You Don't Know Jack

aka: YDKJ
Moby ID: 1407
Windows Specs
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Description official descriptions

You Don't Know Jack is a humorous trivia game for up to three players. The players take part in a quiz game, which partly parodies television shows such as Jeopardy. The players do need to answer serious questions, and knowledge of various topics (ranging from classical literature to modern pop culture) is required; however, the show's host is distinguished by his sense of sarcasm, sometimes offering humorous wordings for questions, and sardonically addressing the participants.

Spellings

  • 你不了解杰克 - Chinese spelling (simplified)

Groups +

Screenshots

Promos

Credits (Windows 3.x version)

72 People · View all

Executive Producer
Producer
Marketing Manager
Animation Technology and Technical Leadership
Game Engine
Game Development
Additional Software Development
Documentation
Creative Directors
Package Design
Art Production
Additional Art Production
SQA Lead
SQA Staff
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 82% (based on 16 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.8 out of 5 (based on 48 ratings with 1 reviews)

The ultimate party game!

The Good
This has got to be one of the funniest games ever released on the PC. That's saying a lot, specially with all the hilarious adventure titles released in the past, like Monkey Island. But this game deserves a special place in gaming history. Even more so for being a puzzle/quiz game.

Everything about this game make you laughs real hard, from the well-written, very intelligent questions, to the exquisite tasks, like "gibberish questions", and most of all the remarks of the host.

Voice acting is very professional and extremely well done, with quite a bit of variety, so takes a while to hear the same line twice. Same thing for the questions in the game, which adds a lot of replayability into it.

The Bad
Eventually the new questions run out, and old ones start popping in and ruin the game's balance. It does take a while, but after a You Don't Know Jack tournament with friends or family, for example, you'll start getting a feeling of deja vu each time you play.

Also, the game's humor and writing might not be for everybody.

The Bottom Line
A total blast! Brings back the hot-seat action most people miss of the old days of gaming. Be sure to invite friends and family to a round of one of the most remarkable franchises of modern gaming.

Windows · by tbuteler (3021) · 2004

Trivia

Development

This game was originally prototyped as a Hypercard program by some Mac fanatics at a company called Jellyvision. When looking for a publisher for a commercial version, they immediately thought of Berkeley Systems because of their place in Macintosh culture.

The timing was perfect, as Berkeley Systems' former main business, the After Dark line of high-quality animated screensavers, was faltering with the advent of cheap slide show screensavers and the exhaustion of "A list" licenses like Star Trek and The Simpsons.

Awards

  • Computer Gaming World
    • June 1996 (Issue #143) – Classics/Puzzle Game of the Year
    • November 1996 (15th anniversary issue) - #75 in the “150 Best Games of All Time” list
    • November 1996 (15th anniversary issue) –#8 Funniest Computer Game
    • August 1998 (Issue #169) - Introduced into the Hall of Fame

Information also contributed by PCGamer77 and weregamer

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You Don't Know Jack: Volume 2
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You Don't Know Jack: Volume 3
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You Don't Know Jack: Movies
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You Don't Know Jack: Party
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You Don't Know Jack Jumbo
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Related Sites +

  • slap Jack
    A review of You Don't Know Jack by Scott Rosenberg, archived on the Salon magazine website (1996)

Identifiers +

  • MobyGames ID: 1407
  • [ Please login / register to view all identifiers ]

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Dan Homerick.

PlayStation added by Kartanym. Macintosh added by Jeanne.

Additional contributors: Adam Baratz, Unicorn Lynx, Shoddyan, Zeppin, Patrick Bregger.

Game added May 5, 2000. Last modified January 29, 2024.