Just very quickly:
- Accumulate! series three/six/whatever begins on Friday, apparently.
- It is the last Brilliant Dollar Blimey Drop of the current series on Fox on Tuesday, and you will be able to play along LIVE! at something like three in the morning, if you want.
- Challenge starts up on Freeview tomorrow, so rescan your boxes! Will there be a new logo? It is all too exciting.
- Miss Only Connect? If you’re reading this before 8:30pm Monday, I’m doing a highbrow competition on Twitter (YES, A COMPETWITION) where you can win a small cash prize in a game that’s very similar to the ever popular Wonkey Donkey on SM:tv Live, and when I say similar, I mean pretty much exactly the same as. Join in the fun! You might win a fiver.
One thing is for definite. There will be a new Challenge website or Sky have pulled it down. http://www.challenge.co.uk/ has now got a blank screen.
Yes I looked that up earlier. It will be worth watching at midnight that’s for sure (*)
(*) It’s probably not THAT exciting.
Just did a rescan on my Freeview TV and Channel 46 is live. At the moment it has the current challenge logo on the screen but nothing else.
My EPG says is saying that programmes will start at 6am with Unbeatable Banzuke. Nothing new on the EPG that we don’t already see – Crystal maze at 6pm. IITWI at 9pm. Distractino at 11pm.
Meh!
As of early Tuesday evening, the Challenge website redirects to a generic Sky promotional page. Readers may wish to draw their own conclusions about Sky’s commitment to high-quality original content across all media.
I have *almost* decided to sign up for twitter, just for this competition in 12 minutes.
Well that was fun, and well done to Simon Fox for winning.
For the record, the picture, temporarily, is here:
https://www.bothersbar.co.uk/donkey.jpg
Oh and if you’ve never polayed Wonkey Donkey before this is a good starting point: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fA4rSOOjVQY
A thought on Perfection. What happens if the player runs out of time? It strikes me that there’s the potential for “play or pass” tactics. If you’re going into the third round with category choices carried over, it might pay to say nothing for 45 seconds and force Rita, Sue And Bob Too (sorry, which movie was it again?) to answer the four questions without an “x correct” to help them. You give up the chance of grabbing all the category choices, but improve your chances of getting a split. Possible?
Possible and quite reasonable. I could see that being abused so badly though, by people who aren’t confident on the first question – who is supposed to be playing the main bulk of the game, after all. My solution would be to force the unanswered one(s) to be “true” by default. As long as the questions are in a random order and there is a fair split between true and false, then my solution is slightly inelegant but workable I think.
Over to Josephine.
I don’t want a solution, I’d like it embraced as a possible tactic. In that situation, Nick could actually ask whether the player wants to take the questions or hand them straight over to The Three Musketeers.
This is a decent idea. Make the three’s job harder with the caveat that you can’t actually win that round.
As you are asking what happens if someone runs out of time, you are asking for a solution to that potential snag in the rules. The tactics discussion is separate. I’m sure Josephine has thought it through. It is a reasonable suggestion, but one that would probably only work in a home game. On screen would people really want to watch someone not bothering to answer questions because they think 3 other people can’t answer them? Possibly, but given then whole point of the show is geared around someone giving perfection, it does seem a bit of a cop out. Would you be rooting for someone that does that to win? Again amongst us possibly, but I can’t see it flying with the population at large.
We talked about this at some length in the development process and nearly decided not to have a timer on the round so that it would never happen. Then we thought it might be interesting if someone *did* decide to do it for tactical reasons; however not a single contestant (either in series 1a or 1b as I like to call them) even contemplated doing it. Most of the contestants don’t seem to play as tactically as the game allows for. I’m always stunned when Usual Suspects tell the contestant that they think they’ve achieved Perfection in the end game. I’m like: “Why are you saying this!?! You should be bluffing and then come over!!!” Or when the Usual Suspects pick categories which they themselves find difficult, “you should pick something you’re brilliant at so you can use it as leverage to come over in the end game!!” But then I’m a probably a conniving evil tactical type person.
Looks like The Chase has solved a flaw with the final chase. If a Chaser is on zero. answers a question incorrectly but the contestants give the correct asnwer then the Chaser’s target is now increased by one.
That seemed like the obvious thing to do. Really they should have sorted that out in series 1 – it’s hardly beyond the wit of man, is it?
Makes sense.
I’ve been showing some Final Chases to a friend, and he likes what he sees. For that matter, so do I.
Would like to see more complete episodes, especially those with Shawn Wallace or Anne Hegarty. Not to take anything away from the Beast, but the four complete ones that are on YT all have him. I’m curious about seeing how the others interact with the players.
Oh that’s fun, TV Ark have got the titles to the original Michael Groth 4 Square. The first set was better than Sachs’ original set I reckon.
Also apparently a really rubbish catchphrase if the end credits were anything to go by.
Looks like the Million Pound Drop board game is on shelves. Getting some pretty mediocre reviews though, as the trapdoors seem to not function properly.
Also, apparently a new version of the Deal or No Deal board game is out, with the frustrating paper boxes replaced with ones made of plastic, so no set up. The phone now features Noel as well.
