Code Masters
£2.99

Hey, this game is going to save me a lot of money! It's just as good as the quiz game in the local boozer, but you don't have to have a pocket full of 10ps for this one. Trouble is you don't win anything either.

Pub Trivia Quiz is really well put together. When you start off you're given a choice of five people to play, these are represented by animated pictures of them: really neat. Once into the game you control the options you choose by moving a hand around and pressing the correct button when it is above it. There are questions on music, trivia, showbiz and sport, as well as special joker cards that give you a free question.

You are only given 10p to begin with, and unless you answer enough questions to get to the top of the pyramid and go onto the cash bonus round you won't last long at all. The questions are good in that they are up to date, with pop questions on albums still in the charts! The only problem is that they tend to repeat after a while - solved by the fact that you can load new banks of questions.

Presentation, graphics and sound are of an excellent standard, in good old CodeMasters tradition. Pity there aren't more sound effects in the game itself.

Pub Trivia Quiz is much more fun when you play with a few friends, but even if you play the one player game you can get hours of enjoyment out of it.

BARGAIN BASEMENT

A bit short of the readies? Low on the folding stuff? Totally borassic? Then pop down the Bargain Basement with Marcus Berkmann, and see what goes "Cheep!" (Eh? Ed).

Code Masters
£2.99
Reviewer: Marcus Berkmann

Where would these pages be without at least one mention of the word 'Simulator'? In fact here, as so often, it's completely redundant, as this is just a Pub Trivia game like any other. I'm more than mildly amazed that there haven't been more of these floating around the racks over the years, as there's no better form of computerised trivia game - and I write as someone who has both won and lost outrageous amounts of money on the things. Of course, many Spec-chums are under the magic age of 18, which may have something to do with it, but you can give me this any day before, say, Trivial Pursuit, which completely misses the point of what computers are supposed to do.

That said, Pub Trivia is not the complete success I'd perhaps hoped for. For one thing, the questions are extremely easy, and although it's not hard to get caught out early on - if you get one wrong before you've had a a chance to win any money, that's it - it's almost impossible to lose once you get going. Each question, in a variety of categories, gives you a certain number of points (50 to 300) or, in some cases, a bright shiny 10p bit (yo ho ho). Controls are excellent, graphics pleasantly slick, and the design works very well, but dedicated quiznuts will be disappointed at the standard of the questions.

Label: Codemasters
Author: Peter Williamson
Price: £2.99
Memory: 48K/128K
Joystick: various
Reviewer: Garth Sumpter

It's a simulator so it must be... Codemasters of course. But before you begin to simulate a rather deep snooze, just hang on. I've simulated with the best and Pub Trivia is actually very good. Okay, so the simulation doesn't include a pint of Dr Cringeworthy's Olde Bowel Remover or the pub drunk propped up in the corner waving his wad about. Oh no, but the game itself is an excellent simulation of the trivia arcade machine with one notable exception - it doesn't pay out money to smarmy, brain-boxes but it does give you the chance to win extra ten pees, which means that you earn extra lives and can carry on until you've got a superb score.

There are over 2000 questions on the tape covering four topics. Pop Music, Show Biz, Sport and General Trivia (whoever HE is!) There are also joker cards which are not at all funny but do allow a player to leap up one level of questions without having to answer a question. No points are scored for this but the crux of the game is getting through to the money maze by answering the top card question.

Each games begins by selecting the number of players which can be anything from one to four. Each player then selects which contestant's face they want to represent them. There's a choice of five faces but they all look as daft as a brush and half the use and really make very little difference to the game.

You begin with one 10p stake (skinflints!), and this represents the one life you have. The screen shows each player's points, cash and dozey looking face and a set of question cards with five in the bottom row, four in the second and so on up to the top card. You work your way up by choosing each card by moving the pointer left and right and entering each choice. A little bit of planning and a pinch of luck should mean that you choose a route that asks only the questions that you're better at.

Each question pops up onto the screen along with three answers A, B or C. Move your on-screen finger above the chosen answer and press fire or enter before the time runs out. If you don't know the answer and there's no pass available, cross your fingers and guess after all there's nothing to loose except an imaginary ten pee.

If you get through the first stage then it's on to the money maze. Moving faster than a (art in a lift, get to the top of this stage and you'll start winning some cash and be able to get onto the high score table.

There are three blocks of questions each of about 700 questions - the first block always loads in automatically with the game and we all think it's a great game. All of us huddled around the spectrum, pressing buttons jeering and shouting... reminds me of the war. At the bottom of the garden in the Anderson shelter, playing snakes and ladders, with Great Uncle Eugene bent double over the prostrate form of my father trying to prise a bottle of gin out of his hands. The Good Old Days? They were absolutely crap! I wish I'd had a Spectrum then...