The (Talkhaus) Price is Right - Discussion Thread
Posted: 17 Feb 2015, 03:01
So, I made this suggestion a while back, when I hit my 500th post, but it got graveyard'd because I stupidly made the post look like it was *about* the post count milestone instead of the idea I had in general. Trying again in a less stupid manner as my 1000th post.
So, there's this long-running game show called The Price is Right. You may have heard of it. Back when I posted at Jul (another gaming/hacking forum), I set up a forum-based version of it. Not perfect, but it recreated a handful of games from the show pretty well. I still kept all the graphics and stuff I used for it, and thought, hey, why not give it a shot on Talkhaus?
The general idea of the show is pretty simple. First, four people are "called down" from the audience into Contestants' Row, where they proceed to place a single bid on how much believe the prize offered costs. The one who bids closest to the price of the prize without going over (yes, even if someone bids $1500, and the price's price turns out to be $1499, that person still can't win) wins that prize, and gets to go on stage to play a "Pricing Game": a mini-game of sorts where they can potentially win more prizes, or sometimes cash. Note that if all four contestants overbid, the bids are erased, and everyone gets a second chance, being told to bid lower than the lowest previous one. This can go on indefinitely until someone finally bids below the price, but I've never seen it take more than two tries.
As for the pricing games, they're randomly selected from a pool of more than 100 of them (although many have been discontinued over the years), and vary pretty significantly, though one constant is that you're usually aiming to guess the price of either the big prize or smaller prizes used within the game as "parts". I've pretty faithfully recreated 18 of these games for the three episodes in which we did on Jul, and I could definitely whip up more if things go well here. I'll get into the specific rules for these as we get to them, if I get enough participants.
After three bids, and consequently three pricing games, they move on to the "Showcase Showdown". The three contestants from the pricing games, whether they won or lost said games, get a chance to spin a big wheel numbered from 5 cents to $1.00, in increments of five cents. The object is to try and get as close to $1.00 without going over. They're given two spins, but can opt to quit after the first one if *on* that first spin, they feel comfortable enough with what they landed on. The one closest to $1.00 after all three have spun moves onto the "Showcase" at the end of the show, a bonus finale game of sorts. If any contestant spins exactly $1.00, either on their first spin alone or the two combined, wins $1,000 and gets a bonus spin. If they land on $1.00 again, they get $25,000 bonus (this used to be a $10,000 bonus, but it was upped sometime in the late 2000s). If they land on 5 cents or 15 cents (the spaces on the wheel bordering $1.00), they win $10,000 (again, upped from $5,000). This is the part of the game I have trouble with. On the Jul version, I simply had everyone pick a number between 1 and 20, and then had it correspond to a list I made up beforehand. It's a luck-based game to begin with, but this never quite felt right, and I'm open to any suggestions on how to make this work.
Anyhow, after the Showcase Showdown, three more one-bids, and three more pricing games are played, after which a second Showcase Showdown happens. Same rules as the first.
At the end of the second Showcase Showdown, the winners from both face off in the Showcase round. Here, two "Showcases" are shown, which contain multiple prizes, and usually includes big ticket items such as lavish trips, expensive cars, and the like. The contestants are first shown a single Showcase. After that, the contestant won won the most that day is given the option to bid on it, or pass it to the other contestant, taking the next Showcase. Usually this is done if the first one is undesirable, and they think they may get something better in the second. Regardless, both contestants bid on their Showcases, in the same fashion as the one-bids: They guess the total price of the entire package. And, well, the winner is the one who is closer to the price without going over. If one, however, is to guess the price within $500 (I think this is the current value, at any rate. It used to be $250, and even beforehand, $100. But inflation and all that), they win *both* Showcases. Unlike the one-bids, though, if both contestants overbid, they're out of luck and *no one* wins one. One shot is all you get.
And that's about it. Given the way the game goes, I'm actually going to need nine people to sign up for each "episode", specifically for the one-bid segments, of which six will ultimately get to play pricing games. In a first-come-first-serve fashion, each person who signs up will be called into Contestants' Row and will get a chance to bid and all that. The first four to sign up will, of course, be the first four who get to bid. After each one, I'll call the next person up, and we'll go from there. This does mean, unfortunately, that three people who sign up won't get to *play* a pricing game, but if this goes well, I'll automatically enter the three who didn't into the next "episode" as the first four.
