Pricing games are featured on the current version of the game show The Price Is Right. The contestant from Contestants' Row who bids closest to the price of a prize without going over wins it and has the chance to win additional prizes or cash in an onstage game. After the pricing game ends, a new contestant is selected for Contestants' Row and the process is repeated. Six pricing games are played on each hour-long episode; three games per episode were played in the half-hour format. With the exception of a single game from early in the show's history, only one contestant at a time is involved in a pricing game.
A total of 105 games have been played on the show; 72 are in the current rotation and 33 have been retired. On a typical hour-long episode, two games—one in each half of the show—will be played for a car, at most one game will be played for a cash prize and the other games will offer merchandise or trips. Usually, one of the six games will involve grocery products, while another will involve smaller prizes that can be used to win a larger prize package.
On the 1994 syndicated version hosted by Doug Davidson, the rules of several games were modified and other aesthetic changes were made. Notably, the grocery products used in some games on the daytime version were replaced by small merchandise prizes, generally valued less than $100. Beginning in 2008, episodes of The Price Is Right $1,000,000 Spectacular featured rule changes to some pricing games which rewarded a $1 million bonus to the contestant if specific goals were achieved while playing the pricing game (see below).
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A gameboard contains spaces representing five digits in the price of a car, three digits in the price of a smaller prize, and three digits representing an amount of money less than $10, in dollars and cents. Each digit 0 through 9 appears on the board once, except for the first digit in the price of the car, which is revealed when the game begins. The contestant calls out digits one at a time, revealing those digits in the prices of the prizes on the board. The contestant wins the first prize whose price is completely revealed.
Prior to offering cars worth more than $10,000, no digit in the price of the car was revealed at the start of the game and the contestant was required to call out all four digits in the price to win the car. Prices with five digits were first featured during six 1986 prime time specials.
This was the very first pricing game ever played on the show when it debuted on September 4, 1972. It was also the last pricing game ever played with Bob Barker as host, as well as being the first pricing game played with Drew Carey.
The contestant is shown four prop bags of money. One bag represents the last two or three digits for the price of a prize and is placed on one side of a scale at the beginning of the game. Each remaining bag represents a value in multiples of $1,000. In order to win the prize, the contestant must choose two of the three remaining bags to add to the first bag in order to balance a scale which has a bag representing the total price on the other side.
A game with the same name but different rules was played from 1984–1985.
A gameboard displays an incorrect four-digit price for a prize and contains eight spaces: one space above and one space below each digit. The contestant is given four markers to place on the board and must guess whether each correct digit in the price of the prize is higher or lower than the digit displayed, placing a marker above or below the incorrect digit to denote their choice. The contestant then presses a button; if the guessed pattern is correct, the contestant wins the prize. If the guess is incorrect, the contestant may make further guesses if the 30-second time limit in the game has not expired.
The contestant is asked whether each of four small prizes is priced higher or lower than the incorrect price given. Each prize corresponds to one of four windows on a gameboard, one of which conceals the word "Bonus". The contestant wins a large bonus prize by correctly pricing the small prize with the window containing "Bonus".
The contestant is shown five grocery items and is asked to purchase a quantity of a single item such that the total price is between $10 and $12 in order to win a prize. The contestant may make three attempts, using a different item each time, to reach this target range. If the total is between $2 and $10, the contestant receives a marker to place on a gameboard. If the total is under $2 or over $12, no credit is given for the attempt.
The price tag for one of the five products also hides a bullseye behind it. If the contestant does not win the game by reaching the target price range within three attempts, they can still win the prize if the hidden bullseye is behind the price tag of one of the items marked on the gameboard.
Originally, the target featured a $5–$10 range with $9–$10 being the "bullseye" range. Shortly thereafter, the target became $1–$6 with a $5–$6 "bullseye" range.
The contestant uses playing cards from a standard deck to bid on a car. Before playing the game, the contestant draws a card from another deck to determine how close their bid must be to the actual price, without going over, in order to win. The contestant's bid starts at $15,000 and increases as the contestant draws cards: tens and face cards add $1,000 and numbered cards add their face value multiplied by $100. Aces are wild and can either be played immediately or held aside. When the contestant chooses to stop drawing cards, the price of the car is revealed. If the bid is within the target range without going over, the contestant wins the car.
The starting bid and range have changed several times during the game's history. Initially, the contestant started at $0. The starting bid increased to $2,000 in 1983, and later increased further, to $8,000 in 1993, $10,000 in 2001, $12,000 in 2005, and the current amount of $15,000 in 2008. In addition, until 1983, aces could only be made a value up to $1,000.
The secondary deck that determines the target range originally contained nine cards, one each with a value from $200 to $1,000 in $100 increments. In 1983, the game was briefly renamed "The New Card Game", and the deck was changed to contain 12 cards: two of each of $500 to $1,000 in $100 increments. The deck was changed again in 1993, but still contained 12 cards: three each with values from $500 to $2,000 in $500 increments. The current deck, introduced in 2005, contains seven cards with values from $1,000 to $5,000: two each with values from $1,000 to $3,000 in $1,000 increments and one $5,000 card.
The contestant is shown a prize and asked to write an amount on an oversized blank check. The value of the prize is then added to the amount written on the check and if the total falls between $7,000 and $8,000, the contestant wins both the prize and the cash amount of the check. If the contestant loses, the check is voided. Although the contestant keeps the check as a souvenir regardless of the outcome, it is not a negotiable instrument.
Originally, the game was known as Blank Check and the winning range was $3,000–$3,500. The range was subsequently increased to $5,000–$6,000 in February 1989, then to its current range in September 2008.
The contestant is asked to individually price five grocery items. After all five guesses are tallied, the actual prices of the items are revealed. If the contestant's cumulative total is within $2 of the actual total price of the five grocery items, the contestant wins a bonus prize.
The winning range was originally 50¢; it later increased to $1 in early 1996, then to the current $2 in late 2003.
This game debuted on The Price Is Right in 1976. The contestant is shown a game board with an animatronic yodeling mountain climber standing at the bottom of a 25-step mountain with a cliff at the top. The contestant is then shown three small prizes and is asked to guess the actual retail price of each prize one at a time. The mountain climber moves one step up the mountain for each dollar the contestant is off, higher or lower (e.g., if a contestant guesses a price of $15 for an object that costs $20, the climber moves five steps up the mountain). If the contestant is off by an aggregate of more than $25 on the three prizes, the climber falls off the cliff and the contestant loses the game; however, the contestant wins any prizes priced before the climber fell off the mountain. If the climber has not fallen off the cliff after pricing all three prizes (missing the three prizes by a total of $25 or less), the contestant wins all three small prizes and a larger prize.
