List of retired The Price Is Right pricing games

The following is a detailed list of The Price is Right pricing games that have been officially retired.

Add 'em Up
This game was played for a car -- specifically, a 4-digit car. It was played from September, 1986 through about 1989 and was never modified to accommodate 5-digit prices.

The object of the game was to guess all of the digits in the car's price without making more than one mistake. To make this goal easier to achieve, the contestant was told that the price contained no repeating digits and given the total of the digits; he was also allowed to select any one of the four digits to have revealed. Following this, he guessed additional digits until either lighting up the entire price (thus winning) or making two mistakes (thus losing).

While seemingly a simple concept, Add 'em Up was actually retired because it confused a lot of contestants. Though the game is long gone, its price display prop survives in Pathfinder.

Balance Game '84
To start the game off, the contestant was given five "Barker silver dollars" (coins with Bob's face on them, minted specially for the show). The contestant was then presented with a group of five small items with two-digit prices. Each prize had a bucket in front of it with an amount of Barker Silver Dollars equal to the price of the prize. The object of the game was to place buckets of coins on either one side of the scale or the other until the sides balanced out. If the difference was within 5 dollars or less, the contestant could place dollars on a side to correct the scale, and won a larger prize.

This game was played only from April of 1984 through early 1985; the reason for its retirement was that the game was too confusing for contestants, with Bob basically explaining every facet of the game to them short of the prices of the products.

The contestants were allowed to keep any Barker Dollars they had not used. A number of these have shown up for sale on eBay. Since the Barker Dollars were not valid currency, any Barker Dollars the contestant kept were not accounted for in the contestants' total winnings.

It has recently been revealed that the 100th pricing game, which has yet to debut, will also be called "Balance Game." Obviously, the rules will not be the same.

Bullseye "I"
Not to be confused with Bullseye, this game (whose official name is also "Bullseye"; the "I" is added to distinguish it from the grocery-pricing game) was a car game from the show's earliest days. Introduced on the second episode, Bullseye I gave a contestant seven chances to guess the exact price of a car. The contestant was told after each wrong guess whether the right price was higher or lower, and on later playings was even given a $500 range in which to bid, but the game proved ridiculously hard; as far as is known, it was never won. It was retired inside of two months, but not before spawning the far more successful Clock Game and the equally unsuccessful 2-player game "2-Player Bullseye I."

This game's official name from 1972 is Bullseye; CBS's website lists it as "'Old' Bullseye," but aside from that, it is known near-universally as Bullseye I.

Bump
This game was played for two prizes. Its set involved four double-decker busses lined up on a table over the names of the prizes. Each bus had a price on it; the two busses on the ends each showed the same price. The names of the prizes were under the two middle busses; their correct prices were on either the two busses on the left or the two busses on the right. The contestant had to decide which two prices were right; the corresponding busses would then be bumped into position over the prizes (knocking the farthest-away bus off the table in the process). If the prices were right, the contestant won.

Bump's main attraction was not its pricing aspect, but the fact that each playing involved either Dian or Janice bumping the busses after a rather provocative wind-up. Probably resulting from a combination of this and Bob and Dian's breakup, the game was retired in November of 1991. Interestingly enough, Dian continued to work on the show until halfway through 1993 despite the game's removal over a year earlier.

Double Digits
This game was played for a car and four 2-digit prizes. It was introduced in spring of 1973 and is believed to have had two totally different formats in its short life. In the first format, the contestant was shown the second digit of each small prize and had to correctly place the first digits (which were provided) in each one so that when read from left to right, they would form the price of the car. In the second format, the second digit of each of the small prizes was shown, and the player given two choices for the first digit. The correct first digits, read in order from left to right, again would form the price of the car. In either format, the contestant had to get everything right to win the car; he would receive any small prizes that he got right regardless of the outcome.

Double Digits was retired after only 4 playings because it was too confusing for contestants to figure out. However, it is suspected that its gameplay concepts were later recycled into two far more enduring games, Temptation (building the price of a car from digits in the prices of smaller items) and Switcheroo (filling in the missing digits of prices from a series of choices).

Finish Line
This game had exactly the same rules as Give or Keep but used a much more elaborate set. The game was played on a racetrack with a horse and a finish line, with prices corresponding to distance down the track. The finish line moved down the track a distance that corresponded with the total value of the "given" prizes. The "race" then started, with generic racetrack-type music playing in the background, and the horse moved a distance corresponding with the total value of the "kept" prizes. If the horse crossed the finish line, the contestant won.

Finish Line was played during Season 7 and was retired due to mechanical problems.

Fortune Hunter
The contestant was shown four prizes in this game. Each prize had a gift box, one of which contained $5,000 in cash. Barker read three clues to the contestant indicating which three prizes should be eliminated from the game; afterwards, the remaining box was delivered to the contestant to open. If the box contained money, the contestant won all four prizes and the $5,000.

