Making Mölkky

Back in January, my friend Nate joined me for a Schlag den Raab viewing. We were treated to an afternoon of inflating bicycle tires, flailing swords, throwing coat hangers, and soccer with bowling shoes on ice. Yep, par for the course. Spiel 12 on this particular day was a Finnish lawn game called Mölkky. They rolled out a giant mat of grass on the studio floor and played a game where they threw a stick at a bunch of numbered pins. Watching this, Nate and I said to each other, this is something we'd like to try.

A quick primer on the rules: The goal of the game is to be the first to reach exactly 50 points (played on SdR to only 40). On your turn, you throw the large pin (the mölkky) at twelve numbered pins. If you knock down exactly one pin, you score the number on that pin. If you knock down more than one pin, you score however many pins you knocked down. So hitting the 12-pin is worth a whopping 12 points, but hitting the 12 and the 11 is only worth 2 points. Going over 50 points resets your score to 25. After each throw, the pins are stood back up wherever they stopped, so while they start out in a tight cluster, they become pretty spread out quickly. If you completely miss all pins on three consecutive turns, you're out of the game.

I looked for Mölkky sets online, but only seemed to find sets for $50 or $60 (plus shipping), not really a price I'd be up for paying for pieces of wood. So I thought to myself, how hard could it be to make a set? After studying the SdR video trying to suss out dimensions and looking up directions online (even Martha Stewart gives a how-to), I decided to give it a go.

My dad and I picked up a 3"x9"x9' board of poplar from a local lumberyard and started cutting it down into 3"x3"x13" blocks. I rounded down the corners a bit, then spun the blocks on the lathe until they got down to the desired width (about 2 1/4"). I then used a miter saw to make a diagonal cut to split the rods into the pins, sanded everything down, and painted numbers on the pins before several coats of polyeurethane. And voila, Mölkky!

As it turns out, I'm pretty bad at Mölkky. A lot of my throws bounce right over the pins I want to hit, and I've struck out of more games than I'd like to admit. Still, it's a fun game and I'm excited for this summer when I get to play it with friends.

Also, looking back on it, making the Mölkky set was a simple woodworking project that introduced me to a bunch of tools I had never used before. My dad and I started using a circular saw to cut the large board into blocks, but since it didn't cut through the whole way, we switched over to a Sawzall. I started using a plane to round down the corners before putting the blocks on the lathe, but then switched to using a belt sander (and then eventually not rounding the corners down at all, because of laziness). Add in the lathe and the miter saw, and I got a pretty good tour of the workshop under my belt. All of this, after a childhood of Pinewood Derby cars where the only tools I ever got to use (and under ridiculous paranoid parental supervision) were a reciprocating saw and the belt sander (and a hammer must've been involved at some point, though I really don't remember that).

One more thing, remember how I said most of the Mölkky sets I found online were $50-$60? The board of poplar cost me $25, and I got not one, but TWO sets out of it (with scrap wood leftover), one of which I gave to Nate. So, not counting the price of electricity for all the power tools, I made each set for about $10. Hooray for homemade Finnish lawn games as seen on German game shows!

At the Moment - Comic Relief's 24 Hour Panel People

In an effort to make my blog seem more topical than it actually is, I've invented a new category for things going on right now (or in the immediate future or past). I'm currently watching Comic Relief's 24 Hour Panel People. In a nutshell, Comic Relief is a charitable organization that hosts telethons for raising money for charities in the UK. Unlike US telethons where entertainers come to a studio to encourage viewers to call in their support, entire shows will devote their plotlines to the event which air in a giant marathon.

In a bit of a change-up from the normal format, 24-Hour Panel People is a day-long event in which a series of panel shows are being taped consecutively, with one bloke (David Walliams) appearing in all of them. The shows are being taped today, and will be edited down and shown on TV at a later date.

What makes the event today very interesting is that if you watch the live feed, you can see all of the shows being produced live, including all of the slipped lines and production bloopers. It's quite fascinating to see how these shows start out before they're cut down to the tidy packages that finally air.

Click here for a complete schedule of shows. The times are approximate (they seem to be twenty minutes behind at the moment), since they're working off of a crazy live schedule with one person serving as the constant thread between them all. My personal picks to watch out for (times listed are EST):

• 1:50pm - Blankety Blank - The UK version of Match Game, with possibly the most annoying theme song ever written.


