You know, I picked up something from a thrift store yesterday and it got me to thinking.

What do you think is one of the ugliest looking home games you have seen?

I know there are some that are nicer looking that others, by my vote goes to the 25th Anniversary edition of WoF.

I like the idea of the deluxe wheel coming back, but the whole thing is excessively silver. The silver everywhere practically gave me the sensation of wanting to throw up. Surely that amount of silver will trigger a migraine headache in somebody.

-Ryan

I think I am going to enjoy this thread Ryan! I like the home games that most closely resemble their on-air counterparts. My vote for ugliest goes to The New Tic-Tac Dough by Ideal. It is garish with poorly chosen colors.

Wasn't the New TTD game simply a repackaged Ideal Hollywood Squares game with a different "skin" and added category shuffle "wheel" on the back of the board?

/I used to love how cool & creative Ideal toys & games were back then, but I agree on the TTD game.
//IMHO, Ideal's Toss Across Tic tac toe board looked better than TTD's board.
///Toss Across used trilons.

I'd have to go with Remote Control. I remember being disappointed that the board in the home game looked nothing like the giant TV on the show.

Another disappointment was the board for the first edition Combs Feud game. Compared to the board from the MB versions, it looked nothing like the one on the show. And it was ugggggggggly!

What can I say? I was George Constanza finicky as a childhood game show fan!

I remember being disappointed with the Classic Concentration board game....after seeing the box art, I thought the game inside would be awesome. Alas, no. They still used the roll-o-matic puzzle board, while the UK home version had full color rebuses. The whole set was blue, and there was no variation in color. It was the ugliest letdown I'd ever seen.

1/2 of topic

I'll go with Aggravation. I'm sure some(if not most) of you had this game, and remember How uniformed and proper the game looked and played. But now they just went and F[eeeep]ked it all up by "Nickelodeonizing" it with weird shapes, confusing patterns, putrid colors, and damn I can't even tell where the Hell I start at anymore! I was really starting to like that game too. -_-.

Any way as far as ugly Gameshow themed game boards. hmmm. I can't really think of any..hmmm(looks up) Yeah the Combs version of Family Feud was ugly.

It did? First, I thought Pressman did the game. I also thought the rebuses came in "sheets", and you would tear one off and insert it into the board.

It *has* been 15+ years, however.

Edit: I've been told I was incorrect and was thinking of the Endless version. Clarification appreciated.

As far as ugliest board games go, the dice table from the 1980'a version of High Rollers. The color looked like it was burnt orange instead of fire engine red. Even the number stickers didn't quite help. I'd expect maybe some "hot" colors, but no such luck. The only good thing about that table was it was scaled nicely to make it playable, but that was it.

FWIW, I have the Pressman version of CC, and the rebuses are on two-sided, individual sheets. There's even a sticker on the back of the box advertising as much. Must have been a change they made in later "printings".

If we're allowed to mention other than game shows, I have to go with the Dr. Laura board game that came out in the late 90s. It had her face on the cover. It also said on the box that it "teaches children values." I almost threw up in the aisle at Kmart right then and there. N0 - I didn't buy it.

Well you guys are probably right...I know the second edition used the puzzle pages, and I thought the first edition used a roll-o-matic board. The Game Show Home Game Home Page used to have a page with all of the Concentration home games pictured, but it's not there anymore.

To the topic on hand, I really can't think of any UGLY games. Some had crude box art, and yes, some had rules that strayed from the TV show ('92 Jeopardy! comes to mind), but I really can't think of any games where the equipment itself looked ugly. Some of the stuff from the 70s is crude, but brown, yellow, and orange were the all the rage back then.

I do not own this game, but my understanding is that they tinkered with the format withing this edition. I also thought that there were some copies that included full color. I think your reference of single sheets is correct though. Whether some also include the roll of puzzles, I have no clue. I could almost assure you Matt would know the ins and outs of this.

-Ryan

I disagree. The numbers weren't stickers. They were cardboard pieces. Sure, the game table was part of the box and maybe the colors didn't match 100%. The pieces and parts looked like what were on the TV show.


Are you sure? I saw a Classic Concentration box game at a thrift store 2 weeks ago and I remember seeing the rebuses on sheets when I checked the contents. Or what they said above me while I wrote this response.

I don't have a pick for an ugly home game right now. Since I'm packing my games up today, I'm sure I'll find something worth sharing...

