Bong game
Encyclopedia
The bong game is a phone-in game show
created in the 1980s by the London-based radio station, Capital Radio
. It is a game based purely on chance, but remained suspenseful because both rewards and risk increased as it progressed.
For example: £1, £4, £20, £31, £70, £72, £300, £301, £600....
The recording ends, at an unpredictable point, with a "bong" sound. If the player shouts "stop" before the "bong", he or she wins the last sum of money mentioned. If the player waits too long and is interrupted by the "bong", he or she wins nothing.
Contestants who shouted "stop" would then be played the rest of the tape to see how much more they could have won.
The numbers would go up in varying increments, sometimes 3 or 4 numbers differing by only a few pounds, and then a jump of several hundred pounds. There were also various special tapes that had holidays on them, if the contestant waited long enough (without being bonged out).
An additional variation was the "Bouncing Bong" which, instead of just going up, went up and down randomly, with the contestant having no idea whether the next number would be higher or lower than the current one. Again, if the tape "bonged out" before the contestant said stop, they received nothing.
He also provided the smooth voice on the recordings. The contestants were primed by Capital Radio
's Breakfast Show host, Chris Tarrant
, whose collaboration with Briggs led to him becoming the presenter of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
Game show
A game show is a type of radio or television program in which members of the public, television personalities or celebrities, sometimes as part of a team, play a game which involves answering questions or solving puzzles usually for money and/or prizes...
created in the 1980s by the London-based radio station, Capital Radio
Capital Radio
Capital London is a London based radio station which launched on 16 October 1973 and is owned by Global Radio. On 3 January 2011 it formed part of the nine station Capital radio network.- Pre-launch :...
. It is a game based purely on chance, but remained suspenseful because both rewards and risk increased as it progressed.
How it works
A recorded voice reads a sequence of numbers, representing an amount of money, that increases in value by irregular amounts.For example: £1, £4, £20, £31, £70, £72, £300, £301, £600....
The recording ends, at an unpredictable point, with a "bong" sound. If the player shouts "stop" before the "bong", he or she wins the last sum of money mentioned. If the player waits too long and is interrupted by the "bong", he or she wins nothing.
Contestants who shouted "stop" would then be played the rest of the tape to see how much more they could have won.
The numbers would go up in varying increments, sometimes 3 or 4 numbers differing by only a few pounds, and then a jump of several hundred pounds. There were also various special tapes that had holidays on them, if the contestant waited long enough (without being bonged out).
An additional variation was the "Bouncing Bong" which, instead of just going up, went up and down randomly, with the contestant having no idea whether the next number would be higher or lower than the current one. Again, if the tape "bonged out" before the contestant said stop, they received nothing.
History
The game was invented by David Briggs, a former traffic reporter for Capital FM who went on to create Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? is a television game show which offers large cash prizes for correctly answering a series of multiple-choice questions of increasing difficulty. The format is owned and licensed by Sony Pictures Television International. The maximum cash prize is one million pounds...
He also provided the smooth voice on the recordings. The contestants were primed by Capital Radio
Capital Radio
Capital London is a London based radio station which launched on 16 October 1973 and is owned by Global Radio. On 3 January 2011 it formed part of the nine station Capital radio network.- Pre-launch :...
's Breakfast Show host, Chris Tarrant
Chris Tarrant
Christopher John "Chris" Tarrant, OBE is an English radio and television broadcaster, now best known for hosting the first version of the television game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? in the United Kingdom and later Ireland, as the two national versions of the show merged in 2002.Chris...
, whose collaboration with Briggs led to him becoming the presenter of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
Similar shows
- The New Treasure HuntThe New Treasure HuntTreasure Hunt is an American television game show that ran in the 1950s, 1970s, and 1980s...
- Deal or No DealDeal or No DealDeal or No Deal is the name of several closely related television game shows, the first of which was the Dutch Miljoenenjacht produced by Dutch producer Endemol. It is played with up to 26 cases with certain sums of money...
- A variant of the Bong Game was used in the daytime version of The People VersusThe People VersusThe People Versus is a television game show which aired on ITV from 2000 to 2002 in the United Kingdom. Kirsty Young hosted the program for the primetime series and Kaye Adams hosted the program for the daytime series. The show was radical in terms of the two changes of versions. The second version...
. Contestants would choose one of three sequences, one of which would permit the entire sum of money previously won to be retained before the "bong" was sounded. - Colour of Money, which started in 2009, uses an extended version of the same principle, in which winnings are accumulated through repeated playings of the Bong Game.