• 3:10pm - Mock the Week - News quiz with some great improv comedy bits thrown in.


• 7:20pm - QI - Probably the highlight of my night. Hilariously impossible quiz that was the basis of one of my earliest blog posts. But wait... no Alan Davies?


• 4:25am (tomorrow morning) - Whose Line Is It Anyway? - Yes, that Whose Line. This may well be worth it just to see what sort of humor Walliams is capable of on little sleep.

On the whole, I'm excited to see the behind-the-scenes aspect of all these shows, so I'll be watching this for a good portion of today. And of course, if you can donate, please do.

(Edit: Times updated, as it turns out I'm crap at figuring out times across the pond.)

Ear Whacks - I Apparently Suck at Game Show Pilots

Right then, this is the start of a new series I've been meaning to do for some time in which I highlight some of the podcasts and other audible musings I keep myself entertained with. Over the summer, I whittled my backlog of unheard podcasts down to nil, and wanted to celebrate by reporting on some of my favorites. However, this past week, I was at band camp, and the backlog is now back up to twenty unheard podcasts. Kinda unfair, really.

Anywho, the first podcast I wanted to highlight was a little game show podcast called PinPoint. This is the second podcast game show put out by Alex Davis and company, who run the immensely popular (if you're into game show news) game show news site, Buzzerblog (see also: Double Cross).

The object of PinPoint is to guess the results to survey questions, trying to come as close to the actual percentages as possible. The questions range from interesting and topical, such as how people feel about the proposed Ground Zero mosque, to the bizarre and thought-provoking, such as what people think about s'mores and Ouija boards. The contestants play for Oodles, which are GSN's (formerly the Game Show Network) online virtual currency redeemable for prizes and whatnot. The farther you are from guessing the correct percentage, the more Oodles you lose, and the greater danger you're in of leaving the game.

The weird thing about this game is that I had a very small hand in its production. I was involved in two test pilots, and I had a blast playing. I was also relatively good at the game, nearly nailing a couple of questions on the nose. In both cases though, I lost in the final head-to-head question, missing by a major margin. I wouldn't have won anything for taking first place anyway, but I got some major harassment from my friends when I tried to explain the show to them the next day. (Now that the show's finally available to the public, these friends can hear how tricky the show can be. And subsequently start apologizing. Use the comments box below, thanks.)

PinPoint is a fun game for people who think they know people, and is rather easy to play along with. I was initially critical of how the game is split into three separate podcasts over the course of the week, but the fifteen-minute segments are just the right size for a quick dose of fun and really manages to effectively stretch the suspense over the week. (By the way, definitely listen to week three's game, the entire game is really intense and it had some of my favorite questions of the series so far.) Bob Hagh does a great job of keeping the game moving while bantering with the contestants, and gets right into the heat of the game along with the players. On the whole, PinPoint is a great listen and makes reading America's mind fun (so long as the questions don't involve politics, they kill me every time).

iTunes Link - Official Site

You've Won the Home Version of Our Game!

Spring break! And instead of running around on the beach, I'm blogging. Meh, it's a small price to pay for not having an attractive body. nearby beaches that MTV would care to tape at. a life. Sometimes I truly wonder what majors all these kids have that allows them the genuine free time to go to beaches, get plastered and knocked up, and have MTV cameras show it all. I've got some 150-some pages of journal articles to read for a research paper over break, and I've somehow managed to find time to slip in a blog post about gaming. You kids can keep your STD's, I'm fine here, thanks.

Before I get to the actual blog post at hand, I wanted to throw out a question that some of you might have more knowledge than myself on. A few posts back, I discussed the idea of Fridge Tetris, a little set of magnets for geeky fun on your fridge. I've started making a couple of batches for a couple certain someones, and I'm noticing that I've got quite a lot of beads sorted and ready to go for more production. My question is, would it be possible to sell Fridge Tetris for a profit, or would copyright/legal issues prevent me from legally doing so? If I were to give the same product a different name (one that doesn't use the T-word), would it be legal? I don't plan on going huge with this, maybe just a small etsy.com store or something like that. Any input on the matter would be greatly appreciated, please comment below.