Oh, if we're going this route now, I thought the cover art for the Ben Casey box game was hideous.
All those sick patients and things.........yucko!!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/45797613@N00/307188004
On the 2nd edition box game for Match Game in the 70s, who are Norma and Carl?
Yanking myself back to topic, there was a box game for The Hollywood Squares featuring celebrities with misshapen cartoon faces which looked rather scary.

I have a Pressman version of Classic Concentration, has a small #5750 in a corner, and it most definitely has a roll of non-color rebuses.

I'll dig it out later to give more specs.

As I said years ago, Brett and Charles without likeness rights.

Sorry. I was sick that day.
What games actually did have the host/star and/or co-host/co-star and/or actual celeb pics on the box?
I have a beauty of Mike Darrow on the home version of The $128,000 Question.

And you have my sympathy and condolences. Any show where they have to stop tape and redo the intro because the host gets caught in the curtain - yes that actually happened at a taping. They obviously didn't air it.

Now see. Jim Peck falls on his hindmost at it stays in. Mike could have achieved blooper immortality if the bit hadn't been redone. No fair!
Oh, and it's a great smiling picture of Mike Darrow on the box, it is. He has 127 teeth.
I have a $64,000 Question home game with a serious Hal March on the box. As on the show, you can check out the answers beforehand.

And how exactly does that sully the board game?

How about Alex Trebek on the High Rollers home game? Poor guy looks like he just walked in and was told "Last Call"

Offhand, I know Vanna is on the '92 WoF game by Tyco and Mark L. Whalberg was on one of the boxes for The Moment of Truth.

Because, silly, it gives one pause as to whether or not the photo shot was nailed on the first take. Lowers the eBay value.
Back to the hijacked topic, The Winker graced the cover of High Rollers in the late 1980s.

Photos of hosts (or Vanna) on the boxes of games are failry common. Offhand, I'd guess maybe about a third of them do, more or less. Virtually all the recent ones do. Foxworthy, Brady, Walberg, Philbin, Vieira, Mandel, O'Hurley, Carey, Treadway, Woolery and Bailey all come to mind in just the last couple of years, and I'm sure I missed a few. The first photograph of a host on a home game box is probably "Uncle Jim" McWilliams, host of radio's Uncle Jim's Question Bee.

Saget too, on the Nintendo DS version of 1 vs. 100. Oh no! Another off-topic swerve!

Can the next off-topic swerve be which games had images from the TV show on its packaging or the game itself?

Could you clarify please? I'm curious as to how you could foul up @#*($ing Jeopardy!.

Yes, this was when they were in their "Host Your Own Game" phase. Everyone had a single category in front of them, and for that category, that player was the "host".

Here's a picture.

Never having played it, I hesitate to come to the knee-jerk conclusion that they "fouled up @#*($ing Jeopardy!." Making it so everyone can play instead of one person having to stand off to the side and "host" doesn't sound like the worst idea, honestly.

There does seem to have been a period from about the mid-sixties to the mid-eighties when host photos on games were relatively rare, especially on Milton Bradley games, which were the majority of home versions. When I was growing up (way back in the seventies and eighties) I almost never saw a home version with the host's visage. Most had drawings, rather than photos, of the show's set, too. Wink's High Rollers is the first one I vividly recall that had the host's picture (and a photo of the set with a game in progress to boot!). After that it became quite common, to the point that, as you said, that seems to be the rule today.

How about adding a bonus round? ;-)

Speaking of High Rollers, the exception to what appeared to be the MB policy of that period was Alex Trebek on the cover of the original version. Of course, that game was an oddity for several reasons.

Norma and Carl?! Stars of the Match Game?!

(That's for people who don't get this bit.)

-M

True, Chris...it almost seemed like they were trying to turn Jeopardy! into a party game instead of an intimidating quiz, which is an interesting idea. Even though I rarely used it as such, I liked the fact that it allowed for customization, as you could mix and match categories. Your friends hate The Civil War and 18th Century Literature? Just replace them with Potent Potables and Classic TV, and your game probably won't hit a standstill on that De Tocqueville question.

The rules were designed to keep everybody interested in the game, but I just remember reading halfway through them, before honestly realizing that I'd rarely, if ever, play it that way.

