Balance Game (1)

Balance Game "I"
Premiere Date	April 9, 1984 (#5281D)
Pricing Game Location	Center Stage
Previous Premiered Pricing Game	Walk of Fame
Next Premiered Pricing Game	On the Nose
Finale Date	December 3, 1985 (#5912D)

The first Balance Game required the contestant to balance a large scale using buckets of silver dollars bearing the face of the show's former host Bob Barker to win a big prize.

Gameplay

• The contestant was given five silver dollars and shown five small prizes with two-digit prices, each with a bucket in front of it containing a number of silver dollars equal to the item's price. The contestant would pick items and Janice would deposit the coins into the first side of the scale. The price was revealed on the bottom of the bucket, which was stacked near the dish. The contestant then had to pick another prize whose coins were poured into the other side of the scale, and whose bucket was placed next to that side.
• The game was structured in a way that it could always be won with only two items, though it varied whether or not the Barker Silver Dollars would need to be used. Sometimes there would only be one such pair, other times several. Two items could theoretically have matching prices, and there were always multiple combinations that would lead a contestant to victory.
• If the two items "balanced" the scale - were the same price - the contestant won the large prize. If the prices were within five dollars of each other, the contestant could use the free dollars they were given to balance the scale and win. If not, they had to select additional prizes whose dollars would be added to the scale in an attempt to balance them (or come within five dollars of doing so).
• The game continued until the scale balanced or until all the prizes had been used and the five free silver dollars could not balance the scale. The contestant won any small prizes they had used on the scale regardless of whether or not they won the game.

Barker Silver Dollars

• The silver dollars used in the game were called "Barker Silver Dollars", and were specially-minted coins with host Bob Barker's face on them.
• Contestants were allowed to keep any of their five free Barker Silver Dollars that had not been used in the game; several sets have been offered for sale on eBay. The remaining coins were given as souvenirs to contestants playing the current Balance Game many years later, until they were replaced with "Drew Dollars" after Drew Carey became the new host.

History

• Balance Game premiered on April 9, 1984 (#5281D). On its first playing, it was lost. The first winner was on April 27, 1984 (#5305D), the third playing.
• The most number of times this game was played in any season was 14 (season 13), while the least number of times this game was played in any season was 5 (season 14).
• Balance Game is the last of the four pricing games to be retired in early season 14. The other three are Trader Bob (retired on November 19, 1985, #5892D), On the Nose (retired on November 22, 1985, #5895D), and Walk of Fame (retired on November 27, 1985, #5903D).
• Stan Blits refers to this game as the "Old Balance Game" in his book.

Gallery

To view the gallery, click here.

Retirement

The most common explanation for the game's retirement centers on its rules, which required very meticulous game design with several combinations that could lead to a win. This, critics say, led to the game being too confusing for most contestants and a low win rate. Bob often had to guide contestants through each aspect of the game, short of revealing the prices of each item, which defeated the purpose of a game show. Hit Me was retired for a similar reason 21 years later.

YouTube Links

A playing of old Balance Game
A Balance Game (1) Win!
A disastrous playing