Pricing Game Fleshing Out: Hit-Me

[tpirfansince1972]

As I am home from work today, snowbound, I decided now is as good a time as any to do another pricing game fleshing out.

The random number generator in my Excel spreadsheet chose Hit-Me, a game that debuted in early November 1980.

One of the secrets of this pricing game was the fact that none of the fake prices were ever multiples of 5 or 9.  At the very least, not to the best of my recollection anyway.

The reason for this was the player's board where the six grocery items were displayed hid an Ace, a 10 (or Face Card worth 10) and 4 other cards.  Those other 4 cards were two separate pairs of cards that totaled 10.  The board might have had a 2 and an 8 along with a 3 and a 7, or a 4 and a 6.  There were always two of those three combinations in addition to the Ace/10 combination on the board, making it possible for a player to score 21 in more than one way.

More often than not it seemed that there was only one wrong price that ended in zero, which made the 10 card obvious to me, and to a great many of us.  More often than not it was not obvious to the contestants which was a constant source of frustration to me. 

I seem to recall one time, probably during a budget saving episode, where all six of the price tags ended in a 0, making it far more challenging to select the ten as it was not nearly as obvious. 

I loved that the playing cards used were akin to the style of Wink Martindale's Gambit cards, except the face cards had only the white background and negative space, whereas the Gambit cards had brown as part of the negative space on their face cards.

When the game first debuted they only used a 40 card deck I believe, eliminating the face cards.  I definitely preferred it once they played with a full deck instead.

Another annoyance was the inconsistency that Bob had with respect to the House when it got an Ace.  Sometimes he'd call it 1, sometimes 11, sometimes doing so when it benefited the player, other times when it did not.

If for example the player had a 19 and the House had a 9 and an Ace, that should be 20 and a loss.  Sometimes it was called that way, other times Bob would say "We'll make the Ace a 1 and the house must draw again."  A lack of consistency with that rule troubled me.

I suppose with that, coupled with the fact that contestants seemed to struggle much more with this pricing game as the years went by, and the show's run time being cut down to bare bones, there isn't as much time to always play a grocery item game with six items anymore.

I do miss this game and wish it could be redone or retooled in some fashion.  I could see this being remade somehow into a small prize pricing game or utilizing the pricing of grocery items that did not involve the contestants trying to do multiplication in their heads.

This was a fun game, in spite of all of my gripes fleshed out above.  The game board was fabulous too.  I dearly miss Hit-Me, especially as I am big time into card games and playing cards in general.

[mechamind]

The rule about the house hitting on 16 and staying on 17 always bugged me. Yes, I understand how the Blackjack rule, but there are also the complaints about the game being too easy. The house could just do what's necessary until there are no other options. Even then, someone who knows the pricing game would still score the automatic win.

Related to the automatic win, it makes sense that a tie goes to the contestant if you're going to call a win on a blackjack without even looking at the house.

I also have a feeling that Drew is able to help a contestant understand the math in this game, so that could be beneficial.

Overall, it's been so long, and I am still waiting patiently for Hit Me to be brought back.

EDIT: You know what? "Carey's Card Club" doesn't necessarily have to be just one game. There could be one set for Card Game and another for Hit Me.

[actual_retail_tice]

Hit Me? More like Hot Mess! I know a lot of people love this game and I even think that visually, Hit Me was one of the best. That aside, this game was way too complicated and only got worse when the younger contestant pool didn't know Blackjack.

Sure, the game can be distilled down to "Just pick the x10 and the exact price and you win." But I feel really strongly that if you have to leave out major portions of a game's explanation to make it digestible to an onstage contestant, then it has too many rules or layers or something.   

[C8]

I love Hit Me because I love the concept of using multiples of the product's price to play Blackjack. But I'm also the first to admit it was problematic.

The game should have been won every time it was played. If you knew you needed a multiple of 10 and the exact prize, both usually stood out. The exact price for looking right and the x10 for ending in a zero. In some ways when a contestant knew this the end of the game was anticlimactic and the game was over without the house drawing anything (the least they could do is flip over the house's down card).

Now you could fix this. There really should have been 11 products up there so each digit A-10 had a card up there, causing some degree of choice dilution. Of course you couldn't reasonably get through 11 prize plugs without boring your audience.

[StacksOfCash]

I know nearly everyone will disagree with me on this, but I think this game would have been more exciting if the 10 card wasn't present on the board every time.

This would force contestants to use a combination of products to create the 10 and perhaps add some depth to the game as finding the Ace would at least create the dynamic of being able to have it as a 1 or 11. If this is the case, there should always be a pair of products that add up to 10, and perhaps another pair of products that add up to 11.

Another possibility is introducing the 5 card rule, where a contestant can pick 5 products and if the total comes out to less than 22, they would automatically win via standard blackjack rules. This won't always amount to - pick the 5 lowest price products on the board either. This rule wouldn't have to be explained every time, but if say a contestant forms a 19 with 4 cards without selecting the ace, the contestant could stay at 19 - which is not a bad decision based on odds, or gamble to pick the ace price, or lose by busting with a 3.


Knowing that there's a 10 and an Ace on the board kind of makes the rest of the products irrelevant unless a mistake is made.