Right then, on to reviews proper. Amazingly, all three of these games caught my eye(s) because of the fact that they're based on game shows. It's been an awfully long time since I've written anything on game shows, hasn't it? First off, and this is only slightly cheating, I'd like to draw your attention to the deviously difficult Only Connect online game, featuring some of the Connecting Walls from the first season of the show. Only Connect is one of those UK game shows that I wish we could have in America, except it's way too cerebral for anyone to give a crap and actually watch it. We like our quick thrills with game shows here in America, we've got no tolerance for the sit-and-think shows. Anywho, the Connecting Walls are quite a fun (although painful) treat, and worth a go if you're a fan of lateral thinking puzzles. Also be sure to check out the Jay is Games review for more discussion.

Second up, and with a bit more proper discussion this time, is the Press Your Luck game by Ludia. You're probably familiar enough with this "cult classic" that I don't have to explain it in great detail to you. (By the way, what does that even mean, "cult classic"? I don't get what makes something in pop culture "cult" or not. Firefly, Mystery Science Theatre 3000, and Press Your Luck all seem to be clustered under the "cult" definition, yet I see really little linking them. DISCUSS!)



In this version, much like the show, you get two question rounds and two spin rounds. Rather than fiddling with the incredibly testy input-your-answer-by-keyboard method, you can buzz in first and choose from four possible choices for three spins, or wait until someone else picks first then choose from the three remaining choices for one spin. Full disclosure: Both this review and the next are made on hour-long demos, so I can't get very far into these games to make accurate judgements. I throw in this warning because at least in the very early stages, the AI is incredibly slow to buzz in, so you're almost definitely guaranteed to hear the full question and still buzz in for three spins. Perhaps this gets a little better as you unlock the twenty "games" as you go along, where you face off against (what I'm assuming are) more difficult sets of opponents. Oddly, each pair of contestants you face against has a little mini-story behind them, almost to justify the difficulty curve. The first two contestants you face off against both "could use a little more sleep", ie, they're slow on the buzzer.



I'm actually a bit surprised to say that this version pays close attention to some of the finer details about this show. While the music isn't exactly the same and sound effects might be slightly different, a lot of the set design and graphics feel right at home compared to the original show. If there's any major difference to be noted, it's the questions used for determining spins. While the original show had questions that seemed to cover a lot of topics, most of the questions on this version are about TV and movies. Namely, you'll see a lot of questions in the form of "What character did [celebrity name] play in [movie title]?" This may or may not account for some of the character bios as well, for example, the pair of sports fans who might not be up on this sort of trivia. (*shrug) I'd rather have a wide range of questions, but then again, I'm really not up on movie trivia.



One other difference (or similarity?) that needs to be mentioned is the "randomness" of the big board itself. It didn't take me very long before I realized that the bouncing lights on the big board were in fact random (unlike the pre-made patterns used early in the show's run), but the boards themselves were not. In fact, there seems to be three boards for each round, and one of them contains no Whammies at all (see above). Once you figure out how this works, you'll likely find yourself watching one signal square to know exactly when to stop and never hit any Whammies. You'd think that they'd do a little more to prevent this (after the whole Michael Larson fiasco and all), but apparently they're not concerned about people cheating. You know, cheating that's as easy as pie, intravenously injected into one's body: not nearly as delicious, but it's still pie.

Right, so there's a good amount that "isn't quite right" here, especially if you're a purist fan of the show (hm, cult makes sense all of a sudden...). The music is different. Only one of the Whammy animations was ever seen on the original show. The only "prizes" on the board are trips, all with the same value. There's no flokati rug. Those aren't Peter Tomarken's and Rod Roddy's voices. What do you want from them, man? They're both dead! If you're one of those game show fans that is seriously distraught by differences from the original formats, stay away from this game. Otherwise, you might find this game to be a quite enjoyable tribute to that show you always watched reruns of on the USA Network as a kid. In either case, as an alternative, I have to give mention to a freeware version I found online years ago. While the original developer seems to have yanked his homepage, it's found on some freeware download sites (like here). It lacks the question round altogether and Whammy animations (although there are plenty of audio files from the original show), but it's still very well-made, easily customizable with the included tools, quite a bit of fun, and FERE. Sorry, free. My typing seems to be off today.

