Chain Reaction
1980 version
Host: Bill Cullen
Premise: Two contestants and four celebrities fill in words on a game board.
Rules: The game board has eight lines on it- the top and bottom lines have words in them. The player with control asks to see a letter below the top word or above the bottom word. The player has the option of showing the letter to the opponent and forcing that person to guess the word. If the word is guessed correctly, one point is scored for each letter in the word, and control is retained. If not, the opposing team takes control. Upon getting or keeping control, the next player in line gets a turn. Each word has something in common with the word above and below:
HOLLYWOOD
SQUARES
ROUNDS
BOXING
TRUNKS
ELEPHANT
GRAY
BLUE
Some words have "+" signs on them, and are worth double. If a chain is finished and neither team has 50 points, another chain is started. The team that gets 50 first wins the game, some money, and plays "Instant Reaction" for $10,000.
Bonus Game: In "Instant Reaction" the two celebrities try to communicate a word or phrase to their civilian partner by asking a question one word at a time. When either one thought that enough information had been given, they rang a bell and the contestant got one guess.
Scoring system 1: The contestant began with $1 for the first word and each two words guessed multiplied the pot by ten. The teams always had 1:30 in the bonus.
Scoring system 2: The money progressed: $1, $10, $100, $1000, $2000, $3000, $4000, $5000,$10,000.
Scoring system 3: Each word guessed won $100, and nine got $10,000. Later, $100 was just put on the scoreboard as the main game winnings, and was built on from there.
1986 version
Host: Geoff Edwards
Premise: Same idea, just different points and no celebrities.
Rule changes: Now teams of two players, later one, play on a similar board. In round one, all words are worth 10 points, and the last word guessed wins 15. Each round after, the points increased to 20/30, 30/40, and so on until someone reached the game point. This varied from 200 to 500 for the non-bonus game tournaments. The missing link bonus was played by the player in the lead after two chains. A simple three link chain was shown, and the player could win $500 by identifying the middle word. $100 was deducted for each letter shown with a guess after.
Bonus Game: Now, the team or player has one word at the top, and the initial letter of seven words. The player may have up to 9 letters revealed on the chain, and if all the words are guessed, the jackpot is won. The jackpot begins at $3000, and has $1000 added each day it is not won.
$40,000 Chain Reaction
Sixteen tournaments are played, with quarter-finals, semi-finals, and Finals. The tournament winners got $7,500; and moved through to the $40,000 Tourney. The tournaments were single-elimination, until the semi-finals of the $40K Tourney, and then were two losses, you're out. Then, they played until two were left, and they played one game for forty grand.
Home Play: Have someone invent the chains, and the two others play. No box game.
Travis' Rating: Bill is good as host, but the front game crawls with three players per team. Instant Reaction rules, though.
Geoff's version is the superior one.
My Rating: Bill 80- +3, Geoff 86- +4.