POSTMORTEM
Once again, thank you so much for your participation! Your participation is what makes this section of the board great--heck, it makes all of golden-road.net great.
Winners:
TPIRfan#9821: $39,503 (Truck, motorcycle, piano, ping pong, $500 bonus)
Plinkoman: $30,124 (Kawasaki Motorcycle, used truck, showcase ping pong, hammock & Kindle)
JayC: $11,604 (Motorcycle, luggage, ping pong)
LiteBulb88: $10,494 (Motorcycle, cookware)
Tpir04: $1,499 (Big Green Egg)
tpiradam: $1,449 (Pendant)
Pathfinder20, wpghi5, 123123123: $250
Everyone else: Laughs and good times
Showcase 1 breakdown:
Recycled Patio Set--$6,573
Recycled Computer Key Art--$7,200
Restored 1948 Studebaker--$15,700
Showcase 2 breakdown:
Ping Pong table form Cornilleau--$1,350
Kawasaki Ninja H2 motorcycle--$25,000
Used 2000 Ford Ranger--$2,995
NotesAs you’ve figured out, the goal behind the episode was to reuse a few prizes as much as possible
--without making the game setups totally trivial
--in a lineup that built upon itself that went along
--while maintaining something of a normal lineup (one GP game, one SP game, timings, etc.)
- Originally I thought the lineup would be a good April Fools themed show (like that one time where Kathy Kinney tried to offer the same showcase twice), but later I thought it might be more interesting not to say anything at first and let people figure it out for themselves as the episode played out and built upon itself. The "recycling awareness week" theme came about from that.
- An earlier draft had all 6 IUFBs be six different types of lawn mowers (from push mowers to electric mowers to riding lawn mowers), but eventually I decided I wasn’t that crazy.
- In previous drafts the motorcycle was supposed to be a Caribbean trip, but once COVID hit it was looking like offering five international flights wouldn’t be as funny a gag as it otherwise would.
The Showcase Showdown formula was actually surprisingly simple. Spins were determined by taking the position where the wheel was left off, and advancing it the following number of spaces:
n + c + 2^r
n = the number chosen by the player (1-20)
c = the number of characters in the player’s name
r = the number of “recycled” characters in a player’s name (characters that appear more than once)
For example, if each player were to choose the number 8, the wheel would advance:
gamesurf: 8 + 8 + 2^0 spaces, or 17 spaces.
Th
er
ealcu2
01
0: 8 + 13 + 2^4 spaces, or 37 spaces.
123123123: 8 + 9 + 2^9 spaces. The wheel would advance 529 spaces. “It’s about to fly off its hinges! Call Young and Restless…”
So why did so many spins fall short? It was a combination of 1) people picking unusually small numbers, and 2) players won their way on stage with short names or names with all unique characters. Luckily the formula had contingencies for that to keep things fair:
If the wheel advanced less than 20 spaces, the spin did not get all the way around and doesn’t count, and the host would “help” them on the respin. Their previous spin was repeated, except this time adding a “gamesurf” spin to the contestant’s efforts: (n + 8 + 2^0, or n+9). (If THAT spin fell short, the host says something like “I hate being booed! We’re gonna double our efforts!”, and the previous spin was repeated except every instance of c was replaced with 2c. This guaranteed the wheel would advance at least 22 spaces.)
Obviously, any Showcase Showdowns in the future are going to have a different formula, so don't think you'll be able to get an instant $1.00 just by repeating this
As for other notes? Uh... it was a fun lineup to build!
- Before designing the Balance Game prop, I also played around with adding some basic animations in After Effects to see how they would turn out, so it wasn't too difficult to swap out the $5,000 bag for a pile of $5,000 coins in Balance Game once the template was set up and tpir04 was joking around. Shame it wasn't won, but it wasn't the easiest setup. After all, I only had one shot to use that motorcycle in a game where the price mattered!
- Safe Crackers was set up for a loss, so good on JayC for avoiding the $790!
- Master Key was, indeed, an intentional LFAT trap. The keys were, going from left to right, 1-Ping Pong, 2-Master Key, 3-Dud, 4-Truck, 5-Motorcycle. Good on TPIRfan#9821 on covering both bases, and going right for key #2!
- It was very, very tricky to find a Swap Meet setup that 1) offered more than $5,000 in prizes; 2) started with the $970 ping pong table, 4) included another 3-digit prize to set up Line Em Up, and 4) wasn't a total gimme.
- Grocery Game was set up for a win, and LiteBulb88 played it wonderfully!
- Line Em Up, despite being the last game, was the first game to be set up because everything else was supposed to flow into it.. Started with the truck and then every other prize came out of that, knowing that 1) one would have to end in 0 to be usable in Safe Crackers, 2) one would have to have three reasonable thousands digits AND be a decent fake for prize #1 in Swap Meet, 3) one would have to be a usable SP in Master Key, and 4) the truck couldn't be a gimme or have repeating digit options. The prizes weren't decided upon before hand--the ping pong table and oven were simply the things that fit those prices the best!
Once again, thanks for helping bring this show to life! I had a lot of fun planning it, and I hope you had a lot of fun watching and playing it! You can plan for a lot of things in advance, but you can’t plan for a great audience, and you guys certainly provided! Thank you so much for your comments and participation. Until next time--so long!
