Alphen — Details

The screen-shot below shows the opening position in a typical round of Alphen. The letter grid has space for four words, one in each of the named categories, but the letters have been scrambled. Unlike an anagram-type puzzle, in which the letters are mixed up within each word, here they are scrambled vertically — the letters are in their correct horizontal positions, but most of them are in the wrong rows.

One row is highlighted in yellow. That is the “current row”. If you click a letter in one of the other rows, it will swap places with the letter at the same position in the current row. You change the current row by clicking on the category name.

Now let’s solve the puzzle. We might begin by noticing that one of the required words is a State of the USA. There aren’t many states with five letters, so let’s give that a try. To begin, let’s make State of the USA the current row by clicking on its category box. The puzzle now looks like this:

Which state are we looking for? We might think of TEXAS, but there’s no X in the third column of any of the rows. If we notice that there’s an O in the last column, though, we might guess the answer to be IDAHO. Let’s go with that and see if it works out. Since the first letter on this row is already correct, our next move is to click the D in the bottom row. The D jumps up into the current row, and the O that was there jumps down into Farming. The next letter we need is A, which is also in the Farming row. When we click it, the A changes places with the R in the current row. Next comes the H, which is already where we want it, and finally the O, which we find in the top row. After we click it, here is the new position:

Now that one row is correct, the letters in the other rows are starting to look less random. Scanning down to the Farming row, we find that we’ll need to move only one letter to produce a valid word — probably the correct one. We click the Farming category box to make it the current row, and then the S in the Fruit or vegetable row. The effect is this:

We’re almost done. All the remaining work is now confined to the first and third rows. These are fairly easy to untangle, and a few clicks later we have the solution:

And so ends the first round of our game. Because we solved the puzzle within the time limit, we’ll go on to the second round, with new words and categories — and just a little less time to find them! The rounds will continue until we finally meet our match... but perhaps not before we make the high-score list!

Choose the version that’s right for you

• Alphen CD — Your CD is sent out by first-class mail within 24 hours. — $10.00 USD + $5 shipping
  
  
  
• Alphen — electronic delivery — An unlocking code will be sent to you by email as part of your receipt, along with a download link. — $10.00 USD
  
  
  
• Alphen — light version — This version lets you play a significant portion of the game. Buying the game unlocks the rest.