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Years ago as a little kid I would watch Bob Barker promote the "Price Is Right" Milton-Bradley home game on TV and would want it. Even though I was too young for it my mother being the nice person she is saw to it that Santa put it under the tree approximatley 28 years ago today.
Years later the thing had become lost. It was possibly sold at a garage sale in '91 when I was completely away from game shows. In fact my mom may very well have given me a heads-up that the game was among the things of mine that was marked for sale and I
must not have cared.
But I cared later on when I learned that the missing game was the 1976 third edition that is valued by fans. But the fact of the matter is that I looked thorugh the closets at my parents house and the game was not there.
But it is not all that bad. To the best of my knowledge the blue-box third edition has tunred up on Ebay once this year, and I was able to get it. It is likely in better shape than my lost one would have been.
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Which makes me wonder why he doesn't promote the home game anymore?
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[quote name=\'cmjb13\' date=\'Dec 25 2004, 03:53 PM\']Which makes me wonder why he doesn't promote the home game anymore?
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They don't pimp the recently-released Endless Games adaptation of TPIR, but they'll pimp a CSI board game(it got a few plugs during IUFBs this month)? Geez. Although TPIR is one of the games included in the collection of Endless Games that appears in showcases and in some pricing games.
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I, too, regret having lost the third edition of TPIR but my story is different.
I saw the game in the toy store of a suburban Cleveland, Ohio mall. The box wasn't shrnkwrapped so I peeked inside. I was disappointed there was a misprint on the Showcase Showdown spinner (two spaces were marked as with 5 and no 75 space) so I put it back on the shelf figuring I would buy it a thrift store later.
Later turned out to be much later. Over a quarter-century later when I found an incomplete game at a suburban Los Angeles thrift store.
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[quote name=\'cmjb13\' date=\'Dec 25 2004, 03:53 PM\']Which makes me wonder why he doesn't promote the home game anymore?
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Seeing how it was developed by a former contestant, that to me would seem like an even bigger incentive to promote it.
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Although I was too young for that TPiR home game, I do remember the first game show board game I ever had - the 4th Edition of "Family Feud". It was an Easter gift in 1981..
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[quote name=\'alfonzos\' date=\'Dec 26 2004, 03:14 PM\']
I saw the game in the toy store of a suburban Cleveland, Ohio mall. The box wasn't shrnkwrapped so I peeked inside. I was disappointed there was a misprint on the Showcase Showdown spinner (two spaces were marked as with 5 and no 75 space) so I put it back on the shelf figuring I would buy it a thrift store later.
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On a somewhat related topic, I found the 1974 Ideal versions of Squares and LMAD at a drug store near me(not a chain store) about a decade later. It sat on the shelf for a few years. The LMAD game wasn't shrink wrapped. A variety store near me(not a chain store) had a Davidson era Squares game sit on its shelf for quite a few years. I let the games sit there. I seem to remember a 1982 14th edition MB Jeopardy! game being on the shelf a year or two after the Trebek version premiered at one store, and it too wasn't shrinkwrapped.
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[quote name=\'zachhoran\' date=\'Dec 26 2004, 06:40 PM\']On a somewhat related topic, I found the 1974 Ideal versions of Squares and LMAD at a drug store near me(not a chain store) about a decade later. It sat on the shelf for a few years. The LMAD game wasn't shrink wrapped. A variety store near me(not a chain store) had a Davidson era Squares game sit on its shelf for quite a few years. I let the games sit there. I seem to remember a 1982 14th edition MB Jeopardy! game being on the shelf a year or two after the Trebek version premiered at one store, and it too wasn't shrinkwrapped.[/quote]
This topic has gone a different direction, albeit a very interesting direction. Here's my addition to the thread...
A local drug store chain had multiple sealed copies of High Rollers (Martindale era) for sale around 1998. Even though they were sealed, every copy but one was badly dented. I bought two games, one which I sold on eBay for a profit and keeping the better copy for my collection.
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Did anyones mom & pop stores ever get into the video rental business? I know one that did. Before it closed in 2000 a large, faded movie poster for 'Big' (with Tom Hanks) was still in the widow! So I am not surprised such stores had old games lying around.
I can also add that games for 'Family Feud' (Christmas of '83) and 'Wheel of Forrune' (Christmas 1985) were found at home and are now in my possesion.