Officially, the mountain climber has no name, although several hosts have used their own names for him. Doug Davidson referred to the climber on The New Price Is Right as "Hans Gudegast", which is the birth name of his Young and the Restless co-star Eric Braeden. Drew Carey has referred to him as "Hans", "Yodel Man", and most frequently, "Yodely Guy." At The Price Is Right Live!, he is often referred to as "Johann." Dennis James once referred to the climber as "Fritz", unaware of model Janice Pennington's second husband, Fritz Stammberger, who had disappeared in what was presumed at the time to be a mountain climbing accident shortly before the debut of the game. After the climber fell off the cliff, James commented, "There goes Fritz!", upsetting Pennington so much that she remained backstage crying for the rest of the episode.[1][2]
On the Australian version of the show, the climber's name is "Cliff" and a Saint Bernard dog named "Spot" follows behind him. The climber's name on Atinale Al Precio in Mexico is "Pancho" and he is named "Malcolm" on Cash en Carlo in the Netherlands.
The game is played for two prizes. The actual price of the first prize is shown to the studio and home audiences. After the contestant gives their first bid, a 30 second clock is started and the host tells the contestant whether the actual price is higher or lower than the bid. The contestant continues to bid, responding to the host's clues, until either the contestant wins by correctly guessing the price of the prize or the time expires. If time remains after the first prize is won, the process is repeated for the second prize. If the contestant prices both prizes within 30 seconds, he or she also wins an additional bonus prize and $1,000. Unlike other pricing games, the audience is required to remain silent while the contestant is making bids.
With few exceptions, only prizes valued below $1,000 have traditionally been offered in Clock Game. To compensate for low prize values, a $1,000 bonus was added in 1998. Since 2009, contestants have also been awarded an additional bonus prize for winning the game. Prior to the addition of a bonus prize, prizes priced above $1,000 were offered during the game for a brief period from 2008–2009. Prizes valued over $1,000 were also offered for a brief period in the 1980s. The contestant was given only the thousands digit for free.
On the 1970s syndicated version hosted by Dennis James, if the contestant won both prizes with 2 or more seconds to spare, they were also awarded a $1,000 bonus.
On six special episodes that aired during the summer of 1986 in prime time, after winning both prizes the contestant blindly chose a cash bonus from one of four envelopes with possible values of $1,000, $2,000, $3,000 and $5,000. In all prime time versions since 2002, a bonus of $5,000 has been awarded.
The contestant is shown the price of a prize, whose digits may be displayed in either the correct or reverse order. In order to win, the contestant must choose which of the two possibilities is the correct price (e.g., $1,234 or $4,321).
An incorrect price for a car is shown on a gameboard. Above each digit in the price are alternate digits: two alternates for the first digit, three for the second digit, and so on up to six options for the fifth digit. The contestant is asked to choose an alternate digit in each column to create a new price for the car. If the new price is correct, the contestant wins the car. If any digits in the price are correct, the correct digits are lit and the contestant repeats the process for each remaining digit. The game continues until the contestant either wins the car by correctly placing all five digits, or loses by providing a price in which no new numbers are correct.
Five prizes, each usually worth $200 to $3,000, are shown. The contestant is shown a credit limit, usually $1,800 to $2,500 and must select, one at a time, the three prizes whose total price is below the credit limit. If the total does not exceed the credit limit, the contestant wins all five prizes.
The contestant is shown four prizes and told a "danger price", which is the price of one of the prizes. If the contestant avoids the danger price by sequentially choosing the other three prizes, he wins all four prizes.
The game is played for a car with a price that does not include the digits 7, 8, 9 or 0. The first digit of the price is revealed. The contestant takes four turns rolling a die on a dice table. To count, the die must roll over a line painted on the board. Each turn corresponds to one of the remaining digits in the price of the car. If the contestant rolls the actual digit, it is revealed on a gameboard. If all four correct digits are rolled, the contestant wins the car automatically. If the contestant does not roll the actual digit, he or she is asked whether the actual digit is higher or lower than the digit rolled, and wins the car if all of the guesses are correct.
Prior to 1977, the car price occasionally included zeroes or digits higher than six. Originally, when cars with four-digit prices were offered, the first number was not revealed to start the game. When cars priced above $10,000 were first offered in the 1980s, an extra digit window was added to the left side of the gameboard for the first number in the price. The game was briefly renamed "Deluxe Dice Game" when this change first occurred.
The contestant wins a prize by choosing its correct price from two options.
Two prizes were offered in early episodes of the 1970s syndicated edition hosted by Dennis James. Regardless of whether or not the contestant won the first prize, the contestant could win a second prize by choosing the correct price from a different set of two possibilities.
The contestant is given blocks marked 1, 2 and 3, which are used to rank three prizes from least expensive to most expensive. The contestant wins the prizes by correctly ranking all three.
The contestant is shown five price tags, one of which is the correct price of a car. The contestant is then shown four small prizes and must choose whether a price displayed for each one is the accurate price of the item, signifying their guess with "true" or "false." Each correct guess wins that item and a choice from among the price tags. After pricing the four small items, the contestant wins the car by selecting its price from among the five price tags using the choices they earned.
A gameboard contains the four digits in the price of a prize, arranged in pairs (e.g., 12|34), but at least one pair of digits in the displayed price is reversed. The contestant may choose to "flip" the first two digits (e.g., $2,134), "flop" the last two ($1,243), or "flip flop" both pairs ($2,143). Making the correct choice wins the prize.
A ring of eight tiles, each with a two-digit number, rotates clockwise through a frame at the top of a gameboard. Two of the tiles appear in the frame at a time, forming a four-digit price. The contestant pulls a lever to stop the ring from moving when he believes the price within the frame is the price of the prize. A correct guess wins the prize.
The contestant is shown five prices for a car. One at a time, the contestant selects four prices he believes are not the price of the car. Each time he is correct, the contestant wins an amount of money concealed behind the card. Each of the four incorrect prices are worth between $1,000 and $4,000. After each guess, the contestant may choose to either stop and keep any money won or risk the money by selecting another price. If the contestant successfully guesses all four incorrect prices, he or she wins the car and $10,000. If the contestant's guess is the car's price, the game ends and the contestant loses everything.
Contestants originally had to select what they believed to be the actual price of the car before attempting to eliminate the other four incorrect prices.
Due to its complex staging, Golden Road is always played first on a show in which it appears. It involves three prizes; the first two have three- and four-digit prices, respectively. The price of the final prize usually contains five digits, but occasionally contains six. The final prize is often billed as "the most expensive single prize offered on the show," and is usually a luxury car.
The contestant is shown the price of a grocery item worth less than $1 and is then asked which of the two digits in its price is also the missing first digit in the price of the first prize. If correct, that price tag is used to select the missing hundreds digit in the second prize. If the contestant prices the second prize correctly, the four numbers in the price of the second prize are used to select the missing hundreds digit in the price of the final prize. The contestant wins any prizes he has correctly priced. The digits in the prices of the first two prizes do not repeat.
