monster tripped my nostalgia circuit with this post. Where I used to live our small gang would go out of our way to frequent a bar that had NTN. When I moved to where I now live, there as a restaurant that had it - my brother and I would go often.
(NTN, of course, is the trivia game played by watching a TV screen from your table, answering questions into a little wireless console.)
Then, all of a sudden NTN was removed - at that restaurant and everywhere. Visits back home to the ol’ haunt - no NTN.
I had just assumed the company had disbanded - until monster’s post.
So now the questions: Do you play NTN? Does anyone here run an establishment that carries it? What does it cost, and is it worth it?
I do when I go to the bar. When the game is Countdown or Wipeout I never, ever get less than 10,000, with 8 perfect scores and countless top 20 national scores. If you ever see MRMOJO from somewhere in Pennsylvania, that’s me.
It’s a strange thing to be proud of, but when I walk into a bar and they see my name, everybody with a board looks up to figure out who’s killing them except for the people that always play who know me. They beat me every once in a while, but it’s really very rare.
BTW, it doesn’t cost anything to play. Just ask for a Playmaker from the bartender or the server. It’s worth it because it passes the time very well and makes you friends for life if you play often enough (if that’s something that recommends it to you- some people don’t like other prople at bars).
I play quite often. I don’t have quite as impressive a record as Airman Doors, but I aquit myself pretty well.
You can go here, and click on the “Sitefinder” link on the left. You can search for nearby locations that have NTN games based on city & state or zip code.
carlb you’re a lifesaver. Whodathunka using the internet to research something :smack: Turns out there’s a spot not too far from me!
I wonder if my old username is still in the system. My brother and I were JUMBO and DUMBO respectively (he worked for Jumbo Video then). When I was on fire, it was fun to see DUMBO rise to the top of the list (my highest ever network ranking was 43rd).
Once, when travelling, I went into a bar and started playing. This was in the very early days of the O.J. Simpson case (after the arrest but before the trial started, IIRC). There were a dozen or so playing. One of the players, mid game, changed their name to FREEOJ. Within 10 minutes the board was full of RUNOJ, OJRULEZ, FRYOJ, etc. Hilarious.
I play it a lot also, and have made the Top 20 a number of times. I’ve even made it into the Top 50 for the Tuesday night Showdown game on a few occasions. Great fun!
Nature’s Call, if you were a Player’s Plus member, you can find out if your DUMBO username is still in the system. Go to the Player’s Corner link off NTN’s main page, and log in. If you can manage to log in, you’re still there.
Actually a couple of weeks ago while my wife and son were out of town, I was aching to play it. I went to one old haunt and sat at a table. Turns out they no longer had NTN, so I went to my other local haunt and it turns out they no longer have it either.
I used the sitefinder, found another new place, and sat at the bar for about 7 hours, nursing beers, eating dinner, and playing trivia all night long.
It is unlikely you will see Tutone listed anywhere, but if you do, that’s me!
I love NTN! There’s a sports bar/restaurant called Barnacles where they went utterly crazy with the tvs (3 or 4 giant-screen, another half-dozen large-screen and at least 200 regular-size) - usually about every 4th one of the normal ones is tuned to NTN. I win at Countdown more often than not, but I really like RetroActive (the classic-tv questions), because the questions are really snarky
