Classic Concentration II

This is chronicling a runthrough for a new version of Classic Concentration called Classic Concentration II.

Game format
The game is basically the same, except that the format was altered a bit.

Cash Round
Two contestants look at a board divided into two columns. The left column hid five first halves of familiar phrases and the right hid six second halves. Each player got 45 seconds on his/her own board to put five phrases together. Each correct match was worth $500 to a cash jackpot and matching all five upped the jackpot to $5000. The cash jackpot was to be played for in the championship round.

When the round was done, the classic game was put back into play.

Championship Round
Two contestants faced a game board consisting of 25 numbered squares. Behind those numbers were matching pairs of prizes. The hidden prizes cover up a rebus puzzle which the contestants try to solve. To start the game, two puzzle pieces were revealed at the start. Later shows gave no head starts. On a player's turn he/she picked off two numbers at a time. If the numbers he/she picked uncovered a match, he/she won the prize and revealed pieces of a puzzle. If he/she doesn't match, control of the board goes to the opponent.

Special Squares
Also hidden on the board were special squares that affected game play.


 * Wild Card - This was a very special square which if uncovered, caused an automatic match. When one was uncovered, another number on the board revealed the natural match; so therefore three or more pieces were revealed instead of two. When the show started, there were three on the board and if two were found in the same turn, the contestant won a $500 cash bonus; if all three were found in the same turn, the contestant won a $1,000 cash bonus. Certain games in later shows had just one wild card on the board; so the $500/$1,000 cash bonuses did not apply.
 * Take! - When matched, that gave the contestant in control the right to steal one of his/her opponents' prizes if he/she had any or save the "Take!" for a later time. It was absent for the first few months but then after November 11, 1987, the Take One Gift squares now called simply "Take!" returned. At first only the green cards were on the board, but later shows also featured red Take! cards. The Takes had to be matched by color.

The first player to solve the puzzle kept all the prizes & bonus cash and went on to play the bonus game for a new car.

Should time run out in the middle of the second game, the puzzle was revealed one square at a time and the first player to buzz-in with the correct solution was declared the winner. If the buzz-in played missed, the remainder of the puzzle was revealed and the opponent got a free guess.

Bonus Game
In the bonus round instead of 25 numbered squares, the winning contestant was faced with 15 numbered squares. Behind the numbers were eight brand new cars. Seven of them will match each other while one car will not match, this acted as a decoy to distract the contestant. The winning contestant's objective was to match as many cars as they can within the time limit; the time was 35 seconds plus 5 for every bonus round loss. If he/she can match all seven cars before time ran out, the winning contestant kept the last car matched.