"Classic Concentration" bonus round--best strategy?

[SamJ93]

It seems like virtually every CC bonus round player followed one of two basic strategies:

1. Reveal each number in sequential order until discovering a match, then (attempt to) resume sequential order until finding another match, repeat.
2. Reveal the squares in two selected columns, usually the first two (1-2, 4-5, etc.) in descending order, until finding a match.

Following along with BUZZR's airings, it seems #1 was the common strategy in the early days, while contestants in the episodes airing recently (from late '88-early '89) tended to prefer #2.

While the latter strategy does have the advantage of keeping the car names more visually organized and thus easier to memorize, it was vulnerable to manipulation--the producers caught on and would place most of the matches in the third column, and almost never consecutively. On the episodes airing today (10/8), the contestant attempted to allay this by choosing the second two columns in his first game (2-3, 5-6, etc.) and the 1st and 3rd columns on the second try, which seems like a good idea, although he was unsuccessful in both.

So which strategy do you think worked best? And finally, were there any contestants who tried something completely different from these--and actually succeeded?

[Joe Mello]

So which strategy do you think worked best?

Getting a large bank of time

[JasonA1]

Number 2. And you're right, picking whichever two columns you want as a way to outguess the producers would be wise. But the visual organization of that strategy vs. going 1-2-3-4... always works better for me.

-Jason

[Kevin Prather]

I've noticed a few players going vertically instead of horizontally (1-4, 2-5, 7-10, etc). I'd guess that goes toward outguessing the producers.

[MSTieScott]

In the early episodes, before consistent strategies had been established, I saw one contestant start off going straight down the first column (1, 4, 7, 10). It made me wonder whether a spiral approach would be effective -- down the first column, across the bottom row, up the third column, then down the second column. The idea being that it would be harder to lose track of which general section of the board you last saw the Civic in.

It would also eliminate the problem of, say, calling 7, going back up to match it, and then either having to skip 8 or start calling pairs on different rows.

[chrisholland03]

Someone posted a photo of the console either here, or in another venue.  The boxes were in numerical order vertically, rather than how they were displayed on the screen.
Which is why they pushed so hard in the beginning episodes for the contestant to call one number at a time.  It took the operator a second to hear, find, then push the buttons.
Consecutive numbers in theory would give the player the fastest results.

[calliaume]

This site still has a playable version of the end game. I tried three different methods - 1-2/4-5/7-8, 1-4/7-10/13-14/11-8, 2-3/5-6/8-9 -- and won each time with time to spare on a 30-second clock.

Caveat: if you've played this a lot with the same eight cars, you're going to remember them a little easier. And there's obviously a lot more pressure with an actual automobile on the line.

https://www.to14.com/game.php?id=4d486a16d5905

[nowhammies10]

My SOP was always take them in order, i.e. 1-2, 3-4, etc.  Running an informal experiment (35 second clock, eight various Ford models) I found that the first two columns method worked the best, as I "won" with 8 seconds to spare.  Any other method usually left between 2-3 seconds.

[jage]

I always assumed, perhaps incorrectly, that the shuffle order for the 15 squares was random. Seems like I may be wrong.

[MSTieScott]

There are two considerations here: which strategy woks best on a random board (like the available simulators) and what would work better to "thwart" the producers who know what contestants are most likely to do. By the time the show went to the "first to two wins plays for the car" format, they were stacking the bonus round with the expectation that contestants would play the 1-2, 4-5, 7-8 pattern -- notice how many times the contestant would open those six doors without even a potential match showing up.

I always assumed, perhaps incorrectly, that the shuffle order for the 15 squares was random. Seems like I may be wrong.

Somebody please correct me if my math is wrong, but if the board were truly random, then squares 1 and 2 would match about once every 15 times. But I can't remember ever seeing what is most contestants' first call resulting in an immediate match.

[Loogaroo]

Somebody please correct me if my math is wrong, but if the board were truly random, then squares 1 and 2 would match about once every 15 times. But I can't remember ever seeing what is most contestants' first call resulting in an immediate match.

1 in 14, assuming the car in #1 isn't a dud. Whatever car is in #1, its mate can be behind any of the other 14 numbers, making the odds 1 in 14. (Obviously, if the oddball is in #1, the odds are 0.)

[Mr. Armadillo]

Which works out to 1 in 15 once you combine the two cases. 

14 times out of 15, the match is on the board and will be found 1 in 14 times.  1 time out of 15, there is no match and the match will obviously be found 0 out of 14 (or however many) times.

(14/15)(1/14) + (1/15)(0/14) = 1/15 + 0 = 1/15.

[Neumms]

I’ve been thinking, too, that calling numerical order isn’t working. Last time I watched, they must have had five cars starting with C. It could well be a fluke, but to me, it sure makes recall harder.

[BrandonFG]

I don’t think that’s a fluke. I think that’s a case of the producers wanting to stay under budget.

[blaq]

My at-home strategy had two stages:

• Reveal 6 cars in "anchor" positions: corners (1-3, 13-15) and sides (7-9)
• Reveal a new number and usually call out its match from the six anchors. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Most good players can easily remember 6 cars in these specific locations. There are possible hurdles (matching in stage 1; revealing two cars that didn't match any anchor in stage 2) but these are at most a temporary setback.