218 · Hollywood Squares

• It’s time to go Hollywood! Hollywood Squares that is!
• NES Longplay
• Introductions
  • AND WELCOME TO HOLLYWOOD SQUARES, let’s meet our celebrity guests, Michael Esposito x9
  • And today’s contestants, hailing from the great city of Buffalo, NY topping off at 200 Sean
  • And his opponent, barreling in from Niagara Falls, NY Joe
  • And let’s give it up for our host Michael Esposito!
• What better way to cover Hollywood Squares on the NES than playing a game of Hollywood Squares
• Overview
  • two contestants compete in a game of tic-tac-toe to win cash and prizes. In each “box” on the tic-tac-toe board there is a celebrity guest who tells you the answer and the player must then assess if they are telling the truth or not.
• Questions
  • The celebrities that are featured in this NES game are also
    • Joke: My Inner demons
    • Right: Not real
    • Wrong: Nintendo Employees
    • Talk about how the biggest draw of the game is absent from. This is just Tic-Tac-Toe Trivia. Or worse, SQUARES
  • This developer is better known for bears and apes, but they are also the developer of this game?
    • Joke: Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria
    • Right: Rare
    • Wrong: Activision
    • Talk about Rare
  • Hollywood Squares has had several spinoff shows: Storybook Squares, The West Virginia Squares, Nashville Squares, And this music focused one known as BLANK
    • Joke: Hip to be Square
    • Right: Hip Hop Squares
    • Wrong: Square Dancing
    • Talk about the video game version trivia questions and the generality of the questions being asked
  • This popular paper-and-pencil game can be tracked all the way back to the ancient Egyptians in 1300 BC
    • Joke: Assassin’s Creed
    • Right: Tic-Tac-Toe
    • Wrong: Dots and Boxes
    • Talk about traditional games and their impact on video gaming
  • In NES Hollywood Squares you can win a fake brand new car by picking the right key to match the right car, in this other game show you answer questions IN a car:
    • Joke: Cops
    • Right: Cash Cab
    • Wrong: Carpool Karaoke
    • Talk about the inconsequentiality final prize
  • Hollywood Squares is our 3rd Game Show Video Game, what was our first?
    • Joke: 10-Yard Fight
    • Right: Jeopardy!
    • Wrong: Wheel of Fortune
    • Talk about the Game Show Genre and how trivia adapts to video games
  • Bob Barker, Alex Trebek, Michael Eposito what do these names have in common?
    • Joke: They are all past their prime
    • Right: They are all hosts
    • Wrong: They are all in the top 10 boy’s first names
    • Talk about the lack of a host in these video games
  • Is it ever a good idea to put vodka on your eyeglasses?
    • Joke: I think it works faster up your butt
    • Right: Yes, for cleaning
    • Wrong: No
      • Randomness of the questions and how there doesn’t seem to be any consistency
  • Hollywood Squares would take a long time to expand on the brilliance of the NES version, but after many years we finally got a sequel on this console
    • Joke: N-Gage
    • Right: The Wii, just like every other shovelware game known to man
    • Wrong: Xbox 360, as a follow up to the popular 1vs100
• EGL
  • For the car we have this important question: IS IT ESSENTIAL
• NEStalgia Byte - Dig Dug
• Next week - King’s Knight

Auto-generated transcript. Each paragraph starts with its timestamp. Speakers are not identified.

00:00 It's time to go Hollywood. Hollywood Squares, that is.

00:14 And welcome to Hollywood Squares. Let's meet our celebrity guests. Michael Esposito. Michael Esposito. Michael Esposito. Michael Esposito. Michael Esposito. Michael Esposito. Michael Esposito. Michael Esposito. And Michael Esposito. And today's contestants hailing from the great city of Buffalo, New York, topping off at 200. Sean. Hello, hello. And his opponent barreling in from Niagara Falls, New York, Joe. Hi, everyone. Happy to be here. And now let's give it up for our host, Michael Esposito.

00:58 Thank you. Thank you. Guys, what better way to cover Hollywood Squares on the NES than playing a game of Hollywood Squares on the podcast? It's the only way to do it. I can't think of any other way. Yeah. Okay. So there's going to be a couple of rules here, though, first and foremost. Just an overview of things. So in Hollywood Squares, there's two contestants and they compete in a game of tic-tac-toe. Usually there's cash and prizes.

01:23 Guys, I hate to break it to you. You're just people who exist on this podcast. You don't get cashes and prizes. Those are for contestants on a game show. This is just for fun. But true to the format in each box of this tic-tac-toe board, there is going to be a celebrity version of myself who will tell you the answer to the questions that have already been predetermined. And then you, the players, must assess if they are.

