What can I say? It's one of the most classic game shows in game show history. The rules are simple, it's basically a glorified version of hangman, but with money involved. I remember playing this game when I was younger and not being able to get some of the harder puzzles, the opera "La Boheme" comes to mind, but overall this is a family game in its original form. It's fun today to play against the computer players, which don't have bad AI at all considering the age of the game.
The game plays the basic “Wheel of Fortune” format, with three rounds of puzzles followed by a bonus round if one of the human-controlled players wins the game. The puzzles are challenging enough to entertain adults, but this game is played more for fun than the actual competition factor.
One of the funniest parts of the game is seeing the virtual “Vanna White” scurry across the screen to reveal the letters that you have just uncovered on the puzzle. This game was made long before the purchasing of personalities on game show games, so the generic woman that appears has to do. The graphics of the game are on par with the game show games of the time, but compared to some of the Softie
Inc. games (Card Sharks, Classic Concentration, Double Dare, to name a few off the top of my head) the game is rather basic. There is basically the one screen that is seen on the screen shots on the download page, with the puzzle board showing which letters have and have not been revealed while the generic “Vanna” stands and waits for another correct letter to be chosen.
Several versions of the game show have been released in the twenty-some years since this game was released, but considering the basic format of the show remains the same today, this game has stood the test of time. I would recommend it as a download just to get a feel of the beginning of game show games as we know it; for the first computer that many of us owned in the 1980’s.
If I were to rate this game now, it would stand at 6 out of 10. But compared with the other games of its era, 8 out of 10 would probably be a more accurate rating for a game that spawned many future sequels on a variety of systems. Not bad for a game show that was thought to possibly never make it for long on television.
