Who Wants To Be A Millionaire by Eidos Interactive is basically the TV show brought to your PC. Hard as I find it to believe anyone has managed to escape the hype and the premise of the show, I’ll explain (briefly)... you simply have to answer 15 consecutive questions in order to win a million pounds.

These questions are multiple choice, and you have four possible answers for each. You have several options for game play. The standard one player game in which you attempt to answer the 15 questions yourself (closest option the the TV show), and then the following that allow for more than one player to participate in a game...

• Fastest Finger
Up to four people can compete in this to see who goes through to the main game. Each contender picks a key on the keyboard that acts as their buzzer. A question is shown and the answers are flashed up in a random order. When you see the answers listed in the correct order you buzz in. Once everyone has buzzed, the person who got the correct combination in the shortest time goes on to play the game. If no one gets the right combination , the answers are randomly shown again until someone gets it right.

• Team Game
This option allows multiple players, again up to four, to work as a team. The questions are simply offered to each player in turn. The rules don’t really state whether conferring is allowed although there’s no-one to stop you anyway.

• Head to Head
In this game once again a maximum of four players can participate. Each player is given a £100 question and then all who correctly answer go on the the £200 question and so on. If several players dip out at the same level, the one who has used least lifelines is classed as the winner.

As with the television production, you have 3 lifelines to be used at your discretion during the course of your 15 questions to reach the million. These are...

•
50:50 Two of the incorrect answers are taken away to leave you with just two options - the right answer and the wrong answer.

• Ask The Audience This allows you to see the results generated from a poll of one hundred people picked randomly to answer the given question.

• Phone-A-Friend This differs from the TV show slightly. There are (according to the inlay booklet) 10 phone friends, but you have no control over which one you use. The Phone-A-Friend lifeline randomly selects one to attempt answering your question.

You can also, as with the TV show, choose to walk away with your ‘winnings’ at any stage. But if you do it early on be prepared for a rant from Chris Tarrant about it.

Onto the game play itself... installation is easy, simply follow the onscreen instructions. Full installation does take a large chunk of drive space though, so it’s best to go for minimum installation and allow what you can to be run from the disc.

Once the game has loaded, you are presented with the Main Menu. This consists of ‘Start Game’, ‘Options’, and Quit. The quit button is self explanatory, use it to exit the game (although you are given the chance to change your mind and go back to the main menu).

The ‘Options’ button allows you to adjust the volume, and alter the video quality between high and low, or in fact turn it off altogether. Turning it off speeds the game up a little, and to be honest after you’ve seen the video sequences a few times, you’ll just want to skip them and get on with the game anyway.

So, once you’ve set your volume and opted for your preferred video quality (off!), it’s back to the Main Menu. Hit the ‘Start’ button and you are firstly asked how many players are taking part. You are then asked to choose the type of game you wish to play (as previously discussed) unless you
opt for one player only in which case you are taken automatically to the next stage.

You are asked to enter names for all the players, and if you opt for the team game you’ll be asked for a team name as well as the individual player names. You’re then offered instructions for playing the game. (Chris Tarrant rambles on about stuff that you probably already know. Maybe worth a listen once, if you’re new to the game, but after that, I’d decline).

After that, away you go. You can offer answers by clicking the mouse on your choice or by using the corresponding keyboard letter A, B, C, or D. The same applies to using lifelines, click with your mouse or use the F1, F2, or F3 keys. Walk away is the W on your keyboard or a mouse click on the screen.

You can pause the game by using the Esc keyboard key. This facility brings up a sub menu allowing you to adjust volume, resume game play, re-start game play with your chosen options/player names still in tact, or return back to the main menu to start afresh or exit.

Who Wants To Be A Millionaire on the PC lacks the excitement of the show. In the early stages you just want to answer the questions but Chris Tarrant’s continual running commentary drags it out. Listening to him becomes annoying after a short while and there’s sadly no option to turn him off. (I tend to turn my speakers off but remember to put them back on if using the ‘Phone-A-Friend’ lifeline).

The graphic sequences are lacking, for example when you use the ‘Ask the Audience’ lifeline you get a quick view of the ’studio’ but all the seats are empty. As I suggested earlier, turn the graphics off altogether and then you are subjected to less time wasting visuals and the game play is speeded up a little.

I think after the hype of the TV programme, the game could never really live up to expectations but despite it’s fault
s, I do enjoy it. I’m probably one of the few people with the game not to have achieved the big £1,000,000 win but there’s only so many questions, and once they start being repeated I’ll have my moment..... if I can remember the answers that is.

System Requirements
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Minimum
- Windows 95
- Pentium 166
- 16MB RAM
- 2MB video card (DX7 compliant)
- 70MB hard disk space
- DX7 compliant sound card

Recommended
- Windows 95/98/2000
- DX7 and DXMEDIA installed
- PII 266
- 32MB RAM
- 4MB video card (DX compliant)
- 400MB hard disk space
- DX7 compliant sound card

Price varies dependant on individual retailers, but online you can purchase it for £16.99 (exc p&p) at www.uk.bol.com

Well, I hope that covers it all. To close, I’ll leave you with a few useless facts that I noted down during game play...

• Out of the 10 random phone friends, I have so far only come across 6... Sarah, Bill, Karen, Debbie, Steve, and Rob

- A massive 43% of the ‘audience’ thought that a boarding establishment for cats was a moggery!

• In the early rounds you are not always asked ‘Are you sure?‘ so make sure you hit the right button to avoid a rather embarrassing early exit.

- 12% of those asked to participate did not know that ‘mole’ is a term often given to someone who is a spy.

• Despite entering a player name, the winners cheque which you are shown at the £32,000 mark and above is made out to Player 1, 2, 3 or 4 rather than your chosen screen name.

- Out of the ‘audience’ 3% could not correctly identify London as the capital city of England!


I should explain that my reasoning for not recommending this game is mainly because there was a new version ’Who W
ants To Be A Millionaire 2nd Edition’ released in late september 2001. Although I don't own the new version it apparently adresses some of the main annoyances of the original - faster pace, better graphics and new questions. So, if you are interested, it’s probably worth getting the new version, available from www.amazon.co.uk for £19.99 (exc p&p).