The final game in this "home version" round-up is The Price is Right 2010 Edition, also by Ludia. Sadly, my review on this game is going to be extremely short, because there's very little to say here, especially if you bought the last version of the game (which I believe also came out on Wii and maybe some other platforms).



If you've not played either version, let me run down the fast details: You can play either alone or as a group, earning the right to play on stage with the Item Up For Bids (hereafter referred to as "IUFB"), playing pricing games, spinning the Big Wheel, and trying to win it all in the Showcase. If you're playing solo, you can play with either the 3 Strikes mode, where you play until you accumulate three losses (but only from the IUFB's and Big Wheel, oddly enough), or Classic mode, where you play through a typical "show" of sorts, where you play everything in the order and conditions given by the show (you have to win an IUFB to play a pricing game, you have to win the Showcase Showdown to go to the Showcase). In any case, it's pretty much the same as the show you watched everyday during the summer and when you were home sick from school.



The big problem is that there really isn't anything new here to see. Ludia seems to have just regurgitated the last version of the show, but with the newer set design and a change in the characters you can play as (which I completely forgot to mention during the PYL review, but it's the exact same thing here, so it's no big deal). If you jumped to buy the last version, you'd be better off continuing to play that one than to buy this one as well. I'm not even joking when I say that almost nothing has changed about the IUFB's, the pricing games, the prizes a/o prize footage, or the showcases. In fact, I'm pretty sure that the first IUFB I bid for with the 2010 version on this computer (my netbook), my desktop, and my desktop with the older version (2008 or 2009?) was the exact same garden shed.

I apologize for keeping this review so short in comparison to the Press Your Luck review, but there's very little I can say about a rip-off of one's own product. If you like the show, by all means, give this a shot, but don't buy both versions, they're nearly identical. It's a shame because I'm sure host Drew Carey would have loved to have been involved in the production of this new version, but it looks like no effort was made to actually improve the game itself from its last incarnation. If you're still looking for more information, I'd recommend this video review for the old Wii version, it coincides with most of my opinions (just, you know, on PC), or check out the Jay is Games review.

On a wholly unsatisfactory and unrelated closing note, this is the first time I've tried throwing in alt-texts with the graphics. Do they seem to be working? I'm not sure if I did the code right or not, and the "Preview" function on Blogger doesn't seem to show the alt-texts at all.

Spaß an einem Samstag Nachmittag

Photo: http://www.farmshow.state.pa.us

I don't watch much television, and when I do, it tends to be very odd selections. For example, right now I'm watching the Pennsylvania Farm Show Sheep to Shawl Competition. If you're not familiar with the most amazing sport on the face of the planet, teams of five have about two and a half hours to shear a sheep, spin the wool, and weave it into a shawl (over six feet long, minimum). I don't know why, but this is absolutely gripping television to me. Between the race to the judges' table and the following auction (one sold for $3400 last year), I just can't not watch it.

Honestly, I can't say I have any "favorite" television show, although I've admitted that the only television show I've ever cleared my schedule to watch was The Mole. It was probably one of the very few reality television shows that had a true play-along element (as compared to a phone-in element), and the entire setting of espionage in a foreign country sucked me right in. Sadly, ABC never really respected this show and always shoved it to late hours, then wondered why it never got higher ratings.

I have a tremendous aversion to German, by the way. (Really, this is leading somewhere.) I don't know where exactly my phobia of the German language began, but I'd like to think it has something to do with my former life as a Music Ed major. German is "an incredibly easy language to understand" to everyone except me, apparently. Memorizing German is almost impossible for me, which is a shame, because some German art songs are stunningly beautiful. I've noticed that lately though, I've been spouting random German phrases to people, like "nein, das ist verboten" or random German counting (for numbers less than ten). Perhaps this aversion is slowly wearing off.

This may or may not explain my recent fascination with a little show called Schlag den Raab (Beat Raab). In it, a contestant (selected by a live vote) faces off against German television personality Stefan Raab in a serles of challenges. The first challenge is worth one point, the second is worth two, and so forth to game 15, worth 15 points. The first to reach 61 points (out of 120 possible) wins. If the contestant wins, they receive a jackpot that starts at €500,000 and increases by €500,000 every time Raab wins.

