A QUESTION OF SCRUPLES

 A QUESTION OF SCRUPLES is the computer edition of the popular Milton Bradley
boardgame, and it comes from Leisure Genius and Electronic Arts. The game
features good graphics, 230 dilemma questions, over 2700 possible answers to
those questions, 50 competitive computer characters, program accomodations for
as many as 10 players, and mouse control. This review is based on the Atari ST
version; Commodore 64/128 version notes follow.

 Leisure Genius is a software developer seemingly intent on cornering the
boardgame-translation market; its computer editions of SCRABBLE and MONOPOLY
have already appeared. I suppose only the march of time will reveal computer
versions of boardgames as yet untranslated. Oh, Vanna! pick me a letter, and yo!
Leisure Genius, when will we see PASSWORD?

 The object in SCRUPLES is to be the first player to rid your hand of dilemma
cards. Ridding your hand of dilemma cards is accomplished by matching up the
questions on your cards with the opponents who you think will give the same
answers as those on your answer cards.

 From the Main Menu, players are selected, and each -- no fewer than three, no
more than ten -- can be controlled by either a human or the computer. A human
player then builds his or her personality (on a bar chart) based on the
following traits: principles, personal and professional integrity, trust, family
relationship, partner relations, friendships, a "busy-body" factor, humanity,
greed, shyness, and honesty.

 Each trait has its own bar on the chart. Use the mouse to grab the bar
associated with the trait, and the bar can be positioned five points above or
five points below the median line (average being zero). Clicking the mouse
button sets the value you've selected. When all 12 traits are set, the computer
performs an automatic "adjustment," if necessary: This is required due to the
inter-relation of some traits (along with the fact that we, as vain humans,
might stretch the truth of our personal assessment).

 The computer-controlled players have access to these charts, and will use them
to match their dilemma questions to a suitable personality.

 Following this procedure, you must select (from a set of five) the one face the
computer thinks matches the personality indicated by your chart.

 When selecting a computer-controlled player, you can scroll through a lineup of
50 characters, some of whom look like they actually _belong_ in a lineup. Each
of these characters has its own unique personality, and when a character is
selected, its corresponding bar chart will appear onscreen for three seconds.
After three players have been selected, you'll have the option of starting the
game with them, or continuing to add players (ten being the maximum).

 Players are then dealt dilemma cards: five cards to each if there are three to
five players or less; four cards if there six to seven players; and three cards
if eight to ten players participate. One answer card is dealt to each player,
the possible answers being "Yes," "No," or "Depends."

 An Asking turn consists of: 1) checking the answer on your answer card; 2)
selecting a dilemma question; and 3) selecting a person to ask. An Answering
turn consists of: 1) reading the question you've been asked; 2) selecting an
answer of Yes, No, or Depends; and 3) selecting a reason for your answer. If the
answers match, the Asking player discards his or her dilemma and answer cards
and is dealt a new answer card. If the answers don't match, the Asking player
discards his or her dilemma cards and is dealt new ones.

 Challenges are allowed following an answer. An Asking player can challenge any
answer, even if it matches -- which is dumb because a dilemma card is discarded.
The challenge amounts to selecting a different answer, and having the remaining
players vote on it. Winning a challenge allows the winner to select a dilemma
card to give to the losing player.

 This cycle of play is repeated until one player loses all of his or her dilemma
cards. This person is then declared the Winner, and the bars on that person's
chart will be adjusted for comparison to his or her original personality. You
can then play again with the same players, or return to the Main Menu to select
new players.

 The Atari ST screen display consists of cards which, when selected with the
mouse pointer, reveal the dilemma questions. The questions concern moral and
ethical issues: Some are (relatively) trivial, such as pocketing a pen,
witnessing a car accident, and not getting billed for something you bought;
others are less than trivial, such as cheating on a business deal, donating
estate money to a charity instead of the widow, and having a brother who sells
secrets to a foreign power.

 To the right of the main screen is the character lineup. The faces selected for
play occupy squares, and good animation makes those faces display a variety of
expressions. Below the main screen is the message area, where information
concerning questions, answers, and challenges appears.

 The SCRUPLES package comes with two copy-protected mini-floppy disks (the
second is considered the dilemma disk) and an instruction manual. A second disk
drive is not supported.

 SCRUPLES looks fine, but has a few problems, the most glaring of which is
identical to the one that plagued MONOPOLY: The computer edition is not the
boardgame version. The most successful of the Leisure Genius translations,
SCRABBLE, did not suffer from this problem, mostly because of the limited player
interaction required by the original board version: arguing about a word's
validity, fooling with the tiles, etc. Relegating these events to the computer
did not hurt SCRABBLE.

 With SCRUPLES, the idea of ten people crammed into a room, hovering around a
13-inch screen, and doing who knows what else between turns is not one of great
appeal, in spite of the many comic possibilities inherent in the situation.

 Playing against the computer-controlled characters revealed another problem:
Message speed -- indeed, game speed -- cannot be adjusted, and events move
quickly. Humans are not usually as adept as computers at making quick decisions,
ethical or otherwise.

 The basic question, however, is economic rather than moral: to buy or not to
buy...perhaps the easiest decision associated with SCRUPLES.

 COMMODORE 64/128 VERSION NOTES

 The Commodore 64/128 version of A QUESTION OF SCRUPLES is virtually identical
to the Atari ST edition.

 Graphically, the Atari ST version looks marginally brighter. Despite a
fastloader encoded on the Commodore disk, the ST version loads with far greater
speed. A joystick is used to control the gameplay of SCRUPLES on the Commodore,
instead of the mouse of the ST.

 As amazing as it sounds, that's it. Other than the loading speed, the C64
version might actually be the ST version. The problem of the computer edition of
SCRUPLES not being at all like the boardgame has been ported as well, so save
your money.

 A QUESTION OF SCRUPLES is published by Leisure Genius and distributed by
Electronic Arts.

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