What is Digital scoring?
With digital scoring the box is played exactly as in the standard game, but your score is counted differently. When your turn ends, the tiles you left open are read from left to right, lowest first, as one number. Leave the 1 and the 4 standing and you score 14, not 5; leave the 2, 5 and 7 and you score 257. The lowest score still wins.
The number of tiles left up matters most, because every extra tile adds another digit. A single 9 scores 9 and beats the 1 and the 2, which score 12, and on the nine-tile box two tiles always beat three. So the usual advice of keeping the low tiles for the end turns around: closing a pair of low tiles can be worth more than closing one high tile. On a box of ten or twelve tiles, a two-digit tile adds both its digits, so the 1 and the 10 left open score 110.
Rule changes
| Rule | Standard Shut the Box | Digital scoring |
|---|---|---|
| Your score | Standard Shut the BoxThe open tiles added up. | Digital scoringThe open tiles read from lowest to highest as one number. |
| Examples | Standard Shut the Box1 and 4 score 5; a lone 9 scores 9; 2, 5 and 7 score 14. | Digital scoring1 and 4 score 14; a lone 9 scores 9; 2, 5 and 7 score 257. |
| Winner | Standard Shut the BoxThe lowest score; equal lowest scores draw. | Digital scoringThe lowest score; equal lowest scores draw, as usual. |
| Shutting the box | Standard Shut the BoxScores 0, the best possible score. | Digital scoringScores 0 too. |
| Other options | Standard Shut the BoxThe one-die choice and shut to win can be switched on. | Digital scoringThe same options work with digital scoring. |
History
Scoring by adding up the open tiles is the usual rule for Shut the Box, and lists of the game's variants call it Golf. The same lists give other ways to count: Missionary scores the number of tiles left standing, and Digital reads the open tiles as one number, from left to right. Digital scoring is also known as Say what you see.