01:51 I guess the answer is like if they are telling the truth or not. But is it is it ever like explicit that they're lying or is it just that they don't know? No, no, no. It's just, yeah. I think they're trying to help you, but they're just wrong sometimes. Yeah, but it does in the actual game show, they do say like you have to determine who's telling the truth, which is very misleading if you don't know the rules of the game. I was trying to figure out like, wait, so is this like a mafia thing or it's nothing to do with any of that. I thought like I thought there was like one secret mole that was trying to like screw them up or something. But that has nothing to do with it. That would be fun, too. Yeah.

02:23 So if the Mike, if the Michael Esposito is right or wrong, we just agree or disagree. Right. You only have to say true or false to the statements. Now, to be fair to everybody, both the contestants here today, Sean and Joe and the listeners at home, I have prepared both right and wrong answers that will be determined by a random number generator so that this way there is no unfair bias. We all know that we want Joe to win, but we have to make this a fair competition.

02:51 We all know. We all know. Well, I think that's that's jinxing me right there. But there's one other thing that Hollywood Squares has, and that is really bad zingers from these celebrities. Now, I'm sure in the actual show, they they probably had like some good comedians on every now and again who were able to come up with clever stuff on the spot. But for whatever reason, the video game version, I don't know how you guys felt about these jokes zingers, if you will.

03:20 They they weren't really that funny to me. And so I tried to match that kind of tone for the zingers that my celebrity guests will be providing. I think that's probably the correct way to go about. Yeah. It's also a great way to cover yourself if the jokes just aren't funny. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Like a joke that you're telling a bad joke. I didn't stay up all night writing these. Yeah. Also, I'm going to try and help the listener visualize this game show by describing where on the three by three matrix I'm going to place my bid.

03:53 So hopefully that helps. Fantastic. OK. Thank you for that, Sean. We have every little bit helps. I'm I'm trying my best. Joe, what will you be doing to contribute? I won't. Great. Because we all want you to win anyway. He's our just going to say Joe's our darling.

04:12 I'll also do my best to describe or my worst. Great. Now, I know what a lot of our listeners are thinking and they're like, you can't be serious. You're not about to play a game of Hollywood squares where it's just general trivia and and then just like find out who the winner is, especially when there's no cash prizes. Like, why should I care? And I'm just here to tell everybody, don't worry. All of the questions are topics related to the game itself that we will then discuss in detail after we assess if the answer is true or false. OK. So with that away, the coin toss behind the stage revealed that Joe will go first. And so this is bullshit.

04:53 Joe, will you please pick a square? I am going to pick square middle middle. OK. Otherwise known as the middle of a tic-tac-toe board. That is the center square. And that in my. Oh, what's that?

05:10 Am I X's or O's? What would you like to be? Do I get to choose? I feel like Sean should get to choose since I go first. I want to be X's because O's are losers. Terrible choice. All right. The first question. This goes to Michael Esposito in the center square. In NES Hollywood squares, you can win a fake brand new car by picking the right key to match the right car. In this other game show, you answer questions in a car. Uh, what is cops? No, I'm joking. I'm joking. Uh, I'm going to say carpool karaoke. Joe, true or false? I'm going to say that's false. And you would be correct. Do I have to say? OK, I don't have to say the real answer. Oh. I don't think you do. No, you just got to say yes or no. This is really bad.

06:00 I played the game. I played the NES game. I just forgot. Yeah, of course. I mean, you know, that's something funny, though, too, because in the NES game, if they made you like then go to a keyboard and type in the answer, I feel like that would be a lot more stressful. But also then it would be a huge advantage to the person who always gets the true because then they never have to go to the answer. So, Joe, you've just created a topic within a topic. However, I must remind you that you are correct.

06:27 Carpool karaoke was incorrect. And, you know, the correct answer, I would have accepted cash cab. But I'm sure there are other game shows where you can answer questions in a car and win money. What I really wanted to discuss here, obviously, is, you know, in the NES Hollywood squares, when you have the opportunity to win that fake brand new car, you have to pick a random key that all kind of look the same. And then cars that just the only thing that changes about them is the color of the car. But it feels really random. And I feel like that's a very inconsequential final prize that we've dealt with before in Wheel of Fortune where, like, they gave away, like, you know,

07:04 oh, you won this trip or you won this car. And, like, you don't actually get to take those things home. So the whole game was played with no real stakes involved. And here, not only do you not get to, like, you know, redeem your car by sending in the screen where you won to Nintendo Power, where you just, like, it also adds this layer of you have to pick the right key in the right car. Is that how they did it on the game show? Like, is that even feel right? I want to say that that might, I actually, I remember watching Hollywood squares back in the day. And I don't quite remember this car thing.

