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Jack’s Back, Baby

One of my greatest game loves of my late teens/early twenties was [Jellyvision](http://www.jellyvision.com/)’s *You Don’t Know Jack*. I owned the original, played the ever-living hell out of it – it was the perfect merge of game show and video game.

After the YDKJ line fizzled out (the only really notable release other than the original was YDKJ 4: The Ride, which was extremely twisted in every sense of the word), Jellyvision fell off the map a bit. They became an *occasional search* – one of the many things that pop into my head once or twice a year and I go “Oh yeah, I should see if there’s anything about them online.” (Other occasional searches included [Lamprey Systems](https://vjarmy.com/archives/2006/08/the_fifth_horseman_returns.php) and a song called ‘Blue Illusion’ that was tagged as being an Orbital song but was, in fact, not.)

When I started at Freeverse, Jellyvision did provide me a bit of game design knowledge through their [Jack Principles](http://jellyvision.com/go.php?p=/ici/jp/index.php), which I still think should be required reading for most game designers.

My quiz game hankering was only recently quenched by picking up [Buzz: The Big Quiz](http://www.buzzthegame.com/en_GB/index.html?lanSoundOn=) while over in London. While Buzz is great – and tough, given the European roots – it was missing something. Something Jack-like.

In any case: Joystiq reported today that, at long last, [You Don’t Know Jack has returned](http://www.youdontknowjack.com/), online, in daily Flash bits. Sort of like a game podcast, without the syndication or enclosures or automation.

My world is one step closer to completion. Now to just order this copy of The Ride…