Catching the last few minutes of Wheel of Fortune, I have to wonder what they’re doing to those hosts to keep them so well preserved. No joke: the very first video game I owned, on (whadyaknow?) an IBM computer, was Wheel of Fortune. Most of the gameplay consisted of watching a heavily pixelated Vanna White slowly lurch across the screen.
Call me crazy, but people featured in floppy-disc based video games probably should not still look like starlets.
It just started and right away Trebek is teasing Watson. Careful Trebek — I’m not sure we should be mocking the supercomputer that will probably end up enslaving the human race.
Yay! Ken and Brad are taking my advice and focusing their energies on getting quicker on the buzzer.
First commercial break and everybody has money. I’m feeling better already. I have to say I’m still rooting for the humans, particularly Ken. I’m an old softie like that.
Mr. Max says that IBM’s charity reminds him of when SETI was all about begging volunteers to help them look for aliens. How exactly does someone donate unused computer space for cancer research?
Episode’s Highlight: Ken Jennings says “fiddy cent.”
Final Jeopardy: Everyone got the right answer, but Ken’s answer was far and away the most awesomest. That’s a win in my book.
Observations: Mr. Max noticed that they seem to be careful not to have Watson speak too much — they didn’t have him do the introduction to the charity or remark on his victory even though this could have been easily programmed. Would it have freaked people out too much?
Parting Thoughts: How long has Eggland’s Best been sponsoring Jeopardy? I don’t think I ever think of them outside of the context of Jeopardy.
The Lower Crust 
I had that Wheel of Fortune game too, and I remember when I got a newer version on a 3.5 inch floppy disk– ooooooooooh! aaaah!
Haha, I think it must have come free with computers, because it was lame but everyone had it.
Remember when you guys re-shrinkwrapped that Frogger game so you could return it? This was, of course, back when computer video games cost 1 billion dollars and could not be returned under any circumstances once they were open (even if they were totally defective!)…
Oh wow I DO remember that now! It was vaguely traumatic, I think. But yes, we also had Jeopardy and you could pick what your character looked like and choose a name– my mom played that a lot and always made her character name “God.”