What is apterous?
The first thing to say is that apterous is definitely not Countdown. It is not endorsed by Countdown, Channel 4 or anyone important at all. However, it is a game with rounds including numbers, letters and conundrums. This may sound familiar. You can play against your friends over the Internet, or other people's friends if you don't have any of your own. To play, just register and then log in. If you're having problems, head over to our FAQ and, if that doesn't work, please do email me and I'll do my best to help.
Current Duel Leaders
| # | Player | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ross Allatt | — |
Format: 6 rounds of 50 seconds.
[Vote for the next Duel's format]
Latest Pencils
Top Dog
| # | Player | % |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dave Robjohns | 100% |
These are the finest bones dug up lately,
in Mr Dog's opinion (patent pending).
Discussions
53
6
17
Spoon of Awesome for Paul Anderson
Miscellaneous topic by Joseph H. Status: Unconfirmed.
2020 has been a very difficult year for us all. Most Co:events have been shelved and we have all had to adapt to a new normal. For many of us, this means that we have been unable to see friends and enjoy ... [Read more] [More miscellany]
10 0 2
Sort current tourney fixtures by date
Website feature request by Bradley Horrocks. Status: Unconfirmed.
I think it would be useful if the list of current tourney fixtures and results under 'My tourneys' could be sorted by the deadline date, from earliest to latest. Currently the list is sorted from latest ... [Read more] [More feature requests]
25 0 10
How long's that word been in?
Website feature request by Graeme Cole. Status: Unconfirmed.
We frequently hear/read the question "is that a new word?" We can usually get a vague idea by using the "word search" dropdown in Lexplorer and looking for the earliest game it was offered by a bot or ... [Read more] [More feature requests]
109 0 27
Spoon of Awesome for Phil Collinge
Miscellaneous topic by Matthew S Rutherford. Status: Unconfirmed.
With the brand new server coming courtesy of Charlie's hard-work, it was made possible by Phil's very generous donation. So, as way to give thanks and remember a dearly missed member of our community, ... [Read more] [More miscellany]
27 0 21
How 'A' can be pencilled in Normal
Miscellaneous topic by James Rowan. Status: Unconfirmed.
"So how bored were you from studying this evening?" Well, we'll start with A and all of the stems it has to take it to a 2-letter word - we can then remove those letters from the selection we're constructing. ... [Read more] [More miscellany]
6 1 1
Chess player? Join the Apterous team on Lichess
Announcement by Matty Artell. Status: Unconfirmed.
Since I know of a few people on Lichess and others on the site who are just generally into chess, I thought I'd start a team on Lichess. If we get a few members in, we could start to have some tournaments. ... [Read more] [More miscellany]
5 0 0
Number distribution for different formats
Website feature request by Adam Dexter. Status: Unconfirmed.
Hi, I think it would be nice to see the number distribution for different variants. I am aware that normal is 4l plus 1-10 twice. I noticed when playing Hyper that the same small came out 3 times. I ... [Read more] [More feature requests]
6 0 13
June dictionary update
Announcement by Charlie Reams. Status: Unconfirmed.
Just a small update this time, 39 new words [link] and 21 deletions [link] ... [Read more] [More miscellany]
32 0 17
And... we're back!
Announcement by Charlie Reams. Status: Unconfirmed.
Welcome to the new and improved apterous! Full details to follow, but just a quick note to say thank you everyone for your patience. For various technical reasons it's taken longer to move the game to ... [Read more] [More miscellany]
21 0 18
Bot Lexicons - Notably Nude, Plum and Waldorf
Miscellaneous topic by James Rowan. Status: Unconfirmed.
Overall, the standard of play on average exhibited by bots matches their ratings, however it's usually the letters that make the bulk of the scoreline. Their lexicons however still seem a little bit unrealistic ... [Read more] [More miscellany]
12 0 0
Stats graph showing games played per day over time
Game feature request by Adam Dexter. Status: Unconfirmed.
Hi, I would like a Superstats graph to show how many completed games per day a player has played. Would be interesting to see where the peaks and troughs are and at which point the addiction has been ... [Read more] [More feature requests]
8 2 10
Unlimited Numbers
Variant idea by Dave Robjohns. Status: Unconfirmed.