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As long as we're bringing back memories, in the 60s and 70s, I had fun running into games in drug stores, hobby stores, hardware stores, and in one event, a lawn and garden store - most all were local independents. Some had old stock in the back rooms. Lowell must have had quite the sales crew, as most of my old Lowell acquisitions came from them - including The Price Is Right, Strike It Rich, What's My Line, Window Shopping and Candid Camera. One corner drug store had an old Dollar A Second lying around before I knew what it was..and I still kick myself over not grabbing an old Winky Dink kit for probably pennies in some pharmacy's back room because "it wasn't a game show". Ahh..the joys of being young and unaware...
Since some are adding the story of their first tv game show game, mine would be Lowell's Beat The Clock, a Christmas gift from my grandmother at around age 5.
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Game show home games were a big reason I looked forward to the annual Sears wish book catalog. Always a fine selection in there. Is the wish book still published? And, if so, is it a shadow of its former self?
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I found my copy of Blockbusters at a local Child World around 1985 or so, and it also wasn't sealed...gave myself a nasty paper cut on my finger handling the play money inside during the first playing, as I recall.
Chuck Donegan (The Illustrious "Chuckie Baby")
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Weren't there Electronic Boutique bargain bins that turned up some of the Sharedata/Gametek/Hi Tech/Box Office game show computer games of the late 80s around 1999 or 2000?
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Since this thread seems to have evolved into memories of home games, I might as well share why I started the GSHGHP, or at least started collecting the games as an adult.
I had 'em all growing up, or at least all the ones from the mid 60's through the mid 70's. There's an 8mm home movie of me opening a Christmas present of a Concentration game when I was three and a half years old. (Family legend says that I was making matches back then, even if I didn't understand what the rebuses were all about.)
When I went to college, the games stayed behind, all piled into a wooden storage shed behind our house. One day my father was burning leaves a little too carelessly, and the whole shed went up, all my childhood toys and games with it. Honestly, while I still loved game shows, I hadn't really thought about the old games as being collectables, so I didn't miss them that much. Still, the more I thought about it, the more I thought it would be an interesting challenge (this before Ebay) to see how many I could find to replace what had been lost.
In researching and hunting to replace what I had, I began discovering how much more there was out there. A couple of huge breaks in my research were finding an article about game show home games in a fanzine called Spin Again, and meeting Bob Zager (a member here), another avid collector from Michigan.
I developed what I thought was a definitive checklist, though new finds kept popping up and I'm still not entirely positive I've found them all. It was a personal project until the internet came along, and now it's one of the oldest game show web sites out there.
(I said ONE of the oldest, Mr. Lambert. BTW, congrats on reaching a decade with the OGSP.)
And now you know the rest of the story.
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One of the first games I got was the "Joker's Wild" game for Christmas 1972. The next year I couldn't wait for "Beat the Clock". Then it was "Concentration", and later "$20,000 Pyramid". My biggest regret is seeing all of those games in the stores and not buying many of them at the time. Part of the problem is that nobody else in my family was really interested in game shows and I just sort of played with them by myself, so it lessened the incentive to buy more. Now, I wish I had! To date I've only bought one game on e-bay, the 1977 "Break the Bank" game, which I didn't even know existed until I first saw Matt Ottinger's page. I'd love to get some additional games too, but the high costs of shipping sometimes make them on the pricey side.
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[quote name=\'zachhoran\' date=\'Dec 26 2004, 11:10 PM\']Weren't there Electronic Boutique bargain bins that turned up some of the Sharedata/Gametek/Hi Tech/Box Office game show computer games of the late 80s around 1999 or 2000?
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*Target* stores had these games on their $5.00 shelf in the mid 90s....Remote Control, Jeopardy, Hollywood Squares being among them.
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[quote name=\'Don Howard\' date=\'Dec 26 2004, 08:34 PM\']Game show home games were a big reason I looked forward to the annual Sears wish book catalog. Always a fine selection in there. Is the wish book still published? And, if so, is it a shadow of its former self?
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Seems to me that the Wish Book ended publication some years ago, when Sears shut down the catalogue operation where they had initially made their reputation. Something else that the Internet and shopping channels has squelched (although the Sears division Land's End, which may be sold as a result of the Sears/K mart merger, still sends out a magazine-style catalogue every month and several special editions each year).