The contestant is shown a target price and six grocery items, four of which are priced below the target price. One at a time, the contestant selects items he believes are priced lower than the target. The contestant's winnings start at $1 and are multiplied by ten for each correct selection, to $10, $100 and $1,000. A contestant who makes an incorrect guess prior to reaching the $1,000 level keeps whatever money is accumulated to that point. After reaching the $1,000 level, the contestant may choose to quit the game and keep their winnings or to risk that money in order to attempt to select the one remaining product priced lower than the target. A correct final choice wins the maximum of $10,000; however, if the final item the contestant selects is one of the two above the target price, the contestant loses everything.
Since 2002, the rewards are doubled for a top prize of $20,000 when the game is played in prime time.
The contestant is shown five grocery items and asked to purchase quantities of them to total between $20 and $21. The contestant can purchase any quantity of any item. However, once an item has been selected, that item cannot be selected again. After the contestant selects an item, its price is revealed and multiplied by the quantity, then added to the contestant's running total on a cash register. If the contestant succeeds, he wins a prize. The game ends if the contestant's total exceeds $21 or they exhaust all five items before reaching $20.
The original total range was $6.75 to $7.00. The first four times the game was played, the contestant received $100 at the start of the game, which he kept if he won, chose to stop before exceeding $7.00, or lost without exceeding $7.00. The contestant also received supplies of the five items in each of those four games. The quantities varied but always totaled at least $100 and counted toward the contestant's winnings.
Hidden inside one of 16 boxes displayed onstage is $10,000. The contestant is shown six small prizes in three pairs, one pair at a time and is asked which one of them is priced at half of its actual price. The contestant wins that pair of prizes for each correct guess and half of the empty boxes are then eliminated from play. After all three pairs of prizes have been played, if the contestant has correctly priced all three pairs, he or she wins a $1,000 bonus, theirs to keep regardless of the outcome. The contestant then tries to win the grand prize by selecting the box that contains the money.
Prior to 2007, contestants did not receive any bonus money for each correct guess during the pricing portion of the game. From 2007–2010, contestants won $500 for each pair of prizes correctly priced, for a maximum of $1,500, which was theirs to keep regardless of the outcome.
In prime time, the grand prize is increased from $10,000 to $25,000.
The contestant is shown six grocery items and asked to choose the three he believes are the highest-priced. After the prices of the contestant's choices are revealed and placed in the Hi row, the lowest-priced of the items in the Hi row is kept and the remaining items' prices are then revealed and placed in the Lo row. If the contestant has correctly chosen the three highest-priced items, he wins a prize.
Early in the game's history, the contestant was asked whether each individual item's price belonged in the Hi row or the Lo row. The contestant either won the game by correctly placing each of the six prices or lost by making a mistake.
The contestant must putt a golf ball into a hole (similar to miniature golf) in order to win a car. The contestant is asked to place six grocery items in ascending order of price. The prices are then revealed one at a time, and the contestant will ultimately make their putt from a line closer to the hole for each successive price that is higher than the previous price. Correctly ordering all six items wins a $500 bonus for the contestant.
After the prices have been revealed and the line from which the contestant will putt is determined, the contestant receives one chance to putt the ball into the hole. If their first attempt is unsuccessful, the ball is replaced on the same line and the contestant receives a second and final putt.
The host usually performs an "inspirational putt" to show the contestant how to use a putter, although a model or golf-involved guest will occasionally perform this instead.
Prior to 1986, the contestant was allowed only one putt to win the car. The game's name became "Hole in One or Two" when the second putt rule was instituted. On episodes which air in prime time, the bonus for correctly ordering all six items is $1,000.
The contestant is shown a series of five grocery bags, with a price tag on each one indicating the retail price of the grocery item in the bag. Six grocery items are then shown; five of the six items correspond to the items in the bags, while the sixth item does not match any of the displayed prices. One at a time, the contestant must match up the grocery items with their prices. After all five choices have been made, the host reveals the price of each item. If the item in the bag matches the one the contestant chose, the contestant wins the corresponding amount of money and must decide whether or not to continue to the next level or quit with the money they have already won. If they choose to continue and an incorrect match is revealed, the contestant loses everything they won up to that point and the game ends. The first correct match pays a $1,000 prize, with each successive correct match doubling the contestant's winnings ($2,000, $4,000, $8,000 and $16,000).
In prime time, the last bag's value is increased to $24,000.
The game is played for a car or a cash prize of up to $7,500. It uses five large dice, each marked with an image of a car on three sides and cash values of $500, $1,000 and $1,500 on the other three. The contestant is given one roll of the dice and can earn up to two more using three grocery products. The price of the first item is given and the contestant must determine whether the price of each of the next two items is higher or lower than the item preceding it.
In order to win the car, the contestant must roll cars on all five dice in one of the earned rolls. If some dice show cash amounts instead of car images, the contestant may choose either to keep that amount of cash as their prize or to forgo this money and re-roll the dice that did not show a car. If the contestant has not won the car in the final roll, he or she wins the total amount of cash displayed on the dice after the final roll.
Line 'em Up is played for a car and three other prizes. The contestant is shown the first and last digits of the car's price. Two of the smaller prizes each have a three-digit price and one has a two-digit price. In order to win the car, the contestant must line up the three prices in a frame to display a price for the car. If the guess is correct, the contestant wins everything. Otherwise, the contestant is told how many of the digits are correctly placed, but not specifically which ones; the contestant then makes a second guess. The contestant loses if he guesses incorrectly on the second attempt.
The contestant is given seven $1 bills and shown the first digit in the price of a car. The contestant guesses the remaining digits in the price, one at a time, losing $1 for each digit of difference between their guess and the correct digit. If the contestant has at least $1 remaining after all digits are played, he or she wins the car.
Originally, all cars appearing in this game were priced under $10,000 and no free digits were revealed. When cars priced above $10,000 began to regularly appear, the free digit rule varied: on six special episodes which aired in prime time during the summer of 1986, the last digit in the price was revealed at the start of the game and the contestant had to guess the first four digits. Later that year on the daytime show, the contestant was offered the first digit and was required to guess the last four digits in the price.
For the show's 7,000th episode, the game used seven stacks of $1,000 instead of the usual seven $1 bills; for that playing, the contestant needed at least $1,000 to buy the car.
The contestant is shown two prizes and told which is the more expensive of the two. The contestant must then use a lever on the prop to set a magic number he believes to be between the two prices, higher than the less-expensive prize and lower than the more-expensive prize. If he is correct, he wins both prizes.
The contestant is shown a sequence of nine digits on a gameboard which include, consecutively but in unknown order, the prices of three prizes: one of each with a two-, three- and four-digit price. There are also three color-coded sliders: a red slider for the two-digit price, a yellow slider for the three-digit price and a green slider for the four-digit price. The contestant must move the slider corresponding to each prize under the digits representing its price, using each digit only once and not overlapping any of the sliders. The contestant must correctly price all three prizes to win.
