Attempting to teach college students about responsible drinking may be a harder task than besting Thresh in a Quake deathmatch contest. Still, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and The Century Council, a national organization (funded by American distillers) that fights alcohol abuse, will attempt this fall to make use of computer gaming technology - or at least CD-ROM technology - at some 650 colleges and universities.

　　Alcohol 101 is a "course" delivered via CD-ROM that uses high-end graphics, music, and virtual scenarios in an attempt to help college students make "sensible, fact-based decisions about drinking or not drinking."

　　The program was tested on some 13,000 students last year and is now being made available at no cost to colleges and universities throughout the country by The Century Council.

　　Students log onto Alcohol 101 and attend a virtual party where they can make decisions for characters in social situations where alcohol is involved - and then see the outcomes of various decisions. Users can play multiple choice games with a talking lava lamp named Norm (something I can assure you one does only when completely loaded) and even cadge drinks at a virtual bar and then test their virtual blood alcohol content.

　　"It's like a flight simulator for the college party scene," says John C. Lawn, chairman of The Century Council (and former Drug Enforcement Administration administrator). Rock on, John C. Lawn, rock on.