Add ‘Em Up
A game of addition and educated guesses, played for a four-digit car.
The sum of the four digits in the price of the car was shown; in order to win the car, the contestant needed to pick which four digits from 0-9 appeared in the car, a la Any Number.
The contestant was given one digit in the car’s price of their choosing to start them off, and was tasked with picking the other three. One mistake was allowed, but a second mistake lost the game.
Add ‘Em Up looked better in the planning stage than its execution. Although it was an interesting game of strategy on paper, it did not make a good show. The final reveal was anticlimactic, and contestants were frequently confused and required Bob to walk them through the game himself. The game was subtracted after just two years.
S15, September 11 1986 – S17, October 3 1988
Likely created by Frank Wayne
He just needs to Add ‘Em Up to win!
What does Richard need to add up? The four digits in the price of the car that, when added together, equal a total of 20.
To help Richard out, Bob tells him he can get a free number to fill either the first, second, third or fourth position in the price. Richard choose the third number and it is a 6.
Janice places the 6 in the arithmetic summary on the board, meaning the rest of the numbers must total 14.
Richard must now pick a number one at a time to fill the equation on the board. Bob tells him he can only make one mistake. Two mistakes and the game is over.
Richard chooses 7, but it’s not in the price of the car. He has made his one mistake that he is allowed.
His next choice is 8, and he is correct.
8 is added to the equation. 6+8=14, meaning the next two digits have to equal 6.
Looking at the remaining numbers, 5+1 and 4+2 are the only remaining possibilities. Richard chooses 4…
…but he zigged when he should have zagged! Richard made his second mistake and loses.
The price of the car was $8,561. This display, which was brought out after the car was revealed so as not to spoil the game, pulled double duty; it was also used in Pathfinder.
She chose the fourth digit for her free number, which was 2.
After picking correctly 8 and 6, her numbers add up to 16. She needs a total of 17. Hmm, what number will she pick?
Yes, the 1. Tammy wins the car with a clean sweep!
S16, Jul 1 1988
A tactical error a few contestants made in this game was to pick the first number as the free digit. This number would usually be the easiest to guess, and often the largest number which would help with choosing the remaining digits.
Sure enough, Cindy burned through two mistakes in short order and loses the car without placing a second number. By this time Pathfinder had debuted and was sharing the car price board with Add ’em Up. Hence, the name logo was removed.
S16, May 10 1988
Harl was doing excellently…until he forgot to check what numbers he had available. There’s only two numbers left that could possibly complete the equation…and yet he picked 8, which would have been impossible because 7 had already been picked! He used his only mistake.
To his credit, Harl laughed it off and said “That was dumb. “
Not wasting his second chance, he picked the 6…
…and was declared a winner without even placing the 9 because the solution was so obvious!
As nice as Harl’s win was, it showed one of the game’s fatal flaws: Wins were anticlimactic. The result was always known before the final number was shown, making for bad television.
S16, May 10 1988
When Gregory had a sum of 20 and needed to get a total of 21, Bob tried playing a joke on Gregory by “hiding” the 1.
S15, Jan 14 1987
The game debuted around the time Any Number’s board was redesigned to make it compatible with both 4-digit and 5-digit cars. It’s possible the total on the Add ‘Em Up board masked an extra portion that would have allowed it to be played for 5-digit cars.
S16, May 10 1988
As far as is known, Add ‘Em Up was only ever played for four-digit cars. This was surprising for a game created in the mid-80’s. Perhaps the 5-digit version was scrapped before air.
But the real killer: even with Bob helping to move things along, it was just not fun or exciting watching contestants solve math problems. In summary, Add ’em Up was rounded off in October of 1988.
- Add other car games of the late 80’s like Spelling Bee, On the Nose, and One Away
- Give the Add ‘Em Up display a second chance with Pathfinder
- Count back to 1986 in the Tiny Timeline
- Sum up the facts at the Golden Road FAQ on Add ‘Em Up
- Return to “Golden Game Gallery“
Page by Alfonzo ; additions and formatting by Gamesurf
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