[SamJ93]

My idea on how to simplify Hit Me: instead of multiplication, conceal all the prices at the start and simply have each card represent the dollar value of each item--e.g. an item costing $6.49 would reveal a 6. Then Drew could just tell the contestant to pick the two highest-priced items ($10.xx and $11.xx, respectively) to win.

[gamesurf]

I expect this will be a very unpopular opinion, so preface with SCORCHING HOT TAKE ALERT:

Hit Me is a bottom 10 pricing game for me. The more I see of it, the less I like it.

• Bob's terrible at explaining it
• It's painful if you don't know how it works
• It's boring if you DO know how it works
• There's no way to explain the game's rules AND blackjack AND the intended strategy in the amount of time a pricing game is supposed to last, so Bob just ended up playing the game for the contestant most of the time

How it lasted for 25 years is beyond me.

[Nick]

this game was way too complicated and only got worse when the younger contestant pool didn't know Blackjack.

I think the younger contestant pool didn't know how to multiply and divide, and it's simply inexcusable for adults to not know how to perform elementary-level mathematics.

Hit Me was a great game that never should have been retired, and I fail to see where there was anything complicated about it.  You know a tube of Aspercreme is not going to be 52 bucks, but what should it be?  About six to eight dollars?  So, 52 and whatever change is posted divided by what gets you to around six to eight dollars?  Not that difficult to figure out.

Of course, it doesn't get as complicated as that because you should be looking for the (usually one) product that ends in zero.  That's a gimmie.  Then what do you think is priced correctly?  A little logic should make this a simple choice.  Perhaps there might be two that might look to be exactly right or two that end in zero, but you can't hand away the win every time.

There really was only one way to play this game, and Bob always said what it was: Pick the item priced correctly and the one multiplied by ten.  Contestants should have been able to figure it out easily.

I admit, it did have its major flaws, such as the value of an ace not being locked to work towards a win.  They could have played hard and fast with Vegas rules, and I think that would have been good as long as they made an exception for a tie going to the contestants.  They really shouldn't be faulted for random card draws when they've played perfectly.

[rowlande]

Hit Me is a very easy game. Each time you pick a product you would build your hand and the objective was to get 21 or get as close to it without going over. Pick a product that was multipled by 10 and another that had the exact price and you would won every time. A lot of people would argue that the game was too easy

[SteveGavazzi]

Hit Me is a very easy game. Each time you pick a product you would build your hand and the objective was to get 21 or get as close to it without going over. Pick a product that was multipled by 10 and another that had the exact price and you would won every time. A lot of people would argue that the game was too easy

Not if they'd watched a few people try to play it, they wouldn't.

[ClockGameJohn]

I seem to recall one time, probably during a budget saving episode, where all six of the price tags ended in a 0, making it far more challenging to select the ten as it was not nearly as obvious.

I seem to recall this had nothing to do with the budget; rather, it was direct innuendo following a discussion which occurred here on G-R.net.

I suppose with that, coupled with the fact that contestants seemed to struggle much more with this pricing game as the years went by, and the show's run time being cut down to bare bones, there isn't as much time to always play a grocery item game with six items anymore

Actually, quite the opposite. Hit Me timed-out as one of the two fastest GP games on the show (tied with Pick a Pair). Ironically — and unfortunately — we also lost the third game tied at 4.5 minutes just a few years prior. This fact certainly contributed to more diverse lineups and quickies combined with Car/GP games following these retirements.

I do miss this game and wish it could be redone or retooled in some fashion.

I do agree with many others here, it was often times a frustrating game to watch. With that said, I do miss the game — if for no other reason than it’s unique gameplay involving multiplication. There are only so many different ways to make a play on numbers and prices to devise the games on the show. Likewise, True/False on 5 Price Tags is what separates the game from so many others.

[publisher]

Would love to see Hit Me and Poker Game resurrected in some fashion. For whatever reason, I've found those two games much more enjoyable since rewatching shows on The Barker Era than I did when they were still in rotation (I particularly loathed Poker Game for some reason but love it now).

But, among other reasons listed her, I suppose it made sense to ditch games that relied on contestants knowing the rules of Hit Me and Poker. In the case of the former, it baffled me so many contestants didn't realize a price multiplied by 10 would end in zero. A few of my grade school teachers would have been horrified.

[TPIR_rules]

I seem to recall this had nothing to do with the budget; rather, it was direct innuendo following a discussion which occurred here on G-R.net.

Actually, quite the opposite. Hit Me timed-out as one of the two fastest GP games on the show (tied with Pick a Pair). Ironically — and unfortunately — we also lost the third game tied at 4.5 minutes just a few years prior. This fact certainly contributed to more diverse lineups and quickies combined with Car/GP games following these retirements.

I do agree with many others here, it was often times a frustrating game to watch. With that said, I do miss the game — if for no other reason than it’s unique gameplay involving multiplication. There are only so many different ways to make a play on numbers and prices to devise the games on the show. Likewise, True/False on 5 Price Tags is what separates the game from so many others.

What PG was this?

[rowlande]

i actually think Bargain Game and Check Game were both actually retired. The Producers of the show just realized several years later that they really needed those games back so they were revived

[actual_retail_tice]

I'm almost certain it's Penny Ante that John is referring to. It blows my mind that Hit Me could time the same as Pick a Pair and Penny Ante.