ItBox 52

[grecian]

Just had a first go on the x factor and got in 2nd go requiriong 12/13. Got to £3 and then bottled it given what I had heard re spoilers (and the fact that this was the same unit that Grecian has played)

On a more worrying note, my two most recent visits to the Monopoly end game have yielded 50p each.

Likewise, my only two visits to the Monopoly endgame have both been 50p-ers. The game is most enjoyable but the endgame seems to me to be having a laugh.

[QuizMaster]

Yes it does have a tendency not to tell you when you get one right or wrong, but I've noticed that this only applies to the qualifying game. Since I've found my qualifying levels on a slightly better than par with grecian (I reckon I'm getting through about 80% of the time), this wouldn't seem to present too big a problem - spoilers in the qualifying game seem very rare, so no need to switch my photograhpic memory on.

Endgame seems more a question of how big your balls are more than anything else. I have had 1 x £10 but bottled going for the £20 (I was already into it for £5 and didn't fancy another chase)

Lots of spoilers once you're in the money, but I'll just have to apply myself. Shame really. I was hoping they'd just ask me a load of easy questions for £20. Considering some of the tricks that Deal or No Deal and other games seem to employ, I might just settle for guessing the spoilers. At least you get a bigger prize every time you guess one right - instead of having to answer about 5 on other games.

Early days, but it's looking like my replacement game for Deal or No Deal - that's just becoming too much like hard work lately.

[grecian]

I'm assuming that percentage levels of qualification to the endgame will drop with time as the game is made harder by the manufacturers, at which point the need to remember questions might become more pressing. I agree with the comment about guts in the endgame. Totally accept that one can't expect easy questions all the way up to £20 but I'd rather it be harder to qualify for the endgame but a bit easier once you're there, myself.

[Ernest W. Quality]

fame but not fortune for one of us again.

In honour of myself, I'll change my username back to EWQ. I will also pay Bill Murray to star in a film with the suggested title, in order to make the question wrong.

Do you hold your camera-phone ready at all times, just in case such an opportunity comes along?

[rogerthymes]

Not only is X-Factor boring but the idea of looking at Cowell's patronising face is more than I can bear! Noel Edmond's is bad enough but Cowell...christ almighty!
Surely normal punters are going to think 'Wow! X Factor!' - but once they realise its not a MUSIC quiz (which surely it should have been) and that the gameplay is uninteresting they'll turn off in droves.
Plus - drunken punters don't get to see what answers were right/wrong which is surely another turn off for Joe Public. If this is just to annoy the pros then they're cutting off their nose to spite their face. Mike Read's Pop Quiz had a similar feel and it is as lame as lame can be.

[Ernest W. Quality]

Not only is X-Factor boring but the idea of looking at Cowell's patronising face is more than I can bear! Noel Edmond's is bad enough but Cowell...christ almighty!

Ages ago I used to enjoy Millionaire partly for the decent returns, but mainly because I got to poke Chris Tarrant in the eye to shut him up. Weakest Link is also good for this.

[Nil Satis]

I've finally had a go at the X Factor and would like to post the following caveats:

(1) as far as I can tell the end game always switches from its 'standard' question set into its 'spoiler' question set - i.e. a blatantly harder set with questions where it is harder to remember the wrong answer - as soon as you hit the first £1

(2) as grecian has noted, the Bonus isn't really helpful in terms of allowing you to 'be brave' (unlike say a Try Again) - you can't collect the prize you have achieved when you get one wrong and still have the Bonus; instead you are simply offered another equally difficult question. Basically it gives you two chances at a random guess instead of one.

(3) I didn't expect to be posting this warning but after a succession of good guesses I made it to £10, only to then find out for the first time that you may have to answer more than one question to achieve the prize! I had to answer three but I did still have my Bonus and was able to scrape through to the £10. This was a real annoyance needless to say, especially as it doesn't seem to be made clear anywhere that this will happen.

Not one to avoid as such but equally I'd be surprised if it became a decent payer, given that the very nature of spoilers is that they are harder to learn.

The 'new and improved' version of Deal or No Deal (which seems to play exactly the same as the old one other than the choice of 50p or £1 games) also seems to have made it onto the latest release of the ItBox.

[Matt Vinyl]

I had to answer three

A cheeky little halting-technique that, reminds me of 'Matrix' - when you started eating away at the £5/£10 line and were nearing the £20 you'd not only uncover a '?' on most squares, but very often, it would be '????', requiring four correct answers to KO one square...!

Grrr..!

[QuizMaster]

Yeah sounds like the old Millionaires trick that the original used to employ where he started telling you the next question wasn't worth enough to climb the ladder, and you had to answer 2. Thanks for the tip - I haven't been brave enough to take on the £20 yet.

Who played Captain Jean Luc Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation?

Not a particularly memorable question as such. Of major note only because it was the question I was given for £10 on X Factor the other day. So maybe the spoilers don't always come one after another. (Although I did fluke a guess on some date for the £3, it has to be said)

[dangerous]

Make it so!

[Nil Satis]

Yeah sounds like the old Millionaires trick that the original used to employ where he started telling you the next question wasn't worth enough to climb the ladder, and you had to answer 2. Thanks for the tip - I haven't been brave enough to take on the £20 yet.

Who played Captain Jean Luc Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation?

Not a particularly memorable question as such. Of major note only because it was the question I was given for £10 on X Factor the other day. So maybe the spoilers don't always come one after another. (Although I did fluke a guess on some date for the £3, it has to be said)

Just to clarify - I had reached the £10 prize level and had been expecting to have to answer the usual one question to achieve the £10 prize only to find I needed to answer three. For that reason I was happy to collect the £10 and didn't attempt the £20 - no doubt that would have needed a minimum of three answers.

You may be right in terms of the prize answers not being 100% spoilers but that certainly seemed to be the case when I played the game on Friday night.

It was actually an unexpectedly good night in that I took my first Jackpot (£18.00) out of Deals on Wheels - the game was basically in a really good mood and you could tell that the big prize was there. What was odd is that the ItBox in question was in a very central location in London where I usually find all spare cash stripped out of every machine - I only really played the machine at all as I had time to kill while waiting to meet someone.

[fotherz]

Had my first dabble on X-factor too.

First go (first round target - 8/11) got to £1 easy enough and continued. Immediately a question about the murder of some obscure rapper. Ouch.

Next go (target 10/11) got £3.


Pretty good in that you dont have to do much for a quid.