Sale of the Century bonus rounds

[PYLdude]

I'm a fan of the shopping bonus round. Think about it this way...the show was Sale of the Century. What better way to end the show than by going shopping! I agree that the closer the player got to the goal, the more exciting it got. I always liked it when that would happen, because you never really knew (unless you'd seen the episodes before) what the player was going to do. It was always fun to see them win big, too.

I didn't mind the Winners' Board either, in the few episodes I remember it (for some reason it doesn't stand out in my mind like the shopping does). I thought it was a decent bonus round, and the go for broke option kept the excitement there.

The Winners' Big Money Game was completely out of place. I hated it when I was a kid, I still wasn't a fan when I saw the reruns, and I'm still not. It didn't belong on Sale.

[GSWitch]

My vote goes to the first two formats, The Shopping & Winner's Board.

On the Winner's Board however, there wasn't a natural match for the Car or $10,000.  To win those prizes, you had to turn over an Instant Win & hopefully pick the car or $10,000.  The eight other prizes (including $3,000) had natural matches.

[clemon79]

[quote name=\'GSWitch\' date=\'Jan 8 2005, 06:38 PM\']On the Winner's Board however, there wasn't a natural match for the Car or $10,000.  To win those prizes, you had to turn over an Instant Win & hopefully pick the car or $10,000.  The eight other prizes (including $3,000) had natural matches.

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Thank you for that Utterly Irrelevent Widely Known fact.

[Esoteric Eric]

I preferred the Winner's Board to the Shopping format as they were presented.  I echo the sentiment of those who've said that the WBMG had no real connection to the rest of the show, although it had a certain play-along factor.
At the risk of accusations of Mo' Money Syndrome, I offer my GameTweaks (Pat. Forever Pending) that I believe would have improved the Shopping format (after all, they did get rid of it on the daytime $ale, didn't they?):
1) After the champion has been declared, (s)he would get a chance to win extra cash by playing a form of the Instant Cash game that eventually replaced the third Instant Bargain.  The champion would automatically "risk" all but one dollar of the winning margin (ex., if the final score was "John $68 - Mary $88* - Bill $40," Mary would "risk" $19, and the scores would read "John $68 - Mary $69 - Bill $40.")  The champ would then select one of however-many boxes, each of which would have a single piece of currency (ex. $1 - $2 - $5), and the "risked" money would be multiplied by the value of the bill chosen.  (ex. if Mary found the $5 bill, 19 X 5 = $95, $95 + $69 = $164 to shop with.  As you can see, it's not really a risk, since one could do no worse than break even.)  This would give a new champion a shot at something better than a prize that, in many cases, was only worth about as much as the third Instant Bargain.
2) (Don't worry, it's much simpler.)  Do not retire a contestant who buys a prize.  Just have them return as champion (unless they win the lot.)  (I couldn't believe this one contestant I saw, who was so happy to take the first level prize and quit; Jim Perry seemed surprised that (s)he didn't want to climb the ladder.)

Esoteric Eric; as for converting the Winner's Board to a Concentration bonus round, my GameTweak would set a specific number of chances to match a prize (say, three pairs of numbers for a first win, four for the second, and so on) with the "board goes back" rule in effect for non-matching pairs (unlike $ale).  Champs would retire upon clearing the board (at least three bonus rounds).

*EDITED at 8:35 AM PST to correct the math error; easier to just change the simulated final score than the rest of the equations.  Thanks, Zach

[zachhoran]

[quote name=\'Esoteric Eric\' date=\'Jan 9 2005, 05:14 AM\'].  The champion would automatically "risk" all but one dollar of the winning margin (ex., if the final score was "John $68 - Mary $84 - Bill $40," Mary would "risk" $19, and the scores would read "John $68 - Mary $69 - Bill $40.")  2) (Don't worry, it's much simpler.) 

Do not retire a contestant who buys a prize.  Just have them return as champion (unless they win the lot.)  (I couldn't believe this one contestant I saw, who was so happy to take the first level prize and quit; Jim Perry seemed surprised that (s)he didn't want to climb the ladder.)

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84-19=65. You must mean 15 dollars.

There was a week of shopping on the syndie version where THREE contestants stopped and took the $85 prize, a motorcycle, in the same week.

[tyshaun1]

[quote name=\'Esoteric Eric\' date=\'Jan 9 2005, 05:14 AM\']Do not retire a contestant who buys a prize.  Just have them return as champion (unless they win the lot.)  (I couldn't believe this one contestant I saw, who was so happy to take the first level prize and quit; Jim Perry seemed surprised that (s)he didn't want to climb the ladder.)

