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From: davidl@teklds.UUCP (David Levine)
Newsgroups: net.games.video
Subject: Re: Trivial Pursuit -- The Video Game (!)
Message-ID: <1283@teklds.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 18-Nov-85 16:12:30 EST
Article-I.D.: teklds.1283
Posted: Mon Nov 18 16:12:30 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 20-Nov-85 00:49:46 EST
References: <2373@ukma.UUCP>
Reply-To: davidl@teklds.UUCP (David Levine)
Distribution: na
Organization: Tektronix, Beaverton OR
Lines: 29
Summary: 

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]