Blockbusters (Macsen Software)

Commodore 64 - Released - 1984

Bob Holness hosted this fondly-remembered quiz show, in which students competed to answer enough questions correctly to complete a run of answers across the board. This was the latest and most sophisticated computer version of the concept. The exact mechanics of the game have been customized slightly. You start by choosing a question, which are all represented by the first letter of the answer. You must 'buzz in' by pressing your letter to input the answer (don't worry about exact spelling). If you get the question wrong, the computer chooses a square (seemingly with no strategy). In two...

Blockbusters: Gold Run

Amstrad CPC - Released - 1986

After winning a best-of-three match against an opponent, competitors in the TV quiz Blockbusters faced a Gold Run for prizes. Like the main game, this took place on a 5x4 grid of interlocked hexagons, each representing a question. Correct answers turn the hexagon to your colour, and incorrect answers turn it to the opposition colour (in this case, black, blocking your path). The big difference is that the questions are multi-word, with GEM perhaps representing Green Eyed Monster. In the early days players could go on to face 5 Gold Runs; in the later years it became 3 (probably because players...

Blockbusters: Gold Run

Acorn Electron - Released - June 1, 1986

Blockbusters: Gold Run from Macsen Software is based on the well-known television series Blockbusters. The TV game is a Central Production made in association with Mark Goodson and Talbot Television. GOLD RUN is complementary to Macsen's Blockbusters program. It is a single player game, adapted from the successful TV quiz. The objective is to answer a series of general knowledge questions with 2 or 3 word answers and forge a path across the 5 x 4 matrix of hexagons. The cassette includes the game itself and hundreds of general knowledge questions to give you hours of competitive enjoyment....

Bullseye

BBC Microcomputer System - Released - 1984

A computer game version of a famed TV quiz show based around the game of darts. The computer version features 2 players, both human-controlled - on TV there were 3 teams of 2 (one amateur darts player and one to answer questions).

Bullseye

Amstrad CPC - Released - 1985

A computer game version of a famed TV quiz show based around the game of darts. The computer version features 2 players, both human-controlled - on TV there were 3 teams of 2 (one amateur darts player and one to answer questions). The first round uses a custom board which is split both inwards (4 separate grades representing 30, 50, 100 and 200 points respectively) and around (10 sections lettered A-K, representing a different subject each). The first player must choose a category to aim at, and shoot a dart at it. If they hit one of the sections for that letter, they get that score and are...

Countdown

Commodore 64 - Released - 1986

Countdown is a Channel 4 TV show which has continued into the 2010s, despite the death of original host Richard Whiteley in 2005. It's a words-and-numbers game show, and the original format of 6 letters games, 2 numbers games and a conundrum, is recreated here. There is no computer opponent, so 2 people are required. In the letters round, a selection of 9 letters is formed by alternately choosing a vowel or consonant, and the players have 30 seconds to find the longest available word. Generated letter combinations are not always realistic with the show. As in Computer Scrabble, the full...

Treasure Hunt

Commodore 64 - Released - 1985

Treasure Hunt is a game based on a popular UK television series of the 1980's. In the program, contestants were given cryptic clues which led from one location to another. They had to decipher these clues and direct a real-life TV presenter and her camera crew to those locations in a helicopter. The game follows the same pattern. It comes with a 60+ page book containing extracts from Ernest Benn's 'Blue Book' guides to England, Scotland and Wales, however the instructions do say that a large scale map would be useful too. The game consists of four hunts Greater London South...

Treasure Hunt

Acorn Electron - Released - February 1, 1986

Treasure Hunt is a game based on a popular UK television series of the 1980's. In the program, contestants were given cryptic clues which led from one location to another. They had to decipher these clues and direct a real-life TV presenter and her camera crew to those locations in a helicopter. The game follows the same pattern. It comes with a 60+ page book containing extracts from Ernest Benn's 'Blue Book' guides to England, Scotland and Wales, however the instructions do say that a large scale map would be useful too. The game consists of four hunts Greater London South...