games I played, the new game with words of four letters and above was easier than the old one with three letters and above...
Psymann 13:32, 20 August 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Boggle Challenge Cube
To answer the question about the extra cube in the Challenge Cube set, yes, the set was originally sold with the 16 traditional cubes plus the red challenge cube. I believe this was so the players could opt to play with either the standard rules or by the "challenge" rules with a single set.
[edit] Television show
This entry is currently part of the Word Game TV Shows category. I can't find any evidence that there was ever a Boggle TV show - can someone cite a reference?
[edit] Longest game ever trivia
I just removed this bullet point from the trivia section:
*The longest series of straight Boggle games ever recorded occured in Bundaberg, Queensland, Australia on the 24rd of September 2006 at the Argyle Gardens Retirement Village. The competition was between three of the retirees; Floss, Pearl and Ian who played a total of 107 games over a period of 18.5 hours. The long duration of the tournament was the result of adding an unorthodox rule whereby play must continue until the first player wins a number of games that is equal to their age. Pearl was the eventual winner with an impressive 65 wins followed by Floss with 47 and Ian with 42. Floss had the longest word unsurpassable which ironically describes the marathon event quite accurately. After the game Ian remarked "because I'm the eldest by five years, I was bound to lose".[citation needed]
I'd originally added the citation needed tag but decided the whole paragraph should be excised, mostly because the scores don't add up (107 games = 65 + 47 + 42 wins?), which casts some doubt on the already dubious claim. If someone can come up with a reliable source for this, please feel free to add it back into the article. Schi 23:19, 6 October 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Boggle Master cubes
I've typed in the letters on the cubes of my Boggle Master set for someone, so I thought, why not post here as well. The set has an English and a French manual. Here are the cubes.
AAAFRS AAEEEE AAFIRS ADENNN AEEEEM AEEGMU AEGMNN AFIRSY BJKQXZ CCNSTW CEIILT CEILPT CEIPST DDLNOR DHHLOR DHHNOT DHLNOR EIIITT EMOTTT ENSSSU FIPRSY GORRVW HIPRRY NOOTUW OOOTTU
– b_jonas 20:08, 23 November 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Parker box designer having a laugh
I have a set of Boggle bought in the UK branded Parker.
The dice layout shown in the product photo on the outside of the box has the word ARSE clearly visible!
In the photo, the dice are layed out like this:
S I . . P . E E U S A N S R I B
The dots indicate positions where dice are either absent or not landed to the point of non-ambiguity. All letters are the right way up apart from the U which is rotated a quarter of a turn anti-clockwise.
Starting from the dice showing A, we need only go SW, N, NE to spell "ARSE".
Now surely this is the sort of thing that the designer would check for. I can only imagine that the designer did it deliberately as a joke.
Should we re-introduce a trivia section and mention this?
Duckbill (talk) 07:49, 29 March 2008 (UTC)
I jest not. Someone else has one as well and has uploaded a photo: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/image/43873. I was wondering if the joke might have been spotted and the box changed, making the joke boxes into valuable collectors' items. Duckbill (talk) 07:57, 29 March 2008 (UTC)