07:40 But it sounds like a thing that would be done. Like, yeah, here's your money that you want on the show. So, but, like, just to keep the stakes high, but also so that we don't always have to give you them, like, more stuff. It would be, like, here's your chance to win a car. So, I don't know. It sounds about right. The way they say it, too, is so matter of fact that it's, like, it's as if it was definitely part of the show because he goes, like, and he's going to go for the car.

08:08 Like, there's no explanation. I'm like, what? Like, it's as if I should have known that from watching the show. So I assumed that that was in the show. But, yeah, I... It is funny, though, that, like, they just say, like, oh, okay. So, like, we might, I don't know if we're getting ahead of ourselves because I don't know what the actual structure of this episode is. But, like, in the second round of this game, they will give you a secret square for the, yeah, for a trip.

08:38 And, like, they'll just, like, if you select it, they'll say, like, all right, answer the question and you'll get this. And then if you get it right, it's like, all right, now you're going to the Alps.

08:49 And I think that, like, it's still possible to use that and, like, to try and put that into a game. Like, just give, like, your little avatar thing, like, some fun, like, ski gear or something. Because at least now you've got something for it instead of just, like, the screen that says, like, you're going to the Alps. Congratulations. I don't know. Yeah, I like that. It's like, you know, it's like when you want, you know, purchase things to be all, like, aesthetic. And, you know, it's like give an aesthetic improvement or, like, an option for winning that.

09:19 Absolutely. Yeah, I know we're, like, repeating ourselves here a little bit with our other game show episodes. But I think in Wheel of Fortune we suggested that there should be mini games for those kinds of things. So if you won the ski trip, now you play, like, a little version of Slalom or something.

09:35 Yeah. I mean, that's something that would set it aside from Wheel of Fortune in a good way. Other than, like, all the ways it's set aside from Wheel of Fortune by being, like, less practical than actually playing Wheel of Fortune.

09:47 It's interesting, though, that there's no, like, high score. I mean, there is. You know, they give you points and stuff like that. But there's no actual focus on high score as the dream prize at the end, right? Like, this thing is worth 50,000 points or something like that. Or you can wager some points or something. Because video games are all about getting high scores at this time. So to make the game show then just give you fake prizes, it just takes away from what could have been something where it's like, oh, well, I scored the other day. I scored 115,000 on Hollywood Squares. Try and beat that.

10:22 Yeah, like, just the amount of, like, useless shit that you win can just be converted into points. Like, a trip to the big island of Hawaii could be, like, 25,000 points. And then that could actually be reflected on the leaderboard. I don't know. I want to go next. Okay. You can go next. Oh, no. I'm next. Joe, I don't think. I'm just kidding. I think that would be a very unfair advantage. I just thought I was being favored. I don't know. Sean, what box would you like to go into?

10:54 I'd like to go into bottom right box, please, Mike. Okay. Bottom right. And let me just load up. I think it's Mike. Yeah. Mike is in that box. The Mike in bottom right. Here's the question for you. Hollywood Squares would take a long time to expand on the brilliance of the NES version. But after many years, we finally got a sequel on this console. The N-Gage? No, no, no. That's the joke answer. Don't worry, Sean. The actual response, the Nintendo Wii, just like every other shovelware game known to man. All right. First of all, I'm going to say that your joke answers require a bit more like thinking that you're too smart for the show. Like, I think that we need a bit more of that. But I'm also going to say no, that it was not on the Wii.

11:50 Ooh, Sean, that's rough. It was on the Nintendo Wii. Hollywood Squares wouldn't get another video game adaptation until the Nintendo Wii. And the PS3 is a digital download, but the Wii got a physical version, too. So all those Wii collectors who collect, like, 3,000-plus boxed video games also need to add a copy of Hollywood Squares to theirs. So Joe gets the bottom right box. This is actual bullshit.

12:15 And what's worse is now we have to talk about the sequels and spinoffs. The thing that we do at the end of any episode. Now we have to do it early on. So you actually have, I guess I didn't realize you actually have these questions in specific boxes. Yes, I do. Oh, I love that. It makes it so much more real. Yeah, hey, it's no problem. No problem at all.

