The Game Show Forum
The Game Show Forum => The Big Board => Topic started by: Jeremy Nelson on March 25, 2018, 03:36:00 AM
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Just a topic I’m raising out of curiosity-
Most game shows, if they’ve been on a couple of seasons, get a home box version. But are there any prominent shows out there you can think of that didn’t get a home version?
Super Password immediately came to mind for me since MB cranked out Password sets regularly.
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Split Second always stood out to me as one of them...I guess the format and determining the order of buzzing-in was too difficult to replicate without some kind of elaborate lockout device.
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Treasure Hunt
Tattletales
Think Fast
Get the Picture
Figure It Out
Make the Grade
Mindreaders
I am sure there are others. That's all I can think of.
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Figure It Out
I am sure there are others. That's all I can think of.
Pretty sure there was a home version of “Figure It Out”.
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Split Second always stood out to me as one of them...I guess the format and determining the order of buzzing-in was too difficult to replicate without some kind of elaborate lockout device.
I feel like they probably would have used the “throw your colored disc in the bowl” method that other home games used.
Treasure Hunt
Tattletales
Think Fast
Get the Picture
Figure It Out
Make the Grade
Mindreaders
I am sure there are others. That's all I can think of.
Treasure Hunt’s format and setup were not home game friendly. Not surprised it didnt get one.
Tattletales technically did, but it was never released.
Not surprised on the Nick stuff- Double Dare was white hot when it got a home version and Figure it Out was on for four seasons before it got one.
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Super Password immediately came to mind for me since MB cranked out Password sets regularly.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QE0ixXtZyRY
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Supermarket Sweep and Shop Til You Drop, for obvious reasons.
Gambit comes to mind, and while Endless Games came out with one about 15 years ago, I’m surprised a Card Sharks home game wasn’t released during the 70s and 80s runs, considering how many other G-T shows had a home game.
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Supermarket Sweep and Shop Til You Drop, for obvious reasons
Supermarket Sweep actually had a release back in the 60s.
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As did Jan Murray's version of the original Treasure Hunt.
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Figure It Out
I am sure there are others. That's all I can think of.
Pretty sure there was a home version of “Figure It Out”.
Actually, two versions! The original version (w/Billy the Answer Head), followed by a version subtitled "Wild Style," (w/Billy the Answer Elephant)!
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Rhyme and Reason
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Gambit comes to mind,
That's what I was thinking. I might also add Bumper Stumpers to the list as well.
Cordially,
Tammy
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Chain Reaction wasn't on network long enough to be considered by Milton Bradley, but maybe after it had been on cable for a couple of years
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I had always hoped CROSS WITS would have had a home game. It was a solid enough game that did not necessarily have to promote itself as based on a TV show. For example, I've always thought that even today, a CHAIN REACTION game could be made. TV fans will know it, word game fans who have never seen it will give it a look. If you wanted to add an extra connection, just feature a line on the package that simply says, "A great word game from the creator of TV's famous PYRAMID."
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Treasure Hunt’s format and setup were not home game friendly. Not surprised it didnt get one.
Other Geoff Edwards shows that didn't get a home version were Play the Percentages and Shoot For The Stars. The latter wasn't on long enough.
Also, Jim Lange's Bullseye, IIRC did not get a home version.
Chuck Woolery mentioned on one episode of Greed that a version of that was supposed to come out. I think it was a computer or hand held game. That didn't happen either.
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Some of these games don't seem like they could feasibly be adapted to play at home. How exactly would you do Bullseye, other than wheels?
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Treasure Hunt’s format and setup were not home game friendly. Not surprised it didnt get one.
Other Geoff Edwards shows that didn't get a home version were Play the Percentages and Shoot For The Stars. The latter wasn't on long enough.
FWIW, they both ran for about 9 months so...
PYL didn’t have a box game, just the PC version. The changing slides would’ve made that a little complex, although I imagine you could’ve arranged 18 cards around a plastic board, then use a spinner to help you determine which card to pull.