ObGameShow: Spiegel shut down *their* catalogue operation in 1998--one of my first a.t.g-s posts, remembering those 50,000 quality items offering value, selection and savings--Spiegel, Chicago 60609.
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To add to that, Service Merchandise, who was the primary GC giver for "Wheel" during the late 80s has also disappeared.
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I love this topic...
My first home game was one of the Pyramid games back in the mid-1970's. I saved enough allowance money to purchase it -- for $4.95. My dad picked it up from Sam Solomon (later to become Service Merchandise).
My neatest find at the time was a shrink-wrapped $128,000 Question game at a store called "Leisure Time" in our local mall. I found the game in 1981 -- several years after it went off the air. As I was 11 at the time, most of the high-end questions eluded me, but it was still great fun.
Curt
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[quote name=\'Ian Wallis\' date=\'Dec 27 2004, 12:32 PM\']One of the first games I got was the "Joker's Wild" game for Christmas 1972. The next year I couldn't wait for "Beat the Clock". Then it was "Concentration", and later "$20,000 Pyramid". My biggest regret is seeing all of those games in the stores and not buying many of them at the time. Part of the problem is that nobody else in my family was really interested in game shows and I just sort of played with them by myself, so it lessened the incentive to buy more. Now, I wish I had! To date I've only bought one game on e-bay, the 1977 "Break the Bank" game, which I didn't even know existed until I first saw Matt Ottinger's page. I'd love to get some additional games too, but the high costs of shipping sometimes make them on the pricey side.
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Sounds like you have a good base already.
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I got a few of my GS home games as Christmas gifts as well:
- WoF (Pressman, both original and Deluxe)
- J! (also Pressman, both original and Electric)
- TPIR (MB, 1986)
- Remote Control
I recall asking for Pressman's version of TNNG, but since my parents didn't see that I just wanted it more-or-less for the sake of collecting (as opposed to playing what would be considered a more "adult" game), it was no go...did score a copy off eBay some years later, though.
Chuck Donegan (The Illustrious "Chuckie Baby")
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Sounds like you have a good base already.
Unfortunatly, over time I lost track of a couple of games I had. I've got a recent version of "Password", but also had one of the much earlier games from the '70s, which I haven't seen in years. I also had the 2nd edition of "The New Price is Right" home game, but years of playing it when I was younger has left it in very poor condition. Luckily, most of my other games are still close to mint!
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Okay, now that I'm here...
The year was 1987. It was the day before my 11th birthday. I went with my parents on a shopping trip to the nearest Toys "R" Us. While walking through the games aisle, I asked them for the Deluxe Wheel of Fortune game as a birthday present, but they said no and asked me to pick something else. So I picked the Electric Jeopardy! game instead. The next morning, when my other presents were opened, one of them turned out to be the regular edition of Wheel. Just six days later, when my family spent Christmas at my mom's parents' house, I received a duplicate regular Wheel edition. Of course, Grandma, who lived/lives near Tuscaloosa, AL (we were near Fayetteville, TN at the time) had no idea I would get the same game for my birthday.
Fast-forward to December 2004. After reading a thread on this forum about comparing and contrasting the various editions of game show home games, I had the idea of searching for Wheel and Jeopardy! board games on Ebay. I recently purchased and received copies of the first Pressman Deluxe and the 2nd Tyco edition of Wheel, as well as an Electric Jeopardy!. The last one was a replacement for the one I had as a child (it, along with the Wheel games, was thrown in the trash years ago), but mainly for the signaling buttons to use with my Hasbro/Parker Brothers Jeopardy! game.
I never had any other game show home games.
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I had gotten the first WoF home game by pressman for my 11th birthday in 1985.
A year later, with birthday money, I remember going to Toys 'R Us and making a triple purchase:
The Price is Right
Jeopardy!
Wheel of Fortune! Deluxe
I got Electric Jeopardy! for Christmas 1990, I believe..
I also remember finding The $25,000 Pyramid box game at Boscov's in 1987 and being ecstatic; I convinced my mom and dad to buy it for me..
EDIT: In the ironic department, this is post number 1010 for me - my birthday, in which this reply centered around, is October 10, or 10/10. Cue "Twilight Zone" theme music!