12:37 Joe, as someone who's about to go for the win, sequels and spinoffs, the fact that there's only one for Hollywood Squares, does that surprise you? Do you feel like there should have just been, like, every console generation should have gotten? It should have been, like, a Madden thing, like, every year. With the year next to it. Just do a little update. Hollywood Squares 97, Hollywood Squares 98.

12:57 With new celebrities. You ask that question as if, like, I would be surprised that there was only one. I'm surprised that there is one. I'm surprised that there is a sequel to it. I'm not saying it was terrible or anything, but, like, Hollywood Squares, does anyone, I don't know, is anyone asking for Hollywood Squares?

13:16 Were there any celebrities, like, actual people? Or were they, like, Joe, Beth, and Eva? Well, I'm pretty sure that they were not real celebrities. But if they were smart, and I'm looking it up right now, they should have gone for the Me's. The Me's should have been in the squares, right? The Me's that are in your plaza. You know what? I take what I said back. I think that if you had celebrity Me's and they each had, like, a response, like, that celebrity had, like, licensed their likeness, that would sell. Well, not even that. I think that, like, what would have actually made this game interesting in any way would be, like, you don't even have to spend money to get, like, likeness.

13:56 You just put, like, parody versions of actual celebrities in there. Like, some guy with a big chin and call him, like, Ray Geno or something. I don't know. There's limitless possibilities. Real-time update. The Nintendo Wii version does have real celebrities like Kathy Griffin and Jeffrey Tambor. Oh, of course. Of course. Okay. Well, all right. I stand corrected. I also stand corrected because I feel like now I'm not that interested anyways. Like, yeah. Nothing against Kathy Griffin. It's, like, not, like, the first celebrity on my list of celebrities I wanted to see.

14:32 And if you want something really crazy, you can still buy Hollywood Squares brand new for the Nintendo Wii on Amazon for $12.99. Hey, can't beat that. You can't beat that at all. And, you know, I also think that there was a moment for a Hollywood Squares-style game. If you guys remember during the Xbox 360s, like, huge run before the PS3 eventually caught up, there was that 1 vs. 100 game. Did either of you play that?

14:59 I had heard of it. It was a big thing. I've never played it. Yeah, it was a big thing where, like, you actually played on Xbox Live with, you know, 100 other contestants. And, you know, you were either, you either got chosen to be the one guy who goes up against the 100 or you were just part of the audience and, you know, part of the general 100.

15:17 I feel like a Hollywood Squares version of that where certain people are automatically put into the boxes and two people are chosen as the contestants. Like, yeah, that could have worked for a lot of other game shows, but I just feel like that was a good moment for that. And, you know, now it's like, I don't know, all that stuff's gone out of favor. No one really cares about that. Regular people squares. Regular people squares, yes.

15:40 All right, Joe, I think I know what box you're going to go for. But, you know, for the listeners at home, do you want to explain the current situation? Yeah, current situation is Sean has the, Sean has the south, or no, I'm sorry, I have the southeast corner, which I got from Sean getting that question wrong. Then I also have the center box. And I'm now going to go speak to the Michael Esposito in the northwest corner. And the question for him is, the celebrities that are featured in this NES game are also, the joke answer is, my inner demons. The answer, thank you.

16:21 The answer supplied by that Michael Esposito is Nintendo employees. So wait, the question is that these celebrities are also featured in Nintendo employees? The celebrities that are featured in this NES game are also Nintendo employees. That is the statement being made. Oh, I thought there was like some game called Nintendo Employees. I'm such an idiot. Okay. Wow. They are also Nintendo employees. Let me take a look at these guys again, see if I recognize any of them.

16:49 Pam. Well, the middle guy's Togero, so I don't know. Sean, you help me out. Sean, do they ever let people look at the, like, do they let them open up an encyclopedia for the answers to the questions on Hollywood Squares? I don't think they do, so I think that this is fake. I think that's illegal. Well, no, I'm looking at this.

17:08 I would be able to see the celebrities, right? No, no, no. In this role play, you are a blind person because one of our listeners can't see the show. That's a good point. No, in this role play, you'd be seeing nine Michael Esposito's because we're talking about the NES game. That's true. But for the record, I'm always watching footage of the game we're talking about in every episode of this podcast on YouTube. So I was already looking at them. But I'm going to just regardless say I think that's false.

17:39 And you would be correct. That is false. I swear to God. They are just not real celebrities at all. They are just regular random people that they, you know, didn't even try to attribute, like, names that would be conceived as famous people. They are just generic names. And, you know, talk about the biggest draw of the game, you know, and just not having that, right? Like, Hollywood Squares is about the celebrities. And this is just tic-tac-toe trivia.

