Notably, the grocery products used in some games on the daytime version were replaced by small merchandise prizes, generally valued less than $100.
[3] Three small prizes that first appeared on the show 50 years ago are displayed on a turntable housed inside a stylized vintage television set.
Before playing the game, the contestant draws a card from another deck to determine how close their bid must be to the actual price, without going over, in order to win.
[citation needed] The contestant is shown a prize and asked to write an amount on an oversized blank check made out in their name.
The contestant faces a gameboard consisting of a mountain slope divided into 25 steps, with a figure of a climber at its base and a cliff at the top.
Doug Davidson referred to the climber on The New Price Is Right as "Hans Gudegast", which is the birth name of his Young and the Restless co-star Eric Braeden.
", unaware that Janice Pennington's then-husband, Fritz Stammberger, had recently disappeared in what had been reported to be a mountain climbing accident at the time.
[17] Although it does not affect gameplay, until May 23, 2013,[citation needed] a false price was initially placed at the start of the game, and the contestant was required to cover up the incorrect digits during their first turn.
After playing through all four prizes, the tags are brought out again and the contestant wins the car by selecting the correct price before running out of choices.
After reaching the $1,000 level, the contestant may choose to quit the game and keep their winnings or to risk that money in order to attempt to select the one remaining product priced lower than the target.
Selecting one incorrect pair of digits allows the contestant to choose again from the remaining two cars in that group, but a second mistake at any time ends the game.
Prior to the contestant's first attempt, the host usually takes an "inspiration putt" from the farthest line to demonstrate the use of the putter, although a model or golf-involved guest will occasionally perform this instead.
Any incorrect numbers chosen by the contestant are placed into a column of four blank spaces and awarded as cash worth the face value.
The contestant chooses one item at a time and must decide whether its price is correct as of the taping date ("now"), or whether it corresponds to a specific past year and month displayed on the board ("then").
The gameboard features a five-by-five floor grid of 25 digits, on which the contestant must walk a five-step path to spell out the price of the car in order to win it.
After pricing all of the items, the contestant places one chip at a time on a pegboard (styled similarly to a bean machine), where it eventually falls into one of nine spaces at the bottom.
The game continues until the contestant either quits, wins the top prize, or reaches the last of their slips, in which case they must keep the last amount.
Finding one allowed the contestant to punch another hole immediately, and the value inside was added to the one on the Second Chance slip.
For each bid given within the correct range, the contestant chooses one of five colored mechanical rats (yellow, green, pink, orange and blue), which are positioned on a large dollar sign-shaped racetrack.
The contestant is shown a pair of two-digit numbers and must decide which order to place them and form the correct price (e.g. "75" and 42" can give options of $7,542 and $4,275).
This game has been played for prizes with four- and five-digit prices, giving the contestant a choice between three and four middle digits, respectively.
[83] Three grocery items are displayed on separate shelves of a gameboard resembling a vending machine, from top to bottom in increasing order of price.
A model stood at each end of the row, and the contestant chose one of them to bump the buses, resulting in either the leftmost or rightmost two coming to rest above the prize names and the others being removed/knocked from the board.
Once the contestant had made all three choices, a starter's pistol was fired and the runner began to move across the board, with a hurdle rising from each chosen item as he approached it.
Six small prizes were described and the contestant was shown three paths, colored blue, yellow and pink, extending outward from a center black spot.
The contestant selected two of the prizes and the digits in their prices were used to form the best possible five-card poker hand, with nines high and zeroes low.
The last two digits in the price of a car were revealed, and the contestant was asked a series of general knowledge questions with single-digit numerical answers.
Even if the overpriced item was chosen, it was always mathematically possible to win the game by selecting the three products with the largest differences below the actual prices.
Some games required correct pricing on a first attempt ("Cover Up" and "One Away"), while others gave contestants the option to risk their previous winnings for a chance at the bonus.
The celebrity also spun the Big Wheel once during the second Showcase Showdown; the result (in cents) was converted to dollars, multiplied by 100, and added to the donation.