Home Games

[Dbacksfan12]

Of all the home games that have been released, which is your favorite?
And, of all games, which ones probably shouldn't have been released?
And, of all game shows that did not have a home game released, which shows do you think should have?

[tvmitch]

I know that there's one now, but when I was growing up, I desparately wanted a Card Sharks home game, complete with larger-than-usual cards. I never understood why this game, which seems like a logical transition to a home game, never panned out until recently. (And this new version has small cards. Shame.)

[TalkingHeadsFan]

The Price is Right (1986) was one of my favorite game show board games, because of it's sheer interactivity and versatility. Even though they only had little gamecards for 10 games, you could still create tons of other games easily just by using the various prize and product cards. Sure, it didn't have a showcase showdown spinner, but heck, you can buy the Endless Games release just to scrap for parts because it's so cheap.

And, although they're so abundant they're beginning to take over thrift stores across America, the old MB Family Feud games. The board was so well designed. It was always fun to pull out the little plastic slides, and to change the answers on the boards instantly with the turn of the dinky knob. There were always plenty of questions to go around also. It's those little things that make a game so much better (Ex. Sliding out plastic slides vs. writing on cardboard with a thick, stubborn messy crayon, as seen in the Endless Games versions.) Which bring me EXACTLY to my next point...

Tons of Endless Games games should not have been released. Newlywed Game, Whats My Line? The boxes look good from the outside, and they're official releases and all, but most of the games were just flimy cards or wipe-off boards...Nothing that couldn't be made at home, or survive a trip through a paper shredder. Minimal on the plastic.


Doug

[JasonA1]

Easily, "$ale of the Century" is the best home game ever. They adapted the TV format so well, I actually used the pack-in rules for once! Granted, you can take it a step further and pre-arrange a fame game board and stuff...but it's pretty cool. And going so far as to include a real buzzer instead of any lame substitute makes it that much better. There's prize cards, cool pieces...wow.

Honorable mention goes to "Jackpot" because it's all so cool, but you'll never get 16 people to play.

Shouldn't have been released? Uhhh...yeah, I have to agree with that last poster, but go a step further and single out "Newlywed Game."

And could've been? Uhh..."Super Password." I had a few I could've tossed in here, but SP had a long enough run to come up with something. Heck, P+ had three editions in its run!

-Jason

[The Ol' Guy]

well-designed favorites - Concentration and Jeopardy, 1958 Lowell Price Is Right, Video Village, Password Plus. Hon mention: Seven Keys

not so liked ones: Finders Keepers, Hasbro Dating Game - hon. mentions: Jackpot (sorry, Jason - mostly because the reasons you mentioned), Window Shopping, MB Blockbusters, GE College Bowl.

Like to see: Cross Wits, Whew, Chain Reaction.

Favorite - humility forbids. It's a homemade model.

[Ian Wallis]

Which one shouldn't have been released?  I'd have to say "Price is Right" - the recent second edition from Endless Games and Freemantle Media.  When I got home and opened the box, I though "is that all there is?"  The one I have from the '70s is a lot better - despite the fact there were only six pricing games in it.

Among my favorites:  although my collection is relatively small compared to some of you, I really enjoyed the "Concentration" and "Joker's Wild" home games from the '70s.  Currently, I'd have to say the "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" home game is pretty good - especially when you turn down the lights and have the British theme CD playing in the background!

Games I'd like to get:  "Card Sharks".  Haven't seen it anywhere in my area.

[TLEberle]

[quote name=\'Modor\' date=\'Aug 18 2005, 04:49 AM\']Of all the home games that have been released, which is your favorite?[/quote]
Given the obscene number of times I've played it over the past few months, "Password" by a dozen lengths.

And, of all games, which ones probably shouldn't have been released?

"The Price is Right," hands down.  It doesn't age well, the games from the '86 version aren't a good group, and it's silly to try and win a cardstock representation of a sports car, or 1000 yards of carpeting.  For that matter, did they ever try to give away straight carpeting, and not as part of something else?

"TV Scrabble" was a bit of a disappointment, and "Let's Make a Deal" as well.  Hitting that magic formula is quite hard, and only a few games have done that.

And, of all game shows that did not have a home game released, which shows do you think should have?

[snapback]94460[/snapback]

"Split Second," not a doubt in my mind.  I would still lay out a decent bundle of money for a fair representation of the Wonderwall, as well.

[Dbacksfan12]

[quote name=\'Ian Wallis\' date=\'Aug 18 2005, 12:22 PM\']Games I'd like to get:  "Card Sharks".  Haven't seen it anywhere in my area.
[/quote]
Really?  I seem to remember K-Mart carried the complete line of Endless Games.  Most recently, I remember them selling some of them on clearance.

