Author Topic: Home Games (Read 9095 times)

alfonzos · « **Reply #30 on:** August 19, 2005, 07:14:31 PM »

My favorites (it has to be plural because I have most of them):
- Concentration (MB) all except the first edition. Some very clever puzzles; all created by Norm Blumenthal, who made them for the series.
- Password (MB) The whole game could fit into a manila envelope but it was cool never the less. Password Plus is okay if you can get someone to act as emcee.
- Jeopardy! (PB) The number of categories is finally correct if only the printing wasn't so small.
- Sale of the Century (MB) Fun to play but there was a rules question: Can the players who lose a game but win a subsequent game use their cash at the sale of the century?
- TV Scrabble (S&R) Some changes where made to the format but it's a fine two-player game.
- Family Feud (MB) It works well.
- High Rollers (PB) Not really a fan of the series but the home game was fun.
- Beat the Clock (MB) The first edition is the one to get. The second edition is a case of going to the well once to often.
- Everybody's Talking! (Watkins-Strathmore) An old-fashioned guessing game we played often when it was new.
- The Match Game (MB) Ditto.

Never should have seen the light of day.
- The Gong Show (American Publishing)
- The Dating Game (Hasbro)
- Seven Keys (Ideal) Only fifteen gameboards! You need seven gameboards for a complete game!
- Supermarket Sweep (MB) Colorful but impractical gameboard.
- Finders Keepers (Cardinal) Rules, a timer and eight empty boxes. Dude, where's my game?
- I've Got a Secret (Lowell)
- Play Your Hunch (Lowell) Boring material.
- You Bet Your Life (Lowell) There is nothing in the box that was ever on the small screen.
- Shenanigans (MB) Whomever lands on the '200 Shenaniganzas' space is the winner.

Could have been a contenders:
- Press Your Luck: A electronic handheld game waiting to happen.
- Gambit: Questions, a deck of cards a gameboard for the bonus round. What was the holdup?

clemon79 · « **Reply #31 on:** August 19, 2005, 07:50:18 PM »

[quote name=\'rollercoaster87\' date=\'Aug 19 2005, 03:27 PM\']Has anyone else noticed that the brits put a lot more effort in their home games? (e.g. blockbusters, play your cards right, and concentration)
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[Rant espousing high-quality of European board games self-censored to conserve bandwidth.]

BrandonFG · « **Reply #32 on:** August 19, 2005, 08:38:58 PM »

[quote name=\'alfonzos\' date=\'Aug 19 2005, 06:14 PM\']Could have been a contenders:
- Press Your Luck: A electronic handheld game waiting to happen.

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I had an idea for this, using a playing card setup (kinda similar to what TJW did). Place the cards face down on the game board (set up like J! home games), and mark each space with a number.

To choose a space, have the contestant pluck the spinner (an 18-space wheel, similar to WoF's home game). Match the number with whatever space, pick up the card, and voila! PYL home game.

DjohnsonCB · « **Reply #33 on:** August 19, 2005, 09:18:35 PM »

[quote name=\'alfonzos\' date=\'Aug 19 2005, 05:37 PM\'][quote name=\'DrBear\' date=\'Aug 18 2005, 03:18 PM\']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

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Use the box lid to cover the gameboard. Remove the lids covering the answers. Remove the box lid for the time allowed. Cover the gameboard again. Replace the lids. Remove the box lid. Play the game.

By the way, I used an eight-sided die to determine where the 'Stop' card goes in the bonus round.

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I use the small cardboard lid from the Q & A book holder box to cover the plastic lid and lift it to reveal all answers at once (or sometimes the Bonus Board). EG ranks with the best. Number Please actually works better as a home version than it did on TV.

rebelwrest · « **Reply #34 on:** August 19, 2005, 09:27:26 PM »

I once combined two versions of a game to create a very fun version.

I combined the wheel from the Deluxe WOF with the Puzzle Board (because you could create your own puzzles) and the prize cards from the 1st ed. of the Chuck Woolery Wheel.

Since the 1st ed. only had 20 or so prize cards, I created my own prize cards with 1975 prices and wound up creating 80 prize cards!

Also, I designed my own wheel configurations with paper and colored pencils. The game play is great but the set up between rounds is killer.

and yes I do have way too much free time on my hands.

