Pentalix

A word-guessing game for PicoCalc, written in MMBasic.

Inspired by the classic 5-letter word guessing game. You have 6 attempts to guess the secret word!

Features

• 🎮 Classic gameplay - 6 attempts to guess a 5-letter word
• 📝 668-word dictionary - File-based word list for easy customization
• 🔤 Letter tracking - On-screen alphabet shows which letters you've used
• 🎯 Smart feedback - Two-pass algorithm handles duplicate letters correctly
• 💾 Memory efficient - Uses file seek for random word selection
• 📺 40-char display - Optimized for PicoCalc's screen

How to Play

1. The game picks a random 5-letter word
2. You have 6 attempts to guess it
3. After each guess, you get feedback:
   • [X] - Correct letter in correct position (green)
   • [?] - Correct letter in wrong position (yellow)
   • [-] - Letter not in the word (gray)
4. Use the alphabet tracker to see which letters you've tried
5. Win by guessing the word before running out of attempts!

Example

  +==================================+
  |        P E N T A L I X           |
  +==================================+

  Guess 1:  C R A N E    [-][-][-][?][?]
  Guess 2:  S T A R T    [-][X][X][-][X]
  Guess 3:  _ _ _ _ _
  ...

Requirements

• PicoCalc device with MMBasic
• Or MMBasic for Linux (for development/testing)

Installation

1. Copy pentalix.bas and words.txt to your PicoCalc

2. Place both files in the same directory

3. Run from MMBasic:

     RUN "pentalix.bas"
   

Running on Linux MMBasic

cd pentalix
../mmbasic pentalix.bas

Files

File	Description
pentalix.bas	Main game program
words.txt	Dictionary of 668 five-letter words
design.md	Technical design document

Customizing the Word List

Edit words.txt to add or remove words. Each word should be:

• Exactly 5 letters
• One word per line
• Uppercase or lowercase (game converts to uppercase)

License

MIT License - Feel free to modify and share!

Acknowledgments

• Developed for the PicoCalc device
• Written in MMBasic
• Written with the help of AgentZero