According to Chuck Donegan, who is a friend of mine on Facebook, a good chunk of mid-to-late 1980's game show episodes have resurfaced. And it is all courtesy of a fellow named Patrick.
What has resurfaced is nothing short of awesome. Among them are the entire first six weeks of
Scrabble (07/02/1984-08/10/1984), nearly ten weeks of the daytime version of
Sale of the Century (07/01/1985-09/05/1985), the entire first nine weeks of
Blackout (01/04/1988-03/07/1988), and what seems like the entire run of
Bruce Forsyth's Hot Streak.
It is unfortunate, though, that Patrick threw out every episode of
Hit Man (all 65 of them) and a few months of
Dream House. But other than that, I am happy with what HAS managed to resurface.