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I like a good quiz. It dredges up some interesting stuff from the murky depths of the memory. Before I played this game , I didn't know that I knew the name of the plant from which linseed oil is made. Of course, I'm no better off for knowing, or even for knowing that I knew. But the point of a quiz is to be trivial, and this program is certainly that.

It's also an Amstrad first - as far as I know it's the only quiz available for the machine. With 1,400 questions, there should be enough to stretch the knowledge of all but the most compendious memories.

The brain-teasers are spread over six categories, which should give everybody a fair crack of the questionmaster's whip. But, as in the board-game Trivial Pursuit, you can't choose your topic - this is determined by the roll of the dice. If you're unlucky, you could repeatedly land on a square whose topic you know nothing about.

You might, for instance, stop on a History square and find yourself trying to answer 'From whom did Thomas Jefferson make the Louisiana Purchase in 1803?' If you're clued up enough to know the answer to that - France - you could still be a little more puzzled by 'How many tricks are there in a Grand Slam at bridge?'

Trivia UK is a game for at least two players, since there's not much point in playing on your own if your opponent (the computer) is a real know-all. The virtue of playing with others is that you don't have to type the answers and so can't make the minor spelling errors that would allow the computer to tell you that you'd got it wrong.

One additional feature of the program is a customising facility for the user to build up his or her own database of questions. Anirog imagine some jolly goings-on: 'Just watch Dad's face going pink as the computer asks Mum's birthday!' But it seems to me that this is not the sort of thing that should be encouraged by software houses.

While the amount and spread of questions are good, the presentation of Trivia leaves much to be desired. The board display is dull and rather unclear, the sound a succession of beeps and burps. This is a pity, since it surely wouldn't have been hard to come up with something much more attractive for what is fundamentally a good game.

Good to see a quiz game making an appearance and despite the poor display the question answering is quite fascinating. When played in a group it's fun although it would be easy to make a mistake when answering and thus muck up the game. Probably won't be as much of a cult as the board game but provides some good entertainment.

P. Lots of questions.
P. No text entry.
P. Add your own questions.

N. Dull graphics.
N. And sound.