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It's just my bloody luck, isn't it? Do I live on Board Game Avenue or something? First I get Pictionary to review and now Trivial Pursuit. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, though, as both games are a different type of conversion and Triv serves to prove my point that boardgames can be converted well when there are obvious ways in which the computer can enhance on or improve upon the original.

Triv was a boardgame phenomenon when released upon the unsuspecting public in the early eighties. Within a few years, every self-respecting party host would possess such a game for those moments when the conversation began to run dry. The short phrase "Game of Triv, anyone?" would inject a new lease of life into a flagging dinner party and within seconds of the offer people would be dividing themselves into teams, forming new alliances and trying to team up with the attractive girlie in a vain attempt to impress her with a fantastic display of general knowledge and subsequently receive a free snog.

The questions, as related via the animated cutesy quizmaster TP, vary from the traditional text-based ones to more elaborate graphics-, and sound-, related posers, i.e "Which film starts with this piece of music: Dum dumrnmmm durnmmm, da darr, dum dum dum, etc." Although initially amusing, the time TP takes to traverse the rooms to put on his stereo and all that soon becomes a bore and the option to turn him off is welcome. The game does look and sound somewhat dated now, but if you can live with the rather duff graphics and presentation they shouldn't detract from the basic gameplay after all Triv is Triv no matter how it looks.

As I mentioned earlier, games such as Pictionary offer nothing new in their electronic form but Trivial Pursuit has a very strong case for conversion. Questions can be posed using graphics or sound - something that is impossible with a set of dog-eared cards. Triv is not necessarily an improvement on the original but a step in a different direction, nearly - but not quite - as good as the boardgame.