The challenges widely vary in nature, from traditional sports (volleyball, handball, ping pong) to trivia or puzzle challenges (identifying the title of a book by its cover, buzzing in as soon as an item that doesn't fit a category shows up on a screen, naming a celebrity that's reading a passage by listening to their voice) to more extreme challenges (driving ATVs on an outdoor course, egg-and-spoon races on beams suspended off the ground) to more ridiculous stunts and things you'd challenge a drunk person to do in a bar (hammering nails into a board 2 feet above one's head, flicking a coin into a glass, combining five keyrings into one keyring)... Pretty much anything's up for grabs.


Photo: http://www.prosieben.de/tv/schlag-den-raab/

One trend of shows I've noticed in Germany (possibly in other countries, I'm not sure) is the popularity of periodic shows such as Schlag den Raab, which only air a few episodes per year, and take up the better portion of an entire night. Wetten, dass..? is another show that follows this trend, and is watched by well over half of German speaking folks across Europe. Schlag den Raab usually runs for at least four hours (think about it, there's a minimum of 11 games to play, plus commercials and musical guests) and starts airing at 8:15 on Saturday nights (in Germany, obviously), so it's an evening pretty well based around the television set.

The next episode airs this Saturday, January 16, and starts 2:15pm EST with a contestant playing for a €1,500,000 jackpot. I plan to watch the show as I finish packing to return to school. There's just one hitch... There's not really any legal method to watch it live in the US. There's a bit of hunting involved to find a website that's streaming the channel live. If I find something then, I'll be sure to post a link to it on Saturday, and I'll admit that I'll most likely be obtaining the link from Bother's Bar, so you'd be best off watching for a link there.

That said, keep watching this space for an update, and we'll see you Samstag.

Update: Show over, yanking this link. Yikes, that was a smidge embarrassing for the contestant. For those of you who missed it, Stefan won 63-15, after round 12. The contestant, Torsten, won only rounds 1, 5, and 9. A definite highlight worth noting: A game where some bread was loaded into a toaster, and the first to buzz in started a timer. If the toast popped before ten seconds, whoever buzzed gets a point. My definite favorite though was the backwards music game. Give it a shot, it's a lot of fun. For a bit of a play-by-play/commentary on everything, I will again link you to the Bother's Bar discussion.

QI in America

I swear, I will eventually get around to a post that isn't about game shows. However, this crossed my path today, and I felt that I must share it. One of my favorite British game shows is QI (Quite Interesting), which has been increasingly popular across the pond. The show plays out as a semi-topical quiz, with the exception that the questions are very near impossible. This is where the hilarity comes in. Points are awarded for correct responses, as well as those that are wrong, but still quite interesting. Points are taken away for obvious incorrect answers (accompanied by a few flashing lights and klaxons). At the end of each show, you walk away having laughed a few pounds off, and gained a few interesting tidbits of information.

While stumbling around the QI website, I noticed a sidebar mentioning a petition to bring British QI to American airwaves. Naturally, I jumped at the chance, and signed the petition. The mere thought of QI here excites me, since now after years of spouting off random bits of information to friends, they can now see that I'm not that looney.

One thing that's really appealed to me about this show is that it makes learning fun. Teachers stuggle to make this connection with their students everyday, when all they've really needed to do is get Stephen Fry and Alan Davies to come in and banter around a bit. Granted, the show does make gratuitous use of sexual humor (Brits can get more things past censors), but the joking around makes the venue much more fun than if we were to just have everything read to us by our humanities professor. I would love to have the opportunity to sit in with the chaps and banter around with them a bit, although the closest I could (reasonably) do is go to see a taping (which is a possibility, considering the tapings mostly occur May-Juneish).

Anyway, to try to sway some others to joining me in the petition, here's a video from the fourth season of the show, which ironically, has a line or two of America-bashing. Worth the price, I'd say.



Click here to read and sign the petition.

1000 Words on Game Shows

Because I'm having a bit of insomnia right now, here are my opinions on 100 game shows, in no particular order, ten words each. Particulars on versions (country, approximate year, etc.) appear in parentheses. If I'm off by a word on one, I don't want to hear it.