It struck me earlier that Unlimited and Hyper Unlimited numbers are identical to their Normal counterparts, and Junior Unlimited is very close to Junior numbers. So I've come up with a *potentially rubbish* ... [Read more] [More variant ideas]
7 3 4
Integrate Countdown’s dictionary rules on Apterous to help jugde dictionary errors better
Website feature request by Philip Aston. Status: Unconfirmed.
I never dream of getting overly hung up on dictionary errors because it's time wasting to obsess, but having had recent experience of contributing to these, I thought I’d suggest something which I hope ... [Read more] [More feature requests]
14 0 132
Ask A Thing
Brainstorm by Charlie Reams. Status: On-going.
Everyone loves Ask Graeme [
link] so here is an analogous thing for apterous. This is a good place to ask questions about apterous history that probably aren't ... [Read more] [More miscellany]
13 1 12
Removing the flashing red 'Find an opponent' light whilst in game
Game feature request by Amar Chotai. Status: Unconfirmed.
I don't know about you, but this seems to be a recurring problem for me which occurs when the 'Find an opponent' tab flashes bright red right in the middle of games (to signify unplayed tournament games ... [Read more] [More feature requests]
6 0 0
Return of the most common maxes by variant page
Game feature request by Matty Artell. Status: Unconfirmed.
As per [
link] I believe there was a page in wordstats which listed some of the most common maxes available in different variants. This was really useful ... [Read more] [More feature requests]
5 0 0
More Intuitive Links from User Pages
Website feature request by Chris Hare. Status: Unconfirmed.
The 'Format' tab on a User Page (example: [ link] ) shows games from the last 30 days. However, when one uses the links in the 'Top Score' or 'Top Maxes' ... [Read more] [More feature requests]
38 1 9
Let players list their 'preferred formats'
Game feature request by Conor Travers. Status: Unconfirmed.
Hi. I think there was a discussion recently about many people leaving themselves greyed out on busy whilst some people were unable to find a game. I do this a lot, but mainly because I don't want to play ... [Read more] [More feature requests]
12 1 4
Automatic Exit of Tutorial
Website feature request by Andy SC. Status: Unconfirmed.
I think it would be a good idea if Newbies are automatically directed to the home screen of Apterous once they complete the tutorial because to my knowledge a few people took a while to figure out how ... [Read more] [More feature requests]
20 0 5
Request that bug tickets show on front page
Website feature request by Fiona T. Status: Unconfirmed.
Would be useful for bug tickets to show on the front page - so that people know the problem they're experiencing isn't unique to them. Saves everyone asking "where have my tourney games gone?" :) [Read more] [More feature requests]
News
4 July 2020
- Derek Jones. commented on Philip Aston's game with Neil Collins.
- Adam Dexter commented on his game with Callum Todd. [+1 other]
- Matthew S Rutherford commented on Apterous Presidential Election: South Dakota. [+3 others]
- Derek Jones. commented on Carlo Harrison's game with James Robinson.
- Callum Todd's 128 - 83 game with Adam Dexter received a nomination for Game of the Week. [×3]
- John Beresford commented on AptoLeague: S2 Premier League. [+5 others]
- Callum Todd tied the record number of maximums for 15 Rounder with 15 maxes.
- James Rowan tied the record number of maximums for Octorock 9 with 9 maxes.
- Jason Larsen's 12 - 0 game with Apterous Prune received a nomination for Game of the Week. [×7]
- Edward Ashcroft tied the record number of maximums for Octorock Numbers Attack with 20 maxes.
- James Rowan tied the record number of maximums for 15 Rounder with 15 maxes.
- Jason Larsen commented on his game with Apterous Prune.
- Jason Larsen commented on his game with Apterous Waldorf.
- Dave Robjohns tied the high score for Nice Numbers Attack with 200 points, and tied the record number of maximums with 20 maxes.
- Jason Larsen commented on Aptolympics 2020: Event 10: Skateboarding. [+1 other]
- Amie Bateen's 117 - 0 game with Apterous Prune received a nomination for Game of the Week. [×8]
- Amar Chotai commented on his game with Emily Cox. [+2 others]
- The Duel was won by James Rowan with a score of 16 from 18.
3 July 2020
- Mr Dog awarded the dog bone for best Top Dog performance to Darren Godfrey, who lasted 9 rounds with a target of 6. Woof!
- James Hall tied the high score for Junior Numbers Attack with 200 points, and tied the record number of maximums with 20 maxes.