Master Key is played for a car and two smaller prizes and involves a set of three locks and five keys. The contestant attempts to select the correct two-digit price from a string of three digits for each of two small prizes (e.g., with a string of "210", the correct price is either $21 or $10). For each correct guess, he wins that small prize and a key. Three keys correspond to one prize lock each. One key, dubbed the "master key", opens all three locks. The fifth key opens none of the locks. The earned keys are then tried in the three locks and the contestant wins any prizes they are able to unlock.
The contestant is given the third digit in the five-digit price of a car and is shown nine pairs of two-digit numbers. One pair of numbers is the first two digits in the price and another is the last two digits. The remaining seven pairs of numbers conceal dollar signs, representing money the contestant can win. In order to win the car, the contestant must pick the first two and last two digits of the car's price. Choosing a pair of numbers that reveals a dollar sign places the tile in the money column and nets the contestant that amount in cash. The contestant wins the car, along with any cash they accumulate, if they are able to find both pairs of digits in the car's price before filling all four spaces in the money column. If the money column is filled, the contestant wins only the cash sum.
For cars with four-digit prices, no digit in the price was revealed at the start of the game. Also, on the Tom Kennedy-hosted syndicated version in 1985, the contestant was given the last digit for free, meaning they also had to guess the third and fourth digits in addition to the first two. In addition, when the game was first played for five digit cars, the game was titled "Big Money Game".
The game is played for a car and three additional prizes. The contestant is shown an incorrect price for the first prize and is asked to guess whether its actual price is more or less than the one displayed. If the contestant is correct, he or she wins that prize and moves on to the next one; the car is the last prize. A mistake at any point ends the game, but the contestant keeps any prizes correctly priced up to that point.
The contestant is shown three prizes and must choose which is the most expensive in order to win all three.
The contestant is shown six grocery items, each with a price, arranged on a circular gameboard. The gameboard also shows a month and year, usually from the past eight to twelve years. The contestant selects an item and must determine whether the price given for the item is the current price ("now") or the price as of the specified past date ("then"). To win the game and a large prize, the contestant must make correct guesses for three adjacent wedges of the circle. The game ends if incorrect guesses make it impossible to claim three adjacent wedges.
The original name of the game was "Now....and Then".
The contestant is shown an incorrect price for a car. Each of the individual digits displayed is either one digit higher or one digit lower than correct digit in the price. The contestant adjusts each digit and wins the car if they have correctly chosen all five. If all five digits are wrong, the contestant automatically loses the game. Otherwise, he or she is told the total number of digits correctly placed, but not specifically which ones, and is given an opportunity to make the necessary changes. The actual price of the car is then revealed and the contestant wins if their guess matches the price.
The contestant is shown two prizes and a price corresponding to one of them. The contestant wins both prizes by correctly choosing the prize associated with the price.
The contestant is shown three prizes, each with accompanying prices. Two prices are correct and one is incorrect. The contestant wins all three prizes by choosing the prize with the wrong price.
The game is played for a car and/or cash. The contestant is shown a board with six numbered spaces. Behind the numbers are one car space, two spaces marked "Lose Everything" and three cash values: $1,000, $3,000 and $5,000. The contestant is given one choice of a space at the start of the game and can earn two additional choices.
The contestant is shown four grocery items in two pairs, one pair at a time; each pair contains one correctly-priced item and one whose price is reduced by $1. The contestant must "pass the buck" by placing a dollar bill marker beneath the item he believes has been discounted; each correct decision earns an additional choice of spaces on the board. The contestant then makes their selection(s) from the board and can quit at any time, keeping what he or she has won; otherwise, the game ends when the contestant has used all of their choices. The contestant may win the car as well as up to $8,000 in cash; the maximum cash amount that can be won without the car is $9,000.
Early in the game's history, the board had eight spaces instead of six, a third "Lose Everything" space and a $2,000 cash award; the maximum cash amount that could have been won without the car was $10,000. Additionally, the contestant was not given a free choice; a third pair of grocery items (for a total of six items) was used to earn a third choice.
The game is played for a car. The gameboard is a five-by-five grid of 25 digits, including a five-digit path which is the price of the car. The first digit is the center square and each remaining digit is one of the squares adjacent (not diagonal) to the digit preceding it. At each turn, the contestant must step to the square that is the next digit in the price and walk the correct path to all five digits in order to win. If at any time during the game the contestant chooses an incorrect digit, he or she must return to the previous space. He may then attempt to pick the correct price of two offered for a small prize; if he succeeds, he wins that prize and another chance to select the car's price. If he fails to choose the correct price, he may repeat the guessing game with another small prize. There is a total of three small prizes; if the contestant steps on an incorrect digit with no small prizes remaining or guesses the incorrect price for the third small prize, the game ends.
The game originally offered cars with four-digit prices and an asterisk was on the center square.
This game is played using six grocery items and offers a top cash prize of $100,000.[3] The main prop is a house with four levels. The first and fourth levels each contain a position for only one product; levels two and three each contain positions for two products.
After being shown the grocery products, the contestant selects an item for the lowest level. Then, the contestant selects two items for the second level, two for the third level, and finally one for the fourth level. The total of the product prices on each level must be greater than the total of the price from the previous level.
The price of the item for the first level is revealed; the contestant is credited with $1,000. If the combined total of the product prices for the second level is greater than the price of the item on the first level, the contestant's winnings increase to $5,000. The contestant wins $10,000 if the total prices of the products on the third level are higher than those on the second level. If the product on the fourth level is priced higher than the combined prices for those on the third level, the contestant wins $100,000. At each level, the contestant risks the money won. Throughout the game, the contestant may choose to stop, taking the money accumulated; an incorrect guess ends the game and the contestant loses everything.
The contestant is shown a prize and its price with one digit missing (e.g., 8?34 or 209?4). The contestant wins by correctly selecting the missing digit from three possible choices.
Six grocery items with matching prices are shown in three pairs, each with their price concealed. The contestant must select two items with the same price in order to win a prize. If the contestant is incorrect, he may make a second guess, keeping one of the initially-selected items and attempting to match it with one of the remaining items.
Plinko is played for a cash prize of up to $50,000. The contestant is given one free chip and can win up to four more by pricing items worth $10–$99. For each prize, the contestant must choose which digit of the two shown is accurate; a correct guess wins the small prize and an extra chip. After pricing all of the items, the contestant places one chip at a time on a pegboard, where it eventually falls into one of nine spaces at the bottom. Spaces labeled $0, $100, $500 and $1,000 each appear twice and centrally-located space is labeled $10,000. The contestant wins the value marked on the space where the chip eventually lands; the chip is removed and the process is repeated until the supply of chips is exhausted.
Prior to 1998, the slot in the center was labeled $5,000 for a top prize of $25,000. In prime time, the value of the center slot is doubled to $20,000 for a top prize of $100,000.
The game is played for a car. The contestant begins the game with $0.25, which is given as the car's initial selling price. Six digits are shown, five of which belong to the price of the car. The first digit in the price is revealed. One at a time, the contestant attempts to guess the next four digits in the price of the car. Each incorrect choice raises the car's selling price by $0.25. When a digit is correctly chosen, it is removed from the available choices for the remaining spaces in the price and the contestant selects an envelope from a gameboard. Each envelope contains a value between $0.00 and $2.00, which is not immediately revealed.
