What If - Vintage and Classic Mystery Wedges
May 31, 2024 19:02:19 GMT -5
germanname1990, wheelgenius, and 2 more like this
Post by duke on May 31, 2024 19:02:19 GMT -5
What if Mystery Wedges Were Introduced Sooner?
Even though it was done in bad form, the recent persistent inquiry about Mystery Wedges for my wheel got me thinking: What if Mystery Wedges were introduced in the Vintage or Classic era? I kept thinking about it, until I had to do something about it and design my first "What If" wedges.
I think the wedge design for an earlier Mystery Wedge would have been much simpler. There would have been no printed gradients, no prize graphic on the back, and each side probably would have been monochrome since there had been very little precedent for multicolor wedges at that point (the Buy A Vowel wedge being a notable exception).
At the same time, I think that some way other than gradient shading would have been found to add glitz to the wedge. I don't think it would have been glitter, since that should be reserved for TDVs. As I was thinking about this, it dawned on me that one way to have a gradient without really having a gradient is to use a reflective metallic surface. This would have been well within reach for the tech available to be used on the wheel at the time, and might have been done via a foil transfer. I think a reflective gold might have been choosen, since gold is close to the yellow and orange used on future mystery wedges, and gold is very on-brand with the rest of the set design.
As far as timing and how it would have affected the wedge, I think that had the Mystery Wedge been introduced prior to syndication, it would have a lower face value, something like $300. It also probably would have had a lower reward, in the $2k-$4k range. The wedge probably would have been used in Round 2, and probably would have been on the Brown $300 and one of the Red $300's. If it was introduced early in the all-cash era, it probably would have its familiar introductory $500 face value, with rewards in the $3.5k-7.5k range, and it would likely be used in Round 3, possibly placed on the Red and Pink $500's. In the shopping era, prizes probably would have been favored as rewards, with a mix of cash and prizes if used early in the all-cash era.
Pre-syndication, the familiar Volta-esque font may have been used for the numbers on this theoretical Mystery wedge. In the all-cash era, though, they may very well have used Clarendon like they did for the TDVs.
So, based on these thoughts, I present designs and implementations for both a pre-syndication Daytime version of Mystery Wedges with a Volta $300 face value, and a early all-cash era (Season 5) version of the Mystery Wedge with a Clarendon $500 face value.
A note about the game element as implemented on my wheel - I decided to implement the mystery wedge as two mystery wedge covers that fully enclose a slightly smaller, separate insert that has the Bankrupt or prize. I did this for two reasons: For gameplay, to prevent the Mystery Wedges from giving a possible tell as to what is underneath each one, and for efficiency, so that I only have to make two of each mystery wedge front total instead of one for each possible Mystery Wedge prize.
$5000 and $10000 digits and the Bankrupt are based on Wheelgenius and MarioGS digits and renders from some time ago. For the prize wedge lettering, I just reused the vectors from my Vintage Prize Hunter series. As usual, feel free to use and please give credit.
Do you have a different idea about what Vintage or Classic Mystery Wedges may have looked like, or how they might have differed from the Mystery Wedge that was eventually introduced? Let's hear about it or even see it here in this thread!
Do you have a different idea about what Vintage or Classic Mystery Wedges may have looked like, or how they might have differed from the Mystery Wedge that was eventually introduced? Let's hear about it or even see it here in this thread!