Mike Tennant · « **Reply #35 on:** August 19, 2005, 09:50:15 PM »

[quote name=\'clemon79\' date=\'Aug 19 2005, 05:11 PM\'](Sorry, I went Zach for a moment.)

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S'all right. But where can I get some of these Horanstones vitamins that everyone else here seems to be taking lately?

tvwxman · « **Reply #36 on:** August 19, 2005, 09:56:32 PM »

[quote name=\'Mike Tennant\' date=\'Aug 19 2005, 08:50 PM\'][quote name=\'clemon79\' date=\'Aug 19 2005, 05:11 PM\'](Sorry, I went Zach for a moment.)

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S'all right. But where can I get some of these Horanstones vitamins that everyone else here seems to be taking lately?

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Out my arse. Check yours daily , too.

tvwxman · « **Reply #37 on:** August 19, 2005, 09:58:13 PM »

[quote name=\'fostergray82\' date=\'Aug 19 2005, 07:38 PM\'][quote name=\'alfonzos\' date=\'Aug 19 2005, 06:14 PM\']Could have been a contenders:
- Press Your Luck: A electronic handheld game waiting to happen.

[snapback]94652[/snapback]

[/quote]

I had an idea for this, using a playing card setup (kinda similar to what TJW did). Place the cards face down on the game board (set up like J! home games), and mark each space with a number.

To choose a space, have the contestant pluck the spinner (an 18-space wheel, similar to WoF's home game). Match the number with whatever space, pick up the card, and voila! PYL home game.

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Why go that far? Just pick a random card on an 18 square board....

I'da bought it.

JasonA1 · « **Reply #38 on:** August 19, 2005, 10:37:10 PM »

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- Finders Keepers (Cardinal) Rules, a timer and eight empty boxes. Dude, where's my game?

Care to explain the rules? For some odd reason, my parents bought me this game when I was 1 or 2, so I destroyed most of it, save the boxes, money and hidden picture book. I have no idea how it plays.

And FWIW, "Gambit" and "Split Second" are both very worthy choices of being made as home games. SS in fact could work with the board game title "Split Second" as its buzzer system - color the paddles, and check the stack to see who "buzzed" in what order. If you're not familiar with that game, go here.

-Jason

cacLA8383 · « **Reply #39 on:** August 20, 2005, 02:12:01 AM »

[quote name=\'rebelwrest\' date=\'Aug 19 2005, 07:27 PM\']I once combined two versions of a game to create a very fun version.

I combined the wheel from the Deluxe WOF with the Puzzle Board (because you could create your own puzzles) and the prize cards from the 1st ed. of the Chuck Woolery Wheel.

Since the 1st ed. only had 20 or so prize cards, I created my own prize cards with 1975 prices and wound up creating 80 prize cards!

Also, I designed my own wheel configurations with paper and colored pencils. The game play is great but the set up between rounds is killer.

and yes I do have way too much free time on my hands.

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Yes, you've proven that. Anyway, Wheel and Jeopardy were pretty much the only home games I used to ever play as a kid. I can't say I'm too fanatical about any board games, however.

TLEberle · « **Reply #40 on:** August 20, 2005, 01:05:05 PM »

[quote name=\'Craig Karlberg\' date=\'Aug 19 2005, 02:38 AM\']As far as favoritte home games go, I'll go with Deluxe WOF because it had all the trappings of the real show(except prizes). In spite of a few missing pegs, the wheel was nice & loose. Even the wedge stickers looked cool. [/quote]I remember getting the 'original' Pressman wheel (flick spinner, top dollar of $750) and thinking as a six-year-old "Wow, this is nothing like either show. The money doesn't go up, the wheels don't change, no prizes to buy. Bleech." Then I got the Deluxe version, and it kinda fixed the money wedge thing, even though there wasn't the $3,500 or $1,500 (Hey, as a young geek, I was a nut for exctness.) Thinking about the way the money skyrockets on the wheel today, what I wouldn't give for $100 to $750, with a Free Spin wedge on the wheel, and "Person does not always mean proper name."

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My honorable mention: $ale from 1986. Gotta love that quizzard. Well-designed fornat wise. Too bad there was no "real" Fane Game board but the cards were OK.

