You Don't Know Jack Volume 4: The Ride

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You Don't Know Jack Volume 4: The Ride
Developer	Berkeley Systems, Inc., Jellyvision Games, Inc.
Publisher	Sierra On-Line, Inc.
Host	Buzz Lippman (voiced by Peter Specter) Cookie Masterson (voiced by Tom Gottlieb) Guy Towers (voiced by Andy Poland) Schmitty (voiced by Phil Ridarelli) Nate Shapiro (voiced by Harry Gottlieb)
Mode	singleplayer, in-person multiplayer
Player Count	1-3
Platforms	Macintosh, Windows
Release	30 Nov, 1998
Miscellaneous
New Question Types	Yes (Roadkill, BINGO)
Available on	Steam, Humble, Fanatical
Fonts	(likely) Franklin Gothic, Mason Serif Bold, Device, Housebroken, FF Dynamoe
Game Length (# of Questions)	13 (12 + Jack Attack)

You Don't Know Jack Volume 4: The Ride is the ninth installment in the You Don't Know Jack series, and the fourth general knowledge edition. Unlike previous entries, the game is broken up into individual episodes that focus on a certain theme, and all questions asked relate back to that theme.

Story

While there isn't a story of sorts, there is an overarching plot that plays out across the episodes. At the start of the second episode, Buzz replaces Cookie as the host of the game, but is then dropped down a trap door by Cookie mid-introduction. Helen phones in and tells Cookie that the trap door leads to The Bottom and that there was a change in the line-up, hence the reason Buzz was in the booth and not Cookie. After Cookie protests, Helen reluctantly allows Cookie to resume hosting duties.

Eventually, Buzz returns and confronts Cookie, but is dropped down the trap door again. Guy suddenly appears and tricks Cookie into falling down the still-open trap door before taking his place in the booth. A few episodes later, Guy is suddenly dropped down the trap door mid-introduction by Buzz, pretending to be Guy in his place. Schmitty steps in and, despite Buzz's protests and stating that he hadn't had his turn, drops him down the trap door before taking over as host.

Once Buzz returns again, he intimidates Schmitty and claims that he was supposed to be the replacement for Nate after Vol. 1, but got pushed out by the other hosts. However, Buzz accidentally ends up dropping himself down the trap door. While Schmitty is distracted by Buzz's mistake, he is suddenly dropped down the trap door himself by the return of Nate, who takes up the role of host one last time.

In the episode "Games", Buzz calls Nate from The Bottom—along with the other hosts—and protests how he wants to host his own episodes but was constantly declined. Nate the offers to let Buzz ask 'the buzz game question' as a Guest Host Question. Once done, Nate ends the call and gets back to hosting. Once the final episode is complete, Nate and the player/s take the elevator to The Bottom. Once there, the player/s have a choice of four options on how they want to end the game.

If A Touching Sentimental Wrap-Up is chosen, Nate, Cookie, Guy and Schmitty will all comment on their hosting duties. Despite the name of the ending, they talk poorly of the boring and monotonous nature of their jobs.
If A Wrap-Up That's Unsentimental and Tasteless is selected, the hosts will abuse each other before lining up to moon the player/s at once. The phrase "THE BOTTOM!" is written across their butt cheeks, and they all say in unison, "You Don't Know CRACK!"
If Reveal Old Man's Identity is picked, a figure made from pipe-cleaners appears in front of a picture of a field as Old Man talks.
Finally, if the option Play the Mother of All Fart Sound Effects is taken, true to it's name, a minute-long fart sound effect will play.
Regardless of which ending is chosen, the game will close down upon each ending's completion.

Features & Question Types

The Ride is unique from previous installments in several ways. For a start, before even signing in, players are shown a question and two possible options they can select. Depending on their choice, the theme of the episode will change. After that, it's normal sign in and play as usual. However, games are now 13 questions long; even if the game asks you if you want to play a 7 question or 21 question game, the unseen option of 13 will always be chosen. Because questions are all predetermined based on the theme you chose, players instead choose the amount of money a question is worth.