But that sounds anticlimactic.
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FWIW, they both ran for about 9 months so...
PYL didn’t have a box game, just the PC version. The changing slides would’ve made that a little complex, although I imagine you could’ve arranged 18 cards around a plastic board, then use a spinner to help you determine which card to pull.
But that sounds anticlimactic.
Endless Games came very, very close to releasing a "Press Your Luck" home game about 15 years ago. And when I say very, very close, I mean I have the prototype copy in my bookcase. If you're coming to Las Vegas again this year, remind me to bring it.
For those who have mentioned "Gambit," a while back, I made a homebrewed Gambit home game to keep myself occupied during an unemployment spell. Enjoy. (https://www.dropbox.com/sh/5993tk6fgvk2f2r/AABHf2k-XSc2MZeJ-f_elDoca?dl=0)
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Some of these games don't seem like they could feasibly be adapted to play at home. How exactly would you do Bullseye, oghr8than wheels?
I imagine it would be similar to how the Joker's Wild home games did it with cards, although the shuffling after every turn would get tedious.
How about Legends Of The Hidden Temple? It was arguably Nick's 2nd-biggest-hit game show after Double Date and never had any sort of home version to my knowledge...would've been difficult to adapt, granted, but they somehow managed to pull off a Finders Keepers home game...
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How about Legends Of The Hidden Temple?
They were a little slow, but they got around to it. (https://www.target.com/p/nickelodeon-legends-of-the-hidden-temple-board-game/-/A-52187248) It's okay but not great.
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PYL didn’t have a box game, just the PC version. The changing slides would’ve made that a little complex,
Complete chrome. Everything that happens on the gameboard was designed to produce a random result. (Well, that was the aim, anyhow.) With Endless behind it, I'm guessing there was a deck of cards. Draw a card. If it's a prize, put it in front of you. Anything else, add to your score (or wipe your score, if Whammy) and stick card back in deck, or not.
If it's mine to do I figure out some combination of 108 cards (with a few duplicates of each space) and players just keep each card they pull, and discard their stack when they pull a Whammy (which they then keep in front of them for their Whammy counter). A second sheet of 108 cards is double-sided and has one question on each side. Boom, 27 games worth of content, your entire components cost is two card sheets. (Hell, it's Endless, drop it to 100 cards (25 games) and put the rules on the other 8.) Print it up, toss it in a box, sell for $20 (because a Tomarkenite will absolutely pay it).
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Thank you for the reminder--game night is this Friday and I want to bring Incan Gold.
"Whammies. Why'd it have to be Whammies?"
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Super Password immediately came to mind for me since MB cranked out Password sets regularly.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QE0ixXtZyRY
Ah. By box game I meant board game- I played the Super Password computer game ad nauseam, so I’m very familiar with this!
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If it's mine to do I figure out some combination of 108 cards (with a few duplicates of each space) and players just keep each card they pull, and discard their stack when they pull a Whammy (which they then keep in front of them for their Whammy counter). A second sheet of 108 cards is double-sided and has one question on each side. Boom, 27 games worth of content, your entire components cost is two card sheets. (Hell, it's Endless, drop it to 100 cards (25 games) and put the rules on the other 8.) Print it up, toss it in a box, sell for $20 (because a Tomarkenite will absolutely pay it).
I like this a lot better than my (modified) idea. Instead of the plastic board (was thinking of Feud's home game), simply arrange everything like a smaller Monopoly board. Place stacks of 3 or 4 cards on each space as you would Community Chest or Chance, and go from there. With a prize, just swap out.
But, your idea keeps things a lot more simple. The more I think about it, the more surprised I am that a game wasn't released (other than the prototype Adam mentioned).
/Yes, bring it to Vegas, por favor
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Ah. By box game I meant board game- I played the Super Password computer game ad nauseam, so I’m very familiar with this!
