THE MAKING OF Trivial Pursuit

IN 1986, A SMALL SOFTWARE HOUSE ON THE VERGE OF BANKRUPTCY LICENSED THE WORLD’S BIGGEST BOARD GAME FOR HOME COMPUTERS. IT CHANGED DOMARK – AND THE UK GAMES INDUSTRY – FOREVER

- Graeme Mason

Formed in 1984 by two advertising executives who had noticed how poorly computer games were often promoted, Domark’s place in the games industry cannot be underestimated. But it almost didn’t happen. “We did a game called Eureka!,” begins Dominic Wheatley, the ‘Do’ or ‘Dom’ of Domark. “And it didn’t do [the business] we thought it would do. We thought it would either be a big success and we’d make a fortune or nothing, and we’d go bankrupt.” In the end, Eureka!, a graphic adventure set across time and written by Domark investor Ian Livingstone, did neither, despite frequent promotion, especially regarding its competition and an enormous £25,000 prize. Undeterred, Dominic had a brainwave. Roger Moore’s final outing as 007, A View To A Kill, was in the cinemas and proving popular despite its star’s advancing years. Having acquired the rights to a homecomputer version of the movie, Domark put all its promotional powers into gear, hiring Tigress Marketing and Softstone to design and program the game, respectively. A View To A Kill was decently received on the ZX Spectrum but savaged on the Commodore 64. “After the mega publicity, I thought this game was going to be something special. Unfortunately, it isn’t… highly disappointing considering its hype,” remarked an acerbic Julian Rignall in Zzap!64 magazine.

A View To A Kill was Domark’s sole release in 1985. “At this point, our company was seriously on the skids,” says Dominic. “It was really grim stuff – my mother was paying my mortgage. But we still thought we were really onto something.” Domark had gambled on A View To A Kill and, like Eureka! before it, it secured middling sales. Then, another timely brainwave. “My family and I were playing this board game at home all the time,” he recalls. “So I wondered – could we license this too?”