With all that rambling aside... well, sign up here!
So, there's this long-running game show called The Price is Right. You may have heard of it. Back when I posted at Jul (another gaming/hacking forum), I set up a forum-based version of it. Not perfect, but it recreated a handful of games from the show pretty well. I still kept all the graphics and stuff I used for it, and thought, hey, why not give it a shot on Talkhaus?
The general idea of the show is pretty simple. First, four people are "called down" from the audience into Contestants' Row, where they proceed to place a single bid on how much believe the prize offered costs. The one who bids closest to the price of the prize without going over (yes, even if someone bids $1500, and the price's price turns out to be $1499, that person still can't win) wins that prize, and gets to go on stage to play a "Pricing Game": a mini-game of sorts where they can potentially win more prizes, or sometimes cash. Note that if all four contestants overbid, the bids are erased, and everyone gets a second chance, being told to bid lower than the lowest previous one. This can go on indefinitely until someone finally bids below the price, but I've never seen it take more than two tries.
As for the pricing games, they're randomly selected from a pool of more than 100 of them (although many have been discontinued over the years), and vary pretty significantly, though one constant is that you're usually aiming to guess the price of either the big prize or smaller prizes used within the game as "parts". I've pretty faithfully recreated 18 of these games for the three episodes in which we did on Jul, and I could definitely whip up more if things go well here. I'll get into the specific rules for these as we get to them, if I get enough participants.
After three bids, and consequently three pricing games, they move on to the "Showcase Showdown". The three contestants from the pricing games, whether they won or lost said games, get a chance to spin a big wheel numbered from 5 cents to $1.00, in increments of five cents. The object is to try and get as close to $1.00 without going over. They're given two spins, but can opt to quit after the first one if *on* that first spin, they feel comfortable enough with what they landed on. The one closest to $1.00 after all three have spun moves onto the "Showcase" at the end of the show, a bonus finale game of sorts. If any contestant spins exactly $1.00, either on their first spin alone or the two combined, wins $1,000 and gets a bonus spin. If they land on $1.00 again, they get $25,000 bonus (this used to be a $10,000 bonus, but it was upped sometime in the late 2000s). If they land on 5 cents or 15 cents (the spaces on the wheel bordering $1.00), they win $10,000 (again, upped from $5,000). This is the part of the game I have trouble with. On the Jul version, I simply had everyone pick a number between 1 and 20, and then had it correspond to a list I made up beforehand. It's a luck-based game to begin with, but this never quite felt right, and I'm open to any suggestions on how to make this work.
Anyhow, after the Showcase Showdown, three more one-bids, and three more pricing games are played, after which a second Showcase Showdown happens. Same rules as the first.
At the end of the second Showcase Showdown, the winners from both face off in the Showcase round. Here, two "Showcases" are shown, which contain multiple prizes, and usually includes big ticket items such as lavish trips, expensive cars, and the like. The contestants are first shown a single Showcase. After that, the contestant won won the most that day is given the option to bid on it, or pass it to the other contestant, taking the next Showcase. Usually this is done if the first one is undesirable, and they think they may get something better in the second. Regardless, both contestants bid on their Showcases, in the same fashion as the one-bids: They guess the total price of the entire package. And, well, the winner is the one who is closer to the price without going over. If one, however, is to guess the price within $500 (I think this is the current value, at any rate. It used to be $250, and even beforehand, $100. But inflation and all that), they win *both* Showcases. Unlike the one-bids, though, if both contestants overbid, they're out of luck and *no one* wins one. One shot is all you get.
And that's about it. Given the way the game goes, I'm actually going to need nine people to sign up for each "episode", specifically for the one-bid segments, of which six will ultimately get to play pricing games. In a first-come-first-serve fashion, each person who signs up will be called into Contestants' Row and will get a chance to bid and all that. The first four to sign up will, of course, be the first four who get to bid. After each one, I'll call the next person up, and we'll go from there. This does mean, unfortunately, that three people who sign up won't get to *play* a pricing game, but if this goes well, I'll automatically enter the three who didn't into the next "episode" as the first four.
With all that rambling aside... well, sign up here!