"Classic Concentration Second Edition" (DOS)

An excellent improvement over the first release. Presents a renewed set of graphics on the rebus puzzles, but very much plays similarly.

Happy July, ladies and gentlemen! Back to concentrating and deciphering rebuses.

Upon receiving this, along with the first edition of the game, I instantly thought, and found, that this was a more difficult edition. That explains why I've had bigger, fond memories of the first edition as opposed to this. Fast forward to today, I booted it up to give it a shot, and I stand partially corrected: the challenge has increased with this edition.

As heavily as I critiqued the first edition, especially the graphical color schemes that made the characters blend in with some of the set design, it's the same ol' song with this. Nothing much has changed with the character choices, nor has anything changed with their oddball animations/celebratory reactions.

For the game board, the numerical design from 1 to 25 still looks the same. The rebuses, however, are the ones with a graphical upgrade. Looking at it, it was designed to comply with the CRT screens, namely due to its screen flickers, bringing in a better, sharper image of the puzzles. Today, if you play the game via DOSBox on your modern computer screen, you'll see what I mean.

Seeing those vertical lines to properly bring out a cleaner presentation of the puzzle sure brings me back—back when I'd play this game on the end corner of the house, right by the dining room minding my own business, as my parents often walked by feeling proud of a young kid who can operate a DOS computer by himself, without breaking the machine. Man, I wished playing DOS games was my homework from school....

The Bonus Round? Still the same, along with the prizes, its prices and the CHAMPS board. After all that, the only upgrade are the puzzles knowing it's not much as you may expect. Also, I talked about how the first edition slowly glitches when you compete with an opponent more than three times. This edition fixed that, but be careful, because I found that the more you compete with the same opponent, the more ruthless they become when matching prizes and solving puzzles (their "wit" will anger you). Worse, if you're a returning champion with a score of over $500,000 in cash and prizes, the opponents you face are crazy smart and are fast when matching prizes and detecting the WILD! square. (One thing I forgot to mention, both editions do not have the TAKE! square—a voucher which allows you to "take" a prize from your opponent's prize list.)

Since the puzzles do get reused, take screenshots and memorize them when they pop up again. Trust me, you'll feel better solving a puzzle after one prize match to avoid getting robbed by your opponents. In other words, if you give your competitors a chance, you're guaranteed to lose. The one I strongly dislike is that old lady, sometimes named "MARY" or "MELANIE," that has her own knitting (I didn't know old women can bring their knitting to the show). Anyway, as mentioned before in the first edition, the old folks are usually the toughest and can solve a puzzle after matching as few as three prizes.

That's basically it, not too many changes in this edition other than renewed rebus graphics and some glitches that were fixed. However, the competition is much tougher and the computer opponents get crazy competitive, depending which character is used and if you're a returning champion. Though I wonder what happens if I break $1,000,000 in winnings. Will we see an image of Alex Trebek? Will the credits roll?

Anyway, as usual, I compiled a huge image filled with answers to majority of the puzzles shown in the game. Use it well, my computer gamers:


(Click image for full resolution. Opens new tab/window.)

Yeah, I played the crap out of this game providing over 100 answers right there. Only exclusive here at SHOWSOTROS!

Unless you're a computer game collector, a huge fan of this TV game show like I was, and/or enjoy an increase in challenge, I recommend this game. It is an improved release from its first edition but other than that, it closely the same game.

Kris Caballero

Founder of KCU Network and KCU Plus, Kris has been writing since he managed a personal blog made back in late 2005. Officially back to doing computer programming (software development) and video production, Kris enjoys reading books on Mathematics, Quantum Computing, Philosophy, playing old video/DOS games, digital video archiving, and listening to sports, public radio and classical music.

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