Rules are at the bottom. If you want a copy of this program, you can download it here. (pq.jar) It is double-click runnable as an executable on most mainstream operationg systems. Otherwise, it can be run using the command java -jar pq.jar
A note if you are downloading it using Windows: the operating system may try to save it as pq.zip instead of pq.jar. If it does so, do not let the file be extracted, and name it back to pq.jar after downloading. (You can also save it as a non-zip file to start with, for that matter, by not taking the suggested name.)

Program Update July 14, 2005
I added a roll counter the other day and finally got it put up. The layout has been slightly rearranged to put it in a logical place.

Program Update June 2, 2005
It's not a dictionary this time! Last night I added another feature to the program. You can now have the program respell the letters it shows you so that the word you're spelling is always at the beginning. It's actually pretty cool, and I stayed up far to late last night writing it...

Secondary update at 19:59 GMT (3:59pm EDT):
I fiddled with the code for the respelling, so what shows up will now be slightly different than before. The old code had a tendency to shift all copies of a letter to the left in the process of deleting letters or spelling new words.

Program Update May 31, 2005
There was a rather noticeable bug in my last post - the program that I used to merge the two dictionaries had a bug (because I wrote it and didn't catch the bug) and didn't write the last thousand or so words into the dictionary. Therefore, the dictionary is misisng all words starting something after WO or so. This problem has now been fixed, but anybody who downloaded it yesterday should download a new copy.

Program Update May 30, 2005
GUI update... I finally caved to pressure to put the menu bar in the application. Here it is. More importantly, though:
Another dictionary update... My dad was dissatisfied with the size of then new dictionary, so being the nutty computer geek I am, I spent a day writing a sort of editor/browser for the dictionary class I use. I determined that once the words of >10 letters in length were taken out, the new one was about two thirds the size of the old one. As a stopgap measure, therefore, I have merged the two dictionaries and removed the excessively long words and am currently using the resulting dictionary. (size is ~95,000 words) The result is that answers will occasionally still be a bit "out there" but that the list is bigger and therefore more in line with reality. (inclusive of weird and hard to believe rather than exclusive of weird and obscure, though)

Program Update May 28, 2005
Another big, or at least important, update, though it won't be immediately obvious. The wordlist being used as a dictionary has changed. (The new dictionary being used is the 2of12inf list which can be found among the 12dicts lists which can be found here) This means that some words that were accepted before are no longer accepted, and some words which were not previously accepted now will be. In general, it means that the dictionary will be a bit more in line with the reality of the English language.

Program Update May 18, 2005
Ok, this one's a big update. First, I rearranged the info bar at the top a bit. Second, I added an options menu, which currently has two options: Highlighting and Multi-row Roll. Highlighting marks the best score the dictionary thinks it can score with this roll. When you type in words, they appear inside a little box. Multi-row Roll was a suggestion I got because apparently you can see anagrams better if letters aren't all in a line. I alternate between finding it great and finding it useless, though. It's a stylistic thing I imagine.

Program Update May 16, 2005
Another update. This one will be noticed by frequent visitors of the site. I rearranged the user interface a little. The "Short Game" option is more important in the application version, though.

Program Update May 15, 2005
Now there is a reason to download the program to run on your computer: I have added a menu bar to the top of the application version. It has, among other things, options for both short (normal rules) and long (MIT Perquackey Federation tournament rules) games.

This is a word game called Perquackey. Normally, it is played with dice, but since the dice are rearrangeable, the letters are simply listed across the top here. To play, click on the timer to start the clock and enter words in the text field. Valid words will go in the upper half of the split pane at the bottom. When you finish a round, the applet will show you what words you could have spelled but didn't in the bottom half of the split pane. To start the next round, click on the timer again. When you win, by exceeding 5000 points, clicking on the timer instead starts a new game. When your score reaches 2000 points, you become vulnerable. This means that you get three extra letters, but you cannot spell 3-letter words. Additionally, if you do not score at least 500 points, you lose 500 points instead.

The Rules

• You have three minutes.
• Spell words using the letters provided.
• No more than five words per word length will be scored.
• A word and its plural formed by adding 's' cannot both be played.
• Words must be in the dictionary. (This dictionary has 88,000+ words.)
• Words must be at least three letters long (or four if vulnerable), and no more than ten letters long.

Scoring

You score points based on the number of words that you spelled of each length. Generally, this is a large amount for the first number and less for additional words of that length. However, if you spell five words for adjacent columns, such as 4-letter and 5-letter words, you get an additional bonus. Generally, these bonuses are worth as much as spelling several words of a longer length. Some of the bonuses for shorter sets are worth almost as much as completing the two columns themselves.