slg@ukma.UUCP (Sean Gilley) (11/13/85)
I hit the old arcade again yesterday after months of ignor-
ing the poor thing, and what did I find? A `Trivial Pursuit'
video game. Being a fan of the board game, I went over to take a
look. With just a slight glance I decided to try it. (Expanding
the mind you see...)
So I stuck my token in. A quick glance at the high scores
showed three people with scores of about 600,000; the rest with
scores of about 20,000. The game is simple to play. First you
choose one of four characters to represent you on the playing
board... yes there is a playing board. The board is rectangular,
with various catagories marked by certain squares. In each of
the four corners is a square that allows you to try for a ``Pie
piece''. If you get all four, you ``win''. But I'm getting
ahead of my story.
I choose the last pictured character on the screen; a roman
gladiator type. The machine started me in the upper lefthand
corner, and showed the two squares I could move to. You move by
pressing one of two buttons, depending on which way you desire to
move. I pressed the button that allowed me to move clockwise.
My little character moved to the left, but he himself was split
into two parts -- his back half moved first, and then his frount
half!
But that was ok. Now it was time to answer the question --
excitement began to build.... the question was asked.... and in-
stead of the usual fill in the blank that real _Trivial Pursuit_
has, or a multiple choice that might be expected on a video game,
the machine showed one answer and asked whether it was right or
wrong. After carefully considering all the posibilities, I de-
cided it was wrong. I pressed the red button, and another answer
appeared. ``Right or wrong -- You decide'' the machine de-
clares... this time it was the correct answer, so I pressed the
green button. A fanfare exudes from the machine and I smile to
myself with pride at my accomplishment.
So I continue on in a similar fashion. I move around the
board getting most of my answers correct, and I get one or two
wrong... Then the machine askes for the Scottish equivilent of
the name `John'. Aha, says I, no question there -- *my* name is
the Scottish equivilent of John! The first answer was incorrect
(it wasn't `Sean'), the second answer was incorrect.... But wait!
This machine says the Scottish equilent of `John' is `Ian'! I
know that it's incorrect - but how do you argue with a video
game?
But I continue playing, despite the machine's indiscrepen-
cies. And I begin to notice a few things. The number of squares
that you are allowed to move never changes. And then I notice
something else.. could it be? Surely not... but it is!!!
The answer to *EVERY* question, is the second one given. In
other words, at each question, you press the red button, then the
green and you have answered the question correctly. So I moved
between my two favorite catagories (sports and leisure, arts and
literature) answering all the questions correctly. When I had
about 100,000 points, I got bored (and my hands started to hurt
from pressing buttons..) and I began moving around the board and
picking up my pie pieces. When I had the last one, the machine
announced I had won, gave me about 500,000 bonus points, and end-
ed the game.
I was *thrilled*.
Sean.
--
Sean L. Gilley Phone: (606) 272-9620 or (606) 257-4613
{ihnp4,decvax,ucbvax}!cbosgd!ukma{!ukgs}!slg, slg@UKMA.BITNET
Watches are a conspiracy by Swiss confidence men.davidl@teklds.UUCP (David Levine) (11/19/85)
I've just got to respond to the referenced article, in which the author stated
that in the TP video game the number of spaces per move is fixed and the second
answer is always correct. The one time I played, neither of these conditions
occurred. I think the author must have had a game whose random number
generator was stuck, or whose difficulty was set ridiculously low.
I thought the method of selecting answers was a good compromise. (The machine
shows one answer and the player must pick "this answer is correct" or "this
answer is wrong, show me another".) Typing in answers would never have
worked, because of the possibility of "almost-right" answers and the
difficulty of maintaining a full alphanumeric keyboard in a video-parlor
environment. The method used increases the excitement of the game and reduces
the possiblity of guessing correctly, because you never know what all the
alternatives will be.
On the other hand, I am somewhat displeased by some aspects of the game. It's
never made clear how many answers you can get wrong before you "die", and I was
enormously disappointed when getting all four "cheeses" ended the game. The
500,000 point bonus is gratuitous; the enjoyment of the game is in playing, not
in accumulating points. The animation and theme songs of the player characters
also got intensely annoying.
All in all, I enjoyed the game but I'm afraid it will flop. It won't die
because people don't play it, but because a reasonably knowledgeable player can
play for a long time on a single token, and therefore the parlor operators
won't leave it in service for long!
David D. Levine (...decvax!tektronix!teklds!davidl) [UUCP]
(teklds!davidl.tektronix@csnet-relay) [ARPA/CSNET]