Lucky Few Get Free Scrabble

Hasbro Interactive plans to introduce the first of its planned series of Em@il Games by giving away 100,000 copies of its Scrabble Em@il on Friday, Feb. 5 to New York City commuters, office workers and other downtown denizens. Hasbro's crew, garbed in yellow jackets, will hand out copies of Scrabble Em@il at the American Stock Exchange, Columbus Circle, Grand Central Station, the Staten Island Ferry, Times Square, the World Trade Center, commuter rail stations and other Manhattan locations. For non-New Yorkers who'd like to try Hasbro's gaming by e-mail, downloadable demo versions of Scrabble Em@ail and Battleship Em@il will be available on the company's Web site.

Hasbro's games give an Internet twist to the old play-by-mail concept. Players must have a copy of the game installed on their computer; then they trade moves via e-mail attachments. Hasbro intends to launch 11 of these play-by-e-mail games this year; Scrabble, Battleship and Grandmaster-Chess will be the first three titles rolled out in the series. Plans for future releases include poker, golf and football games. Each game in the series will retail for approximately US$15.