Due to the game's structure, it was possible for someone to eliminate the wrong prize on every clue and still end up with the right box. In practice, however, making one mistake usually guaranteed a loss.

Fortune Hunter was played from November 21, 1997, to May 11, 2000. It was retired due to its poor win-loss record, which was particularly noticeable in the 28th season. Its "dramatic box open" reveal has since been recycled into ½ Off.

Gallery Game
In this game, the contestant was given three complete digits of a four-digit prize and part of the fourth digit. The price was displayed below a painting of that prize. The contestant had to "paint" the rest of the partial digit with a marker; if the digit was correct, the prize was won.

This game debuted during the 19th season premiere on September 10, 1990, and was retired by the end of that season.

Give or Keep
The contestant was shown three groups of two small prizes and had to "keep" one of the prizes in each group and "give" the other prize away. If the combined prices of the three "kept" prizes were greater than those of the three "given" prizes, the contestant won the game. The three "kept" items were won regardless of the game's outcome.

It is worth noting that the game's main unit was not situated on the actual turntable, but on the area next to it. This was because the turntable was used for the small prizes. Because of this, the game was visible to both the in-studio and home audiences during the one-bid round.

This game was played from 1973 to 1990. Even though it ran for that long, Give or Keep was retired because many of the show's staffers did not really like it.

Hurdles
In this game, the contestant was shown three groups of two different grocery items and had to determine which item in each group had a lower price than the price of a grocery item that was represented by the "hurdler." Flags were placed by the items that the contestant chose, and once all three flags were placed, Bob Barker fired a gun and the hurdler started moving across the board. If the chosen item was lower than the hurdler's price, that hurdle was cleared; if all three hurdles were cleared, the contestant won the game. If one of the chosen items had a higher price than the hurdler's price, the hurdler crashed and the game ended.

Hurdles was played from 1976 to 1983; it was retired because of constant mechanical problems.

It's Optional
It's Optional was played for two cars, both of the same make and model. The contestant was given the prices of both cars; one was a base model, and the other had some options on it. The game's board listed nine options; the object of the game was to add them to the base model one at a time in order to increase its price to within $100 of the price of the more expensive car without going over. The number of options that could be added varied from show to show, and the contestant was allowed to use less than the imposed limit. If the goal was achieved, the contestant won both cars; if he ran out off turns or went over the price of the more expensive car, he lost.

The prices of the two cars in It's Optional were represented by two 1920s-style automobiles on a prop painted to look like a country road; the road on the prop had a price track running along it, and the base model moved down it toward the more expensive car as options were added to it, rumbling and sputtering all the way.

Contestants who won the game received the right-hand (higher priced) car with its predetermined options and the left-hand car (the car that the contestant adds options to) with the options he/she chose while playing the game.

Mystery Price
Introduced and retired during the course of Season 2, Mystery Price was played for a group of two or three prizes, one of whose prices was the "mystery price" referred to by the game's title. The contestant was shown four small prizes and gave a bid on each one; for every bid that was not an overbid, the contestant won the corresponding item, and "credit" in the amount of the bid was added to the game's bank. At the end of the game, the mystery price was revealed; if the amount of credit in the bank was at least as high as this price, the contestant won the prize package.

This game was retired after only a handful of playings because the rules were deemed too complicated.

On the Nose
On the Nose was a skill game that was both introduced and retired during Season 13. Played for a car, the game had the contestant attempting to perform some sporting task -- the games played included football, basketball, baseball, tennis, and darts. The game began with the contestant being shown four prices, one of which was the price of the car. He picked one price, which would determine how many tries he got at the sporting event. The price farthest from the right one was worth one chance; picking the correct price earned four chances and a bonus of $1000. The contestant then took his shots at the day's sporting task (i.e. making a basket, popping a balloon with a dart, etc.); if he was successful on any turn, he won the car.

An obvious attempt to add to the family of Hole in One and Super Ball!!, On the Nose just didn't work out.

On the Spot
On the Spot was played for a car. The contestant was shown 6 small prizes, and stood in the middle of a circle (the "spot") with three paths leading out of it. Each path had three circles on it, with prices in them. The contestant picked a path by stepping to the first circle of that path, and had to find the prize that matched the price in the first circle. If it matched, the player moved on to the second circle, doing the same thing. If the contestant missed any price, they were sent back to the "spot" and had to pick either of the remaining paths. If the path they chose contained a price that they had already revealed on a different path, they were allowed to skip over it. Getting all the way through any path won the car.

On the Spot was removed from the rotation early in Season 33, ostensibly for retooling; it was officially retired later in the season. It was retired due to a combination of a low win percentage and confusing rules.

