If you've ever had dreams of standing in front of a live studio audience - not to mention Alex Trebek - on your way to winning thousands of dollars, College Jeopardy! Online could soon overtake computer solitaire as your new pastime. OK, so Alex isn't overseeing the game, and you're not really in front of a live studio audience, but you can win some really cool stuff.

Sony Online Entertainment Incorporated will soon bring College Jeopardy! Online to you, via the Internet. Just log onto http://www.station.sony.com, click on the College Jeopardy! Online icon and follow the directions.

Vice President of Marketing for Sony Online Entertainment Steven Yee said the online game, which was created last year, has a lot to offer.

"We have what people want to play, when they want to play it," Yee said. "We're offering thousands of prizes and a chance to audition for the TV game show."

The game follows the basic TV format with a few changes. A board with various categories and dollar amounts is displayed, and the player selects his or her choice. The "answer" is then given and the player has fifteen seconds to select a "question" from four choices. If you don't know the correct "question," you can pass without being penalized. If you respond correctly, you win the dollar amount at which the "answer" was valued. If you respond incorrectly, you lose control of the board and a new category is randomly selected by the game. You have fifteen turns during the first round and twenty turns during Double Jeopardy!

In Final Jeopardy! a category is randomly selected, and you may wager as much as the amount you have won up to that point.

There are some technical glitches, however. Some members of The Post's entertainment staff tried their hand at the game and had a few complaints. The biggest problem is the game can be "tilted" (you get disqualified) if you accidentally double-click on a category or try to click on the button that takes you back a screen. This prevents players from cheating, but the "tilt" happens randomly, sometimes, ending a potentially great game.

If, at the end of the game, you have managed to avoid "tilting" and exceed the "score to beat" dollar amount, your name will go into the top ten of the week list, and you will win a College Jeopardy! Online T-shirt or baseball cap.

The Fall '98 Tournament is already underway, and it continues through January 12, 1999. Each week, students appearing on each of the three regional top ten lists (Eastern States, Central States and Western States) will be automatically entered into the semi-finals. In addition, the top 100 students in each region not on the top ten list will appear on the "Wildcard 300" list, and will compete in the semi-finals at the end of tournament play.

Three finalists will be flown to New York or Los Angeles to compete in the finals and have a chance to win such prizes as a Sony color TV, a Sony VCR, a Sony Playstation video game console, a MiniDisc Home Recorder/Portable Bundle, a Sony Mini HI-FI Component System or an IBM ThinkPad 310.

Yee is expecting many students to be involved in this year's tournament.

"Last year, we had more than 100,000 students playing in the College Jeopardy! Online Tournament," he said, "College Jeopardy! Online has a fresh look this semester that's even more fun to play, along with quirky new categories with college students in mind."

So forget computer solitaire and log onto College Jeopardy! Online, and start envisioning your new collection of prizes from Sony.