Bother’s Bar Plays Badly: Jeopardy! Playshow

By | October 30, 2020

With all these BBPBs, you are really spoiling us! Yes it’s time to take a look at the EU release of Jeopardy! Playshow, out on XBox and Windows 10 Store as well as PS4. I’ve rigged it up to play across Discord and tonight I’ve been joined by TV’s David J Bodycombe and TV’s Alex McMillan, both giants of the TV quiz setting business, we specifically wanted Alex because we could also test out if it has issues with accents. What we discovered was hilarious, but probably not for the right reasons.

The starter game costs just over £20 and comes with 30 episodes. Handpicked packs of 10-13 episodes are available for a little over £8 each. It seems like quite an interesting way to monetise the back catalogue if nothing else.

Of course being a Plays Badly, the sound mix isn’t quite right, you can hear us fine but the actual game noise is way down in the mix, sorry.

13 thoughts on “Bother’s Bar Plays Badly: Jeopardy! Playshow

  1. Scott R

    Quick notes:

    The curse of the Northern Island accent strikes again.

    The episode in question: http://www.j-archive.com/showgame.php?game_id=4052

    Several clues are reworked from the original show to fit the game; any clue that had an image component has to be edited (and revoiced)

    Obviously, they can only use episodes where the contestants clear both boards, and generally move top down. This is probably not a big mix.

    Reply
  2. Chris M. Dickson

    You really are spoiling us; thank you for spending so much money, in the name of content, on games that really aren’t very good.

    It feels safe to assume that most people here will know the brilliant, but somewhat hipster, Shut Up and Sit Down board games site and Quintin “Quinns” Smith; half a year ago, on another YouTube channel, he released a video called The Game Shows To Get You Through Self-Isolation. Quinns is known as a champion of The Genius, so I trust his sense of taste, and his selections are interesting enough to be well worth a mention here. Most, maybe all, of them have had passing mention here in the past, but you’ll enjoy what he has to say about them.

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  3. Oliver R

    I watched the first five minutes and could take no more. There is zero excuse, four days before a certain quadrennial event across the Atlantic, for quizzers to have such poor US geography knowledge.

    Even if you don’t know much about New England off by heart, some of those facts should be fresh in the mind at the moment.

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      1. Oliver R

        Well, you’re hardly just three random punters. I guess I must just have very high expectations!

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      2. Alex Richards

        When they do a Uni Challenge app with rounds about former Midlands parliamentary constituencies, I think we know who our guinea pig is for that one, right gang?

        Reply
        1. Oliver R

          Having appeared on UC, I’d be well up for that app and category! Can’t think of 3 disappeared Midlands seats off the top of my head, but information given in the bonus questions might tease out some hidden knowledge or educated guesses.

          Obviously ‘Jeopardy!’ is going to have lots of America-centric questions, but US geography and politics ought to be quicker to bring to mind right now than breakfast (cereal), TV shows (serials) or sports for the crème de la crème of the UK quizzing fraternity.

          Reply
          1. Brig Bother Post author

            I think calling us the creme de la creme of the quizzing fraternity is pretty hilarious, I’m pretty clear that I’m a format guy rather than a quizzer. You’ve also missed the point of the video – it’s meant to be consumer advice through the medium of actual played experience and from the first five minutes we learn that a) the Americana is going to be alienating to much of the audience and b) the voice recognition software is rubbish to the point of game breaking. If you still want to spend money on it then at least you know what you’re letting yourself in for.

            Congratulations on being a Uni Chall contestant. I got knocked out of Weakest Link in round three once. I do, however, back myself in anticipating how much of an audience is likely to know what.

          2. Oliver R

            Thanks. I can tick being a contestant on UC off my bucket list. Knocked out first round, mind, but a team-mate of mine has been credited as a question setter on every subsequent series.

            I recall you posting the clip from Weakest Link some years ago, yes. I’ve never really taken the “Bother’s Bar plays” vids to be primarily a consumer advice service before, but I shall know by what metric to view them in future. I do think you’re selling yourselves short by describing yourselves *only* a trio of format guys.

            My father is a fan of the US ‘Jeopardy!’ series and got me the PC game one year, in the days before mobile phone apps were as sophisticated as they are now. I don’t really follow the show closely although I hear enough about it to understand references to it. I actually enjoyed the ITV version back in the day. It’s a pity it never took off here.

          3. Brig Bother Post author

            Thanks, I try and get them as videos to work on their own merit which is why if I can get other people involved I will but the basic idea is “you want to see how something works? Here is how it works.” Occasionally I’ll break from this with something older because it’s interesting/entertaining/of interest to cover, but if it’s a new release absolutely I want to get it out there quickly to provide people with necessary info before they spend their hard earned cash.

            In many ways it’s become one of my focal points on the site since it’s more difficult to go and sit in an audience and report on new shows/pilots in the last few years. Which I miss doing terribly.

    1. David B

      Well, I’ve been setting quizzes on UK television for over 30 years, and that entire category would be far too hard for almost every show I’ve ever worked on. I wanted to have a stab at Maine for the $200, but there was only 0.5 seconds left after Alex’s guess and I missed out. Plus, we were still getting to grips with how the software worked. I’ve never heard of Stratton, USS Portsmouth and Jack Reed, and I don’t think it’s particularly shameful to say that.

      Reply
      1. Oliver R

        Yes, I admit it’s too US-centric/obscure to be a category on a British quiz, but that’s not the same as claiming the questions are too difficult. If there’s ever a time to ask Brits questions about a region of America, it’s in the week before a Presidential election when we all suddenly become experts.

        I do take your point about the timer. I prefer slower-paced quizzes these days. ‘Jeopardy!’ often has a fair few questions unasked at the end of its 22-minute runtime, frustratingly.

        I confess I hadn’t heard of the *USS* Portsmouth either, but I do know there’s a major city in New Hampshire named Portsmouth, presumably in honour of the eponymous place in old Hampshire.

        The Stratton question was simply asking in which state of New England you’d be most likely to go skiing. You didn’t have to recognise the individual towns. By the time it got to the Jack Reed question I think there was only one New England state left, so you could get it by process of elimination.

        Reply

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