Sure, I figured as much.
To me, the biggest, most high-profile games that should have had a home game but didn't were Tattletales and Card Sharks. Card Sharks was an absolute no-brainer, and it's amazing to me that we didn't get one until the Endless Games version so many years after the fact. As has been mentioned elsewhere, Tattletales came close. That one makes a little less sense in a home environment (you don't usually have exactly and specifically three couples around to play), but the logic of playing a game at home was never a high priority to the manufacturer. Still, both of them being G-T games, and with the success of so many other shows of theirs on the home market, it just seems as though they would have made that effort.
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I don't recall a Couch Potatoes or a Wipeout (1988) home game. Then again, they were both one season wonders. I don't recall a home version of Lingo, either.
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There's a home version of Lingo with a modified form of play. Actually, I made several of these games that were mentioned already. With Bullseye, I just duplicated the design of the game board and used three spinners. Top left wheel had categories 1, 2, and 3 with various money amounts, right wheel had categories 4, 5, and 6. Bottom spinner had contract numbers and a bullseye. Used Trivial Pursuit cards. The categories stayed permanent. MB could have released a dirt-cheap to make BULLSEYE by just re-arranging the same format they used for Joker's Wild - two slots with category cards in a top row, a lower centered card holding slot for the contract numbers. Used an old clear Concentration board for Shoot For The Stars and wrote my own clues. Gambit was a piece of cake. I also turned PYL into two variation games - a card game w/o questions, and a dice game with questions. Also worked on a board version with a multi-sided die, but gave up on it after a while. Could be done, tho. Use the edges of a CONCENTRATION board and make up small cards with cash amounts, prizes, and whammies to place in the slots. Use one marker, roll the die, land on a space, take the card, replace it with a new card from a face-down pool. Dan Enright sent questions from Play The Percentages, so I made a model of version 1. So it's not that the games are hard to make - it's just the same problem every company deals with when they have a project - can it make us good money? And will the shows stay on the air long enough to promote the product when it hits the shelves?
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There's a home version of Lingo with a modified form of play.
To be fair, Lingo is just Jotto with a modified form of play. ;)
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Sure 'nuff, Chris. Jotto's a high school memory and there's a copy buried somewhere around here. And do you remember Word Mastermind? Good ideas always come back around somehow. :-) I added a few of those fuzzy image home copies to my old photobucket page for anyone interested. http://s1187.photobucket.com/albums/z388/tvgameRog/?albumview=slideshow
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Celebrity Sweepstakes never had a home game, did it?
Going waaay back, I don't think I've ever seen / heard mention of The Name's The Same getting a board game either.
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I don't recall a Couch Potatoes or a Wipeout (1988) home game. Then again, they were both one season wonders.
Wipeout did not have a box game, but there was a PC version. I played it at my friend's house. It used questions from the TV show.
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I would like to see how they would've pulled off the Name's the Same. Seems like you'd need a card game meets 20 Questions kinda setup?
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50s style panel show home games can be tricky. The home games based on To Tell The Truth, Your First Impression, and I've Got A Secret either had ready-made questions and answers on their subjects, or, in the case of IGAS, borrowed a system from the game of Clue that had players figuring out which four phrases on the game board combined to make the "secret." You didn't have to be witty or have a broad range of knowledge to be a panelist or contestant. TV panelists are professional, glib, and have been auditioned before being chosen. The What's My Line? home game gave you a few sample panel questions and assumed you could be as deductive and witty as Arlene or Bennett, and the player pretending to have the occupation on their card knew enough about the job to answer questions with more than, "I'm not sure." Half (or more) of the entertainment from the classic panel shows came from the personalities on the panel and the laughs they generated. Those are a lot harder to duplicate at home, as compared to guessing a password or answering some quiz questions. Perhaps another reason a home game wasn't made was because the other shows had higher ratings than The Name's The Same, which bounced all over the place on the struggling ABC network. Then again, it's not like game companies never put out home versions of shows with so-so ratings. :-)
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I don't recall a Couch Potatoes or a Wipeout (1988) home game. Then again, they were both one season wonders.
