One Rum of a Game (Tile Rummy Game (PC))

Member Name: TheChocolateLady

Product:	Tile Rummy Game (PC)
Date:	28/03/06 (1119 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: No violence, fun, thought provoking, fun, challenging, fun

Disadvantages: A touch expensive, but now its worth it, and its addictive

It isn’t often that one finds a game that one can download from the Internet which is both educational and enjoyable. It is even more rare that one can find one that is shareware that you’ll actually want to purchase after the trial period ends. Furthermore, how often can you find a game that the whole family can enjoy? Well, this is one of those special cases, and I thought you’d all be interested in hearing about it.

This program is based on the game of Rummikub® - one of the most popular board games on the market today (third best selling game world-wide after Scrabble and Monopoly). The original was invented by an Israeli of Romanian origin by the name of Ephraim Hertzano in the 1930s, and has since spread throughout the world.

If you’ve ever played the card game of Gin Rummy, you’ll have a good idea of how to play this game. Basically, using tiles instead of playing cards, you make up your sets (a set being a minimum of three tiles of the same value, but of different colours - say red 8, yellow 8 and blue 8) and runs (a run being a consecutive group of at least three tiles but all of the same colour - say black 5, black 6 and black 7). Instead of holding all your sets and runs in your hand, however, you place them on the table in front of you. In that way, all the other players can build and use the sets and runs you’ve put down. The object, of course, is to finish the game by using all the tiles in your hand. Once that happens, you score by adding up the points values on the tiles left in the hands of your opponents. This may sound similar to a variation on the card version of Gin Rummy, which I remember being called “Rummy 500”.

While this may not sound exciting, you’d be surprised at just how much fun, and challenging this game really is. We purchased the original board version of this game many years ago, but through the years we found that some pieces got lost, and as the kids grew older and got busier with their lives, we didn’t replace it. Imagine my surprise when I came across a PC version of this game. Although there are other versions, the one I’m reviewing for you today can be found at http://www.rummigame.com/

Downloading this game is very quick and easy, and you’ll find a link for this on the above page. I’ve noticed the same link on other gaming sites, so if you don’t find it there, just Google up any version of the game’s name and you’ll certainly find a site where you can download it. The product has a 30 day trial period after which you can pay for the game and register - thereby giving yourself lifetime of free upgrades. The purchase price for this game is US $24.95, which is £14.28 (I paid only $15, which was less than £9.50 at the time), if you take good advantage of the trial period, you’ll not feel it a pinch to purchase. By the way, if you want to get a CD instead of downloading it, that will cost you more ($8-12, depending on where they're shipping to).

The trial version is an almost complete version of the purchased game. The major differences being that you can only play one game per session of the trial version before the program shuts down. Of course, this didn’t stop me from revving up the game over and over again, throughout the full 30 day trial period. And since the game comes up quite quickly - with only a short pause for a “message from the sponsors” - I really didn’t mind that bit. Once you’re registered, that pause is eliminated. Also, before you buy the program, there are a few things you can’t do. You can’t keep your scores separate from those of other players by creating different player’s names. You also can’t use the un-do and re-do features, so if you screw up while trying to make a play, you’ll have to remember what was there before you started fiddling around. Finally, you can’t use the “emergency exit” key, which aborts the program when you press F4 (which they call the “boss key” so that if you’re playing at work and your boss comes by you can zip out of the program). Other than these few items, the trial version is exactly like the paid-for one.

Of course, usually a PC game is one that you’ll be playing against your computer. And this is no exception. However, there is an option here to join others on-line and play against other real human players. Apparently since I first wrote this review, there has been quite an upsurge in online playing and I've finally gotten the chance to try it. I have played several on-line games now and the only thing I don't like is the time delay. This means that it takes a bit of time to play with human players vs computer ones. Of course, it could just be me - I do tend to play pretty quickly. If that bothers you, you can always minimize the game while you wait, and you'll hear a ding when its your turn.

But even if you don't want to play on line there are many other ways to play this game, even just against the computer. For instance, you can play against up to three other computer players. Personally I prefer playing against just one, but my younger son does like to play against three. And then there are several versions of the game which you can play - and I had no idea how many different games there were. For instance, they have one with a tile set that look like little rocks with dots and dashes on them. If that’s too confusing for you, you can always tell your program to always use the tile set that you like best. And there are several different tile sets available to you. Then, if you don’t like the colour of the table or the background, you can change that too - and if you come up with a combination that you really love, you can tell the program that it should only use that and no others - even when playing on-line or with different games. What’s more, if the rules for a certain game don’t totally suit you, you can put together your own set of rules and save that as your default game. Versatile, isn’t it?

Just a quick word about the rules here. In the original board game version, we were used to being able to use aces (or the no. 1 tile) as either high or low. This means that you can do a run of either 1-2-3 or 12-13-1 (where 12 and 13 would correspond with the King and Queen playing cards, respectively). In the default program that this game starts with, the 1 or Ace is always low - meaning you can only do runs of 1-2-3 and not 12-13-1. There is no problem with changing that in this game, and making it your default. In fact, there are some people who are used to the 1 or Ace tile as being usable for “wrap-around” runs. This means that if you have a 1-2-3 run on the board, someone could add a 13 and a 12 to it as well. Personally, I think that makes the game too easy. Having this type of flexibility in the program is really convenient, especially since you can save your own rules and still keep all the other games completely in tact, as options for other players.

