Worst Home Game You've Played...

[Casey]

Adding to the old software releases - The $100,000 Pyramid released for the Commodore 64 was terrible.  It was clear they developed the IBM PC version with its 4-color CGA graphics first and then duplicated those same 4-color displays to the C64, when they clearly could have taken better advantage of the 64's 16 colors.  But the game itself was just bad.  The main game would show you the answer you were trying to describe - but only accepted one word clues, so it becomes more of Password than Pyramid.  The winner's circle was a fill in the blank game where the computer game a set of one word clues for the category.  But it was glitchy.  Spelling had to be exact, sometimes the words would mess up the graphics on the screen, etc. 

[Jeremy Nelson]

There are so many examples that were either unplayable in that state, a total non-sequitur or just not fun, but on a personal level $100,000 Pyramid for Sierra was toothachingly frustrating.

And this was the best version, IMO. I thought they did a commendable job on this one, especially considering it'd been off the air for nearly a decade. My only gripe was that the game would sometimes run an error message mid-game, and if you were in single player mode, you lost all your progress.

This goes way back but on the Apple II the Wheel of Fortune : Second New Edition had a painfully slow walk to Vanna.  It felt like it'd take her forever to walk to where the letters lit up (Queued):

I still contend that the early NES versions of Wheel had the best Vanna animations. She walked at a brisk pace, the animations were smooth, and, short of Vanna having jaundice, they didn't detract from the game experience.

[WarioBarker]

Ludia was so lazy about their product that they made every single prize worth $4000 in BOTH rounds.

$3,000 in Round 1, $4,000 in Round 2 - and all trips. For whatever reason, they also made it so Big Bucks in Round 1 goes to a trip rather than Square #4. The PlayStation 3 version has a bigger variety of prizes and prize values.

As for my personal "worst I've played", that's Ludia's DS version. All the problems of the Wii game, plus the board layouts are haphazard, constantly change colors, and have extremely basic-looking cash spaces (I do like how the Touch Screen is used to buzz in/stop the light, though):

[parliboy]

This goes way back but on the Apple II the Wheel of Fortune : Second New Edition had a painfully slow walk to Vanna.  It felt like it'd take her forever to walk to where the letters lit up (Queued):

Well that's what you get when you make her wear a dress from The Handmaid's Tale.

[Kevin Prather]

The winner's circle was a fill in the blank game where the computer game a set of one word clues for the category.  But it was glitchy.  Spelling had to be exact, sometimes the words would mess up the graphics on the screen, etc.

And sometimes the blank wasn't calling for the keyword. I recall once seeing "These are Christmas ________", and the answer to give was "Things".

[narzo]

"Jackpot" gets my award for worst home version.  Where did they get those "riddles" from anyway? 

Of the more modern games, I would have to say H2 for Wii.  I can overlook many of the PYL Wii issues, and still enjoy it.  The H2 questions were written so poorly, and the bonus game is almost impossible to lose. 

[Sodboy13]

"Jackpot" gets my award for worst home version.  Where did they get those "riddles" from anyway? 

I think it was Matt Ottinger who discovered that the terrible questions for Jackpot and the original High Rollers home game were repurposed clues from the Now You See It home game.

[That Don Guy]

Mine goes to the original board game version of Cullen TPIR - I only played it once; IIRC, each player had a set of cards with numbers from 1 to 15, and whoever "bid" the higher number won whatever was on the next prize card.

Runner-up is the original Milton Bradley version of Barker TPIR; the prices bared little resemblance to actuality - cars could range from $1023 to $9876. In addition, the IUFB game consisted of each player with cards from 1 to 6, and whoever played the highest card not matched by another player won.

MB Family Feud gets an honorable mention; all games were single-single-double, so if you won the first two and got control of the third, you played, and intentionally got three strikes to make it impossible for the other team to win.
(Bonus question: the box art had a game in progress - what was the question? Name a man's first name that begins with R)

Also, Password, but that gets an asterisk; pretty much all it had was pairs of cards with identical 5-word lists, a pair of red lenses so you could only see one word on a card at a time, and a dial that could be set from 1 to 10...but when you think about it, that's all that Password was.

[whewfan]

The worst "board game" home game for me was The $1,000,000 Chance of a Lifetime. For a big money game show, it was quite cheaply produced. It was also sort of a revelation to me how much it resembled the Wheel of Fortune home game.

In terms of video game home games... the PYL DVD game was awful simply because it didn't work. A close second place was Fun House for the NES... the Fun House itself was NOTHING like the game show.

[TLEberle]

Don—the TPIR game is just a version of what has been produced ss Raj.

[TLEberle]

The worst "board game" home game for me was The $1,000,000 Chance of a Lifetime. For a big money game show, it was quite cheaply produced. It was also sort of a revelation to me how much it resembled the Wheel of Fortune home game.

Did you think you were going to win a million dollars? What would you have done differently?

[snowpeck]

Also, Password, but that gets an asterisk; pretty much all it had was pairs of cards with identical 5-word lists, a pair of red lenses so you could only see one word on a card at a time, and a dial that could be set from 1 to 10...but when you think about it, that's all that Password was.

What else did you expect, a cardboard cutout of Allen Ludden?

[aaron sica]

Adding to the old software releases - The $100,000 Pyramid released for the Commodore 64 was terrible.  It was clear they developed the IBM PC version with its 4-color CGA graphics first and then duplicated those same 4-color displays to the C64, when they clearly could have taken better advantage of the 64's 16 colors.

This was honestly one of the ones I was so very excited about, and let down the most. Mind you, I was around 13 or 14 when this game came out, so expectations were unrealistically high. Remembering how games like "Summer Games" had the runner's time in what looked like LED numbers, I was fully expecting this game to also have that for the main game and winner's circle timer. I was extremely disappointed.

[whewfan]

The worst "board game" home game for me was The $1,000,000 Chance of a Lifetime. For a big money game show, it was quite cheaply produced. It was also sort of a revelation to me how much it resembled the Wheel of Fortune home game.

Did you think you were going to win a million dollars? What would you have done differently?

I realize that Million Dollar COAL only lasted two seasons, but I would've liked a keyboard-like gameboard to actually push the buttons. The home game, you slid the letters either up or down to reveal where to reveal the letter on the gameboard. Cyndi Seidelman reviewed the game a while ago and I think she would agree with me. If the game became a bigger hit, I think a more upscale version could've been fun, like they did with Deluxe Wheel of Fortune. I thought that wheel and the removeable wedges was awesome... never did get myself a copy of that game though. The upscale COAL game, I think, should have a lighted keyboard, and maybe a backlit puzzle board... maybe even the sound effects, especially for the stinger. In hindsight, I should've counted the paper money to see if it totaled a million dollars.

[TLEberle]

Matt: board games generally only have a profit margin of about one percent. Each new gewgaw adds cost and reduces the likelihood that a prospective buyer will pick it up off the shelf.  If one person grabs it for the light-up game pieces but two put it down, that’s lost money, Yes, everything is wax paper, cardboard and plastic, but there’s a reason for that.

I wonder if the Cardinal company produced those long boxes at such a qupuantity that the $25,000 Pyramid game wound up that size too. It certainly didn’t need the Monopoly or Mouse Trap box.