Major updates to English (US), French, Dutch and Norwegian vocabularies.
Multiple improvements to statistics:
all players, including guest and AI, now have ongoing statistics;
statistics can be reset via the PLAYERS menu;
wins, losses and draws are shown seperately;
and in-game statistics are split by player instead of by current/past games.
Updated icons to distinguish FREE and PRO versions through colour-coding.
Adjusted German tile values: A, U, C, V, W and Ä are all increased by one point. This brings their values more in line with their frequency in the language.
New scrolling menu system to allow space for more options. Some settings have shifted from the start of the game to the Options menu. If upgrading from a version earlier than v3.28, settings may be reset.
New 'Avoid rare words' option (previously, rare words were only played when competing with the top AI).
New 'Instant spelling check' option (score bubble turns red if you're placing an invalid word).
New and much improved Dutch vocabulary.
Improved AI.
Now able to view word definitions at end of game.
Android FREE version: removed all in-game banner ads (at most, you'll now see just a single full-screen ad when entering and leaving a game).
Android FREE version: added extra advertising controls to the Options menu.
PRO version: increased maximum number of named players to 10.
Updated vocabularies, especially German and Danish (now uses The Official Danish Spelling-Dictionary, 4th edition, 2012, including 8th digital update, 2017).
No longer need to press OK to acknowledge invalid word.
User interface improvements: easier and clearer word selection for definitions; score/tile panels flash when clicked; can now return to board after viewing stats at end of game.
Added two new board styles ('Geometric' and 'Incognito') and tweaked existing styles.
Updated the English, German and Swedish vocabularies.
In Swedish, you can now play 'Q' and 'W' using a blank.
Added a counter to the 'hint' button so you can see how many hints you have left.
Changed the board selection menu: clicking the board now cycles you through all the board styles. As before, you can click the button below to change the layout.
Added a new non-exe launch method for Windows, which may help in rare cases where the game won't run.
Added a new 'Tile Allocation' switch with two settings:
'Random', which unsurprisingly means that tiles will be allocated completely at random;
and 'Balanced', which means that the computer will always try to issue a good mix of both vowels and consonants.
Fixed a timing bug causing slow frame rate on some devices.
Modified the two existing board styles ('Vibrant' and 'Subdued') and added two new ones ('Dotty' and 'Low-Glow').
The tiles screen now displays two statistics for each letter: the total number of tiles still to be placed on the board; and the total number of tiles at the start of play.
Re-organized the menus so that all gameplay options are displayed at the start of each game.
Completely redesigned to run on wider range of devices and screen sizes, with a fresh, modern look and numerous new features.
All graphics are now full colour and high resolution, and animations are smoother.
Now supports boards ranging from 15x15 squares up to 21x21 (previously, all boards were 17x17). Note: board 6 is the closest equivalent to the old version's default board.
Blank tiles have been added (to keep this from making the game too easy, players now get 7 tiles instead of 8, and the bonus for playing all tiles at once has been reduced to 40 points).
You can now set a limit on the number of 'hints' you can use per game.
The vocabularly has been massively increased to 1.7 million words (previously, it was 730,000 words). The foreign language word lists in particular are much improved.
To help players with small screens (or poor eyesight), the board now zooms in automatically when you place a tile. You can drag then drag the board around or double-tap it to zoom back out again. Don't like this default behaviour? Just switch off 'Auto-Zoom' via the Options/Graphics menu.
You no longer have to save your game manually. Instead, your position is saved automatically whenever you exit, allowing you to resume later.
Banned and added words are now cleared at the end of each game (meaning you no longer have to manually edit them on a separate menu).
The main game screen has been de-cluttered. You can still get information about previous moves and tile totals - just click the score/tile display areas in the bottom left.
The Novice and Normal AI's have been made a little easier (the Expert and Master AI's are just as tough).
A few features have been removed for the time being (but may be re-introduced later):
online play;
3 and 4 player games;
Finnish and Norwegian;
Extra Turn squares;
time penalties;
and 'Point Stealing' mode.
Fixed a problem preventing the saving of data, such as high scores, user vocab, option settings, saved games, etc. This was only affecting users running Windows Vista with User Account Control enabled.
Fixed bug preventing some games from being displayed on the CrossCraze servers (this fix was made on the servers, so users don't have to upgrade to benefit).
Host players are now prevented from accidentally starting single-player net games (if there's only one player, there's no need for a network).
Added time-out to stop program from hanging when disconnecting from a busy server.
Fixed bug affecting -SILENT switch. This bug may also have been responsible for problems with Alt-Tabbing reported by a small number of users.
Changes made to in-game instructions and HTML documentation.
Introduced LAN and internet play, including a centralized lobby where you can meet other players from around the world.
Added new Point Stealing option (use previously placed tiles to snatch points back from your opponents).
Introduced support for 9 foreign languages: Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Spanish and Swedish.
Added over 5000 words to the English vocab.
Improved graphics and redesigned menus.
Introduced new stereo sound effects and music.
Strengthened the AI players.
Users can now ban words that have just been played by clicking UNDO.
Added default rack sorting: press F8 once to sort alphabetically; twice to sort by vowels and consonants; or three times to randomize.
Clicking a letter in the tile statistics panel now causes all corresponding tiles on the board to flash. This saves you having to search the whole board for a 'U' to match your 'Q'!
Clicking on the board causes the square's bonus value to be displayed - useful if you can't recall what the abbreviations stand for or if a square is covered by a tile.
Enhanced the in-game help and converted text file help to HTML.
Adjusted board layouts and tile scores/distributions to improve playability.
Added a 'Reset' button to clear high-scores.
CrossCraze now remembers all your player names, as well as the last board you used and the rules you selected, so you don't have to re-enter every time you run the program.
Moved various gameplay settings (language, penalties, etc) from the Options screen to the "Players & Rules" menu (this is more logical because in network games it is the host player that decides these settings).
Introduced logfile (CCLOG.TXT) to help diagnose any reported errors.
If there is only one human playing, it is now possible to view your rack when it's not your turn even if you've switched off the "Show Opponents' Tiles" option.
Tweaked game to stop colour corruption caused by some wallpaper programs.
Made graphics routines more efficient and added Options menu switch to allow shading effects to be disabled (may help if you've noticed the game slowing down).
Made graphics routines more efficient and added Options menu switch to allow shading effects to be disabled (may help if you've noticed the game slowing down).
Added -SILENT command-line switch to allow disabling of sound effects (may help if you're unable to run the game because of sound-related error messages).
Graphics routines made more efficient (may help if you've noticed animations slowing down when racks are re-filled).
Fixed obscure dictionary bug related to the addition of new words to the User Vocab List (unlikely to have affected anyone, but better safe than sorry).
Made minor adjustments to the dictionary (a few obscure words were being played by the weaker AIs - they will now only be played by the Master AI).
Added -FRAMERATE command-line switch to allow control over animation speed.
Version 4.02 (Windows & Android)