Countdown

Nil Satis · Post by **Nil Satis** » Wed Feb 14, 2007 3:58 pm

I think QuizMaster has been outed as a secret Roger Mellie fan! In one of his finest moments (when Viz was officially "still funny"), Roger presented Countdown and from memory all had gone reasonably well until the Conundrum round, when he said that the original set of nine letters was too hard for the mugs they got on the show and so instead he had put the following letters himself - A, R, S, E, H, O, L, S, E ...

More seriously, Countdown has turned out to be exactly what I thought it would be when I first saw it last year - a very faithful adaptation and quite enjoyable to play, with what appears to be fair sets of nine letters and six numbers given for those two rounds (i.e. you don't get 5 Q's and X's or lots of the same number) but it is fundamentally let down by the cowardly prize structures. Winning £1 or (on the Gamesnets) £2 is easily achievable but for anything after that you can forget it. As my doppelganger grecian says, you can't have long term appeal from a game where no one ever wins anything remotely interesting. Sadly that goes for virtually every game that now comes out.

Cardinal Sin · Post by **Cardinal Sin** » Wed Feb 14, 2007 7:35 pm

unknownpseudonym wrote:
here is my prediction:

this game will last longer on the titbox than any straight Q&A game simply because it has more appeal to the casual player.

It's just disappeared from my local, albeit from a Gamesnet

Mattb · Post by **Mattb** » Mon Feb 26, 2007 9:33 pm

Yay! Won £1 on this today!

A 6 letter best in dictionary word was followed by a clearance in the numbers game. I think i had to get 115, and i was given 100, 5 and 10. Hmm, tricky...

I also got the conundrum and actually knew the word which made is easier. It was DISSUADES, which isn't too hard to get really.

Matt

SWP · Post by **SWP** » Tue Mar 20, 2007 6:43 pm

Haven't SWP'd for a while now but some of my mates really like this m/c so I've spent a couple of lunch times stood in front of it.

How do you enter a construction like this on the numbers game:

(50 x 2) + (6 x 7)?

I only get:

((50 x 2) + 6) x 7

I guess it's something to do with the 3 little boxes below my numbers - anyone got clear instructions?

Tip: 2 big numbers + 4 small numbers statistically leads to the most solutions/near solutions

grecian · Post by **grecian** » Tue Mar 20, 2007 6:48 pm

Yes. You could enter 50 x 2. 100 will then appear in one of the three little boxes to which you refer. Then press 6 x 7 and 42 will appear in another of the three little boxes. Then press 100 + 42 using the numbers you had in the three little boxes. The secret therefore is that there's no need to do one great big sum (this was the problem on e.g. the Countdown handheld game). Treat the three little boxes as memory and call up the numbers from memory. I always go for 1 big and 5 small. Not sure about the statistics but I find that much the easiest way to get to a solution.

SWP · Post by **SWP** » Tue Mar 20, 2007 7:22 pm

Just to be totally clear. I'd press?

50

x

2

6

x

7

BOX1

+

BOX2

grecian · Post by **grecian** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 9:48 am

I think so, yes.

SWP · Post by **SWP** » Thu Mar 22, 2007 8:41 pm

Just to confirm it DOES work like that.

I suppose that's why there's only 3 boxes. 2 numbers each - then add 2 operators afterwards.

Cheers.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 10:53 pm

Got a nine on Countdown today:

MELANOIDS

grecian · Post by **grecian** » Wed Apr 18, 2007 10:50 am

vaginalbob wrote:Got a nine on Countdown today:

MELANOIDS

GREAT work. Still yet to get a 9 on this, but I'll be a happy man the day I do.

Istenem · Post by **Istenem** » Wed Apr 18, 2007 2:16 pm

yep, 9 is a good effort, bravo. have had a few 8s but not the grail yet.
it is my bad but i have no idea what melanoids might be

ops:

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Thu Apr 19, 2007 1:41 pm

unknownpseudonym wrote: it is my bad but i have no idea what melanoids might be

I think I should be the more ashamed, as I don't know either.

Ernest W. Quality · Post by **Ernest W. Quality** » Thu Apr 19, 2007 3:59 pm

Something to do with melanin?

SWP · Post by **SWP** » Thu Apr 19, 2007 7:46 pm

Something to do with melanin?

Undoubtedly.

But what's melanin?

Are you guys dominating any scoreboards yet?

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Thu Apr 19, 2007 9:24 pm

step7 wrote: Are you guys dominating any scoreboards yet?

For Countdown? I think we usually top the boards when we play it (I got a clean sweep of the UCL ones a couple of days ago). Not many people seem to know the conundrum trick, judging by the comparative poorness of its own high score board.