Wipeout did not have a box game, but there was a PC version. I played it at my friend's house. It used questions from the TV show.
I've always wondered this, could Wipeout be translated into a board game and if so how?
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First thought goes back to the classic MB or Pressman Concentration/Jeopardy setup. The company could modify their design to change the clear plastic windows board from 30 to 16 windows. Game material could be printed on sheets, placed behind a 16-spaced slotted grid with one answer showing through each window. The MC has the answer book. When a player calls out an answer on the board, the MC covers that window in the grid with a slide featuring either a dollar sign on it for a correct answer, or a black WIPEOUT slide if the player picked a bad answer. For the bonus game, use tinted transparent slides to cover your six answer choices. Could be done.
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I know that Ideal made a rare home version of The Rebus Game, which lasted not even a year, so I thought of three more shows without box games that lasted a year or less:
The Big Showdown---if this lasted more than the five to six months it aired, I can see a home version of this.
Headline Chasers---Wink Martindale's one year gamer should have had a home game. If MG's Crosswords had a home version, why not Headline Chasers?
The Money Maze---I would admit it would be harder to make a box game of this, but it could have been possible.
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I know that Ideal made a rare home version of The Rebus Game, which lasted not even a year
Now I've heard this before, but has a copy ever turned up? It wouldn't surprise me if they had promoted a home game on the show, yet not be released.
A really good example of that happening was RunAround from Heatter-Quigley productions. It was promoted every week, but I'd never found a copy in stores. IIRC, it was an electric game from Lakeside Toys. It may not have gotten released for safety reasons, or not meeting UL requirements.
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Headline Chasers---Wink Martindale's one year gamer should have had a home game. If MG's Crosswords had a home version, why not Headline Chasers?
"This thing that sucked had a home game, so why not this thing that also sucks?" is not a compelling argument. :)
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I'm imagining we probably saw a prototype/test copy on The Rebus Game, unfortunately. It's such a memory. The ratings were not very good for Runaround. Only 13 episodes were produced and re-run until the year was up. With electronics involved instead of just ink on paper, Lakeside probably decided against the expense of producing a game that they found out was going to be dead in the water and probably going to be a Toys R Us red tag special almost as soon as it hit the shelves. Best guess, anyway.
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The ratings were not very good for Runaround. Only 13 episodes were produced and re-run until the year was up. With electronics involved instead of just ink on paper, Lakeside probably decided against the expense of producing a game that they found out was going to be dead in the water and probably going to be a Toys R Us red tag special almost as soon as it hit the shelves. Best guess, anyway.
What electronics did Runaround have, besides the lights? Even the scores were kept by putting balls into the contestants' podiums.
Runaround had the same problem as JackPot (and yes, I know there was a home version of that; I owned it once) - it doesn't work very well without a lot of players.
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I read that all the tapes were wiped, which is one of the reasons why there's no NBC episodes on YouTube. Maybe someone here has a copy on tape with the product plug, which has more details. Here's a video with the UK version - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmIVkG6R57c. If you'll pardon a guess, you'll note that once the kids stand under the answer they've chosen, the number of the correct answer lights up. Perhaps there was a similar design in the proposed home game where the answer reveal featured something on the board lighting up, either by the "mc" pushing a button, or some kind of question card with a code that could be inserted to make the lights work.
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The ratings were not very good for Runaround. Only 13 episodes were produced and re-run until the year was up. With electronics involved instead of just ink on paper, Lakeside probably decided against the expense of producing a game that they found out was going to be dead in the water and probably going to be a Toys R Us red tag special almost as soon as it hit the shelves. Best guess, anyway.
What electronics did Runaround have, besides the lights? Even the scores were kept by putting balls into the contestants' podiums.