1. Deal or No Deal (US primetime): A game of luck with 26 models, briefcases, and commercials.
2. Deal or No Deal (US daytime): How they should have done it from the onset, thanks.
3. Deal or No Deal (UK): The ideal, with that amazing balance of drama and comedy.
4. Wheel of Fortune (US, current): The ultimate light entertainment game, but now a bit gimmicky.
5. Jeopardy! (US, current): Still brilliant, even with minimal format changes. But hard.
6. Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? (Regis era): Fifteen questions lead to a dramatic change in the genre.
7. Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? (Vieira era... heh): Lost some of its mystique, but still a good show.
8. Greed: I hated it then, but now I wish I didn't.
9. Winning Lines: The most amazing end-game ever, with some shoddy leading events.
10. Twenty-One (Povich revival): I'd rather trust Van Doren with a shotgun than this.
11. Amne$ia: Good game, but Dwyer tried to make too many jokes.
12. Identity: I'm not a fan of drama by elongating answer reveals.
13. 1 vs. 100: They screwed up the last season, but otherwise, quite brilliant.
14. The Mole: The only reality show I will clear my schedule for.
15. QI (UK): British comics make obscure trivia cool once again... nerds rejoice!
16. Hole in the Wall (US): It looks like fun, but it's flooded with fat jokes.
17. Hole in the Wall (UK, Australia, most anywhere else): Thank you for recognizing that this is a light show.
18. Power of 10 (US): Brilliant game, but the final gamble will likely stay untouched.
19. Set for Life: I'd rather eat a mousetrap. Six, seven, eight, nine, ten.
20. National Bingo Night: I'd rather watch Set for Life. Not really. Both suck.
21. Press Your Luck: Giddy contestants and flashing lights... held my attention well, apparently.
22. Scrabble: I was too young to understand how amazing this was.
23. Don't Forget the Lyrics! (US): Wayne Brady shines in an overly dramatic arena... Typical Fox.
24. Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?: I question this show's validity in multiple ways... Typical Fox.
25. The Singing Bee: Hokeyness led to charm, and the prize was just right.
26. Talk About: Fairly cheap, but a great premise. Probably worth reviving sometime.
27. Every Second Counts (US): Funny show with a great host and excellent theme music.
28. Blockbusters (US Cullen, UK): A great game, but I never thought it was fair...
29. Blockbusters (US Rafferty): One on one, fairness fixed. Bring back old theme music!
30. Tic Tac Dough (Wayne): Despite the apparently terrible host, I didn't like it anyway.
31. Supermarket Sweep: Definitely needs a revival. I do it on weekends anyway.
32. Debt: A brilliant parody, removed because too many men watched it.
33. Shop 'Til You Drop (Lifetime and Family Channel): Silly, but I was young then, so it was acceptable.
34. Shop 'Til You Drop (PAX): They killed it... and added lyrics to the theme music.
35. Born Lucky: I barely remember this show, and maybe that's not bad.
36. Pictionary (adult version): I liked to play along. Apparently, so did Alan Thicke.
37. Double Dare (Nickelodeon, all versions): Always mentioned in Nickelodeon nostalgia conversations, so it definitely stuck.
38. Double Dare (CBS): Humor in ambiguous clues makes this fun to play with.
39. Card Sharks (All but the 2001 version): Games about numbers and statistics tend to make me smile.
40. Card Sharks (2001): Throw in a hidden camera, and it goes to pot.
41. Now You See It: Word searches are fun, but it did the format mambo.
42. Go: It's better as a party game, hosted by my weatherman.
43. American Gladiators (old-school): Athleticism was fun. Skytrack was my favorite, with Atlasphere second.
44. American Gladiators (new-fangled): It felt like a pro wrestling match before Hogan arrived.
45. Countdown (UK): Too highbrow for America, but still one of my favorites.
46. The Waiting Game (UK): Slow gameplay, but still very intriguing. Bring it to America!
47. Match Game (all variants): Innuendo is good, but wrong answers are funny as blank.
48. Bruce Forsyth's Hot Streak: I can't tell which is more fun, watching or playing...