After correctly guessing the fifth digit and selecting a final envelope, the contents of each envelope are revealed and their amounts added to the initial bank of $0.25. If the bank total meets or exceeds the car's selling price, the contestant wins.
The first time the game was played, the contestant was not given the first digit and was required to guess all five digits in the price.
The game is played for a top cash prize of $25,000. The contestant answers higher-or-lower pricing questions about four items, one at a time. Each correct answer earns a punch on a 5-by-10 punchboard. The contestant punches holes into the appropriate number of spaces on the board, each of which contains a slip of paper with an amount of money written on it. The host then reveals the amount written on each slip, one at a time, beginning with the first hole punched.
The contestant may choose to quit and keep the amount won or to try to win a better prize with the next slip. The game continues until the contestant either quits, wins the top prize, or reaches the last of their slips, in which case he must keep the last amount. It was possible to win more than the top prize by first punching one or more Second Chance prizes (which were attached to the lowest amounts) and then the top prize.
In prime time, the top prize is $50,000. Prior to 2008, the game's top prize was $10,000 regularly and $25,000 in prime time. Prior to its first playing in the 40th season, four slips also read "Second Chance". If the contestant found one, the contestant punched an additional hole and the value of the slip inside was added to the total.
Although the same pricing method was used to earn punches, the first 11 playings of Punch a Bunch used a different cash distribution and punch format. Each of the letters in the word "PUNCHBOARD" concealed a different number, from one to ten. After punching one of the letters, the contestant punched a hole in the field of 50 holes on the board. Twenty of the holes contained slips marked "Dollars", another 20 contained slips marked "Hundred" and the remaining 10 contained slips marked "Thousand." The number punched was multiplied by the phrase on the slip to determine the contestant's cash award (e.g., punching a ten and the word "Thousand" earned the contestant $10,000).
The contestant is shown a prize and a series of nine numbered blocks which includes the correct price. The contestant must push the blocks representing digits of the correct price into a blue window in order to win the prize. However, once blocks fall over the edge into a bin, they cannot be retrieved.
The contestant is shown four prizes and given four price tags that correspond to those items. The contestant places a tag on each prize and pulls a lever on a prop, which then displays the number of correctly-placed tags. If the number displayed is less than four, the contestant may rearrange the price tags and repeat the process, without knowing which ones are correct. The contestant has 45 seconds to place all four tags correctly. If time expires and the contestant has not placed all four tags correctly, he wins the prizes he has correctly priced at that point.
The contestant is presented a $600 range for the price of a prize and then asked to stop a $150 rangefinder within the area containing the prize's price. The contestant has only one opportunity to stop the range. If the price falls within the contestant's selected range, the contestant wins the prize.
The original range was $50, but it was quickly increased to $100. The range was $200 for a brief period during the 1970s on the syndicated version of the show.
The contestant must price three items within specified ranges: a grocery item priced under $10 within $1; a small prize priced under $100 within $10; and a medium prize priced under $500 within $100. For each bid given within the correct range, the contestant chooses one of five colored mechanical rats (yellow, green, pink, orange, and blue), which are positioned on a large dollar sign-shaped race track. The rats are then set in motion on the track, and all five rats ultimately travel the same distance. If one of the selected rats finishes in third place, the contestant wins an additional small prize; in second, a medium-sized prize; and if a selected rat wins the race, the contestant wins a car. Contestants can win more than one prize depending upon how the chosen rats finish the race.[4]
The contestant wins two prizes by correctly pricing the less-expensive prize which contains three unique digits in its price. The digits in the price must be entered in the proper order as the combination to open a safe containing the prizes.
The contestant attempts to place three Xs in a row on an oversized tic-tac-toe board. Hidden in the center column is a secret X. At the start of the game, the contestant is given one free X to place anywhere in either the left or right column of the board. They can win up to two more Xs by selecting the correct price of each of two small items from a choice of two prices. After placing their additional Xs, the contestant wins the game and a large prize if they have formed a line of three either horizontally or diagonally; a vertical line is not allowed in Secret "X".
Played similarly to the carnival game of the same name, the game features four shells, one of which conceals a ball. The contestant is asked whether each of four prizes is actually priced higher or lower than a given incorrect price. For each correct guess, the contestant wins that small prize and a chip to place beside one of the shells. If the contestant places a chip beside the shell containing the ball, he or she wins a bonus prize. If the contestant correctly prices all four items, he or she also wins a cash amount equal to the prize value by correctly guessing which shell conceals the ball.[5] Previously, this bonus was $500 on the daytime show, and $1,000 on the 1970s Dennis James-hosted syndicated version. On the 1985–1986 Tom Kennedy-hosted syndicated version, the bonus was originally $500, then $1,000; eventually, it was awarded just for correctly pricing all four items, without having to select the right shell.
The contestant is shown four prizes and asked to choose the three whose total prices exceed a given amount. If the contestant is correct, they win all four prizes.
The contestant is shown a prize and two pairs of digits representing the first two and last two digits in its price. The contestant wins the prize by correctly determining the order of the pairs of digits (e.g., $1,234 or $3,412).
The game is played for a car or up to $5,000 in cash. A gameboard contains 30 cards: 11 Cs, 11 As, 6 Rs and two cards which read "CAR". In order to win the car, the contestant must accumulate cards whose letters spell out CAR or get one of the two CAR cards. The contestant chooses two free cards from the board and may win up to three more by pricing each of three small items within $10 of its actual price. If the contestant exactly prices one of these items, they win all three additional cards and all three small prizes, regardless of whether or not one of them was missed along the way. After the cards are chosen, the contestant is offered $1,000 per card to quit the game and walk away. The cards are revealed one at a time; if the car is not yet won, the cash buyout offer is repeated with the remaining cards. The contestant wins nothing if he fails to spell CAR or get one of the two CAR cards after the last card is revealed.
Prior to 2007, each card was worth $500, for a maximum cash amount of $2,500.
The contestant is shown a prize and its price with one additional digit (e.g., for a prize worth $10,629, the board might show 130629). The first and last digits are always correct. The contestant must remove the incorrect middle digit in order to win the prize.
The game is played for a car. The contestant is shown seven playing cards containing digits, five of which make up the price of the car. The contestant is then shown six grocery items in three pairs, one pair at a time, each of which has a price displayed. The contestant must select the item that correctly corresponds to each price. For each correct answer, they may reveal one correct digit in the price of the car and the card's position. They then attempt to fill in the remaining digits by selecting the appropriate cards. If the contestant prices the car correctly, they win the car.
The contestant is shown four prizes, each usually worth from $500 to $3,000. The contestant selects one prize and, after its price is revealed, picks a second that he or she believes is priced higher. A correct guess nets both prizes and $500. The contestant may either stop and keep all accumulated winnings or select one of the remaining two prizes, again attempting to select a more expensive item in order to win all three prizes plus an additional $1,000. They may again choose whether to stop or attempt to win the fourth item and an additional $1,500 in the same manner, for a total of $3,000 in cash and all four prizes. If an incorrect guess is made at any time, the game ends and the contestant loses everything.
