Hosted by Tom Kennedy, who had become one of  the "go-to" game show hosts of the 1980's, and later by Jack Berry (which is definitely different from some of the earlier formats hosted by Bert Parks) Break the Bank followed the on-going formula of letting the celebrities answer the questions..

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One of 15 squares would get chosen, and the player who sat to the left, and the player who sat above the chosen square would each give an answer to the question, one correct, and one incorrect.

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If the contestant picked the celebrity who gave the correct answer, they'd win that square and remain in control.

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The goal was to match three connecting money value boxes (100/200/300 (original) and 100/300/500 (syndication)) in a battle of the sexes type competition to win the game and you won 3 times whichever value you linked.

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Also included on the board were "blanks", "wild cards", and "bank" squares. 

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Blanks meant you lost your turn

Wild Cards were worth any value

And if you picked three of the five banks during your game, you won the "Break the Bank" money.

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Bonus Game:  (Syndicated Version Only)

It was basically a game of luck for the bonus game.    The nine stars each had a dollar value ranging from 200 to 1000 dollars, and one had a "BUST".   You picked a star and you'd win that amount of money.  You could then stop at any time, or continue picking stars, utnil you either reached $2000 (and won) or hit "BUST" and lost everything.

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Much like Peter Marshall, Tom Kennedy always seemed to have a great connection wiht the guests, and was probably the best thing about the show.   The Jack Berry version... eh, not so much.

 

But considering a board could be won with a $300 prize, the game seemed to lack that "big money" audience; however, they tried to make up for this by having as many boards as they could fit in a 30-minute time frame between the two contestants.

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And like other 'celebrity' games, there were some average stars and some great stars were usually fun to listen to when they went for their comedic answers (Avery Schrieber, Jimmie Walker,  and Ron Palilo ("Welcome Back Kotter") always seemd to be among my favorites.

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Unfortuantely ABC decided that the soap-opera audience was a better draw, and this show only lasted about 15 weeks.

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OUR VERSION:

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Again, the board is 4 x 5.  A player will choose the first number they want to reveal.  A question will then appear.   However, instead of trying to match three scores, you're still hoping for connecting scores, but in our case, you're hoping there are chains of scores on the board.

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               ______________________________

             |    5  | 10   | 25     | X     |  10  |         

               ______________________________

              |   Y   |  5    |  Z     |   10  |  5   |

               ______________________________

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If the value of Y was 5 points, for example, as it chained with two other 5's, it is now a 15 point box.  If it's any other value, then it's worth the point value behind the Y

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The X and Z square for instance, could be worth 50 points if the hidden value was a 25.

If both were 25's, then one of them would be worth a full 75 points.

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Note the scores are not revealed until the question is correctly answered.

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In addition, there may be 2 "Steal Half" or "Swap" options on the board.   The player who wins those squares will steal half of the current leaders points, or swap his score with the leader.    If the leader wins those special squares, the question is worth 0 points.

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The questions:   

 

After a player picks a box, the question will be revealed.   After the question is revealed (not read by the host), approximately 30 seconds later the correct answer and an incorrect answer will be supplied.  

 

Note that questions may be answered before the choices are revealed.

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After the choices are revealed, if a player has  already chosen one of the two possible answers, that choice is locked for that player.   If no player has chosen an answer that appears, it is locked once the first player chooses an unselected option.

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Correct answer will score the box value , whether chained or solo.

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Play continues for 19 of the 20 questions.  (The 20th question is used in case of a tie-breaker).

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OPEN GAME:   (No Celebrities)

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All players race to answer the question that is revealed.    Correct answer will have choice of the next box.    Play continues until the 19 boxes are revealed.

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CLOSED GAME for 4 players:  (No Celebrities)

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The Closed Version will have 4 players competing head to head, with the same rules applying. 

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CLOSED GAME for 2 players:  (With 4 or 5  Celebrities)

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If the game is played with 4 celebrities, the celebrities will be positioned by ROW.    If a box is chosen on their row, they will have to choose which of the two answers they believe are correct.      The player will then either agree or disagree with the celebrity.

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The same principle applies to 5 celebrities, but it will be positioned by COLUMN.

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Note:  We have thought about reusing the full 9 celebrity format, but after thinking it over, we came to the realization that it won't work as well in a text-chat format, particularly if one celebrity knows they're left with a wrong answer.

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BONUS GAME:

Our Bonus game is more luck than anything in this one.   Behind every square is either a +1, +2, +3 or Lose All point value.    The goal is simple.  to pick any three matching numbers (3 +1's, 3 +2's, 3 +3's), before selecting a LOSE ALL.

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If you get any 3 matching numbers, you get 1 vault number plus the bonus match the player succeeded in finding.

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