The Game Show Forum
The Game Show Forum => The Big Board => Topic started by: BrandonFG on May 23, 2022, 12:11:18 AM
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Was thinking about how Chain Reaction has a 42-year history but never had a home game. How many successful game show franchises never had any home game release whatsoever? A few qualifications:
1. By "successful" I'll set the bar at three or more seasons from single or combined versions. I'm willing to allow something that ran for like two years and 10 months, considering there's one season wonders that got home games, or in the case of Top Secret, never even made it past the pilot.
2. By "home edition" I mean a physical version like a board/video game, a card game, or even a book of questions. Online sites or apps don't count.
3. Revivals count as part of the entire franchise. For instance, To Tell the Truth never got a release during the 70s or current revivals but there was one in the 50s. So TTTT can't be included.
Other shows:
-Split Second
-Cross-Wits
-Win Ben Stein's Money
-Street Smarts
-America Says
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It ran off and on, and you can question how successful (but again, see runs from 1991-2003) I would say Shop Til You Drop is your clubhouse leader.
The one that eats at me most (especially because I saw a localized version while traveling in Italy but it was 45 euros) though it would be a tough ask for people to play the game straight is Greed.
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Fandango comes to mind.
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Shop Til You Drop absolutely counts...the Lifetime version ran for a few years by itself.
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Fandango comes to mind.
At first glance, a game about country/western music seems like it would be a hard sell but I think Arbitron ratings show that it's the top format for radio stations, so maybe an oversight.
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Gambit
Tattletales, with an asterisk since at least a prototype was made
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I wonder if Matt O. will chime in. Oh, Quizbusters. :)
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I don't believe The Dating Game ever had a home version. The closest to it was MB's Mystery Date.
OOPS - mea culpa. Apparently there was a home version, by Hasbro. Never mind.
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I know we're splitting hairs, but Card Sharks comes to mind. I know I know, done in the last 15 years but still......
I think a better Q would be what didn't come out at time of popularity..... Tattletales, Split Second, Gambit, Super Password, Card Sharks make that list, esp since so many shows with shorter lifespans had home games .
Press Your Luck would have been an easy card game to make.
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I've got one. Catch 21. Question, how long did Divided and Idiotest last?
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I know we're splitting hairs, but Card Sharks comes to mind. I know I know, done in the last 15 years but still......
I think a better Q would be what didn't come out at time of popularity..... Tattletales, Split Second, Gambit, Super Password, Card Sharks make that list, esp since so many shows with shorter lifespans had home games .
Press Your Luck would have been an easy card game to make.
Since video games were specified as counting, Super Password and Card Sharks both had computer games for MS-DOS, Commodore 64 and Apple II computers during the time those shows were still in production. I believe Press Your Luck also had a computer game release around the same time.
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I don't believe The Dating Game ever had a home version. The closest to it was MB's Mystery Date.
OOPS - mea culpa. Apparently there was a home version, by Hasbro. Never mind.
Pressman released a home game during the Joyce/MacGregor era as well.
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A Money Maze game played on an electric football field would be possible, if lame.
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Others with more knowledge can chime in, but I’m guessing Hatos-Hall didn’t put a priority on home games. There was a ten-year gap between the MB and Ideal versions of Let’s Make a Deal, which is surprising given the show itself was red hot during that time. Maybe that’s why they didn’t bother with Split Second. (Another possibility: it would have been impossible to rank the buzz-ins at home by priority. Actually, the demands on whoever would be the “host”—rank the buzz-ins, judge the answers, parse out the money for a correct answer after each question, etc.—probably would take all the fun out of it.)
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I wonder if Matt O. will chime in.
You people are covering it nicely.
Fandango comes to mind.
It is extraordinarily rare (I had a copy once and may have sold it to one of you fine collectors), but there IS a Fandango Quiz Book.
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Another possibility: it would have been impossible to rank the buzz-ins at home by priority.
You could do what MB's $ale game did; everyone throws a chip in a bucket and whoever is on the bottom gets to answer first.
I was thinking about how I'd design a non-electric version and although you'd have to change the rules somewhat, I'd probably have players write down their answers. You could include pads where everyone writes down an answer in private, and the first person to show for each part gets credit if their answer is correct.
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I think Bumper Stumpers, Celebrity Sweepstakes, Treasure Hunt, & The Liar's Club all fall into this category.
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I'm on mobile now so it's tough to dig through the home games thread right now, but wasn't there mention of an America Says home game planned that ultimately never came to fruition?
