xyWords is a cross-word anagrams game where the object is to use letters in the wheel and find words on the board.xyWords is a cross-word anagrams game where the object is to use letters in the wheel and find words on the board.
These words can be interconnected like a cross-word or isolated on the board.
You need to find all of the words to complete the board.
Hidden (off board) words can be found for a bonus challenge.
Written in Quickbasic 4.5 and targeted for MS-DOS based PC's (but should run happily in DOSBOX). Released as Public Domain / Free.
There are 2 editions of xyWords:
Both editions are designed to work on a wide variety of PCs but if for some reason you encounter a problem please reach out on the vogons thread.
Image credit: VileR @ vogons thread
View the Youtube video for this game
To get started simply download one of the distributions:
Full Release - https://4am.org/xywords/xywords.zip 3.7mb uncompressed
Contains the base game, all graphics, puzzle editor (xyPE) and full user manual.
Should be run from a hard disk.
Pico Release - https://4am.org/xywords/xypico.zip 137kb uncompressed
Contains base game and a small selection of graphics only.
Designed to run from a single floppy disk.
Special GOTEK Release - Https://4am.org/xywords/xymini.zip 2.5mb uncompressed
A full release containing base game, all graphics and puzzle editor (xyPE).
Designed to be run on a flash-floppy enabled GOTEK and nFormat utility.
Do you have a composite monitor/TV or B&W mono CGA?
This patched version (1.0.3a) allows you to disable extended palettes.
You can play either a single puzzle (FREE PLAY) or a collection of puzzles which will unlock as you progress (COLLECTION)
Each puzzle contains an amount of "puzzle words" which you will need to find to progress.
Some puzzles will have hidden words which you can find as a bonus (not needed to progress).
Fitting the game board, input controls and progress information on a 320x200 pixel screen only using 4 colours is not an easy task.
So here's some paint-brush constructed help to explain :-)
You can either create them yourself by reading the manual and creating the file(s)
Included in the full release is xyPE - xyWords Puzzle Editor
It uses the 640x200 CGA High-Res mode to generate and design puzzles.
When saved you can add them to FREE PLAY or make your own COLLECTION
Generate your word list (right hand list) based on your keyword.
Select a word in the list and adjust its parameters.
No validation is included in this editor - so tread carefully or you might break the game.
You can preview the board by pressing T and it will generate a mock graphics board for you.
In this mode you can adjust colors, patterns, palettes and modify how the rack looks. For something fancy you can choose a background picture too!
With this board you can see TICKET and ICE in cross-words and an isolated board word KITE
Image credit: VileR @ vogons thread
This release was a bit of an extra challenge to see if I could get xyWords to run on a PC with only 256KB of RAM and no graphics card (MDA).
It also contains some concepts planned for xyWords 2.0 including; statistics and multi-player (hotseat) support.
The game runs efficiently on even the slowest of IBM-PCs and it can run entirely from a single floppy disk
Note - there is no puzzle editor included but you can edit the text files directly if you want to create one.
Click here to watch a youtube clip of the game in action.
Download game Https://4am.org/xywords/xymda.zip 162kb uncompressed size
Comes with the same puzzles and collections as the original version.
Designed to run on text-mode displays like the original Monochrome (MDA).
Requires less RAM, can run from a 360KB floppy disk by default
It can even fit on a 160KB floppy if you remove the source code files..
You can optionally use left/right cursor keys to spin the letter wheel and space will select the topmost letter
This is handy if you're using a crappy keyboard or a handheld DOS emulator :-)
Includes all puzzles and ASCII art (see user manual and GRAPHICS.DAT for credit info)
Supports multiple player profiles and a nifty Stats & Records mode
Includes Quickbasic 4.5 source code (poorly commented, sorry!)
You can also view the source on github
