When Scrabble was introduced in Sweden in the mid-1950s, it was translated as Alfapet, and sold under that name for decades. In the early 1990's, the rights to the game reverted to the original publisher for some reason, but the rights to the name Alfapet stayed with BRIO.
BRIO had purchased Alga some 10 years before and had made them BRIO's board game arm, phasing out the old board game brand Joker who had been used for all the Scrabble-Alfapets over the year. So BRIO gave Alga the task to invent and publish a new letter-tile-laying game with the name Alfapet, while firstly Spear's (one edition of Scrabble) and later their new owner Mattel, Inc. (all subsequent editions in Swedish) started publishing Scrabble in Sweden under its original name. It might be interesting to note that Joker's last Alfapet (of Scrabble type) and Spear's first was virtually identical to each other, save some names and logotypes.
Joker's last edition of Scrabble
Spear's first and only edition
Alga's first edition of "new" Alfapet
The name Alfapet was much more known, so this game sold better (most people who had heard of "Scrabble" thought it to be the English version of "Alfapet").
To a large extent, Alfapet and Scrabble are very similar games. The boards look a bit different; in Alfapet, there are for instance squares that decrease the number of points you get for a word, and there are +4 and *4 squares. With special arrow tiles it is possible to make a turn in the middle of a word. With a stop tile, you are allowed to lay a word directly after another without actually using the letters from the original word. It is also legal to lay a word in parallel adjacent to an existing word, as long as all the words thus created the other way are legal.
To celebrate Alga's 90th anniversary a special limited edition was released called Alfapet Limited Edition. The only known difference in this limited edition is that it has a new dark design.
Re-implements:
Scrabble
Word Game · Hand Management, Tile Placement
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