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Welcome
to Game of the Week! Each week there will be a
new featured game on this page. The game may be good,
average or diabolically bad, it really doesn't matter!
Just look at the pics, read the text and enjoy the nostalgia!
:-) Game of the Week! is open to contributions so if you
would like to contribute
a game article for this page you're more than welcome
to! Every article we receive will be considered! |
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Trivia
UK
1985 Anirog
Software
Programmed
by ?
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Most
text of the present article comes from the review published
in the seventh issue of the British C64 magazine ZZAP!64
(November 1985). |
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TRIVIA
UK
Anirog,
£7.95 cass, joystick with keys
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Trivial Pursuit is the more successful board
game to have appeared in this decade, so its only natural
that it should spawn a plethora of carbon copy games.
Such being the minds of promoters, no possible spin
off can to left unturned. Not surprisingly, therefore,
computer versions of the quiz have begun to appear all
over the place -- in September we reviewed US Gold's
Monster Trivia. Trivia UK is Anirog's
addition to the market.
Most
of these games tend to be similar to the original money
spinner, but some details have to be altered to avoid
copyright infringement. It is possible that Trivia
UK is a licensed version of the game that started
it all, but there is no confirmation of this on the
package. This is a little unusual as the game itself
is a pretty close copy of Trivial Pursuit.
For
those of you unfamiliar with that game, the general
idea is that you move a playing piece across a board
which is divided into a variety of squares, each representing
one of six areas of general knowledge. On landing on
a square, you have to answer a question (picked randomly
from a large box of cards) from the corresponding area
of knowledge. These areas are History, Geography,
Entertainment, Sports & Leisure, Art
& Literature and Science & Nature. If you
answer the question incorrectly, play moves to the next
player. You get another move each time you do answer
correctly. Sometimes you will land in a square which
says 'Roll again,' and you do just that. At certain
points on the board there are highlighted squares six
of them, representing the different subjects. If you
answer a question correctly on one of these squares,
you get an appropriately coloured 'segment' that is
slotted into your playing piece. When all six of the
different segments have been collected, you have won.
The simplicity of the rules is intended so that all
the fun comes from the obscure questions and their often
hilarious solutions.
The
computer game comes as a two-cassette file in four parts,
so there should be an awful lot of questions in there.
The game itself may be played with between two and four
people but there is NO single player option. The board,
unlike the original, is a rectangle without spokes.
This takes up most of the screen display with a lower
information window where questions and their solutions
appear, dice rolls are made (for board movement) and
other miscellaneous information may be accessed. When
a turn is taken, a series of die throws are shown and
then graphically the player is shown the squares clockwise
or anti-clockwise to which the piece may move. Using
the keyboard to select the chosen colour of the square,
the piece than moves and, unless the square is grey
(roll again), a relevant question appears in the window.
You are supposed to guess aloud for the benefit of the
other players, and press fire for the answer. If you
were correct, pressing fire again allows you to have
another go. Collecting 'segments' on the important squares
is shown in the centre of the board.
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.
The game itself is not
outstanding in play, except for the fact that the questions
tend to be very well chosen and as far as I can tell,
have accurate answers. The idea that a whole family
will happily sit around the computer to play
a game which they could probably enjoy in far more comfort
around a table, is not one which bears favourable consideration,
but it might not be so bad for just two players. This
game is not without its faults. In fact there are rather
a lot of them, which is unfortunate because I think
people tend to be less tolerant with games of this type
than of arcade games or something of that nature. The
game itself is both slow to load and play. There are
so many questions, it is often necessary to wait for
nearly a minute for a question to appear. The screen
display is poor and it can be difficult at times to
see, at a glance, where you are on the board. What's
worse is that the
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colours
chosen for
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text
output are absolutely terrible and there were
occasions when questions or options were totally
unreadable unless seen on a monitor. The instruction
leaflet is hardly precise, and this can lead to
problems during a game. It is quite possible that
you will lose an unfinished game because of the
way that extra data blocks are loaded in. The
real problem for games like Trivia UK is
that they have to have something that the board
version has missing if people are to bother with
them, and I don't think this one has. You may
feel that the price makes it a good option, but
unless that factor is important to the majority
of trivia freaks (which is doubtful given the
success of their conventional counterparts), this
game may well sink into oblivion.
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Presentation 34%
Packaging
isn't bad, but the game itself could look a lot
better.
Graphics
9%
Cannot
be as exciting as an arcade game but even so,
they are very poorly handled.
Sound
25%
Simple, but jolly tune, otherwise
very basic beeps during play.
Hookability
61%
Depends on whether you like the
type of game, and how many players you have.
Lastability
67%
If you do bear with it, there are
a lot of questions.
Value
For Money 70%
It's still cheaper than the board
game.
Overall
62%
May be alright for trivia fanatics
who need their 'fix' of new questions.
.
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Htmlized by Dimitris
Kiminas (18 Aug 2003)
SID ripped by Warren Pilkington. Thanks Warren!
Note: As with all games in BASIC that use a lot
of strings and variables, at some time intervals the
game seems to freeze, as the computer re-arranges its
memory in a more manageable configuration. Just wait
a minute and it'll resume.
Other
"Games of the Week!"
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