Literati Buster
by James R. Davis - © Copyright 2003 - DavisWorks Unlimited

Enjoy playing Literati but get hung up when you get a bad batch of letter tiles? Ever wonder how others keep getting those all letter bonuses while you are stuck with 4 point words? Literati Buster is the way to go! Literati Buster is a simple program to use, lets you find words, match to letter placement and combos already played and increases your score to those of a winner. Just enter in your tiles and/ or any tiles you want to match to and presto! . . . all matching words are shown in a simple list by point value. Search for words by first letter, last letter, or any combination that might be on the board. Word look up is also available for words listed. All words are verified by Dictionary.com and are valid moves in the game Literati.


Common Questions and Answers:



What is Literati Buster you ask? 

Well let me give you a little history! Literati is a game on Yahoo Games that is played alot like Scrabble.  If you want a better idea of the game, go here: http://games.yahoo.com/lt ... but the main game board looks like the picture to the right... anyway... I got dragged into playing it online with a friend and before I knew it I was addicted.  It's different from the original Scrabble in two ways... the letter tiles have a different point value system and if you are able to lay down all your letters at once in one turn you get a 35 point bingo bonus.

So... after playing for awhile and getting my butt beat at every turn I hit the web looking for a program that might be able to help me make better words.  I found one program called Literati Buddy but it was far to limited and they wanted way too much for it and so my search continued.  I found a site called Scrabble Buddy by a Jeff Boulter and it was able to form words including the wildcard BLANK tiles and I figured this would be enough, but nooooooooo.

Using Dialup my connection was way to slow to have the game running and access that site at the same time, so I figured, what the hell... I'll make my own version... it started out simple enough.  I downloaded the entire Webster's dictionary and I made my own version of the Lil'Scrabbler and added a new feature to it that would allow you to put in a match fitting string as well... for example... say that there is a spot on the board where you see a "T" and an empty space and an "N"... all you would do is enter a fitting string of "T*N" and it would return only words that would fit into that spot!  Pretty cool huh?

Well things didn't stop there.  I ended up getting out my old Visual Basic books and brushed up on my programming in it and decided to turn the web based version into a full blown Window's application.  And so was born Literati Buster.

After releasing the program, I received one of the nicest emails from someone who has found my program of great use to them... and I thought I would share it with everyone:

Hi Jim,

First of all, let me say how much I love Literati Buster...I'm good at Scrabble, so I couldn't figure out why I kept getting absolutely KILLED at Literati when I started playing a couple of weeks ago. What was happening is my opponet would get the "bingo bonus" right away, making it very difficult for me to catch up.

I knew with all the deviant competitors out there (kidding!) that there had to be a program that offered assistance. Yours was the first one I found, and I'm thrilled I did. I was worried it would be pricey and bemoaned the fact I'd have to wait to buy it (just started new job last week) so imagine my pleasant surprise when I saw it was only ten dollars.

So why haven't I paid, you ask? Well I don't use PayPal...it made buying stuff on ebay just a little TOO easy, so I decided to go the checks/money orders route when buying online. Would sending a money order be all right? I really, really want to register my version! If you don't accept money orders let me know and
I will try to find someone else who has a paypal account and just give them the money so they, in turn, can pay you.

But...sending a money order would be a lot easier ;^) Thanks for your time, and many MANY thanks for your genius...I just got hired as a programmer myself and after a few days of writing my piddly little applications and database req's I literally (literati-ally?!) can't imagine the time and effort that went into creating LB. Hope to hear from you soon,

Elizabeth (Liz) A.
Austin, TX

Now I can understand the temptations of PayPal... however, it's all I got to work with right now. And what people don't realize is that PayPal doesn't just work with online banking, but they can process checks/money orders automatically. But for such kind words and genuine gratitude, I gave Elizabeth a free registered version of the program... why? Maybe because I'm an old softy and maybe it's because it's people like this that make programming and doing what I do worth all the time and effort I put into these things! Thank you Elizabeth!


What does it do you ask?  

Well... here are a list of the features:

Main Screen Shot
Float your cursor over any of the
buttons on the main screen above
for a description of it's function!

Feature list:

  • Finds all possible words from a given set of tiles.
  • Uses BLANK wildcard tiles in it's search.
  • Can find words that "FIT" into areas on the board.
  • Works for Scrabble (including Letter Values)
  • Works with many online word games like:
    • Pogo's Word Whomp
    • Yahoo's Text Twist
    • Yahoo's Spell Down
    • Quadplex
    • and Many more!!
  • Brings up word definitions from Dictionary.com but is 10x times faster!
  • Lists point values for each word found.
    (Including when a "bingo" bonus can be achieved!)
  • Hidden Feature uses the Scrabble point values.
  • You don't have to be online to use the program, you don't even have to be playing Literati to use it!
  • Can be used for playing the regular Scrabble Board game!
  • Is extremely easy to use!
  • Free to use for 30 days as Shareware!

 


What are people saying about this program?

gary

Date/Time 12-28-2005/10:51:23 Referred by: yahoo Entry: 60 of 69

Comment

I would like something to help my game


If you'd like to leave a commant about the program, let me know here... Please take a moment to sign the Literati Buster comment section once you've tried the program out and let everyone know what you think about this program. Let me know what your high scores are and what other uses you've found for the program. I'd love to hear about it!

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Where did you hear of this program?

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Please press Submit only ONCE!
If you wish to contact me directly, you may contact me at Admin@Davisworks.net


How do I get it you ask?

It's as easy as just clicking this button:


The filesize is about 2.5 megs and depends on your connection rate as to how fast it will download.  The latest version as of 4-18-2003 is version 1.4!


What kind of support is there for this program?

You can join in on the new Literati Buster Forum and find out all the latest news, post suggestions, ask questions, and get answers here:

 


Can I try the program first online?

Sure you can! If you'd like to try out the basic features of the program you can do so here using the online Literati Buster free by clicking this button:

Please note... if you have a pop-up blocker turned on, this will not work, turn your pop-up blocker off for the Online Literati Buster to work properly!


How do I register my copy?

The program will work without restriction for 30 days... if after 30 days pass you will not be able to do anymore Searches... after that time if you think the program is worth it, you can purchase a registration for only $10.00... that's right, only $10!

If you'd like to register your copy of Literati Buster, you can do so easily here:




Number of Visitors

Clear Your Tiles Area Clear FIT String Area Clear both text areas of all data List Matches Found by Point Value List Matches found by word length (default) Click this button to begin your word search This brings up the help screen on using the program Clicking this button allows you to register your program This is the area where words that are found are listed. This is the area where you type in your letter tiles, use a question mark "?" to represent Blank tiles This is the area where you enter in your FIT string for finding words that will fit between letters. Click this button to visit DavisWorks Unlimited Use this button once you highlight a word that was found to see the definition of the word according to Dictionary.com This button Ends the Program Peek-A-Boo