The Quizzard was light-years ahead of the crickets or "chip in a bin" from the first Sale, I'll give you that. The format was icky. Only two FGs, that dumb 'double' round, the stairsteps on the board? I realize they were trying to duplicate the Australian version, but they missed something in the translation. And the problem with the prize cards is that if you know there's a $40,000 car or $50,000 cash jackpot in the winner's pile somewhere, are you going to give a second thought to a $500 camera for even $5 off your lead?

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Game show home game that could've been? Hmm. I was thinking the Magnificant Marble Machine. Sure that thing on TV was huge but at least it would've been nice to come up with a model version on 1/10 scale size. That would've worked for me.

If I want to play a boring as all get out pinball machine, I will plug in Pinball for the NES, and play that. If I want to instead play an entertaining table, with loops, crossovers, drop targets and all that crazy fun stuff, the Magnificent MM doesn't work. I can understand why they only went with basic pinball stuff, to make it easier to keep track of what's going on, but c'mon, there are a bunch more pinball machines that deserve our quarters.

Robert Hutchinson · « **Reply #41 on:** August 21, 2005, 02:25:13 AM »

Your Deluxe Wheel game didn't have $1500 or $3500 wedges? Huh. Mine did. Well, does, although I haven't taken it out of the box in years.

I thought it would be neat to put all of the bigger money wedges in a row during one game. I soon found out how hard it could be to get the wedges off of the wheel when they were next to each other.

My favorite part of that game, though, were the authentic (by which I mean cardboard) Free Spins.

Game Show Man · « **Reply #42 on:** August 21, 2005, 10:22:36 PM »

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My honorable mention: $ale from 1986. Gotta love that quizzard. Well-designed fornat wise. Too bad there was no "real" Fane Game board but the cards were OK.
The Quizzard was light-years ahead of the crickets or "chip in a bin" from the first Sale, I'll give you that. The format was icky. Only two FGs, that dumb 'double' round, the stairsteps on the board? I realize they were trying to duplicate the Australian version, but they missed something in the translation. And the problem with the prize cards is that if you know there's a $40,000 car or $50,000 cash jackpot in the winner's pile somewhere, are you going to give a second thought to a $500 camera for even $5 off your lead?

That's because they removed the prices from the Winner's Prize Cards. In the Aussie game (ALL EDITIONS, mind you), the Winner's Prizes had prices ranging from $35 (for the lowest prize), up to $400 (for the Cash Jackpot, which was $150,000 in the Aussie game and some US editions, but only $50,000 in most US games). Winners of each game can either buy the prize or hold the card as cash to use in future games, trading it in with winnings from a later game to buy the larger prizes. By the time the game reached the US, the Winner's Board was established, and I guess the prices were removed to make the game more like the show at that time. As a result, I ended up making my own prize cards using the prices from the Aussie game; I simultaneously used the Aussie game's "Play Tomorrow Night" rule where you can only trade in the Winner's cards for cash if you have won multiple games in a row, risking what you have in each game, much as in the traditional Shopping Round.

As for the Double Round...well, they couldn't exactly fit enough questions for a Speed Round in there for each game now could they?

clemon79 · « **Reply #43 on:** August 22, 2005, 01:32:57 AM »

[quote name=\'Game Show Man\' date=\'Aug 21 2005, 07:22 PM\']As a result, I ended up making my own prize cards using the prices from the Aussie game
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All fine and good, but a home game shouldn't be rated based on what you made the game into via whatever hacks you did to it, it should be rated based on the rules and equipment as provided, which is how the vast majority of people will use it. And while this is indeed an international forum, most of us will never see anything other than the US version.

And by that criteria, there are severe problems with the $ale home game.

Matt Ottinger · « **Reply #44 on:** August 22, 2005, 03:32:37 AM »

[quote name=\'clemon79\' date=\'Aug 22 2005, 01:32 AM\']All fine and good, but a home game shouldn't be rated based on what you made the game into via whatever hacks you did to it, it should be rated based on the rules and equipment as provided, which is how the vast majority of people will use it. [/quote]
By that token, probably the purest game show adaptation is The Who What or Where Game, which doesn't require buzzers and therefore is played exactly as it was played on television. Password can be played using TV rules, but that's not how the instructions are written.

Actual conversation from this past weekend:

Ron Greenberg: What do you do, Matt?
Me: I work in a high school.
Ron Greenberg (joking): You should be using the Who What or Where home game in your classroom.
Me: Mr. Greenberg, I do.