The contestant is shown four prizes, one of which is the base prize and one of which has the same price as the base prize. The contestant must swap the base prize for the prize of equivalent value in order to win all four prizes.
The contestant is shown two prizes, each with a given price. The contestant must decide whether the prices are correct as given or need to be switched with each other. A correct decision wins both prizes.
A car is revealed and four additional prizes valued under $100 are described. The contestant is shown the prices for the five items, each of which is missing its tens digit and five numbered blocks. The contestant is given 30 seconds to use the blocks to fill in the missing digits. After either the time limit expires or the contestant is satisfied, the contestant is told how many prizes are priced correctly, but not which ones. The contestant is given the option to either quit or take another 30 seconds to rearrange the blocks. Afterward, he or she is shown how many correct blocks are placed and wins any items correctly priced.
The contestant is shown four prizes and a total which represents the price of two prizes added together. The contestant has two chances to choose the two prizes whose prices match the total given. A correct choice wins all four prizes.
The game is played for a car and four additional prizes. The first digit in the price of the car is given to the contestant. One at the time, the prices of the four additional prizes (one of which is usually a cash amount), each of which contains only two distinct digits, are shown. One digit in each price corresponds to one of the remaining digits in the price of the car. The contestant uses these digits to fill in the price of the car and is then given a chance to change any digits. Once the contestant is satisfied with their guess, the host reveals the total value of the prizes and then offers the contestant two options: either take the four prizes and leave the game, or risk them and try to win the car. If the contestant chooses to risk the prizes and the car's price is correct, the contestant wins the car in addition to the prizes; however, if the car's price is incorrect, the contestant loses everything.
Originally, when the game was played for cars with four-digit prices, the first digit was not given. Also, early playings of the game included prizes with three different digits in their prices as well as prizes with two-digit prices. In addition, when the game debuted, contestants were not given the option to change any digits after making their initial selections.
The contestant is given ten chances to correctly price three prizes. The first has a two-digit price, the second a three-digit price and the third is a car. The contestant is given three digits for the two-digit price and must guess the price using two of the digits in any order. The process repeats for the second prize, which has four digits to select from, and the car, which has five. The game ostensibly includes a ten second time limit for writing down each choice, though this is rarely enforced.
Originally, the game used cars with four digits in the price and the contestant had to use four of the five available digits to form the price of the car.
The contestant is shown up to ten prices for a car in ascending order of price. The contestant wins the car by correctly identifying the first revealed price which is higher than the actual price by calling out "That's Too Much!"
The contestant is shown eight discs: five marked with digits in the price of a car and three marked with an X – a strike. The discs are placed into a bag and shuffled, and the contestant blindly draws a disc from the bag. If a digit is drawn, the contestant must choose which position it fits in the price. If correct, the digit is lit up in the price display on a gameboard and the disc is removed from play; if incorrect, the disc is returned to the bag. If a strike is drawn, an X is lit up in the strike display on the gameboard and that disc is removed from play. The contestant continues to draw discs until they either correctly position each digit in the price and win the car, or draw all three strikes and lose the game.
Originally, when the game was played for cars with four-digit prices, there were seven discs in the bag: the four digits of the price and the three strikes. The game was briefly known as "3 Strikes +" when cars priced above $10,000 were first offered. Originally, and again for a brief period in 2008, the value of cars offered was similar to those offered in other pricing games. Otherwise, since 1993, the game has been played for luxury cars.
The game has undergone several rules changes in its history. From 1998–2008, only one strike chip was used, and it was returned to the bag after being drawn. The contestant lost by drawing the strike chip three times. For a brief period in 2008, the first digit in the price was given to the contestant at the beginning of the game.
Triple Play is the only game to regularly offer three cars. The contestant is shown two price choices for the first car, three for the second and four for the third. For each car, the contestant must choose which of the displayed prices is closest to the actual price of the car without going over. The contestant may not stop the game after correctly pricing the first or second car. If the contestant chooses correctly for all three cars, he or she wins all three. If the contestant chooses incorrectly at any point, the game ends and he or she wins nothing.
The game is played for two prizes, one of which has three digits in its price. For each digit, the contestant is given two options and must choose the correct one; he may reveal one correct digit and its position in the price for free at the outset. If the contestant correctly determines the price, he wins both prizes.
When the 1972 version of the show premiered, many games did not have official names which were used on the air. Some of the names below are unofficial or assigned by the production staff.
The contestant was shown a car with a four-digit price, which contained no repeating digits. The sum of the digits in the price was shown to the contestant, who then selected one of the digits in the price to be revealed. That digit was subtracted from the total sum and the contestant attempted to guess the three remaining digits in the price. After each correct guess, the digit was revealed and the remaining total was provided to the contestant. The contestant won the car by guessing the remaining digits in the price before making two mistakes.
Five small prizes were presented and the contestant was given five "Barker Silver Dollars". In order to win, the contestant attempted to balance a scale with the correct combination of small prizes and, if necessary, the Silver Dollars given to him. The contestant selected prizes one by one and placed them on either side of the scale. If the total value of the prizes placed on one side of the scale equaled the total value of the prizes placed on the other side, the contestant won a larger prize package. If the totals were within five dollars of each other, the contestant could use the Silver Dollars to balance the scale.
Regardless of the outcome, the contestant kept any small prizes used in the game and any unused Silver Dollars.
Two prizes were shown, each displaying a bargain price lower than its actual retail price. The contestant won both prizes by choosing which price displayed was the bigger bargain – that is, which was further below the actual retail price of the item.
The contestant was given seven chances to guess the actual price of a car; in response to each guess, the host told the contestant whether the actual price was higher or lower. This was the first game to be retired, because it was extremely difficult to win. In some appearances of the game, the contestant was given a $500 range into which the price fell. The game made five appearances on the show and was never won.
The contestant was shown two prizes and a gameboard containing four buses, each with a price on it. The first and last buses displayed the same price and the name of each prize was placed below the two middle buses. The contestant decided which way to bump the buses – knocking two of them off the board and resulting in either the first two or the last two buses being positioned over the names of the prizes. The contestant won both prizes if the prices displayed on the buses matched those of the prizes below them.
Bump was better known for the models' provocative windup leading into the bump. Litigation between Bob Barker and Dian Parkinson, though unrelated to the game, led to the game's retirement in 1991.
Three prizes were shown, each with an incorrect price. The contestant bought prizes he believed were under-priced and sold prizes he believed were overpriced. The actual prices were then revealed, one at a time. For each correct decision, the difference between the two prices was added to a bank; for each incorrect decision, the difference was subtracted from the bank. If the contestant had made $100 or more at the end of the game, he won all three prizes as well as any cash accumulated in the bank. The most money that could be accumulated was $1,900.