18:06 You know, like, that's strange that they missed the biggest draw of the game. I don't know. I'm sure you guys picked up on that right away on your playthroughs, right? Oh, yeah. I mean, that, like, just my, the thing I pitched earlier of just having goofball parody versions of actual celebrities. Like, you can do, like, an Arnold Schwarzenegger looking person. And, like, just that kind of stuff. And they, that's a huge missed opportunity there because right now half of your, half of your reason to be does not exist. Right now it's Trivial Pursuit with a tic-tac-toe board.

18:44 I mean, here's, I think, what you could, well, what you could do, right? Who developed this? This is, is this rare? The developer is better known for bears and apes, but they are also the developer of this game. So this is another, this is another board. Yeah. Who's answering? This is Sean, right?

19:02 That's, that's a Jeopardy phrased question. So the, yes. And, and you know what, to be honest, though, like, when I was writing these questions, I automatically defaulted to Jeopardy style things for the most part. However, the, the, the celebrity could have answered that. And since the game is over, I will tell you that the answer obviously is rare, which I think Joe, Joe guessed correctly. Rare also being the makers of the other game show style games that we've played so far. So I guess they just, I guess they just like decided to team up with whoever has the licenses for these and saying like, you guys can publish them, but we'll make them for you.

19:38 Yeah. Well, cause my other suggestion then was going to be, if you can't use celebrities, why not use other characters from other rare games? You know? Like the slalom butt guy?

19:48 Yeah. I guess there might not be like the best pool of characters from there, but you could, it's better than random people. I would love to hear from wizard or warrior. The slalom butt guy could be facing away from you. Yeah. Now that the game is over, uh, and, and Joe gets a car. Did you find this game? Did you guys find this game difficult in any way? I mean, in the sense that like the, the trivia itself, no, because it's whether, you know, some of the questions aren't particularly hard. Maybe there are some that, you know, that, that are a little more difficult, but it's always down to a 50, 50 anyways.

20:24 So, so like that makes it easier. But I will say that I think that the format of this is a little better formatted for an NES game than like Jeopardy was, where you don't have to type in a random answer and you get one thing, one, you get one typo and you got like 10 seconds or whatever. Uh, and you're wrong. At least it like, it can do more intricate questions, but it's not perfect. I'm going to disagree and agree with you on two, on two different things here. Uh, one, presentationally, this is so much better than like any time a computer player gets something wrong. It just like smashes its hands on the keyboard and gives you like X, J, I, Z, Y, T, G, zero or whatever.

21:06 Um, that's silly and isn't how Jeopardy is played. Um, but I will say that like, this was a little difficult for me because like the sources that this game was pulling from. Um, are not like scientific in nature or like, they're not like whether something is true or false is not set in stone because they're citing like magazine articles from, uh, like, uh, according to, uh, leisure. What, how do you get children to eat food that you like?

21:41 And then it's just like a really subjective answer. Like you just got to eat the food that you want them to eat. It's like, is that, was there a study? Like, is that real? I mean, that's, that's true. I hear what you're saying there. I mean, I think that the, I don't know if this is the way the show was, but I feel like the point is that it's like, what do you think leisure would have said?

21:59 You know, rather than like, what's the truth? True. But yeah, it's not, yeah. Like there are definitely plenty of questions where I was like, I don't really know. But then it felt a little too, you know, 50, 50 shot felt a little unfair in my favor. And that point is like, I have no idea what the answer to this question is, but I'll just guess anything. And I might just get it right.

22:22 The randomness of the questions though hurts because it's not like Jeopardy where there's clearly defined categories that you then like prepare yourself for that kind of question. The general, the generality of every kind of question you could potentially be asked. And they, I saw the, uh, on GameFAQ, somebody lists out every single question and it's correct answer in case anybody wanted to cheat. But just the amount of questions Rare came up with is amazing. Like they probably did pull them from the show or whatever, but to program that many things, I'd never ran into a repeat, but I don't even think I'd be able to potentially see every question that they programmed into this game.

23:00 So they do deserve some credit for that. But I don't know if like, you know, Sean, you were mentioning just like, you know, that some things were like opinions and stuff like that. But even just like questions like, is it ever a good idea to put vodka on your eyeglasses?

23:12 That was something that came up that I wrote down. Um, and I'm just like, I don't know. Does that fall in with the same kind of stuff that should also be a game show that asks you questions about history or about, um, you know, uh, just, you know, general trivia. Like that doesn't feel like trivia to me. Is it ever a good idea to put vodka on your eyeglasses? I'll do you one better, Mike. And the question was, according to the world book dictionary, is it a good thing or a bad thing to be diddled?

