Producer: Top Ten
Retail Price: £5.99
Author: Steven Howlett

For those who feel they have the brain-power but lack the necessary co-ordination to play top class snooker, Top Ten have devised a snooker game with a difference: green baize has been forsaken in favour of grey matter as the player pits his wits against the computer in a trivia version of the popular game.

The screen pictures seven balls (four red, three coloured) lined up before the corner pocket of a snooker table. The computer invites you to answer general knowledge questions corresponding in value to the red and coloured snooker balls.

Play kicks off with a red ball question, whereupon the player selects one of four answers lettered A to D. The answer must be given within a given time limit, indicated by a rapidly diminishing bar. If he gets it right the computer pots the ball and the player moves on to a colour of his choice; yellow, blue and black questions ascend in order of difficulty and are worth two, five and seven points respectively.

Red and coloured balls are played alternately until 16 red balls have been potted or two questions have been answered incorrectly. As points are accumulated, a status strip at the top of the screen indicates the player's general knowledge rating from good (average) to genius (unbeatable).

COMMENTS

Joysticks: Cursor, Sinclair
Graphics: more functional than impressive
Sound: very limited (although not really needed in games of this type)
Options: definable answer keys

Putting Dave Lee Travis out of a job, eh? Snookered is identical in idea to the Radio 1 quiz, 'Give Us A Break', and the arcade game that goes with it. The questions seem to be very advanced and you cannot change the difficulty to suit your own abilities. If you can't answer the set level of questions then the game will just refuse to let you get anywhere. Snookered isn't really worth this budget price, avoid if possible!
NICK [34%]

As a bug-eyed trivia addict myself, bleary from too many nights of Trivial Pursuit, I'm always ready for another chance to prove myself a would-be mastermind. Very reminiscent of the arcade game Give Us A Break, Snookered saves your precious ten pences by bringing the same snappy game technique straight into your home. £1.99 buys you about as large a question file as you'd expect; questions start repeating themselves fairly quickly and the game as a whole probably won't last for more than a couple of days of play. Still - that's plenty of time to put yourself in training for the award of snooker mega-brain.
KATI [74%]

BARGAIN BASEMENT

And down in the basement this month, it's Nat Pryce - himself available at 20% discount on alternate Thursdays. Any offers?

Top Ten Software
£5.99
Reviewer: Nat Pryce

If anyone listens to the DLT show on Radio One (I don't I hasten to add), they will probably know the snooker quiz thingy. Well, Snookered is based on this quiz, only it's a much simpler version - there are four red balls and three coloureds, so not much scope for tactics.

You are asked a question and given four answers. You must choose the right answer within a time limit and gain the points value of the question and ball colour: one for a red, two for a yellow, five for a blue and seven for a black. Some of the questions are simple, some difficult and some downright confusing - "Who's life is based around the musical Evita?" Weird, huh?

I've never been able to see the fun of computer quiz games, especially when only one person can play. Trivial Pursuit is fun, 'cos you always have a great argument over each answer, but you can't argue with a computer, it just sits there and flickers.