49. The Weakest Link (US NBC): I really hated Anne Robinson, but now I wonder why.
50. The Weakest Link (US syndie): I really hated George Gray, and now I know why.
51. Think Fast! (Nick): There's something flawed about the gameplay here, like... what gameplay?
52. Nick Arcade: Overly enthusiastic host might be cause of future obesity issues.
53. Make the Grade: If one contestant clearly triumphed, the rest of it stunk.
54. What Would You Do?: Was this technically a gameshow? In any case, good variety.
55. Wild and Crazy Kids: Again, was this a gameshow? I definitely liked it anyway.
56. You're On!: More hidden cameras, but the slight unfairness did it in.
57. Whose Line is it Anyway?: Maybe not strictly a gameshow, but it definitely had winners.
58. Lingo: Loved the word game, hated the heavy reliance on luck.
59. Friend or Foe: It's The Prisoner's Dilemma, but in triplicate! Triple my angst!
60. Whammy!: Well... it tried. It just didn't quite do it right.
61. Wheel of Fortune 2000: Too many gimmicks to be related to its mother show.
62. Jep!: Too stop-and-go to be Jeopardy!'s child, even cousin.
63. Russian Roulette: It's fun because you know they're not really getting hurt.
64. Distraction: It's not fun because they are. And there's Jimmy Carr.
65. The Price is Right: Still fun to play along with, regardless of who's hosting.
66. Pyramid (and its many incarnations): A fun game, but ambiguous rules sometimes made it difficult.
67. Dirty Rotten Cheater: One of the better bluffing games, though the reveal lacked.
68. To Tell the Truth: Amazingly fun to play along with... and never be right.
69. Let's Make a Deal: Costumes aside, everything seemed to be too based on luck.
70. Family Feud (Combs, Dawson, O'Hurley): The better hosts of a classic game made it enjoyable.
71. Family Feud (Anderson, Karn): One was fat, the other in flannel, neither one tolerable.
72. Trivial Pursuit (early 90's): A good game brought to television by a capable host.
73. Shuffle: Slow gameplay, but same host brings color to interesting concept.
74. Boggle: Slow gameplay, starts to get redundant, even Wink becomes robotic.
75. Jumble: Does every game have to be played on a keypad?
76. Family Challenge (Combs): Silly and messy, but not really going anywhere with it.
77. Small Talk: Proves that our youth can be shamelessly exploited for humor.
78. Child's Play: Does the same, but with a much more solid game.
79. Shopping Spree: Too much gab, not enough game. That much aside, decent.
80. The Joker's Wild (90's): Liked the theme music, can't say much about the game.
81. Click: This one looked like fun, despite the sketchy end game.
82. Peer Pressure ("Pressure I"): Might as well be watching someone playing Truth or Dare.
83. Peer Pressure ("Pressure II"): On-the-buzzer trivia for teens. That's it. Nothing else.
84. Get the Picture: Too easy for one team to dominate. Otherwise, looked fun.
85. GUTS (and Global GUTS): Bungee cords make everything more fun and apparently, more athletic.
86. Random Acts of Comedy: Or not, as David Alan Grier gleefully demonstrates to us.
87. Hollywood Squares (all versions): A very delicate balance between comedy and trivia finally realized.
88. Fetch! with Ruff Ruffman: Finally, kids' reality television that's educational and fun... Cheers, PBS!
89. Pick Your Brain: Good game, probably would have worked better without the robot.
90. Maximum Drive: Motorcycles and ATV's in a gameshow? Eh... sure, why not.
91. Powerball Instant Millionaire: A game that feels like the lottery itself: sheer luck.
92. Quicksilver: Interesting game, but made so cheaply it loses all credibility.
93. All 4 One: See above. So cheap it's painful. Are we done yet?
94. Junkyard Wars: Good fun for the mechanical engineer in all of us.
95. Interceptor (UK): I still think this would be a hit in America.
96. Remote Control: The charm is in the cheesiness, and the Eubanks Pez.
97. Trivia Trap: Seemed like a roundabout way to do the same thing.
98. Golden Balls (UK): A brilliant bluffing game, but... why The Prisoner's Dilemma again?
99. Show Me the Money: I'm terribly alone in believing this show had definite potential.
100. The Moment of Truth: Springer as a gameshow: Sex, lies, and still no winners.