Players are dealt 12 cards from an alphabetic deck and play them to the table in rows and columns to make words, or the start of words. Players choose their cards simultaneously. When the cards are shown, the lowest in the alphabet goes first and so on. Players add their card to the rows or columns on the table, calling the word or part-word they are forming, so adding E to the start of LAST gives ELAST, for which you can call "elastic."

All cards must be placed, so if you cannot form a valid word to call, you must, depending on the game edition: a) pick up the longest line of cards, which will score against you (Cwali first edition), and then in the following rounds, play order is Z-A; or b) pick up half the number of cards in the longest line and add them to your hand (2nd edition).

Rules in 4 languages, English, German, French and Dutch. The strong graphic design is styled on an old typewriter font. A typewriter is an early form of word-processor...