Customer Reviews

Trivial Pursuit Digital Choice

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

Everyone loves Trivial Pursuit, but we each have our favorite topics. Too many sports questions in a row ruin my night! With Digital Choice you are supposedly able to download new questions easily, choosing the subjects. Fantastic idea. Terrible execution. While the handheld device for questions and answers is perfectly adequate, it seems as if the computer-based software and the online service from which you download questions are not functioning. I've been unable to download new questions in the month since buying the game, always running into a "Server Not Available" error. After trying to contact technical support to no avail, I've tried lowering our firewall and opening a port in our router without success. We've run through the questions that come preloaded, and until the online service is up and running (or the client software glitch is patched), Trivial Pursuit Digital Choice will have to remain on the shelf.

Ever since the Jeapordy interactive game, I've been hesitant to buy the digital version of any game...but Trivial Pursuit Digital Choice has made me a believer again! This game is fantastic! It's basically the same Trivial Pursuit game, but instead of using a box of paper question cards, you have a small electronic screen that has all the questions. At the start of each game, you can pick your categories from a bunch of pre-programmed ones (or you can invent your own questions!). Once you pick the question, you decide which question categories will be used for each color. So you could have the "Legends & Unsolved Mysteries" category be orange this game, and blue the next.

The digital question console is battery powered and lighted, and it's really easy to read. It also hides the answer, so if you need to show the actual question to the guesser, they can't see the answer.

Lastly, the console plugs into your computer with an included usb cable and there's some software that you install that lets you add/remove questions from it. If you have some free time, you can create your own categories and questions. We collected trivia questions from our family and we now have a "Family Trivia" category that has questions about all our family members ("What year was Sophie married?", "What color eyes does Grampa have?", "What was Aunt Sara's maiden name?", etc...)

It really makes the game a whole lot more fun.

I 100% recommend this.

Some other things to note:
- it's not clear from the description, but this DOES come with a normal trivial pursuit board, game pieces and pie wedges. The only difference is that there aren't any printed questions (all the questions come from the digital console).
- read all the instructions to figure out the console. It's easy to use once you know what the buttons do, but if you just "open and use" without reading the instructions, you might get confused.

Be careful not to use up your "free" questions thinking that you'll be able to easily buy more. The desktop software says:

"Problem: I have downloaded all of my free questions. How can I get more?
Solution: Go to http://www.hasbrotoyshop.com/ and select Trivial Pursuit (?). You will be able to purchase additional questions. After you purchase the questions, you will be provided a code to enter under the My Questions tab."

The problem is that there doesn't seem to be any way to actually purchase additional questions at that site, nor is there any indication anywhere of how much money they'll charge if/when they actually do allow you to purchase additional questions. This seems like a fairly easy thing for Hasbro to do and it's somewhat unbelievable that they haven't. Someone there has dropped the ball on this one.

The power of this game SHOULD be that when they release a new edition I SHOULD be able to go online and buy the questions for download rather than a new physical game. Thus far, that doesn't seem to be the case.

I was so excited when my kids bought me this for Christmas. Now I am just frustrated! I'm computer savvy, yet am completely baffled by the inconsistent and bug-laden desktop application that is used for downloading questions. Multiple crashes of the app have led to multiple uninstalls and reinstalls; the app fails to recognize the game; the USB port fails to recognize the game; the unit has to be turned on and off repeatedly to be connected; the app stays active in the Task Manager's process list after closing; on and on and on . . . I am unable to connect, register, or download. Avoid this frustrating, ill-conceived game. I'm returning mine. I feel very bad because my kids found it themselves and were so excited to give it to me, but I have wasted a few hours of my life trying to make this lemon run. Don't waste your time like I did.

I was unable to download any questions from the Trivial Pursuit website. Hasbro customer service was unable to help. "Thank you for contacting Hasbro, Inc. regarding the Trival Pursiut Digital Choice game questions. We are sorry to advise that the information you have requested is not readily available. We are sharing your question with those internal parties who are more familiar with this piece of our business. We will respond to you, as soon as we receive the information from them. We thank you, in advance, for your patience." Two weeks later, still with no help from Hasbro, I returned the game to Amazon. What a waste of my time! I really love Trivial Pursuit, but not this one!

