Trivial Pursuit: Young Players Edition

Crash

Ben Stone

The best part of a year has passed since we first saw a copy of Trivial Pursuit on the Spectrum. I can imagine that in this length of time many copies have been shelved because the amount of questions were limited, with repetition setting in as more games were played. Surprisingly, DOMARK have waited until now to release another adult question set, and have followed the makers of the board games quite closely by bringing out a Baby Boomer edition. The Baby Boomer edition is based on 'one of the most exciting periods of our time', well that's what the inlay says, and to be fair it does offer a lot more enjoyment than the high-brow Genus edition. The questions are concerned with three decades; the fifties, sixties and seventies, and their entertainment and events. Aimed generally at the 'baby boomers' (children born during the post-war baby boom) this question pack covers such topics as the Silver Screen, Broadcasting, Publishing, News for olds even). The life and times of... and R.P.M which is the music heading. Although a little too Yuppie for my liking, I strongly recommend it as a replacement for any worn out Genius I question tapes... just who was that last man on the moon again? The Young Player edition has been around since just before Christmas and is basically a simplified Genus edition, great for the seven to eleven year olds, but not much fun for anyone else. The different headings are: Games/Hobbies, People/Places, Good Times, Nature, Science/Technology and (rather surprisingly) Art and Culture. There's a great deal of variation in difficulty between the questions, which might put some of the younger players off. Here are two typical posers as an example: 'How many years are there in a decade?' and 'In which film did a nine year old Tatum O'Neal receive and Oscar for playing a tom-boy?'. This is not as bad as it might have been, as harder problems are more often than not accompanied by a set of multiple choice answers. Both 'uniload' packs cost £7.95 and consist of about 3,000 questions. The new question sets can only be used in conjunction with the original game, or alternatively an whole new pack can be obtained for £14.95. So whether you're a baby boomer or a baby boomer's baby, or whether you drive a pram or an XR3i, DOMARK have something to keep you guessing.

Your Sinclair

Graphics 7/10

Playability 8/10

Value For Money 6/10

Addictiveness 8/10

Overall 7/10

Marcus Berkmann 7/10

Domark £14.95 Reviewer: Marcus Berkmann Barely minutes after Domark launched the original Genus edition of Trivial Pursuit onto an unsuspecting computer market, here comes the first official cash-in, er - sorry, follow-up. The Young Players Edition, available both as a complete game package (£14.95) and as a subsidiary set of questions (£7 95), is aimed, as you might imagine, at the more youthful Speccy owner. More than 3000 questions designed for 7-16 year olds are included, and don't worry if, like the Ed, you're rather older than this 'cos that includes mental age too! In terms of gameplay, this new set is identical to the first. The board still glows with that colourful and rather confusing design that's made to make your eyes water. The honesty factor's still there too - instead of typing in your answer, you merely have to say whether you got it right, which of course, you did! And that animated bore, TP, still trots around the screen getting on everyone's nerves. Only the questions and their categories have changed. In this version they're very similar to those in the original board game - mainly about the Wombles, that is. What is it about the Wombles that fascinates the Trivial Pursuit writers? No doubt historians will be debating this for years to come. Also mysterious are the new categories. Quite why they've been changed, I can't say. But gone are Sport and Leisure, Science and Nature and everybody's fave, Entertainment. Instead there are the more sober People and Places, the Natural World and Games and Hobbies. Very sensible shoes, very Blue Peter! Young Players is sure to bring pleasure to any aspiring young yuppy. Though there is one problem - how are we meant to afford this flood of trivia? And there's more to come. Baby Boomer (for the over-30's, many of whom own Speccies) and Genus II are due next year. Domark is obviously keeping busy, but you can't really blame them. Buying the first set of questions will set you back a cool £14.95. Extra sets are a mere £7.95 each. So bona fide TP freaks, of whom there are apparently billions, will have to shell out a whacking £38.80 to keep their collection of tip-of-the-tongue teasers up to scratch. Which is why the game's inventors now all live in the Bahamas. Well, if they don't, they ought to!

Read it at Your Sinclair Rock'n'Roll Years

Sinclair User

Overall 5/5

John Gilbert 5/5

Label: Domark Author: ODE Price: £14.95 (£7.95 questions only) Joystick: various Memory: 48K/128K Reviewer: John Gilbert You don't need to be a genius - or Genus - to play Trivial Pursuit - Young Players' Edition. Like its big brother - launched a couple of months back - it contains 3,000 questions on two tapes but this time it's for people who've heard of Spandau Ballet or Duran Duran. Do you know whether a lake on Mars would boil or freeze, or which organ of your body is bean-shaped? If you've played the Genus Edition you'll find no differences between the two master games. Both include the same score panels and board design. TP, the lovable (?) question master with the big nose is still as cheeky (irritating?) as ever and you've still got to be honest as to whether you've answered the questions correctly. All that's changed is the question set. All the posers (not the players, you fool) are new - more in keeping with the youthful theme. There are, for instance, questions on Sports and Hobbies, Good Times (sic), and the natural world. If you already own the Genus Edition those questions can be purchased on one of Domark's new Uniload cassettes. The same cassette will load into most of the popular computers so, if you've got a Commodore or Amstrad machine as well as a Spectrum - with one of the master games - you can play it on all your machines. Baby Boomer is, apparently, on its way with more questions next month. I just can't wait.