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Using the 50s versions rule, Treasure Hunt would have been covered, as a small outfit named Gardner Games put out a fairly decent version with Jan Murray on the cover. https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/27010/jan-murrays-treasure-hunt. If you're lucky enough to find one, you could do a spin off Bumper Stumpers with this board game - https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/8431/vanity-chase.
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Actually, the demands on whoever would be the “host”—rank the buzz-ins, judge the answers, parse out the money for a correct answer after each question, etc.—
Don't forget splitting your living room in half to reveal the five cars behind it! ;)
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Gambit
No, but there was a High Rollers game for Apple II and I'm sure others.
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Gambit
No, but there was a High Rollers game for Apple II and I'm sure others.
There was also a High Rollers board game; in fact, I think it was one of the consolation prizes at some point.
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High Rollers board games? There was a Trebek version that happened during the first incarnation and a version from the Wink Martindale era.
Speaking of Wink, I don't think there was ever a board or video game for Debt.
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The one that eats at me most (especially because I saw a localized version while traveling in Italy but it was 45 euros) though it would be a tough ask for people to play the game straight is Greed.
The one that eats at me the most is the Australian boxed version of Temptation that we never got here. Might it have been a rare box game that was even better than the show if it had come out here?
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it surprises me that no US based home game version of "The Wall," has come out despite many foreign editions having been released.
There really haven't been that many based on shows produced for cable-tv networks, including GSN.
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it surprises me that no US based home game version of "The Wall," has come out despite many foreign editions having been released.
There really haven't been that many based on shows produced for cable-tv networks, including GSN.
No new shows would have the critical mass to warrant a box game.
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It's Your Bet ran three years. I wish Magnificent Marble Machine had lasted long enough.
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High Rollers board games? There was a Trebek version that happened during the first incarnation and a version from the Wink Martindale era.
Description of the board game, with pictures of both versions (https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/8750/high-rollers)
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High Rollers board games? There was a Trebek version that happened during the first incarnation and a version from the Wink Martindale era.
Description of the board game, with pictures of both versions (https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/8750/high-rollers)
The first 70s edition was notable for including a number of questions (https://web.archive.org/web/20031004001938/http://userdata.acd.net/ottinger/inside/rollers/index.html) that were virtually unanswerable due to how general they were.
From what I understand, there was a misprint of some sort that resulted in some questions from the Now You See It game being included.
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Gambit
Gambit is the one that surprises me most, just because of how easy it would have been for Milton Bradley to release one in the days when MB was just churning out games. Deck of cards, booklet of Qs provided from the show's "used" files, and a deck of prize cards repurposed from what they already made for their WOF and TPIR games. Boom. Gambit home game.
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Since it’s come up recently, what about Funny You Should Ask?
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The one that eats at me most (especially because I saw a localized version while traveling in Italy but it was 45 euros) though it would be a tough ask for people to play the game straight is Greed.
Ooh, sorry for derailing, but here's what you COULD do:
Play the full money ladder. Each player chooses an answer in the multi-part questions. If your answer is right, you get a share of the pot for the question.
Terminator doesn't eliminate contestants, but you do steal their bank with a successful defense.
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The first 70s edition was notable for including a number of questions (https://web.archive.org/web/20031004001938/http://userdata.acd.net/ottinger/inside/rollers/index.html) that were virtually unanswerable due to how general they were.
Yikes! Those were definitely questions where they excluded a multiple choice in the form of "which of these is X" and an integral part of the question. That would take about 5 minutes of frustration before it permanently occupied the bottom of the stack of games on the highest shelf in the closet.
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Others with more knowledge can chime in, but I’m guessing Hatos-Hall didn’t put a priority on home games. There was a ten-year gap between the MB and Ideal versions of Let’s Make a Deal, which is surprising given the show itself was red hot during that time. Maybe that’s why they didn’t bother with Split Second. (Another possibility: it would have been impossible to rank the buzz-ins at home by priority. Actually, the demands on whoever would be the “host”—rank the buzz-ins, judge the answers, parse out the money for a correct answer after each question, etc.—probably would take all the fun out of it.)
While I'm sure that they COULD have done a version of LMAD, they could have seen it as a game that requires too much pre-work in the same way that some versions of The Price is Right could be, especially if you planned on using some of the pricing games from Deal. Not everyone can be Monty Hall at home.
Slightly deviating- while Fun House DID get a home verison and a couple of electronic ones, it's interesting that they all used the Fun House trademark but didn't capture the spirit of the show.
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The one that eats at me most (especially because I saw a localized version while traveling in Italy but it was 45 euros) though it would be a tough ask for people to play the game straight is Greed.
I actually happened to watch the final episode of the Fox version tonight. Remember, it was cancelled abruptly, they didn't know they were taping the final episode--and Chuck mentions during the show that a Greed video game is about to go into production.