I bought this in the fall of 2008 at full price and had no problems dl it then. Today I checked it out again, they no longer seem to have where you can buy new q's but do have where you can make and add your own q's. I now have loaded 2548 q's on my game & it says I have only used 54%. That means I can add 46% more q's. I am not sure but seems you can get more now. And you can take off and add on if you need to change what q's you have loaded.
I had and have windows xp home and have had no problems with this game.
After re reading other reviews..first you need to have windows I guess. Next, you need to reg. your game. (makes it so you can update or change q's later if you want too.as I did 1+ years later.) You need to connect your game (make sure it has installed batteries.) using the usb cable to your pc. Turn on (in the back) they hand held. Go to the url...[...]
do what the page tells you to do. (you need to dl, for your opsystem..mine is windows xp, the app to your desktop. Once that is done, click on it on your desktop and run it. Then you can do as told and get or make your q's. No need to save the app (tho keep your inst. manual that came with the game, it also has the url on it. You can go back to that url at anytime, if needed, redownload the app. and add or change your q's.)
Years and years ago when TP first came out, you could buy just the decks of cards, I had many categories so everyone had something they were good at. This game has improved on that. True, some are very hard, some are not if it is an area you kind of know. I like to learn from what I do not know.

Our family loves to play trivia games. We took the device on a trip with us and it was very convenient having it electronically instead of using the old cards. We downloaded additional questions online, plus we made up some of our own so that even our 4 year old grandson was able to answer some of the questions (it made him feel like he was contributing).

My husband and I love this new Trivial Pursuit. You can download great catagories and even create your own questions. This is our 4th Trivial Pursuit game, but this one is already our new favorite.

The digital version of trivial pursuit is great. My friends and I play every week and it's worked very well for us. I think if people have had trouble downloading questions onto the little question consul it's because it doesn't seem to work with Mac's but it definitely works with PC's. The category options are endless and we always try something new every week. Some questions are harder than others and sometimes category titles can be misleading. For example, we chose the category "Classic Books" thinking it would be about classic books. It was actually much broader than that and included questions about random anecdotes from the lives of authors of classic books and other strange trivia. I feel like that's to be expected with Trivial Pursuit though. The main criticism we have with the game is that some of the questions are written very awkwardly, so sometimes they are hard to understand. Anyways, overall it's a great update to the classic game, easy to use, and perfect for playing with friends and family.

I received this last night. This is the most awesome game idea ever!!! It's small, compact and it works awesome!!! The whole installation, hookup and downloading of (I think it was 5800) questions-all without the slightest problem whatsoever. I read all of these ratings prior to purchase and was sceptical, but for the $10 price I decided to risk it. I'm so happy I've already ordered 2 more for gifts! This is "hands down" my best purchase in years! I downloaded the ENTIRE KID'S EDITION of TP, the 90's Edition and ALL KINDS OF MISC. questions in a matter of minutes! NO CHARGE! Everything was so smooth (and fairly simple) I'm having a hard time believing these bad reviews are the game's fault at all. Here's the key here people: READ THE DIRECTIONS. The instructions that come with the game tell you where/what the buttons do and how to put the batteries in. It also tells you (on the box and about 5 other locations) TO GO TO THEIR WEBSITE to download the desktop application and further directions. When you get there click on the "Getting Started" link on the left side. You can probably print it out but I just minimized it to my tray while I clicked on the "Download", etc. and kept refering back to it when I needed to know what to do next. I had the application put a shortcut on my desktop, so when I minimized the web page I double clicked the icon and it started. (Vista kept telling me I "needed to format the disk", I just "X"d it out. XP probably does the same.) I connected the USB and turned "ON" the switch in the back. Bam, done. At first the application does look a bit intimidating but just READ THE DIRECTIONS! It's well worth the few minutes to learn how to use the program and then you see how easy it is! It's NOT one of those type's where you have to keep going back to the directions over & over. I hate that. Once is all you need! Also, while your downloading questions, etc. if it says "there's a problem" or "it's not connected" the game probably "timed out" (like it says it will in the instructions to save battery power) Just turn it "off" and back "on" again. Problem solved. I hope this has helped a few people. Especially those who are having problems with it. A+++++!