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Several board games have been converted to the trusty Beeb, one of these being the original Trivial Pursuits. But, A New Beginning could never have been a board game. It is much more computer orientated than its predecessors.

The story behind the game? In the year 2045 we have over-polluted the Earth and a lucky few are able to get away to the planet Genus II but to settle there, they have to have a superior knowledge of 'Genus Trivia'. That's where we come in - flying around and landing on planets to be asked questions.

If you've played the original game, the answering system will be familiar - when a question appears on the screen, you speak the answer to the other players before it's displayed. It's up to them to decide if you got it right.

It's an excellent system for cheats and should lend itself to a lot of heated debating around the micro!

You have to collect the equivalent of six 'wedges', one from each category before you can face the Elders of Genus II to be asked the final question, which decideds whether you have won or not.

There is a great difference in where and how you land in this game and in the original versions.

In A New Beginning, you fly around and select a planet at random, without knowing what category of question it is or whether there is a 'wedge' there. The instructions say you can obtain clues to question type from the name of the planet but I can't find any.

The graphics are not bad given the limits of the computer but the sound - especially the random noise 'alien voice' became irritating after a while.

If you like this sort of thing, it is a worthwhile buy but I think that trying to squeeze six people around a Beeb to play an upgraded board game is a little bit pointless.