What is You Don't Know Jack?

Saying that You Don't Know Jack is a trivia game is like calling Steve Jobs the chairman of Pixar — there's a lot more to it than that. Imagine a game show hosted by a combination of Groucho Marx and Howard Stern, and you’ve got a pretty good idea of this game. You Don’t Know Jack's host abuses you if you don’t follow instructions or answer correctly, and the offbeat questions seem devised by people severely damaged by an overdose of seventies sitcom reruns.

As in TV game shows, each correct answer is worth a dollar amount, which is deducted from your score if you answer incorrectly. According to Berkeley Systems, you can play for about 20 hours, or 800 questions, without repetition  if your good sense will let you. This game actively pushes the bounds of good taste. For instance, each player buzzes with the Q, B, and P keys, which the announcer clarifies with chatter like, “That's Q as in quickie, B as in birth canal, and P as in personal hygiene."

Games can be either 7 or 21 questions long. In each game, you get at least one rhyme-based “gibberish question," which tests your knowledge of popular culture by giving you a clue to decipher a nonsense sentence... The categories and clues of all the questions are rather odd, so while you might figure out the answers, you won’t he sure it’s a topic you know until you see the questions.

The game wraps up with a lightning round called Jack Attack; players buzz in when two related words swirl onto the screen at the same time. For instance, the clue “Read all about it" included magazines and their subject matter. The word Macworld naturally matched with computers.

The questions are so bizarre, you may have no inkling of the answer — which means your opponents may not know either. That's where Screws come in. By buzzing in and hitting S on the keyboard, you can designate the person you want to sabotage with a tough question. Be judicious — you have only one Screw, and if it turns out that your opponent knows the answer, he or she gets the money and you lose it.

You Don't Know Jack isn't perfect. You can't use the Screws on gibberish questions, but the smarmy announcer doesn't tell you that. The box misleadingly says you can play with up to 255 players, but network play isn’t available yet  the manual outlines a low-tech tournament scenario where the winners of three-player games move on to the next round. And huddling around a keyboard — even with your closest friends and colleagues — is as weird as the game itself.

The Last Word If you're easily offended, you might want to pass on this game. But if you want to mix Generation X cynicism with Groucho-esque sarcasm, get to know You Don’t Know Jack.

Baldwin, Howard. (March 1996). You Don't Know Jack. Macworld. (pg. 85).

Download You Don't Know Jack for Mac

Architecture

68K + PPC (FAT)

System Requirements

From Mac OS 7.1 up to Mac OS 9.2

Compatibility notes

• 68040-based Macintosh LC, Quadra, Centris, Performa, or PowerBook or any Power Macintosh
• System 7.1 or later release of the Macintosh OS
• 5MB free RAM
• 15MB of hard disk space
• 2X CD-ROM drive or better
• QuickTime 2.1, Sound Manager 3.1, and Sound control panel 8.0.5 (all included)
• Color Monitor capable of at least 256 colors and 640x480 resolution

Accelerated for Power Macintosh

CD-ROM must be in the drive to play

Emulating this? It could probably run under: Basilisk II