Loog's bio  
Loog's LiveJournal  
Game Shows  
Video Games  
Loog's Writing  
            - Ki'rath
Political Rants  

Message Board  

Links  
Loogslair Store  
E-mail Loog  
loogslair.com Is that your final answer?


VITAL STATS

Lifespan: September 1996 - August 1997 (Thanks to William A. Padron for supplying the cancellation date.)
Host: Steve Saunders
Announcer: "The Cryptkeeper"
Produced by: Goldwyn Entertainment Company

Front Game Rules

Two teams of two kids competed. Each team competed in a series of haunting events worth varying amounts of points. Among the events shown are:

Fireball Alley: One member of each team stands on a narrow bridge, and has to protect six headstones behind them from an assault of "Fireballs" from a computer-generated skull. For each headstone that remains standing, the team is given a "What do these have in common" question for 5 points. If the player falls off the bridge, he/she is "vaporized" and the stunt ends then and there.

The Abyss: One member of the team attempts to scale a cliff littered with numbers, with the aid of three rope ladders. The other team member feeds the player up to 5 questions with numberical answers to the one on the cliff, who then tries to negotiate his/her way to the right number and press the button next to it. Each right answer earns 5 points; the stunt goes for 90 seconds or until the player on the cliff falls off a ladder and gets "vaporized".

The Worminator The Worminator: The team has 35 seconds to make it across a wind tunnel, carrying three large red balls between them. At three points during the run, the team must exchange the balls between them, trying not to drop any, since doing so means that ball gets (you guessed it!) "vaporized". For every ball deposited in a bin at the end of the tunnel, the team earns 10 points.

Gee, it's getting cramped in here...The Shrinking Room: The player has a total of 40 seconds to solve a total of 6 words, each with one letter missing. On the other side of the room are the missing letters, along with some decoys. As time passes, the ceiling and far wall close in on the team as the room fills with smoke, making it increasingly difficult to see things. The team earns 5 points for each word solved, and earns an extra 10 points if they complete the board and shout the top word before time runs out. Sadly, nobody gets "vaporized".

End Game Rules

Isn't this great children's entertainment? Known as "Skull Duggery", one member of each team is sent into the haunted house one last time in search for skulls. Several rooms of the mansion are searched, each for a short period of time. When they re-emerge from the house, the players must stack all the skulls found onto a large skewer. Whoever finds the most skulls wins 50 points, and often the game. If both teams have the same number of skulls, whoever got done with their stack first wins.

Whichever team has the most points after the final event wins the grand prize package.


Notes

Doing the announcing and color commentary for the show was the "Cryptkeeper", of HBO's "Tales from the Crypt" fame.


Loogaroo Looks it Over

If you took away all of the horror imagery, you've got yourself a pretty decent kids game. The challenges themselves were quite interesting to watching, and had a good sense of including both physical and mental tasks into the events. As it stands, though, this is not a show I'd want my kids to be watch. It's nightmare food, even if it did air just after they got up. And the Cryptkeeper's incessant puns and insults are not an argument for keeping him in. Steve Saunders does a passsable job as host: not too remarkable, but at least he's not Phil Moore.

Secrets of the Cryptkeeper's Haunted House

Gameplay: 2 pts.
Host: 2 pts.
Presentation: 0 pts.
Execution: 1 pt.
Total Score: 5 pts.



Back to the Rules Repository

Back to the Game Show Lair