23:42 Well, I did not make that up. That is a question. What did they, what did they, uh, what's the verdict on that? Well, uh, they say that it's a bad thing, uh, to be diddled is to be swindled or taken advantage of. But, you know, there's a very different, there's a very different definition now, but I took a picture and I, I don't know. I'll send it to you. Maybe you can put it on the Twitter or something. Oh, I will. Uh, it was, uh, it's, it was crazy.

24:13 Um, and I mean, here, maybe, maybe in my opinion, it is good to be diddled. And, cause I use a different definition of the word diddling. Um, but, but in its defense, the question was according to this dictionary, is it a good thing? Yeah, that's true. I get it. The bigger problem about, you know, the game show genre and, you know, playing older game shows or even just buying board games of trivia games, you know, like say you bought, seen it back in 2006.

24:45 History continues to, time moves on, you know, movies continue to come out and this stuff dates itself. So no matter what, when you play these older games, just like how, when you watch like older episodes of Jeopardy, Jeopardy like tends to skew to like the people who would now be old enough to understand the answers to the questions that are like, you know, when they were maybe growing up or, you know, relative to their interests. But if you watch like Jeopardy from 1980, it's like questions that is mostly revolving around sixties and seventies trivia, you know, so these things like age quicker.

25:20 And so I just don't know what the answer is for the game show genre to adapt trivia to video games, because it's always just going to be like, you know, we were joking about, you need Hollywood squares, 97, 98, 99. But like, that's really the only solution that they've come up with thus far outside of DLC, which would also suck. I don't know. Like maybe that's also for people who go back and enjoy retro games. Maybe that's part of the charm that these questions are old and outdated. Yeah, I think it kind of is. I, and one of the questions that I did enjoy was, uh, what, I mean, I forget what the city was, but what will Paris host in 1992? And it was like, obviously an Olympics.

26:04 Um, but the, just the phrasing of like, what will it, what will it do in this future year? That's always funny. But, uh, real quick, Mike, I don't, how many questions are there? Oh, actually, I don't know how many questions are because they didn't number them, but I'd have to, I'd have to estimate it based on how long I scrolled. Maybe 2000.

26:26 Oh my God. Yeah. It, it, it, the list just kept going and going. And, uh, I never, I, you know, I'm just saying like, did you guys ever run into a repeat? No, I didn't. No, I played like four, four games. I might be grossly overestimating that, but even if it's over 500, right? Like that's still like a ton of questions when you consider that you're just playing, uh, potentially, you know, 18 questions each time you play. Like you're still gonna have a lot of time before you run out of one.

26:53 Absolutely. So you gotta give them some kudos for that. It's just that if you're, if you're like me, older, you know, trivia being outdated or being like skewed to a certain, uh, time period doesn't, um, I don't know, it doesn't appeal to me. Okay. Yeah. I mean, I, I also got to imagine that like, even today when someone makes a video game based on a game show, like nobody's hope is that like, this will become like a timeless classic, you know? So it's like, I don't know if they like, they need to figure out the solve of how to make it more topical in the future, unless you're going to do like, you know, today you're going to do like updates every year or something, DLC or something.

27:39 And the only other thing I really had as like a note, you know, is just about tic-tac-toe in general, you know, and that obviously there's a little more strategy here because if you, you know, as Sean learned today, if you get it wrong, the other contestant gets to take that box. They obviously don't just like come up with a new question that you then have to answer. That's an interesting twist on a very old, old, old, you know, pen and paper game.

28:06 So, you know, interesting and definitely a different kind of version of tic-tac-toe, but just, you know, we don't talk about traditional games and their impact on video games in general. So I felt like this would just be a good moment to, you know, you don't have to say anything nice about tic-tac-toe or their, you know, its place in Hollywood squares.

28:25 But just the idea that they were, you know, they were able to translate a very simple game and add an interesting spin on it. I thought that was, you know, like for me, that was the hook, not the trivia itself. Well, I mean, it helps that in tic-tac-toe, you can't like accidentally write an X or a circle wrong and then you've just forfeited that space. Like you, you just do it. So I appreciate that they made it a little bit more complex with the whole, like, if you're also putting something at risk by putting something there, especially in a situation where whether it goes one way or the other, like one of you will win instead of just like blocking.

29:10 So, yeah, I can imagine, again, I've only watched a few episodes of the show in my lifetime in the more like 90s versions of it. But I would imagine that adds a bit more drama to the show and therefore the game. So, yeah, it adds more strategy to the game, too. You know, like it's just tic-tac-toe is pretty much, you know, it's like a solved game and it's kind of unfair.

