Conference rusure::nintendo

583.0. "Pictionary" by CHIEFF::MACNEAL (Papa Mac) Mon Jan 07 1991 16:42

    I received Pictionary as a Christmas gift.  The game is similar to the
    board game of the same name as up to 4 teams compete to guess words
    based on drawings (you can even play solo).  There is a twist, however. 
    In order to see computer generated drawings, you need to play a video
    game to reveal sections of the drawing.  Once that stage is completed
    and you have uncovered as much of the drawing as you can within the
    specified time, you have 45 seconds to spell out the answer.  One of
    the game screens is a 3D representation of the Pictionary gameboard
    which shows progress of the players around the board.  After getting a
    correct answer, the gameboard appears, you push a button to roll a die,
    and your game piece moves the correct number of spaces.
    
    There are 4 ways to play the game.  In the standard mode with 1 player
    per team you play 1 of 4 video games to reveal pieces of the drawing. 
    The 4 games are:  1) Move a spaceman to jump up and down from platforms
    while dodging laser cannons to pick up energy tanks.  Each tank reveals
    a portion of the picture.  Get hit with a laser cannon and you loose
    time off the clock to reveal more of the picture; 2) Maneuver 2
    firefighters with a stretcher to catch people jumping out of a burning
    building.  Each catch shows a piece of the puzzle.  Miss a victim and
    lose time; 3) Move stacks of boxes from one side of a room to another
    while avoiding floating gremlins which take the boxes away.  Each box
    moved reveals a portion of the picture.  Each box taken by a gremlin
    looses time off the clock; 4) Mini-space invaders.  Pour red paint on
    invading aliens before they hit you with green paint bombs.  Each alien
    hit reveals a section of the puzzle.  Each time you get hit you loose
    time.  Once you have revealed as many parts of the puzzle as time
    allows, you have 45 seconds to move a pair of sneakers to spell out the
    answer.  A set of blanks will be displayed to show you how many words
    and letters are contained in the answer (computers being the literate
    type, spelling counts).  If you answer correctly, you can roll the die
    and advance and try another puzzle.  Answer incorrectly or run out of
    time and the play passes to the next player.
    
    In the standard game mode with more than 1 player per team, the game
    starts and ends with one team member having to draw a picture on the
    screen and having his teammate(s) guess what it is.  As in the board
    game, some of these will be "All Play" where one person draws the
    picture and everyone gets to guess the answer.  If a player from an
    opposing team answers correctly, control of the die passes to that
    team.  You must tell the NES if the puzzle was solved correctly and by
    whom.  Once off the first square, the video game portion becomes
    active.
    
    In the alternative game mode, you can use the NES as a regular
    Pictionary game.  Use the cards from the standard game for the puzzles
    and the NES will keep track of playing piece location, die rolls, and
    time.
    
    In the drawing mode you can practice drawing on the TV screen with the
    NES controller.
    
    The game is fun.  It has the drawbacks of this style of game in that
    there is repetition of the puzzles.  There do seem to be quite a few
    different computer generated pictures, but I've seen duplicates already
    in only a few hours of play.  I find drawing the pictures is very
    difficult.  The left and right arrows are used to rotate a pointer. 
    Position the pointer in the direction you want to go in and hit the A
    button to draw a straight line in that direction, or the B button to
    move the pointer in that direction.  Hitting the up and down arrows
    will draw circles.  If you are good with an etch-a-sketch you'll
    probably be good at this.  I'm not.  I've also noticed that the
    pictures given by the computer are not as difficult as those required
    to be drawn.  Pictures drawn by the computer have been things like a
    bow tie, a pirate, a kitten.  Pictures that have to be drawn have
    included things like left bank, and Great Britain.  
    
    The conventional Pictionary is a great party game.  With the difficulty
    in drawing on screen with the NES version I don't think this would work
    well as a party game since the learning curve is too long - you can't
    just pick it up and go.  Too bad there isn't a light pen & pad
    available to project a hand drawing on the screen.

    Sounds great to me. I'm curious though, how do you draw on the screen?
    
    Thanks,
    Lee

�    Sounds great to me. I'm curious though, how do you draw on the screen?
    
    I tried to explain it in the second to last paragraph in .0.

   Sorry, I don't know how I missed that.
    
    Lee