Previous Next

We've had Every Second Counts, A Question Of Sport, Mike Reid's Pop Quiz and Bob's Full House, and this is the latest TV quiz game. Based on the Central TV sports quiz it starts with the options screen where you pick how many players want to participate (up to three), the computer skill level (if you can't find a couple of friends to rope into the 'action'), decide the length of a round and finally 'throw' a dice to decide order of play.

You are then given twelve sporting categories and asked to choose one, after which a 'studio set' appears with three figures sitting behind desks waiting to be asked tough sporting questions. Five of seven rounds are standard question sessions, where each contestant in turn is asked to throw a die. The resulting number is transferred to a triangular board split into coloured segments, and a cursor is moved round the board. Each colour corresponds to a subject on the board. When the question is asked you are offered an 'answer' or 'give up' option. The idea is to speak the answer out loud and be honest when the computer asks you if you answered the question correctly or not.

In the Hit For Six round the player is offered seven different answers and six points for a correct answer if he gets it right first time. The more attempts made, the lower the score. The Jigsaw Picture round is similar, with a pictoral clue gradually revealed to give the player a chance to answer the written question correctly. Again the six points initilly offered decrease with more tries. The final round is a finger on the buzzer job where the player with the quickest finger gets to answer the question, though again you have to be honest when asked if you answered correctly.

Sorry CDS but I have never been a big fan of this trivia type game, and sadly Sporting Triangles does nothing to change this. The sporting questions are very tough, and I feel most will only be answerable by the most fanatical sports fan; worse still, against the computer the game is a joke because you can cheat to your heart's content in most of the rounds. Quite a nice touch is the contestants being dressed in the clobber of their chosen sports, but the amusement this causes is very brief.

MARK ... 45%

'Sporting Triangles wasn't exactly the most exciting game show on television and it doesn't make the most fantastic game I've ever seen. If you are not a fan of sport playing this will probably send you to sleep. The graphics are nice but quite sparse, and colour has been used adequately. Unless you are playing with a friend who can stop you cheating, you're bound to win because the program asks whether you got the question right or wrong! Sound is really poor with an average tune when you first load up and hardly any effects through the game. About the only good thing is that all the levels load up in one go (on my Spectrum .3 anyway). This saves having to multi-load over and over again. Sporting Triangles is for the avid sports fan only, anyone else will soon find it boring.'