I just got back from a European excursion, where among other things I did get a chance to see a couple of episodes of "That's the Question." My Dutch sucks as well, but the basics of the game were fairly easy to discern. Basically, the rules below seem right, with my modifications following:
[quote name=\'itiparanoid13\' post=\'126158\' date=\'Aug 3 2006, 11:27 AM\']
ITwo players compete. A hidden question is shown, and the host reads an answer, like this.
.. ..... .... ..… .. ..... ....... ?
Answer: Rome
Obviously, you have no idea what the question is, so we play Mini Questions. Player 1 starts. The host reads a mini question with the answer scrambled. All anagrams have one extra letter. Here is an example.
Mini Quesetion: What is King Arthur's castle named?
Anagram Answer: E L O C E M T A
Player 1 guesses. If wrong, his/her turn is over. If right, the extra letter, which in this case is E, is places into the hidden question. The player gets 1 point for each time the letter appears. Also, turns alternate between players each time no matter what. Here's what the question looks like.
.. .e..e .... ..… .e ..e.. ....e.. ?
This continues until the question is solved by a player. The player who gets the question wins 5 extra points. That person also gets to answer a photo bonus question. Two pictures are shown that are related to the question, and the player must pick out the right one. 5 bonus points are given for a right answer.
Round 2 is the same, but players keep control until a wrong answer is given, each time a letter placled is 2 points, and the correct question solved/photo bonus is worth 9 each.
My Dutch isn't great, but here's round 3. A hidden question is given, but no answer. Letters randomly are placed in the question, and a player can buzz in when they know the question/answer. If they get both, they get 10 points. Whoever has the most points win.
In the bonus, the player is shown yet another Hidden Question, with no answer. To find letters, the winner plays a timed Mini Question game. The winner's points are turned into seconds, and as long as time remains, the player is given a Mini Question with the Anagram Answer + 1 extra letter. A wrong answer means we move on to the next question. A right answer places the extra letter in the question and I believe the answer. This continues until time is up. If the player can give the question and answer, he/she wins 1000 euro. If not, the player comes back tomorrow.
If the player wins the grand, he/she has an option. The player can leave with the money earned, or come back the next show. Here are situations that occur for each outcome.
Leaves= Leaves with money
Comes back + Loses Main Game = Leaves with no money
Comes back + Wins Main Game + Loses Bonus Round = Leaves with 1/2 money
Comes Back + Wins Main Game + Wins Bonus Round = Doubles Money and can come back again.
The player can stay for 3 days max, meaning he/she can win up to 4000.
[/quote]
I didn't see three rounds, only two. In the first one, play progresses as above; they got through two main questions in the round. The unknown letters in the puzzle "shuffle" before each mini-question; the player presses a button and stops them. For example, the player may stop the shuffle and have five letters lit up, all of which end up being "e." In the second round, players keep control until a wrong answer, letters are 2 points each, and a correct solve of the question and/or the photo bonus is 10 points. The answer to the puzzle question is NOT given in round 2. When time is up, they do a speedround -- letters start filling in until someone buzzes in and gives the question and answer (which is what I think was mistaken for round 3 above). Note: In round 2, where the answer is not given, letters pop into both the question AND answer as appropriate.
I'm not sure about the prizes and options a player has for winning the bonus round, but there is this: First, the player has 10 additional seconds to give the question and answer after all of his/her allotted seconds have been used. Also, when a player gives a wrong answer in the bonus round, the same letters in the puzzle continue to be lit -- which means the next question asked must be another question with the same "extra" letter (because that's the letter that fills in the spaces). Those letters stay lit until the player answers one question correctly, then the player randomly stops the shuffle on a different set of letters.
I would compare the show to "Lingo" in terms of play-along factor, although I'd still give "Lingo" the nod (heck, I was playing along without knowing the language!). I'll be cautiously optimistic about how well it will do here. BTW, "Lingo" over there is interesting, using six-letter words (but still a 5x5 Lingo card) plus some sort of bonus 10-letter scrambled word that teams can try to guess after each 6-letter word is determined. And then there's "Rad Van Fortuin," (the last word is your clue) which has contestants being given the L, N, R, S, V, and A in the final round. Factor in a host of other shows, including one from the BBC based on Sudoku, one called "Piramide" but having nothing to do with our version, and assorted other simple quizzes, and you'll understand how I spent several of my late afternoons (which is when these shows air) on the trip.
