Fax (video game)

Lore & Background

Fax is a trivia game in which players are asked multiple-choice questions covering four topics: general knowledge, sports, history, and entertainment. The game offers three skill levels: novice, expert, and genius. During gameplay, two timers are shown: a bar at the top of the screen indicating the total time for the current question, and a four-digit timer at the bottom showing the score the player earns for a correct answer. In single-player mode, if the timer reaches zero, the player receives no score and the game moves to the next question. In two-player mode, the winner is displayed before the option to play again is presented.

Reader's Guide

Fax represents an early attempt to bring trivia gaming to arcades, using a distinctive wooden cabinet that set it apart visually from other video games of the era. Its large question bank of over 4,800 questions across four categories and three difficulty levels offered replayability for trivia enthusiasts. The game's scoring timer mechanic, where faster correct answers yield higher scores, added a layer of strategy beyond simple knowledge recall. While John O'Brien from Commodore Power/Play noted in a group test of 11 trivia games that 'Fax isn't the best of them, but a good addition to the trivia buff's collection,' the game's release by Exidy and subsequent home ports by Epyx for the Commodore 64 and Apple II helped extend its reach beyond arcades. Its legacy lies in demonstrating that arcade video games could successfully host non-action, knowledge-based content.

Did You Know?

• The name 'Fax' is a play on the word 'facts'.
• The arcade cabinet is made of wood and stands about 4 feet high.
• The game includes three skill levels: novice, expert, and genius.

Origins & Cabinet Design

Fax, a name that cleverly riffs on the word "facts," arrived in arcades in June 1983 as a product of Exidy. What immediately set it apart from the flood of glowing CRT cabinets dominating the gaming floor of that era was its physical form. Rather than the typical metal-and-plastic enclosure, Fax was housed in a wooden cabinet standing roughly four feet tall, giving it a distinctly different silhouette from the surrounding video games of the period. This unusual aesthetic choice made the machine feel more like a piece of furniture or a board-game table than a standard arcade unit. Exidy's decision to build a quiz game into such a non-conventional shell signaled an intent to attract a slightly different crowd—players who might gravitate toward trivia and knowledge challenges rather than reflex-based action. The game's very title, a playful nod to "facts," reinforced that identity, promising a cerebral experience wrapped in a warm, wood-grain exterior that stood out on any arcade floor in the early eighties.

Question Bank & Skill Tiers

At the heart of Fax lay a substantial trivia engine. The game presented players with multiple-choice questions drawn from four broad subject areas: general knowledge, sports, history, and entertainment. The total question bank exceeded 4,800 entries, a considerable depth for a mid-1980s quiz title. To accommodate players of varying confidence, Exidy structured the experience around three distinct skill tiers—novice, expert, and genius—allowing both casual participants and seasoned trivia enthusiasts to find a comfortable challenge level. The dual-timer interface was a notable design choice: a horizontal bar at the top of the screen tracked the remaining time for the current question, while a four-digit counter at the bottom displayed the score a correct answer would earn. In single-player mode, if the bar drained to zero before the player committed to an answer, no points were awarded and the game simply advanced to the next question. In two-player mode, the system determined a winner and displayed that result before offering the option to play again, adding a competitive edge to what was otherwise a straightforward knowledge test.

Home Computing Presence

While Fax debuted as an arcade experience, its reach extended into the living rooms of early personal-computer owners. Epyx took on the task of publishing home versions of the game, bringing the trivia challenge to two of the most popular home platforms of the era: the Commodore 64 and the Apple II. This dual-platform release was significant in the early-to-mid 1980s, when the home computing market was still young and publishers were actively building libraries of software that could translate arcade-style fun into a domestic setting. For the Commodore 64 audience, Fax entered a crowded but enthusiastic space of trivia and quiz titles, and for Apple II users it offered a similarly engaging alternative to the action games that dominated those systems. The fact that a wooden-cabinet arcade game could be reimagined as a home-computer product spoke to the era's fluid boundary between arcade and personal computing. Epyx's involvement also lent the title a degree of credibility, as the publisher was known for delivering polished ports and original titles across multiple platforms during its peak years in the mid-1980s.

Critical Reception

Fax did not arrive with a thunderous critical fanfare, but it earned a measured and positive acknowledgment from the gaming press of its time. In a comparative group test that pitted eleven different trivia games against one another, John O'Brien of Commodore Power/Play evaluated the title alongside its direct competitors. His verdict was characteristically balanced: he acknowledged that Fax was not the standout entry in that particular field, yet he still recommended it as a worthwhile addition for anyone who enjoyed trivia-based gaming, calling it "a good addition to the trivia buff's collection." This phrasing positioned the game not as a must-buy flagship but as a solid, reliable option within a niche genre that was still finding its footing in the mid-1980s. For Exidy and Epyx, the reception confirmed that Fax had found its audience: players who valued breadth of questions and a fair, timer-driven format over flashy graphics or complex mechanics, and who appreciated a title that respected their knowledge without overpromising spectacle.