http://money.cnn.com/2005/02/15/news...ex.htm?cnn=yes
Beat the Jeopardy! champ at his own game
All-time game show winner Ken Jennings to debut a new trivia game called 'Can you beat Ken?'
February 15, 2005: 4:33 PM EST
NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Thought you could've done a tad bit better than Ken Jennings' $2.6 million dollar winning streak on 'Jeopardy!"? Well, a new board game gives you the chance to beat Mr. Know-it-all at his own game.
San Francisco-based board game developer University Games will unveil the "Can you beat Ken?" at the American International Toy Fair in New York this weekend.
University Games, which brought out such board games as "Battle of the Sexes," "Worst-Case Scenario" and "Murder Mystery Party Games" collaborated with the recent Jeopardy! champ and all-time game show winner on its latest offering.
Said company spokesman Alex Plant, "Ken is not only the biggest-ever game show winner, he also has a dynamic personality. He's a figure that people look up with respect because of that and also because he's so smart. So he was easy choice for us."
The idea behind "Can You Beat Ken? is a match up between Ken and the players as they try to answer some 1,200 trivia questions broken up into several different categories such as sports, science, contemporary music and history.
The challenge is to see which player, including Ken, is able to reach $2.6 million (the amount Jennings actually won on Jeopardy!) in prize money first.
"The game is unique in that we actually tested Ken with all 1,200 questions," Plant said, although neither he nor Jennings could recall how many of the game's questions Jennings actually answered correctly.
"Ken may have gotten some right and some wrong and we recorded how he answered each question on the card itself," Plant said. That allows players to see how they held up against the Jeopardy! whiz.
Jennings told CNN/Money he's excited about being featured on a board game.
"Not long after my last win on Jeopardy!, I got a call from the company about this collaboration and I thought it was the coolest thing ever," said Jennings, who secured a place in game show history with ending an astonishing 74-game winning streak, the longest -ever in the quiz show's 30-year history.
"I grew up playing plenty of trivia games. I remember the summer of Trivial Pursuit when the game just came out in 1984. Now I can have a board game with my face on it," he said.
About "Can You Beat Ken," Jennings said he's confident that the game will appeal both to kids and adults. "My experience is that a 15 year old can sometimes know more than his dad. Trivia has an all-age attraction," he said.
The game, priced at $24.99, is expected to hit store shelves this April. Top of page
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