1986 - 1988 (?) (Retired)
Add 'em Up was a car game with good intentions that nonetheless was found to be too difficult by many of its players. This one is tough to explain, but I'll do my best. The car has four digits in the price. Each digit is only found once in the price of the car (a la Any Number). The contestant is shown the sum of the four digits in the car added together. The contestant starts the game by selecting free one of the numbers in the price of the car. The number lights up above the car and a corresponding number is placed on the game board in an addition equation. The contestant then chooses another number s/he thinks is in the price of the car. If that number is in the price of the car, that number lights up above the car and is added to the math equation. At this point, strategy enters. The contestant is shown the sum so far of the two digits s/he has selected and can subtract from the TOTAL sum of all four digits in the car. For example, let's assume the contestant has a "9" and a "5" lit up, and the total sum of all four digits is 18. Obviously, the contestant can rule out digits like "8" and "7" because they wouldn't add up correctly. In fact, in this case, the only possible digits would be a "0 & 4" or a "3 & 1". However, should the contestant pick a digit that is not in the price of the car, s/he uses up his/her one "free mistake" and tries again. The game continues until the contestant lights up all the numbers in the car (and wins) or makes a second mistake (and loses).
In theory, this is a creative game that uses a type of strategy not found in any other pricing game. Also, in theory, this game requires little more than simple elementary school addition and subtraction. But people just could not figure out how this game worked! One awful error that people made was choosing the first digit of the car as their free digit. It was much better strategy to pick a different digit, because the first number in the car can be easily guessed. Once you had two digits in this game it was basically a shoe-in to win.
Although the game was scrapped, observant TPiR fans realize that the number display over the car was recycled into Pathfinder, a much more successful car game.
Set Changes: The words "Add 'em Up" originally appeared over the car's number display but were mysteriously removed.
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| Oh goodie...it's Add 'em Up from 1986. | Today, the digits in the price of the car total 17. |
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| Our contestant is smart. She picked the third digit as her free digit. Look closely to see the Add 'em Up logo on top of the displays. | The zero is added to our math equation and we're on our way. |
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| She also guessed that the "6" was the first number. She has a total of 6 so far, 12 more to go. | Wow, she got the "8" right too! |
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| 0 + 6 is 6, 6 + 8 is 14...and 17 from 14 is 3! So that last digit has to be... | ...three! She wins this ugly car! And she made the game look easy! |