Favorite Homemade Game Show Softwares

[rebelwrest]

I think my first download was Curt King's Press Your Luck, and I played that for hours and hours and hours.  Even though his website is long gone, you can go to the Wayback Machine and still download the game.  I did and it still works.

We all have been downloading these programs for over 25 years, so what have been some of your favorites?

By the way, here is the link to download Curt King's PYL: https://web.archive.org/web/20040325010319/http://crossbearer.com/

\Any of you remember Net Poker
\\The Joker's Wild that can only be accessed through the command center
\\\That text based Wheel of Fortune
\\\\Blockbusters that was played on 5X5 grid
\\\\\The many, many, many versions of Lingo

[jcs290]

Curt’s PYL remains the GOAT to me. It’s pretty amazing that his version was faithful to the original, included sound effects and sound bites from the show, and it was better than any commercial release to date.

[TimK2003]

I forget who put it together, but there was a computer version of Super Password that was pretty good, complete with sound bites from the show.  Even the puzzles were about as tough as the ones on the show. 

I also believe there was a way you could add your own puzzles to the mix as well.

[Dbacksfan12]

Jay Lewis made a text-based version of TPiR that I spent a lot of time playing.

I agree that Curt’s game is the gold standard.

[SamJ93]

Most of the FLASHgames recreations, especially Tic Tac Dough, Scrabble and Caesars Challenge were top-notch and highly addictive. They were still playable on archive.org for a while, but sadly no longer seem to be.

[Kevin Prather]

One of the best things about Curt King's game was that it was easily customizable. You could switch out the sounds and (I think) board graphics with your own.

[Jeremy Nelson]

I forget who put it together, but there was a computer version of Super Password that was pretty good, complete with sound bites from the show.  Even the puzzles were about as tough as the ones on the show. 

I also believe there was a way you could add your own puzzles to the mix as well.

Yep, he was the same person who released Classic Concentration and Blockbusters, among others. IIRC he received a C&D pretty early on, which was a shame because those were strong efforts he put out.

Honestly, Bigjon was another big deal for me. The games he released were pre-Ludia, and that was a pretty barren time for official home versions of games. There were times where i wished he would have put more effort behind 2 or 3 games rather than releasing 20, but i appreciated the effort.

There was also a really good Scrabble Sprint game executed in DOS years ago. It had show-faithful graphics and was probably released somewhere around 2000.

[Kevin Prather]

I forget who put it together, but there was a computer version of Super Password that was pretty good, complete with sound bites from the show.  Even the puzzles were about as tough as the ones on the show. 

I also believe there was a way you could add your own puzzles to the mix as well.

Yep, he was the same person who released Classic Concentration and Blockbusters, among others. IIRC he received a C&D pretty early on, which was a shame because those were strong efforts he put out.

As I recall, his response to the C&D was to tattle on a bunch of other similar game creators, which cost him quite a bit of favor.

Honestly, Bigjon was another big deal for me. The games he released were pre-Ludia, and that was a pretty barren time for official home versions of games. There were times where i wished he would have put more effort behind 2 or 3 games rather than releasing 20, but i appreciated the effort.

I too was a loyal player of BigJon's games, maybe at the expense of a computer. His Price is Right game in particular was very impressive.

[tpirfan28]

There was also a really good Scrabble Sprint game executed in DOS years ago. It had show-faithful graphics and was probably released somewhere around 2000.

I guess this makes me a packrat. (Run the shortcut - I bundled in DOSBox)

[SuperMatch93]

Will Schmarder (I think) made a text-based WoF years ago with shopping that was very fun.

[PYLdude]

If I remember, Curt also did a version of the Money Cards from Card Sharks that was pretty nice.

I’ve said BigJon had plenty of issues with his games, and it wasn’t just the bugginess; to me there were far too many games that should’ve had a player against CPU option (Blockbusters and Bullseye especially), and he left in some errors that oughta have been caught before launch (“walwus” is not a word).

[aaron sica]

I’ve said BigJon had plenty of issues with his games, and it wasn’t just the bugginess; to me there were far too many games that should’ve had a player against CPU option (Blockbusters and Bullseye especially), and he left in some errors that oughta have been caught before launch (“walwus” is not a word).

He didn't earn the nickname "BugJon" for nothing.

That said, though, echoing what others said, his Price is Right game was better than any computer game sold commercially.

[Jeremy Nelson]

Will Schmarder (I think) made a text-based WoF years ago with shopping that was very fun.

\\\That text based Wheel of Fortune

Guess I'm a packrat too.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/11AjwEO_XPM5crVPInTcK8xSOzSbmUW_u/view?usp=sharing

[SuperMatch93]

Does anyone remember the unlicensed WoF ripoff called Spin 2 Win or something like that? It was shareware and supposedly the full version had loads of features that made even BigJon's versions pale in comparison.

I remember trying to run the demo in DOSBox, but it never worked properly.

[BrandonFG]

Does anyone remember the unlicensed WoF ripoff called Spin 2 Win or something like that? It was shareware and supposedly the full version had loads of features that made even BigJon's versions pale in comparison.

I remember trying to run the demo in DOSBox, but it never worked properly.

Was that Joytube?