Eric Bristow's Darts Trivia

Publisher : ACE Coin Equipment
Platform : MEC (Multi-Entertainment Centre)
Format : CD-ROM
OS : DR-DOS, Intel DVI
Game Engine : NewWorld
Language : C, 8086 Assembler, i750PB microcode
Resolution : 512 x 480
Year : 1992

Eric Bristow's Darts Trivia is a darts-themed pub quiz game featuring 5-times World Champion darts player Eric Bristow. It is a £20 jackpot UK SWP multiple choice question and answer video game. The game features full screen digital video clips of Eric Bristow.

This game is easy to play, you don't even have to play darts!

Just answer the trivia questions and win big money!

You can play 501, 301 or 101. Each time you get a question right, the amount of points is subtracted from the score. When you reach zero, you've won a prize. Then you can have another question to double your prize. But be careful, if you get that one wrong, you lose.

So why don't you test your knowledge, and play our great game!

The player is presented with a dartboard, and 3 rows of coloured cards. The numbers on the cards represent a target area on the dartboard. Each card is colour-coded according to its question category:

ARTS - red
NATURE - green
NEWS - blue
POT LUCK - orange
SPORT - magenta
TRAVEL - cyan

The game uses a question database with questions classified as either EASY or HARD. The question difficulty for each card is as follows:

SINGLE - easy
DOUBLE - easy
TREBLE 20 - easy
TREBLE 1 to 19 - hard
BULLSEYE - easy
OUTER BULL - easy

The player selects a question category (and a target on the dartboard), by pressing one of the 4 flashing buttons under the front row of cards.

The player is then shown an image, or a video clip, and must answer a multiple choice question about it. Images usually begin completely black, and are revealed using a variety of digital video wipe effects. Images are generally only fully visible after two thirds of the question time has elapsed. This gives the game a unique twist that is absent in traditional text-only quiz games. In addition to the player enjoying the moment when they realise the answer to the question, there is also the satisfaction at the instant that they recognise the image being revealed.

The player is allowed one wrong answer per game. The game ends if:

the player selects a wrong answer for a second time
the player fails to select an answer within the time limit

The image wipe effects used in Eric Bristow's Darts Trivia include:

FADE - the image is gradually faded in from black
IRIS - a small rectangle of the image grows from the centre to gradually fill the whole image area
MOSAIC - the image resolution of an initially highly pixelised image is gradually increased to reveal the full non-pixelised image
RAIN - small rectangular areas of the image are drawn one at a time, until the whole image is revealed
WIPE - a black rectangle, the size of the image, slides off to reveal the image behind it
ELASTIC - the horizontal and/or vertical scale of an initially expanded image is gradually reduced to normal size
BARS - the image is divided into multiple horizontal or vertical bars which slide into view, in an interleaved fashion, from the sides, or from the top and bottom
BLEND - the image is gradually faded in from an initially blurred unrecognisable image

After selecting an answer, the player's dart is thrown at the chosen target on the dartboard:

a CORRECT answer results in the dart hitting its target - a DOUBLE or TREBLE question results in the dart hitting the corresponding double or treble on the target
an INCORRECT answer results in the dart missing its target - it hits an adjacent non-scoring area of the dartboard instead

The bottom row of cards is then removed, and the next two rows move down.

After 3 questions have been answered (and 3 darts thrown), the player's 3-dart score is removed from his total, and the new total is chalked up on the score board. For certain top 3-dart scores, the compere appears in a video window, and exclaims the player's score in classic TV-darts fashion (e.g. "ONE HUNN-DRED AND EIGH-TEEEEE!!").

Three new rows of cards are then brought into view (the next 3 darts).

Each game consists of 12 legs. A prize is awarded at the successful completion of each leg. The prize values increase from 20p or 25p, for the first leg, to £5 for the 12th leg. After the 12th prize has been won, the player will have accumulated the £20 jackpot, and the game ends.

Each leg starts on 501, 301 or 101 points. When the player's score reaches zero, the leg finishes, and a cash prize is awarded. The player is allowed one incorrect answer in the first leg. Subsequent incorrect answers result in the end of the game.

To end a leg, the player must throw a double. The computer ensures that there is always a suitable category card available, and that the player is never forced to bust their score.

After the player has answered a potentially prize-winning question (a double to finish a leg), a split-screen full screen video clip is shown, with Eric Bristow throwing the dart at the target double:

if the player has answered CORRECTLY, Eric succeeds in hitting the target double
if the player has answered INCORRECTLY, Eric's attempt fails

If the player successfully completes a leg, the score is reset to 501, 301 or 101, and a new leg begins.

