Michael Larson Press Your Luck episodes on Buzzr

[thomas_meighan]

If they ran the light borders as fast as they did on Second Chance, could the PYL game board's projectors have kept up with the pace? If not, what happens if a contestant stops the board on a square when it's transitioning between a whammy and a prize, say? (Honest question, not a rhetorical one!)

[chad1m]

If not, what happens if a contestant stops the board on a square when it's transitioning between a whammy and a prize, say? (Honest question, not a rhetorical one!)

The same thing that happened any time someone stopped the Press Your Luck board when it's transitioning between a whammy and a prize. The light stops, the transition finishes and you get whatever is lit up after the fade finishes.

[jcs290]

I do think part of PYL's appeal was the illusion of skill and being able to comprehend the motion of the lights and the slides. One big reason Whammy's board effects were less satisfying IMO was the un-synchronized slide transitions in the 2nd round. It was more like watching someone play a slot machine than someone playing Stacker, if you catch my drift.

[tyshaun1]

I do think part of PYL's appeal was the illusion of skill and being able to comprehend the motion of the lights and the slides. One big reason Whammy's board effects were less satisfying IMO was the un-synchronized slide transitions in the 2nd round. It was more like watching someone play a slot machine than someone playing Stacker, if you catch my drift.

They were trying to emulate how the PYL board would shuffle out of sync at times. They, like most of the rest of that version, took it one step too far.

Tyshaun

[Kevin Prather]

They were trying to emulate how the PYL board would shuffle out of sync at times. They, like most of the rest of that version, took it one step too far.

How often did that happen? I know it was happening during Larson's game. I wonder if it was by design, or a product of the board software getting tired from running longer than usual.

[Jay Temple]

This too is a non-rhetorical question. Whichever set of slides we saw when the "spin" ended, was it a single object with 18 spaces shining through? If it was 18 separate images loaded together, it seems as though they could have moved them around a little from one show, or even one taping, to the next. The light patterns would stay the same, but the outcomes would be new.

[Ian Wallis]

They were trying to emulate how the PYL board would shuffle out of sync at times. They, like most of the rest of that version, took it one step too far.

How often did that happen? I know it was happening during Larson's game. I wonder if it was by design, or a product of the board software getting tired from running longer than usual.

It seemed to happen more in the early days of the show than the latter - but there are a few early 1986 episodes where this occurs for most of the second round.  I don't think it was done on purpose - sometimes when a contestant stopped the board, only half the slides would change, which put it out of sync when play resumed.  I guess they had some sort of "reset" button that required a few seconds, because most of the time when it did go out-of-sync, if a contestant hit a whammy it would be back in sync on the very next spin.