Banko

''In the next 30 minutes, you at home could share at this week's home jackpot totaling: $250,000. When you play... BANKO! And now here's the man who will help you win, WINK MARTINDALE!''

Banko was a game show pilot based on Bingo. It was prompted for a birth in the 1986 fall season, but it didn't happen. It also had a home viewer contest where the home players got a chance to share a $250,000 jackpot.

Main Game
Two contestants faced a 25-monitor Banko board. Behind the screens are prizes, booby traps and bonuses. To start, four random screens uncover four prizes and the center free space with the star contained was also given. To earn spins on the board, the contestants played a word association game where they have to spot a common connection between a list of five items. One player gave two clues to his/her opponent who would attempt to solve the puzzle using those clues. Each time the opponent failed to solve it, the clue giver can either stop play or give another clue. The process continued until either all five clues went past the opposing guesser or the the puzzle was solved by the opposing guesser. For every clue used, one spin was added to the pot, and the winner of the puzzle round claimed all the spins. When the players went to the Banko board, the lights around the screens flashed and stopped when the player in control pressed down on a TNT-typed plunger and yelled, "BANKO!" When a square was landed on, a prize or a surprise was revealed. The object of the game is to get five in a row (either across, up & down or diagonally). When a "Banko" line was formed, the player that stopped on the game-winning square won the game and all the prizes in that line. If the player in control hit the star in the center square, that player automatically won the game.

Bonus Game
In the Banko bonus game, there were dollar amounts from $100-$500 on the monitors instead of prizes. The winning player would take as many spins as he/she wished and each time the winner hit a money square, it was added to his/her total, but all the other squares with the dollar amount landed on went blank. If at anytime, the winning player hit a blank space, the game was over and the player lost all his/her cash, which is why that player stop and keep the money won. If the player can achieve Banko, or hit the star center square, the winner not only kept the cash but also won the standard B&E prize package.

Home Player Element
As mentioned, a home player contest was to be a part of the show. The idea was that viewers could get Banko cards from stores and what not. Each time a prize or cash value was landed on, the viewer would mark off that space. Upon achieving a Banko, they were to call 1-800-JACKPOT, ostensibly to verify information, then mail in the winning card. Ten viewers were to earn $20,000 apiece, plus another $10,000 was to go to five randomly selected winners from those ten, a total of $250,000.

YouTube Link
Clips of the Pilot