29:31 So at least this makes it kind of a little more interesting. Mm-hmm. That's funny, Joe, because, you know, in Jeopardy, there's all sorts of different ideas of how to play the board, you know, and like which categories, not based on like the kind of trivia, you know, but like, do you want to go for the high scoring points first and rack up, you know, a certain amount of dollars? This way you can bet more during the daily double. Like there's a whole strategy there.

29:55 In tic-tac-toe, there's not really like a, you know, interesting that you went for the center. Like everybody goes for the center first. Yeah, right. Otherwise, pretty unremarkable game to talk about here for the sense of why we didn't do a traditional episode. I feel like we would have gotten all that out of the way in the first 10 minutes. So we tried to elongate it for everybody here. However, Joe will win a prize for, I know I said that there wouldn't be any, but because Joe got it so quickly.

30:29 Instead of getting a car, Joe will answer one more important question and he'll have the, he'll have all total say on this. Nobody else can challenge him on it. Joe, you will decide if Hollywood Squares is an essential game. Wow. The power. This is further eroding, further eroding. The meaning. The integrity. Yeah, the integrity of the essential games list. Just letting you know.

31:00 I would totally agree with you if I wasn't so power hungry right now. I'm high on power. I would never want this to happen. But now that I have this power, I'm going to run with it. And before I vote whether or not this will go on the essential games list, I want to just double check. What's the status of Zelda 2?

31:19 Oh, it's on the essential games list. Oh, it's on, it will be, right? Next to, I'm going to, I'm going to read the room and decide what I think is in the best interest of everyone. And as much as it seems like everybody really enjoyed this game and likes that it seems a little more practical of a, or just viable of a video game than Jeopardy was, it doesn't seem like it's anything to write home about. So I'm going to say it is not an essential game, but I'll give it a little nod that I'm impressed with the amount of questions it has.

32:00 Thank you for being our benevolent overlord. Yes. In my dissenting opinion as the loser of the show, I'm just, I'm going to agree that it's not essential, but I will also say that Jeopardy was a better game. Okay. I will say Jeopardy is a better game. I'd have to replay it. Like just in every format of it, you know, like. But it also was. Right, right. I guess it's just like, you know, if I'm, if I'm thinking about it, well, we were talking about outdated trivia questions.

32:33 There is a whole network on TV that just does that 24 hours a day and people seem to love it. It's still on TV. We're talking about the game show network. Like all they do is just show game shows from, they're still playing like match game 76 in the afternoon. And the people who were watching that are now dead. That is certain, you know, like. Match game 76. You know, like. Like it's mad. Right. So actually it was called match game 76 though. That's the funniest part.

33:00 Yeah. Sorry. I know a lot about game show network because any day I was like homesick from school. I don't know. I defaulted to the game show network after the cartoons ran out. That's great. It's homing. Yeah. Which is another reason why, you know, for me, game shows as video games won't ever have like the same appeal as like a TV game show. Because yeah, like the presentation in this was, was fun. And, you know, being able to choose your character was interesting, even if it was just two girls and two boys. Yeah. With different colors.

33:33 Different color shirts on, I should, I should mention. And they both look so like uncomfortable to be there. It's great. They're like grimacing. It really matches the vibe. Yeah.

33:43 But, you know, I guess all that to say that like the presentation in these game shows doesn't come close to matching the actual like casino like excitement that TV game shows try to emulate for the viewers at home. Right. Like the price is right is constantly just has lights and different prizes and the audience going nuts and, you know, beautiful women. Like that's all designed on purpose to make you like feel like something very exciting is happening, even though you're not participating at all. And I feel like even though. And to ensure that you actually spay or neuter your cats and dogs. Yes. Well, big spay or neuter pharma wants you to do that.

34:26 Anyway, this has been another episode of Nostalgia. Hope you enjoyed the little twist here for Hollywood Squares. If you want some more nostalgia, why don't you check out on our Patreon Nostalgia Bites. We've got four episodes up now and going up for number five. Dig Dug never came to the NES, believe it or not. So instead we have to play the original Dig Dug on the Famicom. But don't worry. No English required. If you don't want to listen to the Nostalgia Bites, though, and you just want to stick with the NES live lineup for our chronological events next week.

34:55 King's Night is the game. And I like that. You know, is it the King's Night? Is it the King's Night? Sounds like a double entendre to me. I like it. I like creative titles. How's it spelled? It's definitely spelled like, you know, the knight like the swordsman.