Additionally, the function of the screws has been changed slightly. Players who choose to 'Screw Their Neighbor' are tasked with pressing the 'S' key as many times as fast as possible, firing screws into the screen and obscuring the question and answers before forcing another player to answer the question. This variation of the "Screw Your Neighbor" system is known as Flack-Jack. No other JACK game would change the screw system like this until YDKJ: Full Stream in Jackbox Party Pack 5.

	Dis or Dat
	The player that chose the money amount plays this question type solo. Dis or Dat tasks the player with choosing between two options (or sometimes both) for a given prompt. For example, is the 8 Ball in pool a 'solid' or 'stripe' ball? Every correct answer awards the money chosen while every incorrect answer (or if they didn't answer after time runs out) loses that amount. If the player doesn't know the answer, they can skip the current prompt and come back to it later - if they have time.
	Gibberish Questions
	Gibberish Questions have a nonsense phrase appear that rhymes with the correct answer. As time goes by, the money on offer will go down and the player will receive hints from the host. The first player to buzz in and type the correct answer will win the remaining amount of money, while those that answer incorrectly will lose the money on offer at the time. This question type is also where people can trigger the "Fuck You" Easter Egg, which is different for each host and can be done once for each player.
	Roadkill (NEW)
	Players are shown two different prompts. Random words will then appear on the screen between them. The idea is to pick the word that connects the two prompts together. For example, if the prompts are "hypermedia system" and "spider's domain" then the answer is "web". Every correct answer awards $1,000 whereas every incorrect answer loses $1,000. After all 7 matching words have been selected, the host will then ask for the one thing that ALL seven answers have in common. The first player to buzz in on the correct answer will be awarded with the chosen amount of money before the question started. If you buzz in on any incorrect answer, you lose the chosen amount of money.
Jack BINGO (NEW)	In Jack BINGO, a 5 letter word is shown to the players. Prompts will then appear, and the letters of the word will light up in sequence. Buzz in on the letter that is the start of the correct answer to score. For example, if the prompt is "Action Figure with Kung Fu Grip™" then the answer is "G.I. Joe™", so a player would buzz in when the letter 'G' in the word lights up. Every correct answer gets $500, and lighting up all 5 letters at once will award the player with the selected cash amount before the question started.
	Jack Attack
	As in all You Don’t Know Jack games, the final question (the 13th in this version) of the game is the Jack Attack. The players are presented with a clue phrase. Then the players are presented with a word or phrase in the center of the screen, with other words and phrases appearing and disappearing around it. When the phrase in the center is linked with the phrase currently appearing around it in the manner indicated by the clue, a player can buzz in to win $2,000. If a player buzzes in at any other time, they lose $2,000. Seven questions are played in this manner, after which the game ends and the scores and winner are announced.

Trivia

The German exclusive Gift Box varient of You Don't Know Jack: The Ride's retail box

• If the player types "Fuck You" as their name to the elevator lady, she'll kick you out of the game.
• The game can sometimes prevent the first player from entering their own name at the sign-up screen, or deactivate all letters except for specific ones (vowels only, "Y" only, "S" only, etc.) If the player types a name with more numbers of the same letter for example: "Ssssssssssssss". She will react to these names, she can also trigger if they submit "Tricky Dick" as their name and announce that they picked one of the credits names.
• Possible sources for the fonts used in the game are:
  • A modified version of “Device” by Dan X. Solo, for question text, options, and miscellaneous UI text. This font is no longer sold online. The lowercase letters in the original are used for both uppercase and lowercase letters, and the lowercase letters are shrunk to 90%. In addition, some symbols are from a different font, e.g. quotation marks, #, %, +, @ (which is missing from Device), £, €.
  • “Housebroken” by House Industries, for the subtitle “THE RIDE” (inverted to remove the background), BINGO letters, and the “JACK ATTACK” header.
  • “FF Dynamoe” by Just Van Rossum for the embedded label font. Modified to not have the black background behind it.
  • The Moral Dilemma question, response, and comment text likely use some version of Franklin Gothic Condensed.
  • “Mason Serif” for the player numbers and the Moral Dilemma response numbers (“1” is taken from Times New Roman, however).
• The German version of You Don't Know Jack: The Ride (known colloquially as You Don't Know Jack 3: Abwärts) has an exclusive gift box varient of the game's packaging¹.
• The rendition of "Bingo" in Dodo Re Mi is a cover of the background music for the Jack BINGO question.