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{subhead}Trivial Pursuit{def}{p}
Review by Vincenzo Morra
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While I was browsing the stalls in the latest World Of Amiga show I
noticed a game called Trivial Pursuit. I have always been very fond
of puzzle and board games so I decided to buy a copy. The version I
got hold of is the CD32 edition. According to the little manual it
includes 2000 spoken questions, music and sound effects, cartoon
animation and photo realistic pictures.
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For the people who are not familiar with Trivial Pursuit the game was
first invented in 1980 by three Canadian friends. Since then it has
become the world's most popular board game and sells in over 30
different countries.
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Unfortunately, it is pretty difficult to run CD32 games on an
expanded Amiga. In order to solve the problem I browsed my disk
collection and found a CD32 emulator software which is part of the
cacheCDFS disk (IdeFix 97). I installed it on my hard drive, run the
emulation but it failed to accomplish the task. I then prepared a
floppy disk with the emulator and all the necessary files, booted the
game and managed to get it working although I experienced problems
with the slow in-game animation. Finally after leaving all the
emulator options off, making use of the 68040 library  I booted the
cd without problem.
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After a couple of very basic static screenshots, which should
represent the poor introduction, you will be greeted by a rather
annoying bird who introduces himself as Russel the Master of
Ceremonies, host of the game, who will update you with the score and
introduces the characters who will ask the questions for each
category.
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The rules are simple. Each player starts from the centre position on
the board. With a roll of the die Russel will tell you what you have
thrown and which position on the board you can move to. You then can
select any position indicated. The objective is to move around the
board, collecting a wedge from each category by landing on the
positions at the end of each spoke of the wheel on the board, and
correctly answering a question in that category. The first person to
collect all wedges and to return to the centre of the wheel will have
to answer a question randomly selected by Russel. Once the question
is answered correctly the player wins the game.
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At every player turn it is possible to modify the options of the game
or to throw the dice. In the option screen you can select the time
allowed to answer all questions, to save the game on disk or to
conveniently switch off Russel once you get bored by his stupid and
repetitive comments about your performance.
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Once selected the appropriate square on the board you will be asked a
question from the following topics: history, geography,
sport&leisure, science&nature, art&literature and entertainment, each
identified by a different square colour. The questions are read by
famous people who are humoristically introduced by Russel. Napoleon
will be the history master, geography will be read by Columbus, the
host of sport&leisure is Adonis, Shakespeare is in charge of
art&literature while Einstein and Mae West are the readers of
science&nature and entertainment respectively. The questions are
usually accompanied by  photos, sound effects or music. Once you have
declared you answer (you don't have to type it in, just think it or
shout it out) you can decide to reveal the solution and inform the
computer whether your answer was right or wrong by clicking on the
appropriate icon. If you are right your score will be updated and you
will be given a chance to roll the dice again. Special coloured
squares are also available which will give you a chance to roll the
dice twice.
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I have to say I am very disappointed by the way this game has been
designed. The graphics, in low resolution, are very poor with very
limited use of colours. Most of the photos are completely useless and
will not give away any clue about the answer. Considering the media
support chosen by Domark (cd) and the power of a CD32, questions based
on music, photos and videos (making use of the famous cdxl format)
could have been easily introduced to add  variety to a very boring
game. The sounds effects are very basic and the spoken dialogues are
good, but that is mandatory considering the game comes on a cd. I
quite liked the animation of the famous characters though, especially
the way they were introduced by Russel. What I found extremely
annoying is the fact that this game has a very low attraction as a
solo game. Roll the dice, decide what the answer is and then select
one of the two icons at the bottom of the screen to reveal it. Do it
for a few times and you will be soon reaching for the reset button. I
am sure Domark could have easily created a system were players could
type in the answer which could be then easily verified by the
computer (a bit like Jeopardy or Wheel Of Fortune on psone).  Most of
the questions are very tough and require a pretty good knowledge of
the various topics, putting off the majority of us who have vague
memories of our school time. Indeed, apart the spoken dialogues, very
little power of the CD32 has been used and considering the standards
of then, I am assuming that this game was rushed out just to make
some money in a market were there was very little available for the
Commodore cd based machine. Above all, this game has very little
replay value and I am glad it was available for just a fiver.
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If you are in company of good friends, maybe during Christmas day,
you could give it a go. You might end up having fun for the first
half hour and then relegate the game to the dusty shelf in your room
opting for a multiplayer game of Payback. Give it a miss and buy the
real version if you fancy it.
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{bold}Available from{nobold}: ({link http://www.stellardreams.co.uk}http://www.stellardreams.co.uk{end}){p}
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{bold}Graphics{nobold}      : 65%{p}
{bold}Sound{nobold}         : 73%{p}
{bold}Playability{nobold}   : 42%{p}
{bold}Lastability{nobold}   : 30%{p}
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{bold}Overall{nobold}       : 43%
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