Picture a Game Gone Wrong

CD-ROMs have been around for about five years, and in that time, thousands of games for the medium have been released. The overwhelming majority of them were made to be played by one person at a time, sitting solo in front of a computer.

A few group games, squeezing two or three players in front of the screen, were made, but all, save one, were flops.

The makers of Pictionary wanted to beat those odds, and they had good credentials for it: Their creation is one of the most popular party games of recent years.

It’s a drawing game, played by opposing teams. Each team sends one player to look at a card on which is printed an item (a watch, for example) or concept (time zone). These players would rush back to their respective teams and quickly make drawings to convey what was on the card. The first team to guess correctly wins the round.

Anyone who has played Pictionary with a group of friends knows that the game inspires frantic but good-natured fun, with team members shouting out guesses and the “artist” desperately trying to draw something that will make them say it. Teammates who were strangers before the party are instantly bonded, and victory is celebrated with fists-in-the-air exaltation.

Then they made Pictionary into a CD-ROM. It has all the elements of the regular game, and more.

All it’s missing is most of the fun.

This computer version, released by Hasbro Interactive in a Windows-only version that costs $27, can be played by up to four people at a time. Because the drawings are made with the computer mouse, the rules have been changed so that only one “artist” draws per round.

This takes away the competitive fun of having two, dueling “artists.” And because all the players are parked in front of the computer, the amusement that comes from rushing around is also eliminated.

Finally, drawing with a mouse is simply not the same as scribbling frantically with pencil and paper. Unless you’re an expert with a great deal of mouse experience, you can’t work as spontaneously.

You can allow the Pictionary CD-ROM to make the drawings for you, revealing more and more of them until the correct guesses are typed in. That’s even less amusing.

Games successful in one medium can’t simply transfer to another without them being seriously rethought. They need to make full use of the multimedia capabilities of a computer, not just add a few graphics and some unmemorable music.

The CD-ROM of Pictionary looks cheap and feels uninspired. It’s hard to imagine anyone getting very excited about playing it.

The one and only great group game for computers remains You Don’t Know Jack. It first arrived in 1996 and, luckily, since then, there have been several sequels and spinoffs, all of which have witty graphics, irreverent humor (which occasionally crosses the taste line), clever satire, inspired graphics, sharp animation and voice talents that capture the game’s spirit.

The Jack games are all basically trivia quizzes. Up to three people sit side by side at a computer. A multiple-choice question flashes on the screen, and the first player to buzz in (by pressing his or her assigned key on the keyboard) gets the right to pick the answer. A right answer is awarded money (alas, only the digital kind), a wrong one forfeits the same amount.

Volume 3 of the classic You Don’t Know Jack has just been released. Sample question: “Considering its French translation, what would be the best name for a pro football expansion team in Des Moines, Iowa?” The correct answer, out of the four choices, is “The Monks.”

There are two specialty versions of the game currently available: one that asks all sports questions and, my favorite, one that features all movie trivia.

The graphics and sound in the movie version are especially clever, with categories presented as if they were on old black-and-white film and satirical jabs aimed at THX sound and 3-D movies.

A sample question: “Based on Bambi’s first spoken word in the movie, whom could you assume is Bambi’s favorite basketball player? The answer is not “Tree Rollins” or “Buck Williams.” It’s “Larry Bird.”

Put three movie fans in front of the computer, start the game and quietly leave. You could be gone for hours and they might never notice.

The You Don’t Know Jack games from Berkeley Systems work on both Macintosh and Windows computers, and they each sell for about $30.

* Cyburbia’s e-mail address is david.colker@latimes.com.