- Hazel Drury tied the high score for Junior Numbers Attack with 200 points, and tied the record number of maximums with 20 maxes.
- Amar Chotai's 100 - 67 game with Emily Cox received a nomination for Game of the Week.
- Dave Robjohns commented on Aptolympics 2020: Event 22: Baseball.
- Ian Volante commented on Aegilopsists: 2020: Group D.
- Elliott Mellor tied the record number of maximums for 15 Rounder with 15 maxes.
- Callum Todd tied the record number of maximums for Letters Attack with 20 maxes.
- Matthew Tassier tied the record number of maximums for Numbers Attack with 20 maxes.
- Hazel Drury's 215 - 168 game with Andrew Hulme received a nomination for Game of the Week. [×7]
- James Rowan tied the record number of maximums for Goatdown 9 Rounder with 9 maxes.
- Amie Bateen set a new high score for Russian Letters Attack with 117 points.
- Chris Anthony tied the high score for Nice Conundrum Attack with 200 points, and tied the record number of maximums with 20 maxes.
- Sam Cappleman-Lynes tied the high score for Nasty Numbers Attack with 200 points, and tied the record number of maximums with 20 maxes.
- Derek Jones. commented on Dave Ryan's game with Suzy Turner.
- Bradley Horrocks commented on Apterous Presidential Election: Montana. [+1 other]
- Keith C Williams tied the high score for Hyper Numbers Attack with 200 points, and tied the record number of maximums with 20 maxes.
- Jason Larsen commented on his game with Apterous Caesar.
- Jason Larsen commented on his game with Apterous Waldorf.
- Hazel Drury tied the record number of maximums for Goat Attack with 20 maxes.
- Dave Robjohns commented on Aptolympics 2020: Event 10: Slalom Canoeing.
- The Duel was won by 2 people (Joseph H and Stephen R) with a score of 232 from 232.
2 July 2020
- News: The Duel for June 2020 was won by Elliott Mellor!
- News: A total of 32 Duel Necklaces were awarded for June 2020.
- Mr Dog awarded the dog bone for best Top Dog performance to Edward Ashcroft, who lasted 20 rounds with a target of 10. Woof!
- James Hall commented on Bot Ladders: Round 3: Touch Jnr Conundrums.
- Dave Robjohns's 30 - 0 game with The Duellist received a nomination for Game of the Week. [×2]
- Anthony Endsor tied the record number of maximums for Junior Numbers Attack with 20 maxes.
- Chris Anthony tied the high score for Nice Conundrum Attack with 200 points, and tied the record number of maximums with 20 maxes.
- Matthew Tassier commented on Thomas Cappleman's game with Apterous Prune.
- Rob Foster tied the record number of maximums for 15 Rounder with 15 maxes.
- James Hall tied the high score for Touch Jnr Conundrum Attack with 200 points, and tied the record number of maximums with 20 maxes.
- James Hall tied the high score for Touch Jnr Conundrum Attack with 200 points, and tied the record number of maximums with 20 maxes.
- Joseph H's game with The Duellist received a nomination for Game of the Week.
1 July 2020
- News: Matthew S Rutherford has been crowned champion of AptoLeague (S1 Cup)!
30 June 2020
- News: Game of the Week was won by Luke Johnson-Davies's 172 - 162 15 Rounder win against James Haughton! This week's vote is now open.
29 June 2020
- News: Updated ProRanks for this week.
- News: Ronan M H has been crowned champion of Sudden Death Conundrums 2!
24 June 2020
- News: Game of the Week was won by Sam Cappleman-Lynes's 196 - 50 Aegilops win against Apterous Prime! This week's vote is now open.
22 June 2020
- News: Updated ProRanks for this week.
17 June 2020
- News: Game of the Week was won by Fred W's 143 - 0 15 Rounder win against Apterous Prune! This week's vote is now open.
15 June 2020
- News: Updated ProRanks for this week.
10 June 2020
- News: Game of the Week was won by Vincent Barcet's 172 - 96 French Letters Attack win against Phil Hannan! This week's vote is now open.
8 June 2020
- News: Updated ProRanks for this week.
7 June 2020
- New: We're back with a brand new server! [Discussion]
This website is not endorsed by or affiliated with Channel 4, the makers of Countdown, or any person associated with the aforementioned in any way whatsoever at all, never has been, never will be, and moreover is proud not to be. Yep.
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