Words With ScrabbleScrabble, Words With Friends, Lexulous

by mcbill

Top 5 Apps Based On Original Board Games

Here’s gaming over the last half-century: Baby-boomers played board games on boards, and liked it. They were saddened to see Generation X sucked up into newfangled video games and computer games, playing board games to make their parents happy, then disappearing to play Airborne on the computer all alone for hours on end. A few year after that, computers were all connected and if a game wasn’t multiplayer, it wasn’t worth playing. “Millennials” might be best summed up by E.M. Forster’s famous exhortation, “Only Connect.” And that brings us back to the original board games. They’re back, they’re on your iPhone, and we know the 5 best!

Conquest, Sean O’Connor; .99. Predictably, a RISK clone is on our list. Less predictably, it’s not the popular .99 app Lux. Conquest plays faster, is designed to look and feel like the classic board game, and gives you scads of maps and options to choose from. After playing Conquest, Lux and other RISK clones look like kludges.

Monopoly, Electronic Arts; .99. There is no amazing animated sequence of a guy in a top hat and monocle taking down Godzilla, and there is no 3-D camera tracking the progress of a housing development under construction. There is no flashing screen urging “Finish Him!” when you foreclose on a property. It’s Monopoly, just like you remember it. This is a good thing.

Scrabble, Electronic Arts; .99. Confession time: Scrabble makes the list because bad Scrabble is better than good Chutes and Ladders, or a variety of other choices. But EA has dumbed the game down to the point where more competitive Scrabblers will be frustrated at their inability to challenge and be challenged, and it suggests words to make you smarter than you are. If you don’t know that Xi is a Greek letter and Xu is a currency, Scrabble has no business telling you. That said, if you’re not a purist, it works great and looks like the real thing

Shredder Chess, Shredderchess.com; .99. If you’re a casual fan of the game, get one of the many free apps available. Shredderchess is for serious chess buffs. It offers a variety of pleasing board/playing piece graphics, and more importantly has the strongest chess algorithm on the app market. But don’t be scared; it scales back to any playing strength. It tracks your rating and allows you to set the engine appropriately, provides for coaching options, and includes virtually endless chess puzzles to solve. Worth the price whether you’re serious about chess or about learning chess.

The Game of Life, Electronic Arts; .99. EA has updated life for the iPhone, tweaking it to play faster and adding a lot of 3-D perspective in the movement. What the heck, it’s a video game now, right? But just like the original, you and your friends or family will be amused and entertained by this classic until it kills your battery (the usual way a “Life” session ends.)

Whether you played the original board games during your “wonder years,” or are just discovering the naked aggression of Risk or the cold heartless capitalism of Monopoly, these apps give you a way to play them at a safe distance from family members or friends-a feature that may have come in handy for some families the first time through.

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by massdistraction

What Are The Best Apple iPad Apps?

The new iPad from Apple has recently hit the shelves and is selling fast. What are the best apps for the iPad? This article offers some suggestions.

There are hundreds of apps available for the iPad, many of which have been carried over from the iPhone and iPod Touch.

Here follows a brief description of 5 apps that look fantastic and are a great addition to the iPad.

If you enjoy comics, then the ‘Marvel Comics’ app is a beautiful comic book reader that gives access to a thrilling library of comics to read on your iPad. Marvel Comics include all the great superheroes such as Spiderman, Superman and Iron Man. The app is free but the comics need to be purchased.

Another great app for reading on your iPad is ‘iBooks’. The app gives you access to the iBookstore, which is a great way to download and read the latest and greatest books on your iPad. The ‘iBooks’ app stores all your books on an attractive bookshelf. You can browse your books, tap on one to open it and swipe to turn the pages. You can even bookmark your favourite pages. The app is free.

Board games look and feel great on the iPad. The ‘Scrabble’ app is a great choice if your looking for a stunning game to play. You can play against the computer or friends. You can even sync your iPod Touch or iPhone to use as a tile rack. It’s .

Another cool game for the iPad is the ‘Flight Control’ app. This game has proven to be very popular with the iPhone and this larger version fits very well on the iPad’s bigger screen. The idea is to land your planes by directing them into the airport with your finger without them crashing. It’s .

My last vote goes to iWorks. This is Apple’s iPad productivity program. It has been specifically tailored to the iPad’s strengths. There is a choice of Pages, Numbers and Keynote. Pages is Apple’s word processor. They are .99 each.

I hope these 5 short reviews have given you an insight into just some of the great apps available.

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by Kevin H.

Scrabble: An Inside Look At one of the Most Popular iPhone Apps

Over the years, Scrabble has been one of the more popular board games for people of all ages. Now you can take your favorite classic Hasbro word game anywhere you go, thanks to the Scrabble iPhone app released by Electronic Arts.

Electronic Arts has been in business since 1982. Since that time, the company, commonly known as EA, has developed many popular games for various gaming consoles, personal computers, wireless devices, and the Internet. EA is headquartered in Redwood City, CA and has grown to the point that it employed over 9000 people worldwide in the year 2008. Today, EA is perhaps best known for its sports and action based video games, including the Madden NFL series and the Need for Speed games. The popularity of EA’s iPhone apps, such as the Scrabble one, cannot be ignored, however.

Since its release on July 9, 2008, the Scrabble iPhone app has sold very well in the iTunes store as well as on Gamestop’s website. In fact, the Scrabble iPhone app is ranked in the top 1300 of over 9600 iPhone and iPod game apps available through Gamestop.

Basic game play is the same as the board game, and the Scrabble iPhone app has many positive points. Users are very pleased with the options for solo play, including the fact that the CPU you play against is actually a challenging opponent and not one that is impossible to beat or far too easily defeated. You can also play alone without a computer opponent. Multiplayer options include pass and play for playing with friends in person, multiplayer Wi-Fi for online play, and even a Facebook app. The clear graphics and ease of play with the Scrabble iPhone app are also praised by users. The low cost of this app only adds to its appeal.

If you enjoy the classic board game of Scrabble, you will definitely love the Scrabble iPhone app. You will be able to enjoy your favorite game and expand your vocabulary everywhere you go. EA has certainly scored a home run with the Scrabble iPhone app, and this app is a must for even the occasional Scrabble player.

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