Season 46 Spoilers

[PIRfanSince72]

So Gridlock becomes the 110th pricing game ever, debuting on a day that celebrates Drew's 10th anniversary as host (starting his 11th season of course today).  Just thought that was kind of a neat coincidence.

[tpir7215]

So this is how Gridlock actually works: you're given the first digit in the price of the car (for example 2), then you must choose the correct 2-digit number out of the three given on the blue cars, then the correct 2-digit number from the orange cars.  You can screw up once and still win, but a second screw-up ends the game in a loss.  When you choose a number, the corresponding car moves in the way of the silver car (which has the first digit), which drives forward until it touches the blue car.  The same thing happens when you choose from the orange cars.

[blozier2006]

Actually, we don't know the full rules... what if there had been a mistake on the first pair (the blue cars)? Would another mistake have been permitted with the second pair (the orange cars), or would you have needed to get those right in one pick?

[Teddy]

Actually, we don't know the full rules... what if there had been a mistake on the first pair (the blue cars)? Would another mistake have been permitted with the second pair (the orange cars), or would you have needed to get those right in one pick?

I'm sure that if you made a mistake with the first pair, you could continue to pick from the other blue cars. In a way, this would be like making a bad first number selection in Add em Up, which would also end in a loss if a second mistake was made. And the way the cars switch lanes is sort of a reminder of It's Optional.

[tpir7215]

Actually, we don't know the full rules... what if there had been a mistake on the first pair (the blue cars)? Would another mistake have been permitted with the second pair (the orange cars), or would you have needed to get those right in one pick?

To be honest, having only one "free" mistake TOTAL makes more sense.

[Axl]

Actually, we don't know the full rules... what if there had been a mistake on the first pair (the blue cars)? Would another mistake have been permitted with the second pair (the orange cars), or would you have needed to get those right in one pick?

I know we should be used to this by now, but I'm still amazed that Drew doesn't it's worth explaining rules until a specific contingency comes up, even on the debut playing of the game.

[PIRfanSince72]

Very good point Axl.

Indeed it is unclear as to whether one mistake in total can be made throughout the game, or one mistake per set of cars is allowed to be made.  That is something that I know Bob would have made very clear, especially on a first playing.

This game is kind of a combination of Money Game and Penny Ante.  Reminds me a bit of Temptation too as they display the guess on the game board before determining whether the guess made is right or wrong.  I heard audience members applauding when the numbers were put up on the board.  Clearly they assumed the player was right because the numbers were lit up on the board, but that clearly wasn't always the case in this game.

Overall a somewhat nice variation, and a pretty quick game at that.  Nice to have a bit more variety and not so many appearances of Lucky Seven, Money Game and the dreadful That's Too Much!  This game seems semi-winnable at least.  If you goof on the first set of cars, you still have a 1 in 6 chance of winning.  If you are right with the first set of cars, then it's a 2 out of 3 chance of winning.

[greg]

I don't see how it's like Penny Ante.... I saw that on Facebook "the return of Penny Ante" but I don't see it. There were 2 grocery products with 4 possible prices each & 3 pennies to pay for mistakes....
It would be cool if the car noise from Its Optional was used when the cars move.

[PriceFan07]

While watching it on TV I said then it reminded me of Penny Ante. No grocery products, but a choice of 3 numbers (Penny Ante: prices). The gridlock symbol = the "NO" cards. Second chance when wrong = "pennies" for another chance. There are definitely differences but I picked up on the similarities right away.

[BillyGr]

I know we should be used to this by now, but I'm still amazed that Drew doesn't it's worth explaining rules until a specific contingency comes up, even on the debut playing of the game.

Very good point Axl.

Indeed it is unclear as to whether one mistake in total can be made throughout the game, or one mistake per set of cars is allowed to be made.  That is something that I know Bob would have made very clear, especially on a first playing.

Of course, we don't actually know when the first playing was, or how many times the game had been played in tapings prior to the season premiere - and won't really know until mid December (since there are tapings earlier than Sept 11th being shown up through, it appears now, the 14th of December).
Could be that that scenario came up previously and was explained then, and that Drew wasn't thinking about re-explaining it for this episode?

[blozier2006]

Could be that that scenario came up previously and was explained then, and that Drew wasn't thinking about re-explaining it for this episode?

Not an excuse. If it didn't occur to Drew, then it definitely should have occurred to Mike.