voidstar78
Veteran Member
So, one thing we like to do on our old IBM 5150 is play some Wheel of Fortune - simple game, folks young and old can enjoy it. During family visits, everyone gathers 'round to play a few rounds.
Those familiar with the game will know it has the "bonus rounds" where you win a "prize" -- similar to the TV version of the gameshow, the prize is usually something like "a new car" "a vacation to hawaii" or "a dining room set."
Well, today we came across a bonus round prize that gave everyone a big laugh: "20 lbs. of POT"
The room went silent for a few moments, then everyone burst out laughing. Some assumed it just meant "pottery", other assumed it meant "pots and pans". Yeah, mmhmm...
I'm pretty sure this is the 1989 Wheel of Fortune II edition (there are several similar versions around 1988/1989, including a Gold and Junior edition). And we're pretty sure this was never a prize offered on the TV show :D I did a search of the .DAT files of the "WOF" folder, but the contents apparently aren't plaintext, and are encoded in some fashion. As far as I know, this isn't a modified version of the original release, but I don't have any original 5.25" floppy media to verify against - so curious if this was "canon" (original), or some kind of "easter egg" in the commercial release.
NOTE: The interesting thing to me about WOF (IMO) is that in the "original" 1984 version for the IBM PC, it was written by Phil Katz (the "creator" of PKZIP, or at least someone who packaged the algorithm together and made it a popular/famous format) -- the BASIC source code is still available, with his name in the comments (which recall the original 5150 could be booted up into BASIC -- but to load the program would require a tape drive, or re-typing the whole thing). That 1984 version has no relationship to these later 1987 or newer versions of WOF, but I still think it's interesting to imagine if Mr Katz had taken his interest in WOF further, maybe he would have ended up involved in a more grand commercial version, and maybe PKZIP never would have existed. Note, in his BASIC version, the puzzle data file category and solutions are in plain text.
Those familiar with the game will know it has the "bonus rounds" where you win a "prize" -- similar to the TV version of the gameshow, the prize is usually something like "a new car" "a vacation to hawaii" or "a dining room set."
Well, today we came across a bonus round prize that gave everyone a big laugh: "20 lbs. of POT"
The room went silent for a few moments, then everyone burst out laughing. Some assumed it just meant "pottery", other assumed it meant "pots and pans". Yeah, mmhmm...
I'm pretty sure this is the 1989 Wheel of Fortune II edition (there are several similar versions around 1988/1989, including a Gold and Junior edition). And we're pretty sure this was never a prize offered on the TV show :D I did a search of the .DAT files of the "WOF" folder, but the contents apparently aren't plaintext, and are encoded in some fashion. As far as I know, this isn't a modified version of the original release, but I don't have any original 5.25" floppy media to verify against - so curious if this was "canon" (original), or some kind of "easter egg" in the commercial release.
NOTE: The interesting thing to me about WOF (IMO) is that in the "original" 1984 version for the IBM PC, it was written by Phil Katz (the "creator" of PKZIP, or at least someone who packaged the algorithm together and made it a popular/famous format) -- the BASIC source code is still available, with his name in the comments (which recall the original 5150 could be booted up into BASIC -- but to load the program would require a tape drive, or re-typing the whole thing). That 1984 version has no relationship to these later 1987 or newer versions of WOF, but I still think it's interesting to imagine if Mr Katz had taken his interest in WOF further, maybe he would have ended up involved in a more grand commercial version, and maybe PKZIP never would have existed. Note, in his BASIC version, the puzzle data file category and solutions are in plain text.
