Posted 8/29/2005 05:36:00 PM by Douglas

Interesting story about the guy that broke the bank on Press Your Luck in 1983.

In November of 1983, he recorded every episode of Press Your Luck over the course of several weeks. He studied these videotapes, slowed them down, and froze the images to examine randomized tile sequences frame by frame. If you haven't already guessed, Michael Larsen discovered that the Big Board on Press Your Luck was not a randomized display, but an iterative, sequential pattern which gave itself away once you knew what to look for.

Actually there were six patterns, each of which consisted of eighteen elements apiece -- and Michael Larsen had memorized them all. As long as his concentration and hand-eye coordination held out, Larsen would enjoy full control of the Big Board, and nothing would be left to chance. The one and only Whammy he'd received earlier was due to his inexperience with the tactile sensation and reaction time associated with one's plunger triggering the Big Board. When he passed control to other players, they hit Whammies almost instantly, demonstrating that the board was neither broken, nor the victim of adulterous tamperation.

That's pretty funny, and how stupid were the producers to not make it random?