Samouk

## Description

_Samouk_ (“Autodidact”) is a simple Scrabble-like game, published as a type-
in program in the Polish “Bajtek” magazine. The player and the computer take
turns placing new words (between 3 and 15 letters long) on the board. The
rules are that each new word must cross at least one of the words already on
the board, and no word can be used twice.

During the player’s turn, he chooses a starting position with the cursor, then
types in the word and presses Enter, and the computer itself decides if the
word fits horizontally or vertically (if it doesn’t fit at all, a beep is
heard.) The player wins if the computer during its turn is unable to come up
with a word that would fit onto the board. If the player is unable to make a
move, the game can be restarted by using the EDIT command (Caps Shift+1).

The game doesn’t contain a predefined dictionary. However, the computer
memorizes every word typed in by the player, and is capable of using the words
during later games. The dictionary can be saved and loaded to tape (or floppy
disk, after a small modification to the source code) with the 1 or 2 keys.