DESCRIPTION

Created by board game manufacturer Selchow & Richter, Glib is an interesting word game, which in itself is an odd genre to find on the Atari VCS. Two rows of seven blocks each are displayed on the screen, and at the beginning of each round random letters cycle through the seven upper blocks. At the press of the action button, the letters are halted, and one is moved to the first block of the lower row — and now the player has to come up with an actual word by moving the seven available letters around.

As with Scrabble, each letter has an individual point value, so in some cases — where possible — the more unusual the word, the better. If nothing can be done with the letters presented, players can move their joystick-controlled cursor to the "Pass" button and reject the current selection, starting over again from the beginning of the round. Glib can be played with or without a time limit, with one or two players, and there's even a game variation in which the letters in the upper row scroll relentlessly from right to left. (Oddly, the number of players is determined by the setting of the left difficulty switch — "A" for one player, "B" for two.)

Glib is a neat little game, and unique in the Atari VCS library, but it's far better suited to a computer with a drag-and-drop capability; as much as an Atari VCS word game was unusual in itself, many casual players may not have the patience to do the joystick jockeying necessary to play it. But it's also one of the rarest cartridges in the entire Atari VCS library, so anyone who's looking for it now probably can't be described as a "casual player" by any means. ~ Earl Green, All Game Guide