The Phone Home Game
During much of the '80s, The Price is Right had a feature called "Play Along" in which viewers would send postcards to the show for a chance to receive the same prizes won by the contestant in one of the day's pricing games. The Phone Home Game took this concept to another level, having the person whose postcard was picked cooperate over the phone with the contestant for a chance to share up to $15,000 in cash. The game involved seven grocery products, each of which had a hidden cash value associated with it -- two each of $200 and $1000, and one each of $2000, $3000, and $10,000. The home player would give the contestant three prices, one at a time, and the contestant tried to guess which of the seven items went with that price. If he was right, they won the cash associated with that item; if not, no money was awarded, and the price of the wrong item was taken out of play. If on any turn the home player gave an item instead of a price, that turn was wasted, and the item and its price were taken out of play. After the third guess, the monies won were revealed; each player got half of the total amount won. The maximum possible winnings were $15,000 (or $7,500 each.)

The chances of picking the three 'jackpot' values of $2,000; $3,000 and $10,000 are 1 in 35. At least one pairing of players has split the full $15,000 prize.

The contestant playing at home was considered an "on-the-air" contestant, and thus lost their eligibility to be an in-studio contestant.

Professor Price
Professor Price was a rather unorthodox game; it featured an "animatronic" puppet used to keep score, and actual general-knowledge questions, the answers to which were single digits (example: "How many periods are there in a regulation hockey game?"). The game involved up to five questions: the first, third, and fifth questions were general knowledge, and the second and fourth had the contestant guessing whether or not the answers to questions 1 and 3 were either of the first two digits in the price of the car (the game began with the third and fourth digits revealed). If the answer to an even-numbered question was "yes," the appropriate digit in the price would be revealed; it's not clear what would happen if the answer was "no." (Only one playing of Professor Price has been seen in the last decade, and on that episode, the answer to both questions was "yes.") The object of the game was to answer at least three out of the five questions correctly -- which led at least once to the odd circumstance of the entire price being revealed without the game being over.

This game was introduced in 1977 or 1978 and was played only about two or three times, presumably because it wasn't actually a pricing game at all, but a trivia contest with only a token acknowledgement of The Price is Right's core concept. The "Professor Price" puppet, who raised or lowered his fingers to indicate right or wrong answers, did make a few appearances throughout the remainder of that season in prize displays. The prop later found its way into the hands of a collector, who sold it on eBay a few years ago.

Shower Game
This game was played for a car. Six shower stalls were set up on the stage, each with a different price attached to it. The player entered the stall he or she felt contained the correct price of the car, and pulled a chain inside. This would cause one of three things to happen: if the shower had the car's price, a giant key lowered from the ceiling, indicating a win; three of the other showers (which three appears to have been random) rained confetti on the contestant, while the other two showered him with one hundred $1 bills. The contestant could keep entering showers until he found either money (losing, but keeping the hundred dollars) or the car key (winning).

Shower Game was played only a handful of times in the summer and fall of 1978; it was retired due to complaints from viewers and audience members that it reminded them of the Holocaust. Despite its short life, it did undergo a set change during its run; since the prices were somewhat difficult for the camera to make out, small "doors" were added to each stall that contained their prices in a large font.

Split Decision
This game was played for a car with a five-digit price and a smaller prize with a three-digit price. Eight digits were placed in a row, and it was up to the contestant to determine which three digits made up the price of the smaller prize by pulling them down. (For instance, if the given digits were "15879350" and the contestant guessed that the smaller prize was worth $895, he/she would pull down the 8, 9, and 5, leaving $15,730 as the price of the car.) The contestant was given 20 seconds to make as many guesses as possible, hitting a button to stop the clock after each guess. If all eight digits were placed correctly, the contestant won the game.

For a short time in 1996, Split Decision's clock was eliminated, and the contestant was simply given three chances to guess the correct prices. The original format was restored before the game was retired.

Split Decision was played from November 9, 1995, to January 16, 1997. It was retired because its rules confused many of the contestants who played it.

Split Decision has frequently been maligned as the result of an infamous playing of the game where two numbers fell off the board. People have often made it sound like this was a frequent occurrence, but it actually only happened once.

Super Ball!!
Based on the Arcade game Skee-ball, in this game the contestant had the chance to win up to three prizes. To win each prize, the player must win its associated ball by guessing the correct price of a small prize from two choices. Each ball the contestant won was rolled up a skee-ball chute; if it landed in the "WIN" circle, the contestant won the prize for that ball. The two outer rings were worth $50 and $100.

If the contestant did not earn the ball for one or more of the prizes, there was a second chance. A final "Superball" was shown, along with another small prize and two prices. If that ball was won and thrown into the "WIN" circle, the player won all three prizes; if it landed in one of the outer rings, the contestant won three times the normal amount of money for that ring.

