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Illinois Instant Riches

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Brandon Brooks:

--- Quote ---The Pot Of Gold endgame was played for a while with everyone who was there to play that night. All players selected slots 1, 2, or 3 to start the game after the Champion (top winner for the night) had picked two slots to boobie trap, everyone who was left was to pick one of the next three slots after the Champion had boobie traped two of them, repeat untill someone lands on a money step or all players are eliminated. If all the players are eliminated then the champ gets to pick one of the big money tabs to win upto $300k
--- End quote ---

This was when it was changed to Illinois' Luckiest.  

Brandon Brooks

cyberjoek:
Ack, I could have sworn it was before the name change then changed back then the new sho introduced (I think it was a stunt for sweeps one time, A November if I remember right) but of course I could be entirly wrong,
Thanks Brandon!
-Joe Kavanagh

GS Warehouse:
[quote name=\'cyberjoek\' date=\'Jul 12 2003, 10:26 PM\'] Thunderball was a version of Vortex played for a short while, it added a \"thunderball\" into the mix, if it landed in the center the contestant won a mystery prize, in exchange for this risk the player had to have one extra black ball (no one ever won the prize, most beleve it would be some instant tickets) [/quote]
Hmm, I don't remember Thunderball played like that.  Here's how the two games two covered worked:

Mismatch: The contestant is staked $5,000 and draws one of three balls, red, yellow, or green, from a drum.  Then, the contestant reaches into another drum with three more balls of those same colors.  If the colors do not match, the contestant wins $5,000.  This is done three times, then it's decision time.  Whichever color was drawn the first time, a second ball of that color is added to the second drum, and if the contestant can mismatch here, his/her winnings are tripled; otherwise, the money is halved.  He/she can decide to stop after the third draw.

Thunderball: Between Knockout I and Pot of Gold, there was Thunderball.  The three on-stage players, in an order determined by lot, draw thunderbolts with numbers from 1 to 10.  These thunderbolts correspond to the rods supporting 15 balls in a giant Ker-Plunk game.  The last player to drop five balls wins and chooses one of their thunderbolts, which conceals an amount ranging from $10,000 to $100,000.

Brakus:
Knockout, when played as the end game, was simple: the returning champion chose a spot on the arena, and the challenger got the spot directly 180 degrees from it. The bouncing cube was released, and whoever's cylinder wasn't knocked out was the winner. If it was the champion, he won another $20,000. If it was the challenger, he got the cash bonus hiding underneath the spot on the arena.

Mismatch lasted very shortly, and with good reason; it was boring. A player was given $5000. The player drew two balls from two different holes, and each time they mismatched, the money was doubled. Repeat two more times.

Thunderball was played a lot like \"Don't Drop the Ice\" or something similar. I do believe it was an end game; each player had five balls, and they had to remove a stick from a container that contained balls too. Every time a ball fell to the bottom on their turn, they'd lose the same number of balls. The last person remaining with any balls becomes the winner.

Pot of Gold has been explained on this forum. Everybody held their breath whenever someone successfully landed on \"Big Money\" because the payoff could have been worth from $40,000 to $250,000.

Other games I remembered:

Wrecking Ball. Think \"Knockout\" except that the arena is now an oversized Lazy Susan and the bouncing cube is now a yellow wrecking ball. The player let the wrecking ball swing back and forth three times (i.e. 6 swings) and won money for each cylinder remaining at the end of each turn. The third turn was a double-or-lose-half proposition.

Splashdown was fun. Twelve volleyballs were held up by 15 numbered rods: 5 volleyballs on the bottom, 4 in the middle, and 3 on top. The player would draw a number, representing which rod would be removed from play, causing any balls that the rods held up to be released. The nine lower volleyballs were colored yellow and paid (I think) $5000 every time one of them splashed down into the water. On the top, 2 volleyballs were red and 1 was green. If the green volleyball fell into the water, the player doubled his winnings. If a red volleyball fell into the water, regardless of any other ball the fell into the water, the player lost half the winnings.  This game was fun because it was very suspenseful and gave people a good chance to win some serious money.

Vortex was simple: Players released 7 balls into a vortex-shaped bowl, and when they settled in the bottom, if the middle ball was not red, the player won some money. Three turns, decision on the third turn.

I think I got everything here.... if there were any other games I left out, please fill us in. :)

- J

beatlefreak84:
Thanks for all the info., guys!  You've really done a great job of sparking my memory!

However, I think I left one question out:  During Instant Riches' \"Pot of Gold\" era, how did they dwindle the three contestants that played the mini games down to one again?  For some reason, this part escapes me.

Also, some corrections I should note from other posts after a nice memory spark:

The range for Pot of Gold's \"Big Money\" space was from $40,000 to $200,000 (there were 9 coins to choose from, I think).  A repeat champion received $20,000 for each additional victory and could stay on for up to six shows (yes, somebody DID pull this off!).

I believe Vortex's starting pot was $4,000, and I always thought Mismatch started at $3,000 and doubled for each successful pull.

Again, thanks for all the help, but can anybody give me the payout structure for \"Wrecking Ball?\"  That's the only one I don't know of the 10.

Anthony

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