Italy's Parole d'oro

the rules are like this:

there are 30 spaces on the board: 3 "joker", 1 "lose everything" and one each of the 26 letters of the alphabet. some letters are gold-colored


each player begins with two jokers. you pick up another by landing on the joker space.
on your turn, spin the wheel or use a joker to call any letter.
on the first turn, each player spins only once before passing the turn.
if you call a letter that's hidden in the puzzle, you gain 500k lire for each letter found (1 million if golden).
if you call a letter that's NOT in the puzzle, you LOSE 500k lire (1 million if golden) and lose the turn. your score can go into the negatives (which makes the Lose Everything space beneficial!).
if you spin the wheel and land on a letter, you can choose to end the turn or to call that letter as above.
if you are about to lose the turn you can use a joker to keep the turn and call a letter.
you have 10 seconds of thinking time before solving the puzzle. solving the puzzle wins the game and a 5 million bonus. the champion can return the next week to play again.

in the bonus round, the player picks 5 letters at random (all of them are in the puzzle) and then has 60 seconds to solve the puzzle. if the player makes it, the day's prize is doubled. if the player fails... loses everything! (not really, there is a 1,000,000 lire consolation prize)


this show wanted to be a copycat of the official Wheel, which would premier on Odeon three weeks later.

the influence of Mike Bongiorno is evident, as this game has some of his favorite mechanics:  the "warm-up lap" on the first turn, the "choose one of three envelopes" (three bags this time) and the "double or nothing" bonus round.

you may be right about the Perde Tutto, Mike never says what happens in that case. I just assumed it.

landing on a letter that's already out is like a Lose-a-Turn

I've read on a Mike fan site that the bonus round was "double-or-consolation prize" just like on TeleMike. I can't remember for sure because I was 5 when I watched the show.

I certainly do speak Italian as I am Italian (and a rather grammar nazi one )