Has anyone else noticed that some foreign GS games are near-exact copies of their US-released counterparts? Judge for yourself...

UK Celebrity Squares

Aussie $otC (mid-80s, Tony Barber era)

Aussie $otC (early 90s, w/contents shot)

Aussie $otC (mid-90s, also w/contents shot; note set change on cover pic)

Also, as an owner of all 3 Aussie $otC games (w/a copy of the 4th on its way soon), the rules read almost exactly the same as the 1986 US version, and even the same prizes are displayed on some cards.

The only differences are in the questions (obviously need ones better suited to an Australian audience, LOL), the Fame Game uses names of popular Oz TV shows on the cards (which hurts the replay factor, IMO), and unlike our boring "take a card and that's your bonus prize" endgame, theirs uses the shopping format...should the winner buy a lower-level prize, or decline in the hopes of working their way up to something bigger, like the car or $150K?

Interesting stuff!

Chuck Donegan (The Surprised "Chuckie Baby")

Actually, there are FIVE Aussie SOTC games, two with Barber and three with Glenn Ridge, including the the 2000 New Century-era game.

The first Aussie game was released in 1985, predating the US game by a year; i.e. the US game was adapted from this game. I surmise that the change was made from the Shopping Round to the way it was in the 1986 game either to simulate the Winner's Board, for budgetary reasons or both.

In fact, a Spiegel holiday catalog from 1986 actually used the Aussie version in its ad, since ours apparently wasn't ready when they went to press...I remember seeing Tony's pic on the cover and, expecting Jim Perry, thinking to myself "Who's that guy??".

Chuck Donegan (The Illustrious "Chuckie Baby")

My personal favorite is "Celebrity Squares," which looks like a bootleg of the US version that a shady guy would be selling in an alley behind Toys 'R Us. "Of course it's really Hollywood Squares, you see the people, they're in boxes, they have the letters there, it's real, now come on, forty dollar!"

An exception to the lookalike rule is Waddingtons' version of Blockbusters when compared to the Milton Bradley edition. The Waddingtons' gameboard is a sturdy plastic gameboard with plastic blocks. The Milton Bradley gameboard is a small, flimsy cardboard with a thin plastic sheet with which one uses static electricity to hold the thin, plastic blocks. Waddingtons' Junior Blockbusters is the same as Blockbusters except for the box art and easier questions.

Both editions skimp on the Gold Run. Waddingtons makes you buy the game separately. Milton Bradley has you stop the timer while the host searches for the next question in the quiz book.

Milton Bradley's Family Feud and Family Fortunes differ in box dementions and box art. For some reason the strike count is kept with a peg and three holes directly on the gameboard in Family Fortunes. In Family Feud, it's three strike cards off gameboard.

Classic Concentration puzzles are of red and blue ink. British Concentration puzzles are in full color.

Password is identical in both countries.

Waddington's later released a Super Blockbusters with a Gold Run included. The 70s(?) British MB version of Match Game/Blankety Blank also used a peg system, allowing you to push in a shaped marker on the "celebrity" gameboard when you matched, vs. the US cardboard push-in tabs. A nice MB '78 UK Password has, instead of long strip word cards with 10 per side, two decks a touch larger than a mini-deck of playing cards with 5 words per side. Instead of the vinyl readers, there are two trays made of red clear plastic you slide the word cards up on. There is a slot you run the card under with a raised area where you see the password, and by the time you've played the 5th password, the card has reached the top of the tray. Very clever. Just agreeing with you that after the really cheap games Britain made in the 50s, by the time the 70s came along, they put together stuff as good or better than some US versions.

Interesting...also, one nice feature in a later edition of Family Fortunes was the "Uh-Uh!" wrong answer sound maker, which they even gave special mention on the cover.

Chuck Donegan (The Illustrious "Chuckie Baby")