[Wheel of Fortune theme plays over PC speaker]

Mmm, retro computer noises.

I still use this IBM AT all the time, for those of you that asked about it.

I keep it set up all the time just in case I want to play stuff like Wheel of Fortune for DOS!

And you know what, I had another video pretty much all ready to go for today,

it was like 90% complete.

And then that last 10 percent, augh.

I was about ready to film, it was all good, it was totally ready and everything was all

set up -- and I don't have the part that I need.

That's just how it goes making retro hardware videos.

So whatever, I got that part on order and in the meantime, the only solution

is to play WOF.

Specifically this one released by ShareData Incorporated in 1987 for IBM PCs and compatibles.

There are actually quite a few variants as far as puzzles that were released over the

years, just in my collection alone.

On top of the original 1987 release which I had a copy of that my uncle gave me back in the day.

We put it on a floppy disk along with a bunch of other shareware.

Maybe he thought this was shareware because it was released by Share Data.

It's not though. This was a commercial game, this was pirated and I didn't know it.

Later on when I started collecting though I picked up a couple of these boxed releases

for this DOS version of the game.

The first one was Wheel of Fortune Golden Edition.

What makes it “golden” other than the box logo?

I don't know! It just sounds good.

This was by the time that GameTek had kind of taken back their rights to manufacture

these Wheel of Fortune games for themselves.

Anyway this golden edition: it's got a thousand new puzzles over the 1987 original.

“Now everybody's favorite Wheel of Fortune is an all-new Golden Edition!”

All right, whatever, I thought this was pretty much the one that I had as a kid but turns out, not really.

This one was 1989, the gameplay looks identical.

And so I ran across this other copy: Wheel of Fortune First Second and Third Editions

This is kind of strange too because, once again, it's not exactly the one that I had.

I mean, what I had was the first edition but the First Edition here

is sort of a retroactive titled “first” edition.

They changed around the startup screen, I do not appreciate that.

This is always a good sign when on the back of the box there's a spelling error on the

example puzzle they give.

“Judge Joseph Wopner?”

Do they mean Joseph Wapner who was a judge on The People's Court?

Because that's spelled with an “A,” “W-A-P-N-E-R.”

Anyway inside of each of these releases from GameTek you get the same stuff really.

There's a registration card here that is apparently super urgent in its insistence that you mail it in.

And this little two-sided piece of paper that lets you know the instructions for setting

it up and playing and all that stuff.

And it applies to all of the versions of Wheel of Fortune that were effectively the same

game just under different names and they had some different puzzles: the first, second,

third, and the golden edition, as well as a junior edition.

I've never actually come across that for the PC, I've only ever seen the NES one.

And of course you also get the games themselves on some floppy disks.

Each of these are double-sided, double density and they just happen to come in the five and

a quarter inch and three and a half inch varieties.

So let's go ahead and play none of these!

We're just gonna go right back to the 1987 PC original I had a copy of as a youngster.

[PC speaker WOF music plays]

And once again, they all look and play identically, it's just

they have different puzzles in each release.

They all have this serviceable PC speaker rendition of the theme song that was used

from 1983 to 2000 or so in various forms.

I believe the title is key wheel something... dang it what's the name of this song,

I don’t remember the name! [walking away from the microphone]

Changing Keys!

That’s what it is! [walking back] Yeah it's a song called Changing Keys written by Merv Griffin.

[late ‘80s version of Changing Keys plays]

You know, he did like a crapload of uh,

game show stuff.

That's kind of another reason I wanted to cover this. I was playing that modern version

of Wheel of Fortune, I saw it on a few different systems and picked it up on PS4 cuz it was

on sale or some crap and I'm like, “what is this?!”

Like I haven’t watched Wheel of Fortune in years so the game had changed kind of a lot!

So that caught my attention but then there's just this particular video game version where

I'm like, does everything really need a bunch of cosmetic loot boxes

that you get every time you level up?

Yeah even Wheel of Fortune cannot escape that fate.

Then there's the odd meta humor from the host, *not* Pat Sajak!

[Not-Pat Sajak talks for a bit]

Speaking of hosts, that's one thing that is -- who knows

what you're gonna get when it comes to Wheel of Fortune games.

There's almost none of them with Pat Sajak and only a few of them have Vanna White.

They always make a big thing about it anytime she's in any of these games but yeah, she's

not in the modern one, and she's not in the 1987 classic either.

I always called her Vanna as a kid, cuz I mean it's -- you know It's supposed to be her.

And it's EGA, so what if she's got red hair and yellow skin it's close enough!

[brngh brngh]

Anyway Wheel of Fortune CGA for DOS: it uses one of the warmer color palettes here.

I always thought that that worked well for that golden glitzy kind of

glamorous 1980s Wheel of Fortune style.

Fits right in with the diamonds and the luxury cruises and the saxophones and the perms.

And yeah It just screams 80s.

As far as gameplay goes it is as simple as it gets.

I don't even know what to say man.

It's Wheel of Fortune, you’re practically playing Hangman except there's no men being hung.

And don't even worry about now that other kind of stuff that you do now like toss ups

and the beeping near the end “oh it’s a final spin” or you know, pieces that you

can pick up off the wheel, none of that crap.

In this one you spin, you guess a letter, and if it's there, cool.

If not, well darn.

Try again next round.

You can lose a turn, you can go bankrupt, you can buy a vowel if you got some cash.

And if you’re *wheel-y* fortunate you might be able to solve the puzzle and get to keep

your money at the end of the round.

Yep, the only person who gets to keep anything in this game is the person that solves the puzzles.

You can actually attempt to solve the puzzle at

any time too, that always amused me for some reason.

Probably because immaturity.

And after three rounds, whoever has earned the most money that they were actually able

to keep moves on to the bonus round!

And you get to just select from a number of showcase items.

I always picked the “American sports car” as a kid because

well that's just what kind of kid I was, I don't know.

So what if it's not the most expensive, I wasn’t greedy, I just wanted a friggin sports car!

Anyway after this is yet another bit of simplification relative to the modern day game show.

No “RSTLNE,” you just put in some consonants and put in the vowel and guess it correctly

before the time runs out.

Hooray!

You've won absolutely nothing.

Such is the plight of game show games in virtual form.

What's the point?

“Oh, I won a vacation or a car or some...”

I don't know, doesn't matter because you didn't actually win it.

You just [chuckles] You get to put your name in a high score table and it sticks around

in a DAT file in a DOS program for decades.

Such is life.

And that's Wheel of Fortune.

I’ll probably never talk about this again, hehe.

I don't even know what I'm talking about it now.

Oh, yeah, because I didn't get to finish my other video and I needed something comforting

and this is comforting.

It's oddly comforting, especially playing it on period-accurate hardware.

Unfortunately, I don't have my original Packard Bell Legend 486.

You know, I have some bits and pieces of that -- I want to build that computer, try to get

it working again hopefully sometime in the near future.

But yeah, that's not the hardware project I'm working on, I'm working on like five other

things and you know, they're all falling apart and everything is awful.

But that's okay because no matter what we will always have Wheel of Fortune for DOS

in all its various confusing forms that really don't differ from each other at all.

And that's okay.

And if you thought this video was okay, then I am shocked!

That just means you'll watch anything.

I mean more power to you, whatever.

If you liked this, yeah, watch some other things that I did there right here, I'll link to them and stuff.

And if not, there are new videos every Monday and Friday.

And as always, thank you very much for watching!