35:13 Okay. Yeah. Ah. But could have been the King. No, that's not the name. I actually, before we go, I have one question about Hollywood Squares for you guys to see if you guys know. It's not a trivia question. I'm actually asking this question. We mentioned at the top, do you guys know what the Secret Square is supposed to actually do?

35:39 I watched like a couple of rounds of an episode of Hollywood Squares and it still was not clear. I mean, because they say it like really fast at the beginning, like everybody who's watching has already watched a million episodes of Hollywood Squares before.

35:53 But I wasn't sure what the point was. I was like, I still thought someone, you know, was like secretly lying and you got to just like try to avoid asking them or something. But I couldn't really get my head around what that would do to the game. So, I ended up, I called my mom who was just a game show person and she likes watching game shows. That's why I was like, I bet she's seen Hollywood Squares. I called my mom to ask her and she was like, oh, hi. Like, I'm actually, I'm out at lunch right now. But like, what's up or whatever. So, I asked her the question and then I realized afterwards she's out at lunch with my aunt and my two cousins.

36:28 What is she eating? I don't know. But what I do know is that my aunt and my two cousins must have just seen my mom get a random phone call. Like, hey, I have an important question. In the game show Hollywood Squares, what does the Secret Square do? So, I think I looked really weird to them in the first place. But supposedly, according to them, the answer is that you win like a bonus prize package if you get the correct answer for the Secret Square, the one who's definitely lying.

36:58 I never saw that happen. They're supposed to be, they lie? I think that they're deliberately getting the answer wrong. But that's not really changing the game at all. That's why I still don't really get it.

37:11 Yeah, okay. Yeah, the big thing with the Secret Square is that it's only, it's like revealed ahead of time to the home audience who is the Secret Square. But the contestant who happens to pick that square during the game, now remember, in tic-tac-toe, you just want to make three in a row. You're not necessarily hunting like you do for, you know, the Daily Double in Jeopardy. So, the Secret Square might not be a favorable position based on how you're playing tic-tac-toe.

37:41 But nevertheless, if you do happen to come across it, it's just a normal question, just like all the others. So, I don't know if they purposely lie or not. But that Secret Square has like an additional like dollar amount set aside that that contestant automatically wins for getting that correct.

38:02 So, this way it's like you don't have to win the whole game or anything. But by finding the Secret Square, you've locked in that money if you're correct. However, if you're wrong, and I don't know how long this carried on for, but in, you know, the original Hollywood Squares, if you were wrong, the money carried over to the next game.

38:20 So, the prize would continue to go up each time for all the incorrect answers. So, it would be like, oh, this time Secret Square is worth $17,000, which obviously would have been an obscene amount of money. But like, you know, back then. But like, that's the idea is that it would have continued to grow in the intrigue. But the idea that also you wouldn't know who it was could also impact your decision making. You know, you might go for a different square, which I don't think is the correct strategy, if we're being honest.

38:50 Well, that makes more sense now, but it still leaves me with questions. Because also, the host says at the beginning, at least of the episode that I watched, says they will, the celebrity will answer the question. And the contestant will have to decide if they're telling the truth or making it up. I thought that that had something to do with the Secret Square. Just, are they making it up or are they just getting it wrong? I always thought that they were just getting it wrong. If they were trying to, they're just trying to like give you an answer either way. I think they might have made it up though. Maybe that was their whole Zingers thing.

39:24 So it's always wrong. Or they can choose to be wrong if they don't know the answer. I don't know. Like if you don't know the answer, you're gonna, you might as well just make up something funny because you're a comedian, right? Ha ha ha. So funny.

39:37 Yeah, comedians. So clearly if anybody has listened to the last 30 minutes of the show, they would know that we played a fake version of Hollywood Squares, played the NES version of Hollywood Squares, vaguely watched some YouTube clips of Hollywood Squares, and still don't really understand if anybody's lying or not. But I promise you, we usually understand what's going on in video games a lot better, and we talk about what happens in those video games, and we continue to post new episodes every Friday like we will do.

40:04 But if you want more of Nostalgia, visit us at NostalgiaCast on Twitter or the website, which has some new articles up. If you went on in like the last year and you're like, huh, looks the same, that's weird because it was mostly 404'd the last year. But we're finally back up and running, and we have new articles as recently as like probably two weeks ago. I mean, I'm always pumping them out, so go to www.NostalgiaCast.com and read really weird opinion articles that you probably will not agree with. Until next time, I'm Michael Esposito. You can find me at Esposito Film on Twitter, and I'll talk to you soon. See you soon.