If all of the prizes were won with the first three balls, putting the Superball in the "WIN" circle was worth $3000 in cash; in the entire time the game was played, this bonus only came into play twice and was only won once. The first time the bonus came into play, Bob originally misstated it as a $1000 bonus before correcting himself. This has led many viewers to believe that the bonus may have been created on-the-fly, when it actually had always been part of the rules.

Super Ball!! was played from February 3, 1981, until January 12 1998; it was retired when Bob decided that based on the reaction it was getting from audiences, it didn't merit the large amount of time that it took to play.

$uper $aver
Six grocery items were displayed, with prices attached. Five of the displayed prices were below the actual retail prices; one was above it. The player had to make four picks, with the total money "saved" or "lost" on each purchase placed in a bank. If, after the fourth pick, the player had $1.00 or more in the bank, he or she won a bonus prize. Although picking the marked-up product was undesirable, it did not mean that the contestant couldn't win.

During Season 24, there was an incident where Bob did not specifiy to a contestant that the game could still be won if the marked-up item was picked; she later complained to the producers that not understanding this caused her to lose. Because he didn't want to risk such a thing happening again, Bob had the game retired.

Telephone Game
Telephone Game was a game played for a car or one of two 2-digit prizes, each of which had a telephone by it. The game had two segments -- one involving grocery pricing, and one involving car pricing.

In the first segment, the contestant received a "credit" of $1.00 and was shown four grocery products; he had to use the credit to buy two of the groceries and have at least a dime left over.

If he was successful, he received a dime and moved on to the second part of the game. In this segment, the contestant was shown a "phone book" which contained three 4-digit extensions; one was the price of the car in dollars, and the other two were the prices of the 2-digit prizes in dollars and cents. The player selected one of the extensions and dialed it into a huge pay phone; the telephone by the prize he had called then rang, and he won that prize, ending the game. Obviously, the goal was to call the car.

Telephone Game was one of only two games where winning all of the announced prizes was impossible. (The other one is Any Number).

Telephone Game was retired because "it was lame." (In all seriousness, that is the explanation given by the production staff.)

Trader Bob
Trader Bob, played in front of a rustic "cabin," was simply a minor take-off on Give or Keep. It involved seven small prizes, the first of which was used as a "base prize." Three sets of two items were brought out, one at a time; in each pair, the contestant had to "trade up" by picking the item that was more expensive than the base prize. The price of the other item would be revealed, and the picked item would become the "base prize" for the next pair. After the third pair, the prices of the four base prizes were revealed; if each one was more expensive than the last, the contestant won a bonus prize. If the game was not won, the contestant still kept any prizes whose prices were revealed before finding a mistake.

Since the outcome of Trader Bob didn't depend on a total like Give or Keep and Finish Line did, there was no room for error in the game; as such, it wasn't won very often, something that eventually led to its retirement.

2-Player Bullseye "I"
2-Player Bullseye is the only pricing game in history that involved two contestants competing against one another. After the One-Bid winner got on-stage, Bob had Johnny call another audience member to Contestants' Row; that person then took part in a second One-Bid, the winner of which joined the first winner on-stage. The two were then shown a car, which they bid back and forth on; as in Clock Game, the price was shown to the audience, and Bob said whether it was higher or lower after each guess. The first contestant to guess the exact price won the car.

To shorten the game's length, Bob always gave a range in which the contestants were to bid (e.g., $2,500 and $3,000).

Not surprisingly, 2-Player Bullseye was only played a few times; it was gone well before 1973. It may have only been played once on the Barker version; it lasted for a few playings on the Dennis James version.

This has been the only pricing game in which there is always a winner--and, consequently, always a loser.

The game's official name from 1972 is 2-Player Bullseye. It is listed here as "2-Player Bullseye I" to make it clear which version of Bullseye the name refers to.

Walk of Fame
Walk of Fame was played for a two-digit prize, a three-digit prize, and two four-digit prizes. The contestant placed bids on each prize, one at a time; each bid had to come within a specific range (which got larger with each prize) before the contestant was able to move on to the next prize. If the difference between the contestant's bid and the actual retail price exceeded the specified range, that prize was lost, but the contestant could earn a second chance by choosing one of two autograph books. Both books were autographed by the show's cast members at the time -- Bob Barker, Johnny Olson, Janice Pennington, Dian Parkinson, and Holly Hallstrom -- but only one of them contained a "second chance" page. If the contestant chose the book that did not have the second chance, or if he/she made a bad bid on the last prize (since the price was already revealed), the game ended. Nonetheless, the contestant got to keep all prizes that were won up to that point -- and the autograph book.

This game was played from 1983 to 1985; it was retired because inflation was making it too hard to win.

Following Johnny Olson's death in 1985, the final playings of Walk of Fame had no signatures mentioned or shown in their autograph books.