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Pyramid: Definition: Pyramid is a word game, for those who like Scrabble or Scrabble type games. It is strictly for 2 players. The story: I am a foreign born person; I learned English after I came over to USA. I love games and I got involved with friends, family who were "Scrabble nuts". They invited me to play; first I said "nah....how could I play a game where English language is the core of the game?". They insisted to "humiliate" me, so I sat down and played. And won. And won again. That is when the barrage of accusations emerged:"You are lucky. You always get the good letters, in good time, bla...bla....bla..." But I realized that they maybe right, Scrabble is indeed somewhat luck dependent. It isn't if one player is superior to the other, but it is if the players are in the same class. I got my first even computer, an Apple II+ in 1981, quickly learned Applesoft Basic, I really liked it, and I got the idea to write a game, which is similar to Scrabble, but totally luck-independent and more exciting (rather, more dynamic). The game: It is rather simple to learn. On the Apple disk there is a very detailed tutorial. I still write down some info here, so one can get "ready" faster. There is a pyramid shaped grid on the screen (hence the name). One side belongs to one player; the other side belongs to the other player. The goal is to fill the grid with words, 7 words, one 7 letter word, one 6 letter word and so on. The words only count horizontally. The base value of the letters are the exact same as in Scrabble. The winner of course is the one who scores more points. Fundamental differences: In Pyramid there is no such a thing as "my turn, your turn". Either player can just simply claim a turn and if the criteria's are fulfilled, it is his/her turn. One player can have several consecutive turns. The other fundamental difference: the letters never run out. In the middle of the screen (visible by both players) endless stream of letters scrolling, which the players can take. Except, if (for example) an X was taken, it doesn't mean that there are no more X-es. The letters never "run out", but the statistical probability for each letter show up again, is the same as if it was pulled from a full bag of letters (the bag always remains full). Thus the probability for an X is 1 to 100, while for an E 12 to 100. And the same for all of the letters. No more complaint that "you got the good letters". The game itself is simple. Any player can stop the scrolling, claim the turn, take any of the letters on the center rack and put those onto his own rack. From which he can put down words on the pyramid, where he gets score for those words. The menu before the game starts contains 3 selections of method. 1. Bidding. 2. Level. 3. Value changing rack. The level can be ignored and always kept on 10 (default). Higher level will make the letters scroll faster, lower levels slower. I recommend just leaving it on 10 all the time. The Bidding: it has a cute story. First there was no bidding in the game. The player pressed the key, it was his turn and that's that. But since I still kept beating my Scrabble opponents, the next whine was "because you have better reflexes and if you see a good letter you end up with the turn". Okay.....let's fix it, and that is when I included the bidding. With which, the player who claims the turn doesn't automatically gets it, the other player has the option to bid (earned points) to claim the turn. 2-4-6-8-etc. points, the bid can go back and forth until one player is not willing to give up the points. Then, the highest bidder gets the turn and the points he bid of course deducted from his score. The game allows including the bidding or not. The Value changing rack: My opponents still lost (:-). The next complaint was that even with the bidding, when the center rack still empty (after all the letters were taken), when the scroll begins, I am faster with my hands and force them to bid for even one letter. Okay.... let's fix it. And the new rule, for each blank space (not yet filled with letter) cost a point to the person who takes the turn. So, that single letter showing up has a "high price". Now, even that excuse was eliminated, but this remained a selectable item too. Because of the much negative points, in this mode both player starts out with 50 points. This option doesn't make the game very different, but the bidding sure does. Of course, both option can be chosen or not, thus several minor variation to the game. If the same name is used for the same player, the game keeps running stats for competitors on the disk. I recommend going through the tutorial at least once. All rights reserved by Author: Gabor G. Laufer, M.D. gab.lau@verizon.net