Prior to 1997, winning contestants did not receive any cash accumulated.
Three prizes were shown and the contestant was given three price tags, each of which bore a sale price lower than one of the items' actual retail price. The contestant placed a price tag on each prize and won all three prizes if each of the sale prices was below the actual price of its respective prize.
This was the only pricing game to ever feature two contestants, guaranteeing a winner. After one contestant was called on stage, a second One Bid round was immediately played and the second winner joined the first on stage. A car or boat was revealed and described, and the two contestants were given a $500 range in which the price fell. Bids were alternated between the two contestants, with the host responding that the actual price was higher or lower than the bid. The contestant who bid the exact price won the prize. A modified version of this game was played as the Showcase Playoff, with contestants bidding on the combined value of seven prizes of that episode's Showcase, on the Australian version of The Price Is Right. The winner headed to the Showcase, which was similar to Easy As 1 2 3.
A car was shown along with four small prizes. The contestant attempted to form the price of the car by using digits from the prices of the small prizes. If the four correct digits had been chosen, the contestant won the car; if not, the contestant kept any small prizes from which he had used the correct digits.
Six small prizes were described in three pairs. For each pair, the contestant tried to pick the more expensive item. The sum of the prices of the rejected prizes made up a "finish line" that a miniature horse and jockey would have to cross. After all three choices were made, the horse moved one step for each dollar in the total value of the prizes the contestant had selected. If the horse passed the finish line, the contestant won a larger prize. Regardless of the outcome, the contestant kept the three chosen prizes.
Fortune Hunter was played for four prizes and $5,000. It involved four boxes, one of which contained the cash prize. The host read three clues to help the contestant eliminate the prizes associated with them, based on their prices. The remaining box was then opened. If the cash was hidden inside, the contestant won all four prizes plus the $5,000. However, if the chosen box was empty, the contestant won nothing.
The contestant did not have to eliminate the prizes in the order the clues were read. The prizes could be eliminated in any order, as long as only the box that contained the money was left.
A painting of the prize that the contestant was playing for was shown to the contestant. Below the painting was a price, which was missing part of one digit. To win the prize, the contestant had to paint the digit. The contestant won the prize if the price he painted matched its actual price.
Six small prizes were presented in three pairs. From each pair, the contestant picked what he believed was the more expensive prize. If the sum of the prices of the prizes the contestant kept was equal to or greater than the sum of the prices of the prizes they gave away, the contestant won a larger prize. Regardless of the outcome, the contestant won the three prizes he chose to keep.
Before the game began, the contestant cut a deck of playing cards, from which the house's hand was made. Like in blackjack, the object of the game was to come closer than the house to 21 without going over. The contestant was shown six grocery items, each displaying a price that was either the actual price of the item or a multiple of up to ten. The price multiple corresponded to a playing card concealed beneath each grocery item. One price was always a multiple of ten and awarded a 10 or face card, and another was always the exact price and awarded an ace; the other four multiples ranged from two to nine.
The contestant continued to choose items and acquire cards until reaching 21, freezing, or exceeding 21. The contestant won the game regardless of the house's score if their score reached 21. If the contestant froze, the house's cards were revealed and additional cards were drawn from the deck and added to the house's hand until the total reached 17 or higher (at which point the house froze) or exceeded 21. The contestant won the game and a large prize if the house busted or if their total equaled or exceeded the house's score without busting.
Situations involving an ace in the house's hand—and whether it should be counted as a 1 or an 11 when one would end the game and the other would not—were handled inconsistently over the course of the game's time on the show.
A grocery item was described that served as the base price and six more products were shown to the contestant in three pairs. The objective was to choose the item of each pair that was priced below the base price, and a blue flag was placed for each choice. After the selections were made, a starter's pistol was fired and a hurdler moved across a gameboard. As the hurdler moved, the price of each of the selected products rose up the board. If the hurdle's price was lower than the base price, the hurdler continued to move across the board. If the hurdler successfully cleared all three hurdles, the contestant won the game and a large prize. However, if a hurdle's price was higher than the base price, the hurdler crashed and the contestant lost.
Two cars were shown, each of the same make and model. The contestant was informed that the second car was priced a set amount higher than the first. He then attempted to add features from a list of nine options that would increase the price of the first car to within $100 of the price of the second car without going over. The number of options a contestant was allowed to choose during the course of the game changed each time it was played but was generally between three and five.
The contestant was shown a hand of five cards, one of which was a joker. For each of four small prizes then shown, the contestant attempted to select the correct price among two prices provided. For each prize, the two price choices included the same digits (e.g., $37 or $73). The contestant won the prize by selecting the correct price and also discarded a card from the hand. The remaining cards in the hand were then revealed; if the contestant had discarded the joker, he won an additional larger prize.
Three prizes were shown along with four prices on a gameboard. The contestant was given $500 and attempted to mark what he believed were the three correct prices. Two random correct prices were then revealed and the contestant was given the choice to either hold onto the $500 and leave the third marker as it was or forfeit the money and switch the marker to the originally-unselected price. If the third price was correct, the contestant won all three prizes, plus the $500 if he had not given it back. However, if the third price was incorrect, the contestant lost everything.
The game was originally titled "Barker's Markers" in reference to former host Bob Barker, but was retitled "Make Your Mark" after Drew Carey took over as host and during the game's single appearance on the 1994 syndicated version hosted by Doug Davidson. During the only playing of Make Your Mark in Season 37, the contestant was allowed to keep the $500 regardless of whether or not they ultimately won the game.
A prize package was presented to the contestant and the price of the least expensive item in the package was dubbed the "mystery price". Four smaller prizes were shown individually and the contestant placed a bid on each of them. If their bid was equal to or lower than the item's actual price, the contestant won that prize and the amount of their bid was placed into a bank. If the contestant overbid on the prize, it was lost and no value was added to the bank.
After all four small prizes were played, the mystery price was revealed. The contestant won the larger prize package in addition to any small prizes he did not overbid on if the bank was equal to or greater than the mystery price.
In order to win a car, the contestant competed in one of five possible sporting events. The events varied each time the game was played and included throwing a baseball or football into a specified area, shooting a basketball into a hoop, hitting a tennis ball with a racket into a specified area or popping a balloon with a dart.
After being shown the car, the contestant was presented with four possible prices. The contestant selected the one they believed was the actual price of the car and, if correct, won a $1,000 bonus and four attempts at the sporting event preselected for that day. The further away the selected price was from the actual price, the fewer attempts at the sporting event the contestant received with no bonus. If the contestant succeeded in the sporting event, he won the car.
Six small prizes were described and the contestant was shown three paths, colored blue, yellow and pink, extending outward from a center black spot. Each path was marked with three prices. To win a car, the contestant attempted to match the three prices in any path to the six prizes in play. After choosing a path, the contestant had to correctly determine which prize was associated with each price along the path in turn. If the contestant made a mistake, he returned to the center spot and chose a new path. Making mistakes on all three paths ended the game.
