| JEOPARDY |
 In the 1980's, Game Shows were hot. Wheel of Fortune, the Price Is Right, and Jeopardy being the big three. Every evening on NBC Alex Trebec would come on with 3 contestants and give one of many monetized "Answers" from various CRT studio monitors stacked behind him for contestants to answer for the sum of money on the screen before asking for it. These questions could range from colors and shapes to full blown historical and scientific questions.
In Jeopardy, you play against 2 other contestants providing questions to the answers provided like the TV show. The game loop is split into 3 rounds - a lower cost initial round, a second, more rewarding round, and then the final question - just like the game show on TV. You'd pick one of several somwhat goofey looking avatars, then dive in - "I'll take Ancient Automotive for $500!" "This one of the big three auto makers in the USA was named Henry" (buzzzzz) "Who is Ford?" (ding ding ding) - and now $500 is added to your score. Pretty simple. These gameshow games were maybe a small step above those sports titles of the time. At the time, lots of people liked them because they could participate in what they saw on television. But it has evolved to a point now where you can have the actual host, photorealistic contestants, actual questions, and whatnot (acutally GameTEK's Wheel of Fortune Deluxe feat. Vanna White was an early Windows 3.1 gameshow game that met the modern style). However, as these games became obsolete, they became very cheap at your local Goodwill or Value Village, as nobody really wants them. And a very interesting thing about Jeopardy, is since the questions were topical, and some of them of-the-period (what, you though you would have Obama/Trump-as-president (and not highly regarded Real-Estate Mogul) questions on a video game from 30 years ago....what, did you think this cartridge has a FLux Capacitor in it!?!?).Are we Stupid? Or is this just really out of date? - My experiencec I bought this at Value Village or Goodwill in Wasthington State sometime in the past 15 years. I bought it because, at the time, I was trying to amass a HUGE NES collection, as I was a bored, single musician and IT Guy just filling my time messing with old crap. However, it's become one of the few games that actually gets frequent play within my marriage by me and the wife both. Typically we'll start a 1 player game and play till we (most likely) lose because some of the political and social questions are outdated. However our knowledge of 80's and older culture is an advantage. However, it does feel weird seeing questions about Regan/Carter/George H Bush, or no questions aabout Desert Storm, 9/11, Obama, Trump, W.Bush, cash4Clunkers, and other "current affairs" of our times beyond 1989, when this game was made. And honestly, it's kind of a "NES port" of the MS-DOS Sharedata release. |
