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You Don't Know Jack

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You Don't Know Jack is a series of computer games developed by Jellyvision. YDKJ, promoted as the games "where high culture and pop culture collide," combines trivia with comedy.

Contents

How it works

One, two, or three players can play the game. The premise of You Don't Know Jack is similar to that of a TV quiz show: players compete for money by answering trivia questions (Since it is not a real quiz show, however, players do not win real money). All versions of the game have an off-screen "host" who is voiced by a Jellyvision staff member and referred to by his nickname — "Cookie" and "Schmitty" are the two most common in the series. However, in YDKJ: The Ride, all the hosts from the previous games, including Nate Shapiro, the original host from the first game, take turns hosting and Buzz, the notedly unpopular host from the second game, keeps getting tossed down a trapdoor.

Most versions of YDKJ offer the choice of playing a 7- or 21-question game; some versions offer only 15 questions, and the 4th volume, The Ride, offers only 13 questions. In a 21-question game, there is a brief intermission after the tenth question.

In most versions, a randomly-chosen player is given a choice of three different categories. Each category has a humorous name that vaguely describes what that question is about. After a short animated introduction (often accompanied with a jingle about the question number), the host asks the question. The first player to buzz in with the correct answer — using their specified buzzer key on the keyboard — wins the money for that question and gets to choose the next category. Players lose money with an incorrect guess like they would on Jeopardy!, but not before the host wisecracks about it. (One running gag in the series relates to questions about The Facts of Life: "Tootie" is never a correct answer.)

In most versions, the more difficult questions are worth more money. Two versions (The Ride and 5th Dementia) allow players to buzz in before the question to determine how much it is worth.

In multi-player games, players have the opportunity to "screw" their opponents by buzzing in, typing "S," and selecting one of his or her opponents. That player is then forced to give an answer within ten seconds. If the player who is "screwed" answers correctly, he or she wins the money while the player who "screwed" him or her loses money. Players are only allowed to "screw" once in each half of the game (they each receive a new "screw" in the second half of a 21-question game). The basic design has rarely changed, but is different in some games. For example, in the Ride, instead of just forcing an opponent to answer with a screw, you launch screws into the screen blocking the view of the question, then force them to answer it even if it's unreadable.

Later "volumes" of the game incorporated an amusing but crushing punishment doled out to any player(s) who buzzed in too early: the question and possible answers would disappear, leaving the player with ten seconds to enter the answer. The host will quip that you shouldn't have buzzed in so early. This "feature" of the game is difficult to trigger unless one actively makes the attempt; the player would need to buzz in the very instant the question appears on the screen. If the question is answered correctly, the host will ask the player if they are telepathic, and money is given out as normal.

Hosts

There have been many different hosts of You Don't Know Jack over the years. The following is a list of hosts and the games they appear in.

Question types

The majority of You Don't Know Jack questions are multiple-choice, with four possible choices. Some questions are fill-in-the-blank, requiring a typed response.

Special questions are also played during the game. Each version of YDKJ has its own different types of special questions, but some of the most common are:

(This was also called Coinkydink in YDKJ Mock 2, same type of question, just with a different name.)
  • Jack BINGO: Here, you are given a five-letter word. Then you're given a series of clues. Your job is to buzz in when the first letter of the answer is lit up. If you collect all five letters, you get the bonus prize.
  • The Three-Way Question: Clear your dirty mind! Here, you are given three words that have something in common. Then you're given a bunch of clues that only relate to one of words. Your job? To match up the clues to the proper words.
  • Guest Host Question: Someone else hosts and gives a question.
  • Super Audio Question: A sound will play, and you'll be asked questions about it.
  • Whatshisname Question: In this question, the host is trying to remember a certain someone's name. They'll give you a bunch of clues and you have to buzz in and type in the name.
  • Picture Question: In this question, you are shown a picture and then asked a question about it.

    • The Jack Attack

    The last round of each game is known as the "Jack Attack," which is a word association question. A clue is given, and after that a word, phrase, or name that fits the category of that clue appears in the middle of the screen. After that a series of potential matches appears on the screen; each potential match appears for only a few seconds before disappearing.

    Players win money if they buzz in when the correct match is displayed on the screen; the match must fit the clue that is given at the beginning of the Jack Attack. An incorrect guess at any time — even if that player already buzzed in for the same word — deducts money from the player's score.

    The winner of the game is crowned after the seventh Jack Attack word is matched, or the contestants dally for so long that the game gets bored.

