Lingo 1987 Bonus Round

[narzo]

I've had several people e-mail similar questions since I started posting the Lingo clips.  Since the basic rule to get to the bonus (“no lingo round”) never changed, first team to lingo plays the bonus, I'll just explain the bonus rounds:

First version:  Players start with $500 for their first game win, $1000 if they've won 2 games and $2000 if this is their third go at the bonus.  Object is to solve 5 words, one at a time, while avoiding a lingo.  16 numbers are covered on the board, always in the same pattern, so a loss could win as quickly as pulling whatever number was left in the middle of the "n" column.   The board consists of the even numbers so all the even numbers from 2-74 are in the hopper.

Two letters of a word are revealed and they have 5 seconds to make a guess or they lose that turn.  Once the word is solved they must pull a number of balls equal to how many tries it took.  If they can successfully pull the number of required balls, and not lingo, they double their money and can choose to play another a word.  If they fail to guess the word, or lingo, they loose everything.  In the hopper are 3 gold balls, if one is picked, they double their winnings and go onto the next word.  Top prize could be 16k on the first try, 32k on the second, and 64k on the third.  After 3 tries at the bonus you left the show.

After a few weeks some rule changes were made.  First your base money was determined by how you lingo'ed.  You started with $500 for a vertical or horizontal Lingo, $1000 for a diagonal Lingo, and $2000 for lingoing in 2 directions at the same time.  Also there was now only 1 gold ball but, if you pulled it, Mike would put it right back in so you could pick it again.  They also eliminated the rule where if you didn't solve the word, you lost your money.  You would; however, have to pull 6 balls to advance.  

From this point on they also didn't stop you after 3 tries.  They may have had a 5 win limit but very few folks would even get that far.  Also the started a 2 loss rule so you weren't off the show after just one loss.  

I always preferred this version and, since there seems to be some interest, I'll post more clips as I get time.

-edit- forgot, for what it's worth, in the first version you got $250 for winning the game, that was dropped when the bonus game rules changed.

[TLEberle]

I was under the impression that only the uncovered numbers were on the board, and no others (with the exception of the gold balls). But that would make the bonus round end very quickly if one or both words went the whole five letters. Is it mentioned whether they dump all of the even/odd numbers into the hopper for No Lingo? Pulling from 37 numbers (or even 21 if you pluck out the 16 free spaces) is a much better deal.

[narzo]

[quote name=\'TLEberle\' date=\'Feb 26 2006, 06:17 PM\']I was under the impression that only the uncovered numbers were on the board, and no others (with the exception of the gold balls). But that would make the bonus round end very quickly if one or both words went the whole five letters. Is it mentioned whether they dump all of the even/odd numbers into the hopper for No Lingo? Pulling from 37 numbers (or even 21 if you pluck out the 16 free spaces) is a much better deal.

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[/quote]

Yes, Mike explains that "you'll be playing with all the even numbers in your hopper", later adding "...all 37 even numbers...".

[TLEberle]

That suddenly makes the bonus game much more interesting.

[narzo]

First playing of the bonus is up for viewing