I think you'll find he left 'sausage' out of his Dictionary, Baldrick

The title and heading image are from the Blackadder episode Ink and Incapability, dealing with the first ever English dictionary - which apparently lacked a number of words including sausage. Rather apt given that this blog entry lists EVERY SINGLE WORD in the video game known as Wordtris (GB version). And it too is missing the word sausage. Join us for some ROMhacking fun.

.

.

.

I've been playing Wordtris on the Game Boy, and it is terrible. Almost Your Weekly Kusoge terrible, in that the concept just doesn't work - in trying to make long words, you will almost always accidentally make shorter words, thereby curtailing your attempt. Higher "difficulties" omit shorter words, but it doesn't really fix the problem. It also annoyingly seems to count two separate words stuck together, again ruining attempts to go for that really big word, purely by accident. The other thing is that the GB, and possibly the other versions of the game, just don't have enough memory to carry a large enough list of words. Tetris, Puyo Puyo, and every other puzzle game work because they've based on simple mathematical rules. Wordtris is meant to encapsulate the entire English language, and yet it's missing words like sausage and genie. Swearing I can understand being omitted, but when the game failed to recognise genie I just gave up. It does not function as intended due to hardware limitations.

Then I wondered: what words DOES it recognise?

So I went to Romhacking.net and posed a question on the forum, and forum user Zoinkity replied. His message, including a subsequent PM:

---

Text table starts at 0x1CE76, though there is a set of tables that define each start and length for each possible word length (like 'word' within 'wordy') and I'm far to lazy to disassemble anything at the moment. As for actual variations on words, it just changes the length of them. That's why the original list is in such a bizarre order; note how words that can end in 'd' or 's' will be followed by a word starting with that letter.  That's some pretty impressive sorting they did to conserve space like that.

---

There are two lists here. The first is the order they appear in the game, since the end of some words lead on to other words. If I understand this correctly, Flood and Issue are together to produce the word "Diss"? Actually, I'm not sure, I haven't tested that. Perhaps Letter and Shrink, to include Letters? Regardless, there's two lists here, so those curious can see what is actually under the hood.

There are by my count 301 basic words in the GB version, with more when you include compounds and words-within-words. How many words do the DOS, Mac and SNES versions have? I dunno, and I'm not that interested in investigating. But perhaps someone else will look into this and maybe produce an amusing chart or graph comparing how linguistical the different versions are. Which is wordier?

And, most importantly, which version if any contains the word SAUSAGE.

There's probably an amazing investigative article hidden within this topic.

The list Zoinkity discovered:

GREEN

BOGUS

CLOWN

ZEBRA

KNOCK

PEACE

EDICT

HAPPY

EARTH

KNAVE

GREAT

GRAPE

APPLE

TOTAL

SHAME

STONE

WHOLE

ROUND

BINGO

CROWD

STAND

YEAST

EXCEL

HOVER

EXALT

FANCY

GUILE

TRICK

FLOOD

ISSUE

ACUTE

MANIA

FABLE

NOVEL

STORY

BRAWL

GORGE

STUFF

BLINK

EMPTY

BLUNT

PRIME

CHIEF

ADAPT

EQUIP

AFFIX

LIMIT

GROSS

DECAY

BLOOM

CHECK

GRANT

YIELD

PROOF

SOBER

WORDY

WORRY

FUNNY

BRAND

SIGHT

AMAZE

DOUBT

STARE

COMICS

CORN

WRECK

SWEAT

FAINT

JADED

WEARY

TEASE

RELAX

HONOR

MERIT

PROBE

QUEST

HASTY

RAPID

SWIFT

QUERY

QUAKE

CROWN

BLISS

AXIOM

AVOID

BASIC

BLANK

ADMIT

CATCH

DELAY

FAITH

GIANT

HAUNT

IDEAL

JUDGE

KNACK

LEARN

MAGIC

CHARM

SPICE

DETACH

MOUSSE

AMAZON

FALTER

ACACIA

SQUEAL

LIVING

SACHET

EFFORT

ACCORD

ZEALOT

FLIGHT

EXCITE

LETTER

SHRINK

REDUCE

CHANGE

SIGNAL

SULTRY

MORTAL

ENIGMA

VORTEX

GENTLE

COSMIC

FRENZY

FAMOUS

SCRAPE

EXCESS

OBSESS

ATTACH

ADROIT

MIRAGE

THWART

ASSUME

RECKON

IMPEDE

DENOTE

SAVAGE

BATTLE

SYMBOL

OCCUPY

SCREEN

SETTLE

SMOOTH

GROUND

STRONG

ADJUST

MISFIT

GOVERN

LOCATE

DESERT

REVOKE

VACATE

REVIVE

COMBAT

ENDURE

SUBMIT

WONDER

MODEST

ADMIRE

COMPEL

PONDER

IGNORE

FALCON

STRIVE

MOTHER

SISTER

HARASS

PESTER

PLAGUE

SOOTHE

SEARCH

SURVEY

ACTIVE

CLEVER

SHREWD

SECRET

COVERT

OBJECT

BEYOND

CANCEL

CARTEL

LAVISH

DOCILE

FABRIC

GALAXY

ROBUST

HAZARD

STEREO

JARGON

LAWFUL

MALADY

NARROW

OCCUPY

MINGLE

RESCUE

SECURE

SPHERE

TENDER

UNIQUE

GRAPHIC

WHISPER

EXPLODE

BELOVED

CHERISH

PRECISE

BENEFIT

CONTROL

FLUTTER

NATURAL

COMBINE

WRESTLE

COMPACT

SATISFY

MARSHAL

FICTION

MINIMAL

BUOYANT

DISTANT

FANTASY

AGITATE

SUSPEND

PERPLEX

ELEVATE

NOSTRIL

MUSICAL

PARABLE

REALITY

SUPREME

EXHAUST

IMITATE

PENALTY

CORRECT

ADVANCE

WRINKLE

SHIMMER

SHRIVEL

CONCEAL

MYSTERY

SUCCUMB

PROBLEM

MIRACLE

EVIDENT

NEGLECT

CONCISE

ACHIEVE

NATURAL

EXCLUDE

PROTECT

ANXIETY

CONCERN

BROTHER

TROUBLE

TORMENT

COMFORT

BENEFIT

UTILITY

CRUSADE

PURSUIT

BRUSQUE

DYNAMIC

QUARREL

CALLOUS

COMPLEX

BALANCE

REQUEST

CAUTION

ACQUIRE

ORGANIC

CAPABLE

CAPITAL

PATTERN

PENALTY

HEALTHY

ECSTASY

FASHION

HIDEOUS

GENERAL

GIMMICK

HOSTILE

VERSION

JOURNEY

KINGDOM

LECTURE

MACHINE

NEUTRAL

OBVIOUS

PASSION

PEEVISH

QUALITY

RESIDUE

RESTORE

SCANDAL

SCATTER

TEXTURE

UPRIGHT

SUBJECT

VENTURE

WELCOME

LICENSE

LEVEL

Re-arranged into alphabetical order by me:

ACACIA

ACCORD

ACHIEVE

ACQUIRE

ACTIVE

ACUTE

ADAPT

ADJUST

ADMIRE

ADMIT

ADROIT

ADVANCE

AFFIX

AGITATE

AMAZE

AMAZON

ANXIETY

APPLE

ASSUME

ATTACH

AVOID

AXIOM

BALANCE

BASIC

BATTLE

BELOVED

BENEFIT

BENEFIT

BEYOND

BINGO

BLANK

BLINK

BLISS

BLOOM

BLUNT

BOGUS

BRAND

BRAWL

BROTHER

BRUSQUE

BUOYANT

CALLOUS

CANCEL

CAPABLE

CAPITAL

CARTEL

CATCH

CAUTION

CHANGE

CHARM

CHECK

CHERISH

CHIEF

CLEVER

CLOWN

COMBAT

COMBINE

COMFORT

COMICS

COMPACT

COMPEL

COMPLEX

CONCEAL

CONCERN

CONCISE

CONTROL

CORN

CORRECT

COSMIC

COVERT

CROWD

CROWN

CRUSADE

DECAY

DELAY

DENOTE

DESERT

DETACH

DISTANT

DOCILE

DOUBT

DYNAMIC

EARTH

ECSTASY

EDICT

EFFORT

ELEVATE

EMPTY

ENDURE

ENIGMA

EQUIP

EVIDENT

EXALT

EXCEL

EXCESS

EXCITE

EXCLUDE

EXHAUST

EXPLODE

FABLE

FABRIC

FAINT

FAITH

FALCON

FALTER

FAMOUS

FANCY

FANTASY

FASHION

FICTION

FLIGHT

FLOOD

FLUTTER

FRENZY

FUNNY

GALAXY

GENERAL

GENTLE

GIANT

GIMMICK

GORGE

GOVERN

GRANT

GRAPE

GRAPHIC

GREAT

GREEN

GROSS

GROUND

GUILE

HAPPY

HARASS

HASTY

HAUNT

HAZARD

HEALTHY

HIDEOUS

HONOR

HOSTILE

HOVER

IDEAL

IGNORE

IMITATE

IMPEDE

ISSUE

JADED

JARGON

JOURNEY

JUDGE

KINGDOM

KNACK

KNAVE

KNOCK

LAVISH

LAWFUL

LEARN

LECTURE

LETTER

LEVEL

LICENSE

LIMIT

LIVING

LOCATE

MACHINE

MAGIC

MALADY

MANIA

MARSHAL

MERIT

MINGLE

MINIMAL

MIRACLE

MIRAGE

MISFIT

MODEST

MORTAL

MOTHER

MOUSSE

MUSICAL

MYSTERY

NARROW

NATURAL

NATURAL

NEGLECT

NEUTRAL

NOSTRIL

NOVEL

OBJECT

OBSESS

OBVIOUS

OCCUPY

OCCUPY

ORGANIC

PARABLE

PASSION

PATTERN

PEACE

PEEVISH

PENALTY

PENALTY

PERPLEX

PESTER

PLAGUE

PONDER

PRECISE

PRIME

PROBE

PROBLEM

PROOF

PROTECT

PURSUIT

QUAKE

QUALITY

QUARREL

QUERY

QUEST

RAPID

REALITY

RECKON

REDUCE

RELAX

REQUEST

RESCUE

RESIDUE

RESTORE

REVIVE

REVOKE

ROBUST

ROUND

SACHET

SATISFY

SAVAGE

SCANDAL

SCATTER

SCRAPE

SCREEN

SEARCH

SECRET

SECURE

SETTLE

SHAME

SHIMMER

SHREWD

SHRINK

SHRIVEL

SIGHT

SIGNAL

SISTER

SMOOTH

SOBER

SOOTHE

SPHERE

SPICE

SQUEAL

STAND

STARE

STEREO

STONE

STORY

STRIVE

STRONG

STUFF

SUBJECT

SUBMIT

SUCCUMB

SULTRY

SUPREME

SURVEY

SUSPEND

SWEAT

SWIFT

SYMBOL

TEASE

TENDER

TEXTURE

THWART

TORMENT

TOTAL

TRICK

TROUBLE

UNIQUE

UPRIGHT

UTILITY

VACATE

VENTURE

VERSION

VORTEX

WEARY

WELCOME

WHISPER

WHOLE

WONDER

WORDY

WORRY

WRECK

WRESTLE

WRINKLE

YEAST

YIELD

ZEALOT

ZEBRA