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Re; Split Second
When I played quizbowl, there was a buzzer system that one or two teams on the circuit would have that was nicknamed "The Knot," as the buzzers would get hopelessly tangled every time you put the system in its box.
It was a system made up of 12 buzzers all plugged into a central port. There was no light system, but rather a rank system on the central port that tells the moderator who buzzed in it what order. The buzzers were separated into three groups of four, so the moderator would have to announce, say, "B2" or "C4." The alphanumeric codes could be found just below the player's button.
A "budget" version of such a system could have worked for a Split Second board game. Have three buzzers plugged into the central port, and players can buzz in after the question is read, with the moderator prompting based on who buzzed in first.
JD
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It's also been discussed here (http://www.gameshowforum.org/index.php/topic,32974.msg387778.html#msg387778) that the original Split Second didn't rank the ring-ins 1-2-3 like the Monty version did. And the Robb Weller pilot simplified it further by only letting subsequent players ring in after the previous player had been ruled on. So any analog way to buzz in could have worked for a home version.
-Jason
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The first 70s edition was notable for including a number of questions (https://web.archive.org/web/20031004001938/http://userdata.acd.net/ottinger/inside/rollers/index.html) that were virtually unanswerable due to how general they were.
From what I understand, there was a misprint of some sort that resulted in some questions from the Now You See It game being included.
You've almost got it right, but you're not putting two and two together. This was a delightful discovery we made a few years ago which made the ridiculousness of the High Rollers questions actually make sense.
Some genius over at Milton Bradley decided that to save a little time, they would copy a bunch of questions from their Now You See It home game and use them for High Rollers. So, for example, a question asked "Who was a famous Olympic star?" and the answer given was OWENS. Now with no other context, that makes no sense as a High Rollers question. There are hundreds of famous Olympic stars. But when you realize that the question was taken from their Now You See It game, and OWENS was the answer they wanted because it appeared in the grid everything starts to make sense. All these questions that appeared vague or imprecise in the High Rollers game were "pinned" (as they say in the game show writing racket) in their original Now You See It context by being the answer that was on the game board.
Apparently, this was all lost on the poor soul who was tasked with filling up the quiz book. You have to wonder if it ever occurred to anybody at MB what went wrong, or whether they even perceived it as a problem.
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I wonder if Matt O. will chime in.
You people are covering it nicely.
Fandango comes to mind.
It is extraordinarily rare (I had a copy once and may have sold it to one of you fine collectors), but there IS a Fandango Quiz Book.
Well, I’ll be. Thanks for the correction—if you remember, was it just a book of country music trivia, or was it formatted in categories closer to the show?
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You've almost got it right, but you're not putting two and two together. This was a delightful discovery we made a few years ago which made the ridiculousness of the High Rollers questions actually make sense.
Some genius over at Milton Bradley decided that to save a little time, they would copy a bunch of questions from their Now You See It home game and use them for High Rollers. So, for example, a question asked "Who was a famous Olympic star?" and the answer given was OWENS. Now with no other context, that makes no sense as a High Rollers question. There are hundreds of famous Olympic stars. But when you realize that the question was taken from their Now You See It game, and OWENS was the answer they wanted because it appeared in the grid everything starts to make sense. All these questions that appeared vague or imprecise in the High Rollers game were "pinned" (as they say in the game show writing racket) in their original Now You See It context by being the answer that was on the game board.
Apparently, this was all lost on the poor soul who was tasked with filling up the quiz book. You have to wonder if it ever occurred to anybody at MB what went wrong, or whether they even perceived it as a problem.
Ah I see, I was under the impression that it was an accident rather than a shortcut. Thanks for filling that in.
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The one that eats at me most (especially because I saw a localized version while traveling in Italy but it was 45 euros) though it would be a tough ask for people to play the game straight is Greed.
The one that eats at me the most is the Australian boxed version of Temptation that we never got here. Might it have been a rare box game that was even better than the show if it had come out here?
I had bought one off of eBay from 2007 that was $90AU that I still have. Just seems rare.
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The one that eats at me the most is the Australian boxed version of Temptation that we never got here. Might it have been a rare box game that was even better than the show if it had come out here?
The prize cards are modern, die-cut, and glossy, and the Quizzard buttons are red and round, and that's about it. The rules and contents are exactly the same as previous versions of the $ale home game, though I think there may have been a Burglar card added to the Fame Game deck. No Vault, no speed rounds, no jackpot building, and the same buying or passing of "Winner" cards at the end of each game, except this version's biggest card is $500,000 in gold bars.