Anyone have either of these?
Million Pound Drop was out before Christmas, although on a trip to Westfield shopping centre in London I could only find it in WHSmiths.
Not heard about the new Deal or No Deal.
Apparently the new Deal game is in an identical box to the old one, which doesn’t exactly help.
I have the MPD board game, and I can attest to the trapdoors not working properly. I only used it once over Christmas and now one of the doors just drops out of its frame every time, which I’ve had to try and keep in place with some sticky tape. I think £25 is a bit much for a few bits of plastic and card to make the table, 40 small cardboard money bundles, some question cards and an egg timer. I don’t know if this was intentional or not, but 10 of my question cards have no questions or answers on them. I’ll look into doing a YouTube vid about it when I get home from work today and showing you exactly what’s up with my game.
MPD problems are not just on your side of the pond… FOX publicized their play along game… which didn’t allow you to even see the answers on your screen until about 2/3rds of the way through the show (and at that point the money moving wasn’t working) and only the final question of the night actually fully 100% worked.
So, just like the actual show on FOX, most people lost everything – although we didn’t have the chance to scrap the episode and not air it!
Made my video about the MPD game, and here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKqVoIP-u2E
In unrelated news, I’ve found some episodes of Lithuanian ‘Colour of Money’ called ‘Svarus Pinigai’ on this channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/LottoFixTV
Just watched it, good thing I didn’t spend £25 on that. Even The Cube is worth better than MPD. You might as well get those boxes that holds packs of papers, get some cheap paint and do some DIY to create the drop effect.
That’s right, you’re far better off making your own version of the game rather than buying it. Incidentally, I did buy The Cube game on my birthday, and at least you get something electronic (The Cube’s base) that makes it worth the price, as well as all the bits you need for the physical games.
Oh how I laughed Andy when I saw the question cards “misprint”… 🙂
Thanks, I couldn’t believe it myself when I first saw it. I thought it was just one card, but to have the same thing on 10 cards…it just had to be seen to be believed 😀
Tremendous in both cases, thanks Andy.
I see the Serbian Colour of Money is hosted by the Lithuanian Dale Winton.
Thanks, Brig. I was just looking through some of the channels I’m subscribed to and saw one part in the Favourites video of the ‘quizzies’ channel. I know ‘Colour of Crap’ wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea over here, but sometimes it’s good to see how another country handles the format.
No, absolutely.
What surprised me most about the Million Pound Drop game is the complete lack of surprise element inherent when a giant finger prods on a trapdoor. It’s a real shame there was no hidden lever/button element to it really.
Yeah, I know what you mean. It would have been better to have a little catch or something under each drop that the ‘host’ can move to release the trapdoors, as well as a little container to catch the ‘money bundles’ in so they don’t go all over the place. As I mentioned in the video, a little sound module with the clock music wouldn’t have gone amiss either (like the Family Fortunes game I have that has the ‘Uh-uhhh’ noise and the Countdown game I have that plays the 30-second countdown chimes), as it’s boring to just watch a sand-timer empty. I tried to improvise by converting a section of an episode of MPD to an MP3 and removing the vocals with Audacity, but the vocal removal isn’t always 100% effective, so you could still hear talking.
IF THEY FLASH THAT FREAKING CAR ONE MORE TIME….
Woooooooow. The lack of a sizable audience kinda bugs me for once. It just seems all so low key compared to the epic music in the background. And then the (kinda pathetic) set looks like it’s shorting out every time it changes colors.
1000 Lt = £247!
Million Pound Drop is getting record high ratings for this new series. Thanks to all who have been watching.
Well the idea of getting home from work at 10pm and having a bit of WWTBAM on in the background is marvellous.
Random Japan-o-fun:
The Hole in the Wall factor of “I shouldn’t want to have a go at that, but actually I do” is strong with this one. Well found!
Commission times eleventy zillion, to provide a bit of variety from yet more Hole repeats.
Digiguide has been updated and the blurb for Push the Button caught my eye.
“Cheeky chappies Ant and Dec return with a brand new series of their hilarious family gameshow – and this time it is live. Two families battle it out in a series of fiendish games, each one hoping to hang on to their £100,000 pot. Plus Ant and Dec go head-to-head, a mystery celebrity faces an unexpected challenge and someone at home gets the chance to take on DAVE.”
Is it me or does the new series is going to be like how Saturday Night Takeaway first started? Having a major format in the show with intervals slotted in between,
Plus the home game with the selected caller taking on DAVE must be the easiest home game ever. Even you got a short memory, you can write down the sequence.
Latest 5pm ratings from this week (nicked from DS).
Monday
Weakest Link – 2.05m
Antiques Road Show – 2.39m
The Chase (Excluding HD) – 2.63m
Come Dine With Me – 2.05m
Tuesday
Weakest Link – 1.97m
Antiques Road Show – 2.31m
The Chase (Excluding HD) – 2.85m
Come Dine With Me – 2.05m
Wednesday
Weakest Link – 1.99m
Antiques Road Show – 2.59m
The Chase (Excluding HD) – 2.70m
Come Dine With Me – 2.01m