[Trivia Games] High Culture and Pop Culture have high speed collision, dozens injured

TheySlashThem

Didn't see a thread or anything related for this, so here goes:

In the midst of all the E3 hooplah, Jellyvision announced a deal with THQ to revive the You Don't Know Jack! series of trivia games.

The announcement was made through, of all places, GiantBomb's podcast.

For those of you unfamiliar with it, YDKJ! was a series of PC trivia games that pupped up in the mid 90s, released numerous volumes, had a free online version, was turned into a prime time game show hosted by Peewee Herman that only lasted six episodes, and then seemlingly died a slow death in the early 2000s.

The main draws were that 1) the games tended to consist mainly of text and voice-overs which made it possible to run on even the lowest-end of computers and 2) the games were incredibly funny.

One to three players could play the game together on one keyboard, and one of the best parts of the multiplayer was the ability to "Screw Your Neighbor": with the use of a literal screw, you could force an opponent to guess at a question - at the risk of losing points if they got it right.

If you want a taste of things, try the free, short, flash-based, single-player-only version they had running a couple years back.

Alright, ladies and gents, let's talk some trivia.

Zxerol

I had pretty much all the games (had the giant YDKJ collection they sold a few years back), and for my money, You Don't Know Jack The Ride was the best fucking quiz game ever. Unfortunately, the game was completely linear in that it had a set sequence it'll always run through when you installed the game. But it used it to full effect and the presentation was amazing. The 5th Dementia seemed a step backwards in that regard, being more like the previous games.

I remember they had "Netshow" version that ran once, a free version where the game would collect new questions (complete with heavily-compressed voice acting) from the Internet. This was way back in the dialup days before the madness of DLC.

But the success of this new game depends entirely on the quality of the writing. You can't just put any random questions like Joe Schmoe quiz games and expect it to be Jack. If the writing isn't clever, sharp, and funny, it ain't worth it.

MrBlarney

You Don't Know Jack: The Ride was quite excellent. I remember I re-installed it a few years ago for nostalgia, coinciding with their online DisOrDat/YDKJ serial linked by TDOT. I didn't play any of their releases past, 1, 2, 3, and The Ride, but based on my experience with the online series, I think they've certainly got my interest for whatever they do next. (Took them long enough!)

Nocren

I loved YDKJ netshow. There was this guy called WWEFanRulez that always had the top score and was generally considered a big cheater (score was timed based, faster answer = bigger score), and the dude was called out on it on the last episode by the host.

As soon as Microsoft released the Scene It game + controllers, I was wondering if Jellyvision would make use of them in a YDKJ XBLA game. This is great news!

Also, Jellyvision helped in the localization of the DC hit Seaman, making sure all the quarky Japanese humor became quarky American humor.

TheySlashThem

Gonna have to agree that The Ride was the best volume, though I think volume 3 is probably the most replayable.

PMAvers

Oh, god, I'm having flashbacks to The Bottom now.

Curious to what other endings people got. I got

the literal Bottom, with the cast mooning the camera with "The Bottom" written on their asses.

So high-brow. :winky:

But, yeah, used to beta-test the games. I think I've got a bunch of beta builds sitting around from everything after Volume 2. Even Headrush and... ugh... Austin Powers: Operation Trivia.

TheySlashThem

dude, that's awesome

edit: and as for the endings

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0-O3UOi1qo