    Commercials

    One of the most memorable features takes place after the game has ended. Before you start a new game, you can choose to listen to YDKJ staff performing parodies of various radio commercials. These humourous spoofs so popular that other games have picked up the design and added fake commercials to in-game radio stations and music in games such as Grand Theft Auto III . The commercials vary in absurdity, selling products such as scented suppositories ("Break wind without breaking the mood with new Flatuscents. Available in peach, butterscotch, potpourri, seabreeze, and freshly sharpened pencil.") or foreign language cassettes to help you learn how to speak American ("Linguatape: go figure!").

    They also featured phony news stories about everyday things. Examples: "Oxygen: Gas of Life? or Secret Military Death-Vapor?" or "People are falling unconscious for 8 hours every night. What is the "Sleeping disease"? Do you have it? Find out, Tonight."

    Most YDKJ games feature recurring characters like "Chocky the Chipmunk" or "Xenora: Queen of Battle".

    Versions of the game

    The original American version of You Don't Know Jack was released on CD-ROM in 1995. An expansion pack with more questions was released for it, but now the two are sold as one whole program. These sequels have been released: Three speciality versions have also been released: Two versions were created with questions from their online game, which has since been discontinued: Most all the CD-ROM versions of the game can be played on Windows and Mac systems. (However, is Windows only)

    British, French, German, and Japanese versions of the game also exist.

    The German versions were the most popular international version of YDKJ.

    Two free online versions of You Don't Know Jack: The Netshow, were made available, but abandoned due to server space, technical issues, and the fact that the game was free. This last reason was the official reason given by Jellyvision. The first online version was normal trivia, and the second was themed on sports trivia.

    Two versions were made for PlayStation consoles in the United States: You Don't Know Jack (1999) and (2000).

    There was also a tabletop version of the game, as well as two books of questions, one with regular trivia and one geared to TV trivia.

    There was also two books. YDKJ The Book and YDKJ The TV Book featured many of the same questions from the games in a book format.

    Jellyvision also developed a computer game called Head Rush (1998), which was similar to YDKJ but was geared toward younger players; the majority of its questions were based on 1990s popular culture.

    None of the computer YDKJ are sold in regular retail outlets anymore, but are available for sale from Jellyvision's official YDKJ website, and have been made compatible with Windows XP. Both of the PlayStation entries have been discontinued (the PlayStation had reached the end of its hardware cycle), but can still be found in used games stores.

    You Don't Know Jack was made into a TV game show in the summer of 2001, starring Paul Reubens as host "Troy Stevens." "Cookie", the former host of the games, was the shows anouncer. The show, which aired on ABC, lasted only six episodes in prime time. MST3K creator Joel Hodgson was a writer for the short lived TV series.

    Also in 2001, AMC hosted "You Don't Know Jack about MonsterFest". Clive Barker & Carmen Electra hosted classic monster movies while giving clues to the online game on amc's website. "Schmitty" hosted the game & Andy Poland was the sign-in host. Winners of the games with the highest score could win a 'i-mac handheld computer'

    In 2002, "The M&Ms Global Color Vote" had a game called "You Don't Know Color" hosted by Billy West, (who played the Red M&M in the TV commercials) It was the same format as the YDKJ about Monsterfest, but when you finished, you clicked on an M&M to vote for the color of your choice.

    Miscellaneous

    You Don't Know Jack was an adult version of their earlier game "That's a Fact, Jack" (produced when the company was still called Learn Television), which was a short lived series of CD-ROM games and books that was intended to teach children how to read. The game would give a title for a child to read, and then ask questions related to that title.

    Tom Gottlieb was the host of a 'Blind Date' spin-off show called "The 5th Wheel" (2002-2003). It usually starts off with 2 guys and 2 girls who try to get together with each other. Then a 5th person joins the group, and they swap partners to learn more about them and if they would like to go out with each other. At the end, they all vote on who they would like to go out with and if two people voted for their choice, they would have won this 'Dating Game'. They also have a choice to vote for 'Nobody' if they didn't like any of the people.

    Phil Ridarelli also voiced for Konquest mode of Mortal Kombat Deception. He had MANY roles, as guards, other people, Wen the Elder, Nightwolf, Hotaru, and more. He was even credited as: Josh "Schmitty" Schmitstinstein

    The hosts of the game always used their voice, but never showed their face. They always just talked to you, never looked at you. Even on "YDKJ about MonsterFest" they just used Mick T. (The Bald Guy mascot) who looked around. But at the end of The Ride, they showed their faces, well the "bottom half" of their face (from their nostrils down to their neck.) We never got to see their 'entire' face, even to this day.

    There also released many YDKJ collections, which had the versions of JACK in one box. They include:

    External links

     

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