If you could eliminate one game, which game would you eliminate, and for what reason? (I don't like the game is not a good reason).

My personal choices would be:
Plinko: This game is worn and tired. The crowd gets over-hyped over a near-impossible cash prize. Joe Idiot can win $10,000 for doing nothing, while some poor schmuck playing Punchboard can win $50, despite getting all 4 prizes right.
Pick-A-Number: The game sucks, and offers no excitement, from either the set or the game format. Game appears to have been created in 5 minutes.

...and then you go on to list a bunch of games and basically say you don't like them.

When it boils down, EVERY reason ends up being a flavor of "I don't like the game". I'm sure there's a clown out there who actually DOES like Joker, but I bet it would make a lot of people's lists.

And you'd be a fool to axe Plinko. The fans watching on TV eat it up just as much as the studio audience. You're alienating millions of viewers.

I would eliminate "On The Spot."

After this much time in the pricing game rotation. contestants still seem to be easliy confused by a rather simple game. For example, today's (9/30) contestant looked to the audience for help just trying to decide which path to take! Not only that, but the small prize descriptions, and in some cases, the game play itself (contestant uses all 3 paths) can eat up alot of precious time.

As for eliminating, "Pick-A-Number", the game serves a purpose. It's there as a back-up 4 digit game, just like "Money Game" is a back-up for the car games.

How can Any Number be a back-up 4-digit game when it's exclusively played for a car, a 3-digit prize & the piggy bank?

Anyway, here's which games I'd axe:

On The Spot: Not only is it confusing & time consuming, I just don't like the color scheme at all. If the colors were more bolder, maybe I'll tolerate it better.

Joker: It's basically set up so that even if you discard all 4 cards, there's always the possibility that the Joker is still there not discarded(Similar story with Secret X where the placement of all 3 Xs may not yield a tic-tac-toe win on the board).

I would retire Secret X. Virtually every contestant that plays the game knows how to set up the board to give him a 2 in 3 shot of finding the secret X. (Well, one contestant tried to pull a fast one by getting 3 in a row vertically) Still, it serves it's purpose as a relatively quick pricing game.

I think they were right to put Time is Money on the shelf... the first version, where the player was not told how many he/she got right, just didn't work. Still, I think they should've kept the money voucher.

If/when Penny Ante does return, I think they could stick with something close to the original design, but instead of having a flap that conceals a "Yes" or "No", they should simply have a light surrounding the price that blinks when it's right, followed by the bells. (the original design did have a light around the price, but it lit up whether it was right or wrong)

I always wondered if anyone tried that...did they succeed?

I would choose to tweak some games (there's precedent for it) rather than pitch some:

Plinko: No free chip, top slot of $5,000.
You can't axe Plinko, it *is* TPIR.

Penny Ante: Make it a table game, like Pick-a-Pair.
It's a nice quick game, and it rewards knowing the exact prices.

On the Spot: Instead of for a car, play for an "orange" prize (from the MB box game.)
Way too easy for a car, and there are far better car games out there.

Rather than tossing a bunch of games, (yeah, I have a few I'd pitch, but for no other reason than "I don't like it.") I would put a moratorium on new games. Honestly, we didn't need 'Half Off', there are plenty of cash games already. There are 70 in the mix, we don't need 100.

Pathfinder gets my vote 'cuz it seems too damn hard to win(even for a contestant who has a half a clue of how to play the game), and even if they do get to the last digit with no chances remaining, it comes down to the zero or a 5. Not really a good game IMHO.

Joker might be my 2nd one, I don't really despise it, but it is really dull to watch anyways.

I always wondered if anyone tried that...did they succeed?

The times that someone tried that, Bob usually warns against it. He also tries to discourage a player putting an X in one of the middle row squares, as the chances of winning decreases to 1/3 at best.

"Clock Game" -- Outdated and far too low value of prizes to make it competitive with the rest of the games. If you must keep it, make the bonus $5000.

"Check Game" -- Either get rid of it or require contestants to write down the rules of the game as an answer on their application to see if any of these goofballs in "PICK ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" shirts actually _watches the show_!

I'll go with Travisand "tweak" some games as well.

Card Game: Up the opening bid to $12K, please. That would make it at least a little less tedious to watch.

Let 'Em Roll: Put simply, make the game harder to win. Make the grocery item part harder, replace one of the cars on each die with a '0', whatever.

Secret X: Add a third small prize, eliminate the free X at the beginning, and make the Secret X more like the hidden bullseye in "Bullseye." In other words, the contestant can guarantee a win if they get all 3 X's, just by placing them all in a row, but if they miss one, they can still win if they make 3-in-a-row via the Secret X. Then again, maybe it's time to just retire it altogether.

Dice Game: Honestly, I can't think of a good way to improve this one, either. Chances are they'd never just pitch it, though, so forget it.

--Sam

Get rid of Secret "X." Or else allow people to make the three-in-a-row vertically, which does involve a risk: if you don't win the third X, you've blown the game, rather than having the one-in-three chance.

Get rid of the Bonus Game. Once the bonus is lit, you realize that three of the items were played for no reason at all. Shell Game is the same concept, only more fun. (Especially with the old equipment.)

I've also hated "Hit Me." It's too easy if the contestant knows how to play, frustrating as all get out if he or she doesn't.

"Card Game" needs help. Now that the aces equal anything, the game is reduced to here, make a bid on this car. The game worked when cars costs $5000 because then you had to hone in on the price more closely.

Clock Game is kinda dumb, too, but it's a classic.

