Three contestants play in each game, with a solo contestant at a red podium, playing against a team of two contestants who are related to each other (referred to as a "family pair") and seated at a white one.
Main Game The main game is played on a board composed of 20
hexagons, five wide and four high. The top and bottom of the board have red edges, while the sides have white edges, and contestants compete to be the first to create a complete path across the board corresponding to the respective color of their podium. Each hexagon contains a different letter of the alphabet, which represents the first letter of the one-word answer to a trivia question asked by the host. For example, a question on the letter P might be "What 'P' is a herbivorous North American mammal whose body is covered with thousands of bristles called quills?", with "porcupine" as the correct answer. All contestants may buzz in at any time, but doing so while a question is in progress forces the contestant to answer based only on whatever information has been read to that point. In addition, the family pair contestants may not confer on questions at any time. Gameplay begins with a randomly-selected letter on the board. A correct answer turns the hexagon to the corresponding color of whowever answers correctly, while a miss gives the opposition a chance to hear the entire question again before responding. If neither side answers a question correctly, another one is asked with the same letter. The first side to make a path connecting their two edges of the board wins the round and $500. The solo player can win with as few as four correct answers, while the family pair must give at least five. The first side to win two rounds takes or retains the championship and advances to the Gold Run bonus round; if the family pair wins, only one member may play the round.
Bonus Round ("Gold Rush/Gold Run") The board is set up as in the main game, with each hexagon now showing up to five letters. The contestant chooses any hexagon on the leftmost side of the board, and the host reads a clue to an answer with the displayed starting letters. (E.g. for "RTRNR" and the clue "He pulled Santa's sleigh," the answer would be "
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.") A correct answer turns the hexagon gold, while a pass or miss blacks it out and removes it from play. Completing any left-to-right connection in 60 seconds awards $5,000, while failing to do so awards $100 per correct answer. For the first four weeks of the 1980–1982 run, each individual round victory awarded no money but allowed a chance to immediately play the Gold Run (then called the Gold Rush). The prize was $2,500 during a contestant's first attempt in any given game, and $5,000 during their second. Contestants were originally retired as undefeated champions after winning eight games and playing the last Gold Run; this limit was raised to 10 after the first four weeks, and later to 20. When the 20-win rule went into effect, several undefeated champions were invited to return to the show.
1987 game changes The 1987 version used the same board configuration, but pitted two solo contestants against each other. The champion played white and the challenger red, and each round was worth $100 rather than $500. The edge colors were swapped for the second round of each game, with red playing left-to-right and white top-to-bottom. If a third round was needed, it was played on a four-by-four board so that neither contestant would have an advantage. ==Production==