You Just Might Want to Get to Know Jack

Playing a computer game is a mostly solitary activity, bordering on the antisocial. The form just doesn’t much lend itself to group interaction, partially because there is only so much room at a keyboard.

But two games now on the market are challenging the stereotype, encouraging lone gamers to give up their solitude.

You Don’t Know Jack is a trivia game for up to three players, and Foul Play follows a Clue-like mystery format.

One works, the other doesn’t.

I didn’t have high expectations for You Don’t Know Jack, (Berkeley Systems, Mac and Windows) but it turned out to be far wittier than expected.

It’s a satire on the game show genre, but not one that merely pokes fun at its target. The game’s creators at Chicago-based Jellyvision Inc., I suspect, actually adore these shows and know exactly how they can become addictive.

The game begins with a sound montage--seemingly different every time you play--that puts you inside a TV control room shortly before the show is to air.

While the director and technicians banter, you hear hilarious bits of audio from whatever programs happen to be in progress--from infomercials (“Under 18, make sure you’re parents aren’t home before you call . . . “) to local interview shows (“Have you ever watched anyone pass a kidney stone?”).

In the midst of all this commotion, you are directed by the warm-up comic to enter the number of people who will be playing (you can play solo, but it’s not nearly as much fun) and whether you want to do a seven- or 21-question match.

Suddenly, the director yells for quiet, music starts, the audience applauds, and the match has begun. You are given several topics to choose from, many focusing on pop culture--”Hanna Barbalogy” or “Metamorphosis of a Rock Band,” for example. But there are also science and history topics.

Then a question, usually in multiple-choice form, appears. The first of the up to three contestants to buzz an assigned key--Q, Y and P are used, spacing you out across the keyboard--gets a shot at the answer.

In time-tested game show tradition, if the answer is right, money is added to your total; if wrong, it’s subtracted.

For the most part, the questions are just challenging enough to put most of us through a good brain workout, and the competition can become intense. The running monologue from the host is hilarious, and the graphics are clever.

I invited two dinner guests to do a quick test of the game. Two hours and later, we finally pried ourselves away to have dinner--and then we played some more.

My dinner guests spent far less time testing Foul Play (Armchair Travel, (800) 843-9497, Mac only). The premise is good: One of six people visiting “Awkward Manor” has murdered the host.

By taking turns snooping around the digitized house, you are to pick up clues that will lead you to the guilty guest.

But the game is glacially slow and uninvolving.

David Colker’s e-mail address is david.colker@latimes.com