If you are talking the actual show, ISTR the kids would run up on and stand on one of 3 clear ramps, and the trilons(?) underneath would rotate around -- likely to reveal the correct answer.
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I have happen to have two more shows without box games, both on GSN:
That's the Question---while this show lasted two seasons, there was never a box game, only an online game at the GSN website.
Russian Roulette---Another two season show, but maybe a little harder to replicate for a box game.
And yes, Lingo did have a home version made by Imagination Games, but does not have the number boards or Lingo balls.
The Chase did have an app version, but never a U.S. home game. (In the U.K. they did have a board game that I know of.)
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Russian Roulette---Another two season show, but maybe a little harder to replicate for a box game.
Friend or Foe, for that matter. Because MY GAWD would that be a dreadful box game. (Which, you know, follows.)
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Russian Roulette---Another two season show, but maybe a little harder to replicate for a box game.
As long as you aren't expecting trap doors, it wouldn't be hard. Some multiple-choice questions, poker chips to keep score, and a spinner or die to determine whether a wrong answer eliminates you. For that matter something with six LEDs and a couple buttons to simulate the drop zones spinning wouldn't be that hard or extremely expensive to create either.
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If they could come up with a board with holes for Stay Alive, they could come up with a board for Russian Roulette.
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I don't recall a Couch Potatoes or a Wipeout (1988) home game.
Wasn’t Couch Potatoes based on a board game?
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Scrabble was based on a board game, but that didn't stop them from making a home game version.
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Scrabble was based on a board game, but that didn't stop them from making a home game version.
Ditto for Trivial Pursuit
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Another one I'm surprised never got any sort of official game- Win Ben Stein's Money. It's just general knowledge questions and some 10-question cards for the endgame.
Considering when the show aired and the fact that the humor was in the same vein as You Don't Know Jack, it seems like a total miss that Jellyvision never got their hands on it to make a PC version.
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FWIW, it wasn’t a home game, but I do remember there being an online mini-game called “Win Ben Stein’s Cyber-Money”.
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Russian Roulette---Another two season show, but maybe a little harder to replicate for a box game.
Friend or Foe, for that matter. Because MY GAWD would that be a dreadful box game. (Which, you know, follows.)
I recall once seeing what was at least a prototype board game version of a foreign edition of "Who's Still Standing," which had a similar setup to GSN's Russian Roulette.
GSN, at one time, had a joke promo commercial for a box game based on Friend or Foe, but included captioning and voice recording stating that the board game did not exist!
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When discussing how a Stein game could be done, Matt O. came up with a dandy suggestion. In the second round, have a large die with Ben's face on 3 of the sides. The MC asks the question, the two contestants duke it out to answer first. After one of them answers, the die is tossed. If "Ben" appears, he supposedly "beat" you to answering. If blank, you beat Ben. Neat how the die element after a contestant answers creates the emotional "sting" of having known the answer, only to have Ben keep you from getting the money. Thought that was pretty novel. Now, Bob - did GSN look in my window? I did make a Friend Or Foe box game sitting right by me here. Used question cards from Millionaire, made shields to act as the booths, and prepared a cardboard table for the showdowns. As we've said before, many of these could be done, but since so many of these shows mentioned were either syndicated or on cable nets, these shows would need pretty massive ratings and buzz to interest a company in spending the bucks to make them. I liked to build them for the challenge and because I obviously had way too much free time on my hands.
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I don't recall a Couch Potatoes or a Wipeout (1988) home game.
Wasn’t Couch Potatoes based on a board game?
I always thought it was inspired by MTV's Remote Control.
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Considering when the show aired and the fact that the humor was in the same vein as You Don't Know Jack, it seems like a total miss that Jellyvision never got their hands on it to make a PC version.
Why pay for the IP? They had a brand they already owned that used very similar material and was doing just fine.
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And the original article was light-years better than the television show.