Some of the prices on a path were repeated on other paths; the contestant could automatically step to the next price along the path if they had already correctly matched the associated prize.
Two grocery items were described; for each item, four possible prices were presented. The contestant was given three oversized pennies and attempted to select the correct price for each of the two items. Each mistake the contestant made cost him a penny. The contestant won a larger prize if he was able to guess the actual price of both items before losing all three pennies.
When the game debuted, the board was not divided into halves for each grocery item; instead, the two correct prices were hidden among all eight choices. Whenever an incorrect price was guessed, one penny fell from the side of the gameboard into a bucket for each cent in the amount of the guess. The contestant lost the game if the total of the incorrect guesses made before finding the two correct prices equaled 100 pennies or more.
The contestant and a preselected home viewer competing via telephone teamed to attempt to win up to $15,000 in cash. Before the game began, the home viewer was given a list of the actual prices for each of seven grocery items. The items were then described to the contestant and the home viewer gave a price for one of the items. The contestant selected the item he believed matched that price. If the contestant was correct, the team shared a hidden cash award associated with that specific product. If the contestant was incorrect, both the guessed product and the correct product were removed from play and that particular cash award was lost. The contestant and home viewer attempted to make three matches and win three cash awards. If the home viewer read the name of a product at any time instead of a price, that turn was lost.
The cash awards for the matched products were revealed and the team split the total amount won. The cash awards hidden beside the seven products included one $10,000 award, one $3,000, one $2,000, two $1,000 awards and two $200.
Four prizes were shown. The contestant selected two of the prizes and the digits in their prices were used to form a poker hand, with nines high and zeroes low. After the hand was revealed, the contestant chose either to keep their hand or to pass it to the house. The prices of the other two prizes were then revealed and if the contestant made a better hand than the house, they won all four prizes.
The hand rankings were similar to those of poker and included five of a kind, four of a kind, full house, three of a kind, two pair, one pair and high card; straights did not count and without suits, flushes were not possible.
In early playings, the contestant was allowed to make their hand with any five of the six digits of the prices of the two prizes they had chosen, but did not have the option to pass their chosen hand to the house.
The contestant attempted to answer general knowledge questions with numerical answers, such as "How many innings are there in a regulation baseball game?", in order to win a car. After answering the first question, the contestant was asked if the correct answer to that question, which was always a digit from zero to nine, was also contained in the price of the car. General knowledge and pricing questions were repeated in this manner until the contestant either gave three correct responses and won the car, or gave three incorrect responses and lost the game.
A large animatronic puppet dubbed Professor Price was central to the game. The contestant's progress was tracked by the professor's hands; correct answers were counted by upward-pointing fingers on the puppet's right hand and incorrect answers were counted by downward-pointing fingers on his left hand.
The game was played only twice, making it the shortest-lived game in the show's history. It was also the only game to have a perfect record, having been won both times.
The contestant was shown six shower stalls, each marked with a possible price for a car. Three stalls contained confetti, two contained $100 and the one with the actual price contained a key to the car. If the contestant chose the stall with the confetti, he continued to choose stalls until he found either of the two with $100, winning the cash, or the keys, winning the car.
A car and a medium prize were shown and a string of eight digits was displayed on a gameboard. The contestant was given 20 seconds to pull down the three digits that made up the price of the smaller prize, leaving the five digits that made up the price of the car. To stop the clock, the contestant pushed a button on the gameboard. If the correct three-digit price for the smaller prize had been pulled down, the contestant won both prizes. If incorrect, the contestant continued guessing until a correct guess was made or until time ran out.
A later variation in the rules did not feature a clock. Instead, the contestant was given only three chances to win.
Three large prizes were shown, each associated with a ball marked #1, #2 or #3. The contestant then attempted to correctly choose from among two possible prices for each of three small prizes. For each correct choice, he won that small prize and earned a ball, which he rolled up a skee ball ramp containing three rings marked $50, $100 and WIN! If the contestant rolled a ball into the WIN! ring, he won the associated large prize. If he rolled it into either cash ring, he won that amount of money.
A fourth small prize was then revealed, along with a "Super Ball". If the contestant won that small prize and earned the Super Ball and rolled it into the WIN! ring, he won any of the three large prizes not previously won. Otherwise, the contestant won triple the value of the cash ring in which the ball landed. In the rare event that the contestant had already won all three large prizes, rolling the Super Ball into the WIN! ring earned the contestant a $3,000 bonus.
The game used six grocery items; five were marked at various amounts lower than their actual prices and one of which was marked higher than its actual price. In order to win a larger prize, the contestant attempted to "purchase" four of the items and "save" at least $1 compared to those items' actual total value. It was mathematically possible to choose the item marked higher than its actual price but still win the game if the other three purchases saved enough.
A car and two smaller prizes were shown, along with four grocery items. The contestant was given $1 to start the game and tried to spend less than 90¢ on the grocery items so that he would have a dime left in order to use a pay telephone. If the contestant succeeded, he dialed one of three given sets of four-digit telephone numbers and won whatever prize's price was associated with that number. The number for the car represented its price in dollars, while the numbers for the two small prizes represented their prices in dollars and cents. An automatic loss resulted if the contestant spent over 90¢.
In order to win a large prize, the contestant tried to place five grocery items in three separate price groups: less than $3, $3–$6 and more than $6. He had two chances to correctly group all of the items, with a 20 second time limit for each chance. If he was unsuccessful in the first attempt, he was told how many items were incorrectly placed, but not specifically which ones. If the contestant was incorrect on the second chance, the game ended and he won nothing.
The first two times the game was played, the contestant was given a 15 second time limit for each chance and a voucher for a $500 bonus. If the contestant was correct on the first chance, he won both the prize and the $500. If incorrect, he could either stop playing and keep the $500 or exchange it for another 15 seconds to regroup the items, without knowing which items were incorrectly placed or how many.
A large prize was shown and the game used seven small prizes. The contestant started with one small prize, which served as the base and was shown, one at a time, six small prizes in three pairs that were rolled out on barrels. One prize of each pair was worth more than the base and the contestant attempted to choose that prize. If the contestant successfully arranged all three selected prizes in ascending order, they also won the large prize. However, if one mistake is made, they won only the last small prize whose price had been revealed.
Four prizes were shown and the contestant had to guess each price within a set range to win. The winning range increased with every subsequent prize. If the contestant made a mistake on any prize (except for the final prize, in which case the game ended), he was given a choice of two autograph books signed by the show's cast, one of which also contained the words "Second Chance" written in it. If the contestant selected the "Second Chance" book, the game continued, but the contestant did not win the prize with which he made the mistake. The contestant lost by either choosing the incorrect autograph book or making a second mistake on a subsequent prize.
Beginning in 2008, episodes of The Price Is Right $1,000,000 Spectacular featured rule changes to some pricing games which rewarded a $1 million bonus to the contestant if specific goals were achieved while playing the pricing game.
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