You Don't Know Jack

• Title — You Don't Know Jack • Developer — Jellyvision Berkeley Systems • Publisher — Sierra On-Line • Series — You Don't Know Jack • Platforms — Windows, Mac OS • Released — October 1995 • Genre — Party • Modes — Single-player, multiplayer

Prior to developing You Don't Know Jack, Learn Television was a company focused on children's educational films. The company had begun experimenting with interactive media experiences for education, including their game That's a Fact, Jack!, a quiz game on young adult literature, which garnered attention from Berkeley Systems who later reached out to Learn Television. In an interview, Harry Nathan Gottlieb, the founder of Learn Television, shared the following origin story for You Don't Know Jack: "[Igor Gasowski of Berkeley Systems had] seen That's a Fact, Jack! and asked me, "You know, can you do this kind of same quiz game, but as adult entertainment?" (Not that kind of adult entertainment -- you know, entertainment for adults.) I was not particularly interested in doing it, I'm not somebody who loves trivia games. But he kept bugging me about it, and then I had this conversation with my brother, who was my roommate at the time, his name is Tom Gottlieb. I'm like, "How can we make a trivia game funny?," cause if we could make a trivia game funny than it might be cool to do. Then we had this idea: what if you could combine pop culture and high culture in the same question? What if there was a question about, like, both Shakespeare and The Brady Bunch. We started to come up with some questions for it and that led to this game called You Don't Know Jack, which was a trivia game for adults. But it was funny." Igor Gasowski would end up serving as the executive producer of the game.

You Don't Know Jack XL compiles the first You Don't Know Jack volume with an additional Question Pack. You Don't Know Jack XL won Macworlds 1996 "Best Party Game" award. Steven Levy of the magazine wrote, "When it comes to creating a great party game that works on the computer, many have tried, and most have failed. Finally, fueled by MTV energy and Generation X cultural radar, there's You Don't Know Jack." It also won the 1996 Spotlight Awards for "Best Trivia or Puzzle Game" and "Best Script, Story or Interactive Writing" from the Game Developers Conference. The game received a score of 4.5 out of 5 from MacUser, whose editors named it one of 1996's top 50 CD-ROMs.