Seems to me that they wanted to go back to having enough cash games to do a different one each day for a week (and the cash games almost always get played once a week). There's Plinko, Grand Game, It's in the Bag, Punch a Bunch--and Fortune Hunter didn't work, so there was an opening. That's where Half Off came in. I don't think they want any more than five cash games (Let 'em Roll doesn't count, since there's also the car).

Actually... no, it wasn't really that nice a game. The gameplay itself was incredibly simple and dull. What it was was a nice set. I'd be willing to bet that most of the people who love Penny Ante loved it not for the gameplay itself, but for its ultra-cool set. Without the set, there's not any worthwhile reason to bring Penny Ante back. The set was the game.

Either Clearance Sale or Eazy Az 1-2-3, these are the same in form.
Bonus Game, Shell Game with no cash bonus and no choice from the contestant
Joker, just because it sucks

Huh? The idea is that each small prize won increases your chances of winning the bonus. What's your solution, play it with one small prize?

Bob: Rich, for whom are we looking?

Rich: Nobody! No one passed the application process!

Bob: Well then, help control the pet population -- have your pets spayed or neutered. Good-bye, everybody!

(45 minutes of credits and theme)


--
Scott Robinson

You know, I know I'm gonna get crucified for quoting Karlberg...but for once, he's actually made an honest mistake.



Pick-a-Number.

Anyway...what would I axe? Nothing. There's not a game on the show that you can't sit down and enjoy if you don't overthink it. Lord knows I like some games better than others, but that doesn't mean I don't like seeing them played.



Time is Money is out of the rotation (not retired...or at least not yet) because they were having trouble taping the game without having to make edits. It had nothing to do with the game's difficulty; its win/loss ratio should be proof enough of that.



Nope. Nice as it would be, you can't win Secret "X" vertically. :-)



But Travis, Penny Ante's board is pretty much all it has going for it. When you strip that away, you're not really left with much of a game. Frankly, the goofy board is the only reason it works.



"Way too easy?" It had a win record last year of 3-10!



Remember what I said before about not overthinking the games?



I've seen a playing of Clearance Sale where Scott Robinson said that due to what the sale prices were, he'd ordered the prizes differently than he would have in Eazy az 1-2-3. That's reason enough for me to keep 'em both around.

I think I would get rid of the "Race Game" or modify it somewhat so that nobody could possibly get injured.

WHAT?!

Um... sorry about that.

WHAT?!

That may be the worst reason I've ever heard for wanting to retire a pricing game.

I remember one episode where somebody did try that; at first, Bob came up with one of his "new rules", but then somebody from offstage reminded him that, every time they play the game, Bob explains the rules and says that the 3-in-a-row must be across or diagonally.

Back to the topic at hand, the two I would get rid of are:

Joker - it's just Shell Game with a fifth shell, but you can only pick four. (I am not a big fan of games where there's a chance you can't win even if you know all of the prices.)

Either Side By Side or Coming Or Going (or is it Coming & Going) - you don't need that many versions of Double Prices, especially when you have Switch? as well.

(And if I could change two games:
Punch-A-Bunch - it's a bit of an anachronism in the days of Plinko, especially now with Pass The Buck and Half Off; I would make it more like Pass The Buck by having a maximum slip of $5000 (four or five of them, for a $20,000 maximum) but also include "Lose Everything"-type slips and also maybe some "Stop" slips where the player has to stop at that point.

Hole In One Or Two - consider bringing back the bigger cars, but move all of the lines back a few feet to make it harder.)

-- Don

What about the reasons for getting rid of Bump? :-)

If I were to get rid of any games, I'd think first of those games where pricing things perfectly can still lead to a loss. That would include Secret X and Half Off (amongst others, I'm sure).

You just explained why TPiR has become next to UNWATCHABLE...

Seriously, I don't even watch daily TPiR anymore since it just seems like an unending mass of morons in "PICK ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!" shirts who have no clue WTF they are doing...

Pulled hamstrings as a result of quick stops comes to mind...

(Of course, associated question, what happens if they have Race Game and the player is obviously unable to play the game -- wheelchair-bound and the wheelchair isn't built for speed, as an example...)

They make sure that doesn't happen.

How?? Short of excluding any such contestant on the day they list RG as a game on their board, all they could really do is change the games to be played upon discovery that a WC-bound contestant is one of the nine selected...

Not quite.

They make sure if Race Game is played, that an elderly/wheelchair bound person is not called until the game has been played.

They make sure if Race Game is played, that an elderly/wheelchair bound person is not called until the game has been played.


Here's a question for Randy or someone who might have attended TPIR Live in Atlantic City or elsewhere: How would they handle an elderly or wheelchair bound contestant who won their way up onstage to play Race Game on the live show? Unlike the CBS show, audience members don't get a 10-second interview with a Roger or Fingers-type person before.

Bump was actually a pretty good concept, but (once the lawsuits hit) poorly-executed. I wish it had been retooled rather than retired.

I feel the same way about "That's Too Much." Finding the first one that's over the actual price is good, but the slow pacing really kills it for me, with having to get the yell right and the speed at which the trip down the row of prices moves. If they revealed the entire row and turned it into a one-decision game, it might work better for me (but it might not).

That's the idea, but in practice there's only one small prize that matters--whichever one is predetermined to be next to the "bonus" light. Getting one of the other three right doesn't help your odds at all.

My solution would be turn it into kindling and play Shell Game instead. There indeed, each small prize won increases your chances of winning the bonus. And it's simply more fun.

I assume a similar provision was made for visually-impaired contestants during the days of On the Nose. :-)

Chuck Donegan (The Comedic "Chuckie Baby")