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Others with more knowledge can chime in, but I’m guessing Hatos-Hall didn’t put a priority on home games. There was a ten-year gap between the MB and Ideal versions of Let’s Make a Deal, which is surprising given the show itself was red hot during that time. Maybe that’s why they didn’t bother with Split Second. (Another possibility: it would have been impossible to rank the buzz-ins at home by priority. Actually, the demands on whoever would be the “host”—rank the buzz-ins, judge the answers, parse out the money for a correct answer after each question, etc.—probably would take all the fun out of it.)
There was a board game in the early-90s also called Split Second, but of course not related to the show. However it used the concept of being first to have the right answer, and contestants wrote their answers on a dry-erase pad attached to a bizarre spring-like arm (https://boardgamegeek.com/image/304315/split-second). I imagine a home edition for the show could use a similar setup for three people.
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“Tom Kennedy action figure not included.”
Rubber bands provided the movement for the race to be first to answer simple and fast trivia questions or the more interesting how many crayons from a pound of wax sort.
These days you could run it from a website, but you could also throw wooden balls in a funnel and that gives you an order.
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I have never tried it but I have always thought that the Slam-O-Matic device from Hands Down (by Ideal or Milton Bradley) would make a fine buzz-in device for "Split Second." The player who responded first would be on the bottom, the player would responded last would be on the top.
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What about Ceasar's Challenge? Aside from a Bingo bowl of letters for the endgame...
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The questions in the original High Rollers home game really did stink as described, but I used to enjoy playing the "Big Numbers," bonus round alone. Of course, buy yourself one of those "Shut the Box," games.
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The questions in the original High Rollers home game really did stink as described, but I used to enjoy playing the "Big Numbers," bonus round alone. Of course, buy yourself one of those "Shut the Box," games.
One of the breweries near me has a Shut the Box game, and I’ve gotten my fiancée hooked. I keep meaning to buy a version.
/I also showed her an HR episode on YouTube
//She got a kick out of Trebek’s mustache and fro
///Would settle for an HR home game from eBay
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Many years ago I grabbed a set of number tiles from TPIR 86 and whiled away some time with a cousin playing the Big Numbers.
/I also brought some Upwords tiles to play the Winning Streak which was a massive hit, and that side of the family was always down for Instant Reaction.
BFG—I think I have a Shut the Box game laying around somewhere. If you don’t have any luck thirifting one I’ll send my spare your way.
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One of the breweries near me has a Shut the Box game, and I’ve gotten my fiancée hooked. I keep meaning to buy a version.
/I also showed her an HR episode on YouTube
//She got a kick out of Trebek’s mustache and fro
///Would settle for an HR home game from eBay
I recommend this variant (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001454DQM?ref_=cm_sw_r_cp_ud_dp_7G6Y5ZJJX0QMMVKPNK4B). It's always a hit when we have people over.
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All of those other sets that go up to 10 give anyone else a tic?
No? Just me?
/weirdly 12 doesn't bother me
//a set that goes to 12 can be modified to be three Insurance Markers
///but 10's just WRONG
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All of those other sets that go up to 10 give anyone else a tic?
No? Just me?
/weirdly 12 doesn't bother me
//a set that goes to 12 can be modified to be three Insurance Markers
///but 10's just WRONG
This is the one (https://ibb.co/6Rq2XLH) at the brewery around the corner. Seeing a 10th spot does bug me slightly.
/Then I have a beer and it's all good
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One of the breweries near me has a Shut the Box game, and I’ve gotten my fiancée hooked. I keep meaning to buy a version.
/I also showed her an HR episode on YouTube
//She got a kick out of Trebek’s mustache and fro
///Would settle for an HR home game from eBay
I recommend this variant (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001454DQM?ref_=cm_sw_r_cp_ud_dp_7G6Y5ZJJX0QMMVKPNK4B). It's always a hit when we have people over.
Double Shutter is a whole bunch of fun playing for a little bit of money. We play it using the Insurance Marker rule, with each game starting with every player putting 25¢ in the pot. If you don't win on your turn, you have to throw in 5¢ for every number still up on the board.
Your local thrifting may vary, but I've picked up multiple copies for friends at Goodwill for $3.
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I don't like it when such products are announced/advertised, but don't get released after all. Although Cardinal released the "Party" game version of Hollywood Game Night; TDC Games was planning on releasing a full size board game back in 2014. The company filed for bankruptcy protection and that explains why it never got released. What was more stupid, while their case was pending, they showed at the 2015 Toy Fair, a stand-alone spin-off game based on the show's "Four Letter Words," game featuring special blindfolds. Their display graphic described it as being the fun party game, "you'll never see!"