Of the three quiz games so far to hit the Commodore 64, Trivial Pursuit has the advantage over the others of a huge licence endorsement. The board game has sold more than three million copies in the UK and is now established on a par with such classics as Monopoly and Scrabble. It's quite simply a household name.
The question is, will Domark clean up with the computer version as well? Undoubtedly, yes. Come Christmas many of you are going to get a copy of this game for a present. It's a dead ringer for grannies and aunties - they'll think of getting something for the computer, see Trivial Pursuit in the shops, and the tenner will be in WHSmith's till before you can say Gauntlet.
Domark have changed the basic scenario to some extent. That was inevitable considering the numerous elements of the original board game. What we are left with is a game where the objective is to get to the centre of the hub - just as in the original, with the six different tokens in their tray. On reaching the hub, the player must then answer correctly a question set by whoever else is playing.
The most authentic aspect of the game is that Domark have attempted to hold faith with the style of questions in the original. You get to learn things like which foot the first astronaut on the moon placed down first, which of the senses are impaired by a blow-out meal, and who was the only competitor in the Olympics not to be given a sex test.
The computer version takes the questions a stage further using the C64 to provide musical and pictorial questions.
The dice throwing - or dart throwing part of the game is unique to the computer version. It introduces a cute little guy called TP (apparently short for Terry Pratt) who throws an arrow at random on to the board to determine how many places you can move.
The scene changes to TP's front room for the actual question where they come up in speech bubbles.
Other nice touches are that TP wears a different type of hat for different questions, he paces up and down whilst you work out the answer and even starts tapping his foot if you're taking too long.
Trivial Pursuit is an excellent rendition of the board game. I didn't think they could get this close. We raved about their Split Personalities game last month - things are looking up for Domark.