Every time a different question category is answered correctly, one of six available bonus squares lights up. When all six squares are lit, the player is awarded 3 FREE DARTS. The computer then picks a dart (a SINGLE where possible), from each of the next 3 rows of cards, and throws the darts automatically, without the need for the player to answer any questions.

At the end of the game, if the player has won a prize of not more than £10, a DOUBLE or NOTHING GAMBLE is offered.

pressing COLLECT awards the player their winnings, and the game ends
pressing GAMBLE takes the player to the DOUBLE or NOTHING GAMBLE

The DOUBLE or NOTHING GAMBLE consists of a circular board divided into 12 coloured segments. Each colour represents a different question category. The player chooses one of the available segments, and it is eliminated from the board. The player must then answer a question from the category indicated by the segment's colour:

if the chosen answer is CORRECT, the player's winnings are doubled, and the game ends
if the chosen answer is INCORRECT, the player's winnings are lost, and the game ends

When selecting a question category, if the player eliminates the last remaining segment on the board, a bonus MYSTERY PRIZE is awarded. The board is then reset, and all 12 segments are restored, ready for the next time the gamble is played.

Development

Martin created the design, developed the code, and produced all of the initial graphics for Eric Bristow's Dart Trivia. Martin also scripted and supervised the Eric Bristow video shoot, and oversaw the video post-production, and CD-ROM mastering.

Eric Bristow's Darts Trivia - video shoot - July 1992

Eric Bristow's Darts Trivia - Eric with World Championship Trophy

Filming

The full frame digital video clips of Eric Bristow were shot by a video production crew using professional Betacam video cameras. Martin scripted the video shoot, which was carried out in a pub in Derbyshire. Video clips were required for:

TV darts-style split screen shots of Eric throwing darts for all 20 doubles, hits and misses, plus the bullseye
Eric's video instructions on how to play the game
incidental shots for the jackpot video, and video attract sequences
compere announcements of certain high 3-dart scores, e.g. "180!"

At the time of the video shoot, the game itself was already virtually complete. This made it feasible to transport the game, together with its MEC cabinet, to the video shoot location, and use it as a prop in the filming. Having the game on site, while filming Eric, presented Martin and the camera crew with some great opportunities. Eric's instruction video begins with a great zoom out, from the game screen itself, to reveal Eric standing by the same cabinet that the player would actually be playing the game on.

Production

Martin supervised the compilation of the video clips, and the choice of Quantel video effects used in the production of the game's zero credit video attract sequences. This was carried out at Signalvision's video production facility, in Knutsford.

Martin also supervised the production and editing of the split screen dart throw clips.

All of the video clips for the game were then sent on Betacam tape to Intel's DVI digital video facility in France, where PLV video files were generated. PLV (Production Level Video) is the highest quality DVI compression available, and is used for 25 or 30 frames per second full screen digital video.

When the final PLV files were ready, Martin prepared padded versions of them for optimal CD streaming playback from within the game. The entire file set for the game was then assembled on various hardrives and CD-R discs and taken to the Nimbus CD production facilty in Wales, for the production of the game's silver CD-ROM discs. The game was published on a single full capacity 680 MB CD-ROM.

Eric Bristow's Darts Trivia - ATEI 1993 - Earls Court 2

Release

Eric Bristow's Darts Trivia was launched in November 1992. The game was released as a CD upgrade pack for existing owners of MEC cabinets (at that time, that would have consisted mostly of ACE's Genius SWP game). Eric Bristow's Darts Trivia was also released pre-installed on brand new MEC cabinets.

In January 1993, Eric Bristow's Darts Trivia featured prominently on ACE Coin's stand in Earls Court 2, at the ATEI - the industry's main annual trade show.

Re-release

Later in 1993, ACE introduced its SmartKey dongle system for the MEC cabinet. All MEC game CDs, including Eric Bristow's Darts Trivia, issued from 1993 onwards required a valid SmartKey to be present in the machine's RS-232 port, in order for them to function.

Legacy

It is worth noting that, in 1992, MPEG, Video CD, DVD video, etc, had not yet been invented, and that when Eric Bristow's Darts Trivia was released, with full screen full motion digital video, it was truly state-of-the-art. It was another 7 years before an SWP was produced using technology comparable to that of ACE's MEC video SWPs, and then, even with games such as Who Wants To Be A Millionaire in 1999, all the questions were still text-only.