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That takes out the suspense of watching the show in the first place (should he/she risk that prize he/she can take home now to get a chance win the big cash/car?), and big risk was one of the main lures of the show. Aside of Summer Bartholomew, of course.

Tyshaun

[Esoteric Eric]

[quote name=\'tyshaun1\' date=\'Jan 9 2005, 06:43 AM\']
That takes out the suspense of watching the show in the first place (should he/she risk that prize he/she can take home now to get a chance win the big cash/car?), and big risk was one of the main lures of the show.[/quote]
Aside from the instances Zach and I mentioned earlier, there was hardly any suspense at the first level, certainly not if it was an instance when all the items available could be / needed to be plugged.  Ninety-five-plus percent of the time, the champ would elect to continue.

Esoteric Eric; uh-oh, here comes another preference debate...
[quote name=\'tyshaun1\' date=\'Jan 9 2005, 06:43 AM\'] Aside of Summer Bartholomew, of course.
Tyshaun

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Delightful to look at, sure, but I cringed every time she said "yers" instead of "yours."  I liked Lee Menning better.

[melman1]

Not to be a wet blanket, but how long has it been since this show aired?  Even in reruns, probably 10 years?  Maybe more?

Just trying to understand how any of you can have such keen recall of a show whose name I remember, but that's about it.

[BrandonFG]

Last aired first-run March 1989, last aired reruns June 1994.

[clemon79]

[quote name=\'Esoteric Eric\' date=\'Jan 9 2005, 03:14 AM\'](I couldn't believe this one contestant I saw, who was so happy to take the first level prize and quit; Jim Perry seemed surprised that (s)he didn't want to climb the ladder.)
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Depends on what that prize was. For example, my mom has wanted a piano in her house since pretty much the beginning of time. If I'm a one-day champion, and they told me I could take a baby grand and run, I'd be out the door and giving the deliverymen Mom's address before Jim could turn over the tile on the Cash Jackpot and do the bye-bye.

*EDITED at 8:35 AM PST to correct the math error; easier to just change the simulated final score than the rest of the equations.  Thanks, Zach

Ya shoulda left it there. It would have driven him INSANE.

[SRIV94]

[quote name=\'Esoteric Eric\' date=\'Jan 9 2005, 11:03 AM\']Delightful to look at, sure, but I cringed every time she said "yers" instead of "yours."  I liked Lee Menning better.

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It's not so much whether I preferred Menning or Summer, but one dynamic about Summer's spiels that changed from the moment she came aboard was the placement of the "on $otC."  Julian and Menning tacked it on after the sale price reveal, while Summer used it BEFORE the reveal.  For some reason, I liked it better as the actual tagline, rather than the set-up.

As to the original subject, I had no preference for any of the bonus games.

Doug

[ChuckNet]

Tough call here...on the one hand, the shopping endgame was most relevant to the $otC format in general, but the Winner's Board was fun to watch (particularly as a 6YO) and good for variety...aside from the aforementioned possibility of winning the car or $10K on your first day, it truly gave us diversity decision-wise after that all-important 10th win...some players were content w/their 8 prizes and $13K cash (Jeff Hewitt, Dave Goodman, et al.), while others (Mark DeCarlo, Linda Credit, et al.) just had to risk them to add that big $50K bonus.

The Winner's Big Money game, OTOH, was fun but out of place...word puzzles had nothing at all to do w/the format, and it was damn near impossible to win the car.

Chuck Donegan (The Illustrious "Chuckie Baby")

[Steve Gavazzi]

[quote name=\'fostergray82\' date=\'Jan 9 2005, 04:10 PM\']last aired reruns June 1994.

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I know this is dumb, but it's bugging me...are you sure it didn't go off the air in July?

[aaron sica]

[quote name=\'Steve Gavazzi\' date=\'Jan 9 2005, 10:45 PM\'][quote name=\'fostergray82\' date=\'Jan 9 2005, 04:10 PM\']last aired reruns June 1994.

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I know this is dumb, but it's bugging me...are you sure it didn't go off the air in July?

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I think it went off the air in June, to coincide with that horrible game show original hour (of which I think "Free 4 All" was one of the shows, but can't for the life of me remember the other one).

[PYLdude]

The other one was Quicksilver. I can see why you would want to forget that one.