How do I keep my McAfee Firewall from blocking my Hasbro Interactive
Scrabble CD game - not generally, rather, what are the specific steps?
 When I insert the disk, only a black screen appears.

Are you sure that it is the Firewall which is causing the problem? 
Firewalls prevent others gaining access to your computer whilst you
are connected to the internet.

However, it appears you are installing Scrabble from a CD-ROM so I
assume you are not trying to play an on-line version.  It should be
possible to turn off the firewall.  However, you should only do this
if you are not on the internet and the firewall should be turned on
again once the software has been loaded.  I don't have McAfee firewall
so can't give you detailed instructions.  However, you may well have
an icon in your system tray at the bottom right of the desktop.  Right
click on the icon and there may be an option to turn it off.

Another idea is to try turning off any anti-virus software - again
only when you're not on the net!  Similar procedure to the above.

If neither of these work, try the Hasbro website: http://www.hasbro.com/

Does anything else appear that indicates that it is the firewall such
as warning? I don't use McAfee but i don't see why it make your screen
go black when you put the disk in. Sounds more like that your computer
is not running the game becuase of something else. Can you play the
game one-player against the computer, if you can start the computer
and don't connect to the Internet, by not dialling up or removing the
modem from the ethernet/usb modem. Start the game and see if it loads.
Few questions- Has the game ever worked before?
What version of Windows (I guess its Windows) that you are using?

It's not an ideal solution but disable the firewall and see if the
game loads, if you don't feel comfortable going on the internet
without a firewall while playing the game, enable the inbuilt Windows
one in the Windows Secuirity centre.

Also which version of the firewall are you using?

I have the same problem with that game, and I use Zone Alarm.  I
finally just gave up on the game.  The customer "not much" service rep
said the problem was the firewall and got hateful with me when I said
I wouldn't disable it.  The game isn't worth the risk.

Two suggestions:

1) Use Ethereal to capture your outbound packets when launching the
game and ensure they are not being blocked by your firewall settings.

2) Does you firewall display what packets it is blocking?  You will
need this to allow incoming packets that are being blocked (incoming
packets are generally blocked before ethereal can capture them, that's
why you need the firewall output too).

I think........

You must check the settings of the firewall.........

you must allow the file to access the comp.

There must be an option for Program Controls.

Try putting your firewall into "Learning Mode", Then reinstall the
game. At some point you should get a pup-up from your firewall asking
you if you want to allow the program to access the net.  Click yes and
optionally there will be a chackbox somwhere to save this decision as
a rule.

I imagine that this is part of some copy protection registration
process. I would unistall the game, reboot, turn learning mode on the
firewall and reinstall the game.  Sounds like a drag but probably the
best thing to try.

I just had a quick look at the mcAfee firewall docs and I can't find
any reference to "learning mode". This is a pretty standard feature on
most firewalls they probably just use a different word for it.  You
could always email them and ask them how to get it to" "prompt you
whenever a new application tries to access the internet."