One of the things that I found kind of neat is the possibility of swapping duplicate tiles with the computer opponent. If you have more than one of a certain tile and your opponent also has more than one of a certain tile, you can actually take one of the duplicates and see if the other player will let you give it to him and get another one in return. It doesn’t always work, but when it does, you might just find yourself with a good tile that you didn’t have before. When you play on-line you have the option of agreeing or denying this with your own tiles, as well. Pretty cool.

The graphics of this game aren’t too shoddy either, although they could be a bit better. I find that the playing board area is a bit on the small side, and it doesn’t seem to give you more space when you play on a larger monitor (my 15” monitor at work gives me the same amount of table space as my 17” monitor at home). This means that once a game is in full swing, you might have to adjust the tiles so that you can see everything on the board - especially if you’re using the bigger tile sets. This is one of the things I’m going to suggest to the makers of this program to improve, along with more small tile sets. But it isn’t all that bad, since there’s a very convenient icon button to do just that in the tool bar at the top of the window. There are ways of adjusting your hand so that its sorted by colour or by value or not at all. And if you have more tiles in your hand than you can see on one line of rack, you can adjust the table so that you have two racks, until you’re able to get rid of enough tiles to push it back to one rack again.

I have to say that the help files for this program are absolutely perfect. Lots of cross-referencing and very plain language, throughout. When you first start using the program they have a tip that comes up before you start the game. While I quickly turned this off, I’ve often gone into these tips just for fun. They’re nicely written and have some great ideas - like using the control and shift keys to pick up more than one tile in a set, or using the alt key to pick up several non-related tiles so you can re-arrange your hand. They even tell you about ways to use other keys so that you don’t get Carpal Tunnel. Well done!

The original version I downloaded had very little in the way of sounds, except for playing on-line. With the newer version you get a whole lot of sounds, and a different set for each type of game. Personally, I find some of them annoying, but you can change the sounds on any and all of the games to any sound files you have on your computer - or take them off altogether. By the way, they also have some new 'card' sets you can download from the site, a couple of which are very cool looking - like ones that look like they're made from clear plastic (which I might make into my default tiles for all games, they're that nice).

Most importantly, one of the things I love about this game is there’s absolutely no violence involved - no blood, no guts, no booms or blasts. But that doesn’t mean its not exciting to play. I can tell you that when my computer opponent has less tiles in their rack then I do, I hope and pray that they won’t be finishing up just as I’ve got some big number tiles in my hand that I can’t seem to find a way to get rid of. You’ll also find that you’ll be using your brain in trying to figure out what moves you can make and how you can split up sets so that you can get that one tile you’re missing in your rack, but that appears on the board. You can even set the computer opponent to be as smart or dumb as you like. It starts with the computer having a rating of 55% and I’m seriously thinking of upping this now - just to make it even more challenging.

Finally, I have to say that this game is so much fun, so thought provoking and so challenging that you’ll want to play it every day. However, as nice as this program is, its really no replacement for the real thing, and my younger son (who paid for this program out of the proceeds from his Bar Mitzvah gifts) even went so far as to buy himself a whole new original board version so he could play this with (or should I say, against) his family and friends as well. Best of both worlds, isn’t it - when you can’t get real flesh-and-blood people to play with you in your home or don’t want to go on-line, you can always turn to the PC and get a game or two in against the computer. How many PC games can boast that they encourage both playing on the computer and playing on the original board as well, I ask you? So the bottom line is - yes, you should buy the program, but also buy the board game itself. Well worth both purchases, I assure you.

UPDATE: I have just today downloaded the update on this game, which is version 5.0 which was released on March 18th, 2006! Yes, its that new. And... it has far better graphics, theres sound to both the off-line and on-line games (which is a touch annoying, but you can turn it off, too), it gives "names" to the other players, sorts your tiles for you to show you sets, and has a much better on-line capability. All you do when you want to start a new game is click on the "online" button and if you're connected to the internet, and it will look for players for you. I'm telling you, its worth the extra money that they're charging these days.

Thanks for reading, and happy playing.

Davida Chazan © February, 2003 - updated March, 2006

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Technical Stuff:
This game is rated "E" - meaning it is suitable for anyone of any age.

The full history of this game and its rise to fame, can be found at http://www.areyougame.com/Interact/html.asp?html=m useum_history_rummikub.html

Rules of different versions of this game can be found at http://www.pagat.com/rummy/carousel.html and the basic rules for the original game can be found at http://globetrotter-games.com/index.htm?E

The official site for Rummikub® can be found at www.rummikub.com/.

Registered users can download more cardsets and special software for playing online.

This program was developed by YPR Software and the latest version 5.0.43, Release date: March 18, 2006, File size: 2.7 MB. The license is Shareware and is made for Windows 95/98/ME/XP
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Summary: A fun non-violent game that keeps your mind working, when you're not!