The Game Show Forum
The Game Show Forum => The Big Board => Topic started by: jrjgames on October 16, 2003, 05:13:01 PM
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Now take a second before you answer this...
Would anyone have any interest in a Lingo home game?
Would you buy one?
Would you buy one just to HAVE?
Would you see yourself actually playing it?
Respond here with comments!
John
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Sure. Lingo's a great game to play.
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[quote name=\'jrjgames\' date=\'Oct 16 2003, 04:13 PM\'] Now take a second before you answer this...
Would anyone have any interest in a Lingo home game?
Would you buy one?
Would you buy one just to HAVE?
Would you see yourself actually playing it?
Respond here with comments!
John [/quote]
After playing Jason Wutrich's computer Lingo game, I say definitely. Could make for hours and hours of fun, could even include a dictionary like on Scrabble, then again, it would probably work better if it were an electronic game, and you just type in the words. Besides, if it were computerized, you could play in solo mode as well.
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I assume you mean in the form of a computer game, since a physical box game would present some obvious problems.
My personal thought is that the only user-interesting aspect of LINGO is the five-letter word game, and several people on the internet already have unlicensed versions available for free, some of them quite good. If I can fire up one of those to challenge myself, why would I want or need to buy a version? OK, a multi-player element would be an improvement, but is there really a great demand to get your friends together and play LINGO around your computer?
Of course, having said that, in the unlikely event that a licensed home game WAS released, I would naturally have to buy one for my collection.
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[quote name=\'Matt Ottinger\' date=\'Oct 16 2003, 04:35 PM\'] I assume you mean in the form of a computer game, since a physical box game would present some obvious problems.
[/quote]
The five-letter word IDing portion of Lingo plays quite like the no-longer made(probably from the 70s, Matt O. or someone who knows their board games could tell us better) Mastermind board game spinoff Word Mastermind. Mastermind had players guessing a combination of four colored pegs picked by their opponent to win, and hearing info about which colors were right or wrong. Word Mastermind had players guessing a four or five letter word a la Lingo.
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[quote name=\'zachhoran\' date=\'Oct 16 2003, 07:41 PM\'] [quote name=\'Matt Ottinger\' date=\'Oct 16 2003, 04:35 PM\'] I assume you mean in the form of a computer game, since a physical box game would present some obvious problems.
[/quote]
The five-letter word IDing portion of Lingo plays quite like the no-longer made(probably from the 70s, Matt O. or someone who knows their board games could tell us better) Mastermind board game spinoff Word Mastermind. Mastermind had players guessing a combination of four colored pegs picked by their opponent to win, and hearing info about which colors were right or wrong. Word Mastermind had players guessing a four or five letter word a la Lingo. [/quote]
Precisely. Word Mastermind was 1975, and not only did it only go up to four-letter words, but because the makers thought even that might be too much for some people to score, they suggested that you could play with three-letter words.
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[quote name=\'Matt Ottinger\' date=\'Oct 16 2003, 04:35 PM\']I assume you mean in the form of a computer game, since a physical box game would present some obvious problems.[/quote]
I'd concur with that. Lingo is not exactly the best concept for a box game. If you have a bingo set with a roll cage, and pen and paper for the words, that's really all you need right there (and of course, a dictionary to check for [Allen Ludden]coined words[/AL]).
[quote name=\'fostergray82\' date=\'Oct 16 2003, 04:33 PM\']After playing Jason Wutrich's computer Lingo game, I say definitely. ...[/quote]
Thanks for the compliment, but at least spell my name right! :-) Caesar's Challenge would be a future possibility, but coming up with a comprehensive dictionary file for just five-letter words was taxing enough for a one-man operation as it is, much less seven- through nine-letter words!
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I will say that the unlicenced computer games of Lingo that are out are a lot of fun. One of the things I often say about the show is that it's more fun to play than it is to watch.
A box game would be interesting, but a little tricky. Plus, it would pretty much NEED three players, two players and a host that is, which I find to be the downfall of some home games.
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[quote name=\'GS Warehouse\' date=\'Oct 16 2003, 09:49 PM\'] Caesar's Challenge would be a future possibility, but coming up with a comprehensive dictionary file for just five-letter words was taxing enough for a one-man operation as it is, much less seven- through nine-letter words! [/quote]
You could do the audience game from CC, as that part of the game used five letter words.
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I really think LINGO would be better as a computer game, or even as an electronic hand-held game.
The way I've seen how the screens are set up on the electronic Boggle and Scrabble Express games, I'd say a hand-held LINGO game COULD be made!
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If there were a home game of Lingo, I would see it as a hand held format. I think it would be very neat. I am not sure if the game came in a box version would have lasting play value than an electronic hand held. Perhaps Tiger Electronics can create one? After all, they came out with hand helds for Price Is Right, Hollywood Squares, Super Password, Millionaire, and of course perrenial favorites Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune!!!
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Lingo hand-held! Way cool! (Because you can't play the web-based ones on planes.)
Did anyone else own an early electonic game from Milton Bradley called Comp IV? (It have been Comp III, the brain gets fuzzy.) It was Lingo and MasterMind but with numbers. Rather crude, it was about as big as a telephone and only had about eight tiny LED bulbs. Merlin, which I received the following Christmas, was way more fun.
Back to Lingo, The Mrs. and I have made our own pretty successful version with graph paper and a felt-tip pen. But one thing that and the web game don't have is the time limit, which is pretty important to the game.
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I think a board game would work if it was in a different game play like many of the other Game Show home games...