I'm certain that cleared it up for them. Speaking of a Match Game star.....
Richard Dawson would get a few good jabs in when showing the home edition to Family Feud with regard to how his picture wasn't on the box.
I also enjoyed when he'd open the box to show us......an empty box, then toss it into one of the wings.

Yes, there are two editions of Pressman Toys' Classic Concentration. The first edition has the rebuses on a scroll; the second edition has them on cards. IMHO, the real crime with this version of my favorite game show is the exclusion of prize racks and the bonus game. When its contents are assembled, the box is more than double the size it needs to be!

My absolute favorite moment involved Richard throwing the 3rd edition to the side...only to have a stagehand throw back a 1980 MB 'Hollywood Squares' game box.

That was my biggest gripe...no car round...especially when all it needed was 16 more prize squares and a sand timer. With about 10-15 minutes, you can create the car round yourself, but it's the principle. No color rebuses? Roll-o-matic board? Disappointing, but fine, cause they're major cost cutting measures. But 16 more 1 inch prize cards and a sand timer? With a box that big, with the cars on the game's box art, and it being such a cheap addition in the first place, you'd expect some sort of car round in there.

Appreciated.

Appreciated by maybe six people on the board, but appreciated none the less.

With regard to artwork instead of photos on boxes, I wonder what has become of most of that original artwork?

Is it sitting in MB's vault?

I always thought it would be cool to own one of those pieces. The MB Feud was probably my favoriite cover.

Also a HUGE waste of content. Granted, your decision whether you want to waste the content or not, but you've just cut the number of available games for the average buyer in thirds, assuming the average buyer plays the game by the book.

Since part of the thread's wandered that way, there's an episode of Pyramid where John Davidson tells the losing contestant that (s)he will get a home version of Hollywood Squares, because he has a garage full of them.

(and HS, that version at least, may not be especially *ugly* but it's surely among the most pointless GSHGs.)

So that's what the M stands for - MOSKOWITZ!

Didn't HS '86 give out board games that weren't their own at one point?

R.

I'm going by memory, but I remember when watching a rerun of Davidson's Squares on USA 'back in the day', I do recall Davidson giving out a copy of The $1,000,000 Chance of A Lifetime home game. I recall asking myself, "Wouldn't a copy of there OWN home game been more appropriate"? Odd just...odd.

That's an old Bill Cullen gag from the one extant episode of "Eye Guess" where he gives the contestants a "Password" home game.

Worst home version ever. Ugly pieces were just the start. The low quantity of questions crippled game play and took away what would have otherwise been a nifty "shuffling" effect, and what few questions there were were borderline idiotic. (Category: Riddles -- Q: "What do you call a baby pistol?" A: "A son of a gun!") Maybe not quite as bad as the doozies on Matt's High Rollers page, but still pretty bad. Ideal could have done so much better.

IIRC, Davidson also gave away a Password game during a week with Betty White on board. They took a quick reaction shot, and she seemed a bit...well, it was somewhere between shock and puzzlement.

All but the last Hollywood Squares covers have never been very attractive, with the first MB taking the cake. The lid to The Sky's The Limit looks kinda amateurish.

I only have the second edition, but from GSN reruns, I'm sure the first edition of Joker's Wild had an actual shot from the show.

You'd be wrong.

The two strangest examples that immediately come to mind are the obscure Gamut of Games releases for Dealer's Choice (renamed Place Your Bets as a home game) and The Diamond Head Game. Perhaps even stranger are some games for which there are photographs of the set, but photos that are staged with actors and that clearly didn't come from the actual show. It seems that a lot of the early computer games did that.

Although it was never released to the public, Jack Barry did indeed have a home version of TJW on or around the third week of the show (I'd have to dig up my tapes to find the exact dates,etc.). The cover had the logo on the top stripe and a full stage shot on the rest. It also looked to be about the size of MB's Jeopardy! and TPIR games from the 70's. IIRC he also said to look for it in your local store very soon. Of course the one we all (or most) have came out a few months later.

I remember that, not just for the cool box art, but also because he said to look at your local hardware store, among other choices. I have a screengrab of Richard Dawson with a prototype Feud box that was different than the finished art - a larger, pulled back shot of the set against a blue background. Maybe I can throw it on my photo hosting or something. Were there any other board game prototypes that made it to air? (thread shift #20,512...) The Wesley Eure episodes of Finders Keepers showed a home game box I've never seen anywhere else.

-Jason