Here's a link to the game for you, only $10.99....click here .

[clemon79]

[quote name=\'JasonA1\' date=\'Aug 18 2005, 08:18 AM\']Easily, "$ale of the Century" is the best home game ever. They adapted the TV format so well,
[/quote]
Let me preface this by saying that I have the $ale home game, and have enjoyed it thoroughly.

That said, the game is horribly broken.

Yes, yes, it's very neat that the game has a nice little lockout system that you can use in other games. But it's painfully obvious they spent NO time at all making sure the prize cards were balanced. The Winner cards are worth so much, in the vast majority of cases, that there is NO reason to buy an Instant Bargain at ANY level.

And, "cool pieces"? Since when is using the punchouts from the game board for scoring markers "cool"?

Yeah, it's neat, but best EVER? I don't think so, Tim. There are too many games out there that offer balanced play.

My #1? Password. Bog-standard Password. I'm no fan of the 10-to-1 scoring system, but it's true to the show at the time, it's simple, everything you need (aside from a pencil, and a rummage through the junk drawer fixed that soon enough) is in the box, and it's nice and compact.

Shouldn't have been released? With apologies to our esteemed moderator, the What's My Line box game is a joke. It's a freakin' list of jobs. Hint, kids: a game that you could have published as a book shouldn't be in a box. My BS radar starts firing full-tilt pretty much whenever Endless announces another release; you can always count on them cheaping out somewhere.

Coulda been? Chain Reaction would have been a GREAT box game, and you could use the same slider system the MB Family Feud games used for the game board.

[FOXSportsFan]

Point to Lemon.  WML? isn't WML? if you just go eeeny meeny miney mo with any old job for funsies, sorry.

I also have to agree with TPiR...it doesn't really translate all that well to the wonderful world of board games.  DVD games, we soon shall see, I hope.

I like the recent Password games Endless has put out...maybe they can revamp the P+/SP format in a future edition.

I know someone else on here might like this game, so lemme beat em to it.  One of the first board games I wanted as a kid was the Davidson era Hollywood Squares game.  And lo and behold on my 7th bday, I got it.  That said, the Bergo HS era board game was better.

[DJDustman]

Agreed with Jason earlier, Sale was well produced.  Wonderful game, and most of the questions are really general knowledge, with a few based on 1986.  Gotta love the quizzard.  Also honorable mention to the Deluxe Wheel of Fortune game, also from 1986.


Worst game? I really haven't played one that was really bad, but the least interesting one from my collection is the many passwords I have there. Boring.

TV Scrabble along with HS86 would be fun to have.  I'd love to have Classic Concentration once again as well .

[mystery7]

I'll second the "never produced" vote for Chain Reaction. Someone get me Kevin McNulty. This would be GREAT for Endless to produce.

I'd count GO as a good home game that was never produced but Patch kinda plagiarized the "build sentences a word at a time" concept for Talkin' Tango.

On games that were produced, Cardinal's and Endless's versions of Pyramid were nice improvements over MB's (even though Endless's seems like a warmed-over Cardinal in new packaging). Good to have a bonus round that played like the show's, for once.

[Matt Ottinger]

[quote name=\'clemon79\' date=\'Aug 18 2005, 02:43 PM\']Shouldn't have been released? With apologies to our esteemed moderator, the What's My Line box game is a joke. It's a freakin' list of jobs. [/quote]
With apologies accepted, keep in mind that your esteemed moderator is pretty much on record as saying a WML? home game is "dumb":

http://userdata.acd.net/ottinger/inside/wml/index.htm

Still, what I had was the opportunity to at least give the Endless people the actual rules to the TV show, which were quite different than the awkwardly written rules to the 50s home version that they were about to use verbatim.  Being thanked (in just about the smallest font size I've seen on an instruction sheet) and getting on their freebie mailing list was a nice little reward, but it's not like it was my idea for them to do WML? or anything.

[DrBear]

Actually, I thought the 60s Match Game was pretty good - it's a nice little time killer at a small party, it's simple to explain and you can get some laughs out of it. (This, of course, has the "name a kind of cereal" questions.) Especially cool were the wipe-off boards for answers.

Didn't work - Eye Guess, if only because you had to somehow get the eight lids off the openings at once to make it look like the show

[DrBear]

[quote name=\'Matt Ottinger\' date=\'Aug 18 2005, 02:13 PM\']Being thanked (in just about the smallest font size I've seen on an instruction sheet) and getting on their freebie mailing list was a nice little reward, but it's not like it was my idea for them to do WML? or anything.

[snapback]94533[/snapback]

[/quote]
In looking at that page, I note that the copyright is held by Grundy. Hmmm.....