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[quote name=\'Neumms\' date=\'Oct 18 2003, 11:28 AM\']
Did anyone else own an early electonic game from Milton Bradley called Comp IV? (It have been Comp III, the brain gets fuzzy.) It was Lingo and MasterMind but with numbers. Rather crude, it was about as big as a telephone and only had about eight tiny LED bulbs. [/quote]
There were at least two other hand held electronic games around the time of Comp IV(c. 1980) that had a similar premise: Mattel's Mind Boggler and Coleco's(I think) Digits. Selchow and Righter manufactured an electronic game called Scrabble Sensor(though not hand-held) in the late 70s. It was the word guessing aspect of Lingo but with four letter words to be guessed, which could be selected by the machine or put in by the player IIRC.
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Since this is one of my hobbies, I've already made a LINGO box game for myself and friends. It's not really that tough. I'm always buying old games at second-hand stores and recycling the parts for new projects. Admittedly you have to adapt for limitations, but it works. A 25-square grid covered with clear laminating plastic allows for the use of a dry-erase pen. Two permanent player LINGO cards (one red, one blue - using just one pattern of filled positions already used on one tv episode) - and I'm not going much farther, as if Endless Games ever decides they want to go this route, I'd like to have them look this over as a model. For what it's worth, though, because the host must hand-write the letters on the game board, the bonus round runs 3 minutes (using a classic sand timer) instead of 2. It's not all that expensive to make. I recently talked with Kevin McNulty at Endless - one problem he has to deal with is that retailers - especially the big gorillas like Toys R Us and Wal-Mart - demand they keep costs down as low as possible to keep prices down, therefore, quality is sacrificed. It all depends on how cheap they can put a package together. Milton Bradley turned down WHEW as a home game, claiming expense. I sent Jay Wolpert a copy that would only have been slightly more expensive than Jeopardy to make - as many were MB Jeopardy parts. Maybe licensing rights were high? Anyway, LINGO is very do-able.
By the way - Endless at one time re-distribuited a classic late 50s-early 60s paper and pencil word game called JOTTO, which involved determining a five-letter word using pretty much the same process as LINGO.
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I recently talked with Kevin McNulty at Endless - one problem he has to deal with is that retailers - especially the big gorillas like Toys R Us and Wal-Mart - demand they keep costs down as low as possible to keep prices down, therefore, quality is sacrificed.
That would explain a great deal of things. Something tells me the Endless gang would jump at the chance do a "deluxe" version of Card Sharks.
Maybe it's just me.
"Game Show Man" Joe Van Ginkel
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Yeah - and working part-time at Toys R Us, I have the fun of seeing new games arrive and getting some background. I bought Password Junior and discovered that even the inner packaging had to be kept to a minimum to meet a cost point. For a bit, I thought Endless had just copied the Brittania Games (UK) version of Card Sharks (Play Your Cards Right), but I just saw on a UK website that their version has a two-tier plastic rack that holds the playing cards upright, where the Endless version uses a standard flat game board. Not great, but it helps keep the price point in line. We retail it for $9.99. One thing I have to say, though...those Brits sure put together some great home versions of TV shows. The US version of Blockbusters (one of my all-time favorites) came out when MB was really getting burned out on TV home games. I think it's lousy. They have their reasons, I'm sure. However, it's really worth ordering a Waddington's Blockbusters from Ebay UK, with their 3-D board and plastic insertable hexagon tiles. Grab the question book from your US edition and have a ball! The postage is murder, but the prices are reasonable. There are some nice games available - including some that didn't do well here, but did better in England, like Catch Phrase. Just note that the big drawback is that many of the quiz games are heavy on things like soccer matches and pop stars hardly any of our friends (or us) will have a clue about. Many of them are just nice to have in a collection.
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I found the Waddingtons' version of Blockbusters at a Hollywood, CA thrift store for a couple of bucks about a decade ago. It is a stupendous production with a robust plastic gameboard and questions on cards. One production note: On the American version "V" is on the gameboard instead of "U."
BTW, if you want to play Lingo go to http://www.fiveletterword.com/ (http://\"http://www.fiveletterword.com/\") and make up your own gameboard!
Alfonzo Smith
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Do you think the games are made so flimsy so that people will have to buy another when the first one wears out?
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It's probably a balance of several factors that determine game quality. The parts needed to duplicate the action on the show, how much the public is willing to pay for a game of that type, and most important of all, it's potential longevity. At one point, Milton Bradley ran into a bad time where Break The Bank, Blockbusters, Now You See It, and a couple of others no sooner hit the store shelves than the shows were cancelled. No shows, no promotion. From then on, they backed off. Since game shows are so volatile, they're a high-risk box game venture. To protect themselves, they probably won't put much into them. For every Feud game sold in a day, probably 50 Yahtzees are sold. That's where the money is. I thought MILLIONAIRE by Pressman was a well-made recent game. Maybe not worth $25+ dollars, but good. I'm sure they felt they had a long-term winner on their hands, so the packaging was matchingly elaborate. This week, it's $6.98. I imagine Pressman did all right, tho, while the show was hot. Most of the current crop is pretty pedestrian, hoping to make the companies a few bucks before the shows disappear again. Pressman can't lose much with their new Wheel and Jeopardy games, since they're re-using the production dies. What Endless does that is smart is sell most of their tv games as nostalgia items. Millions of us grew up with The Newlywed Game and Password, so even if only a few hundred thousand folks bother to watch the re-runs on GSN, they can still appeal to the memories of those without GSN. It's probably why we won't see home versions of GSN originals.