emusements » Name That »

Introduction

This page introduces the idea of a "Name That" quiz, describes the different versions of the game, lists the technical requirements, and explains how to play.

The Idea

Do you remember the classic TV game show, "Name That Tune"? The program, which originally aired from 1953-1959, challenged contestants to name popular songs in as few notes as possible—e.g. "I can name that song in four notes". Our "Name That" quiz game is similar, except that it asks you to Name That Movie, TV Show, Actor or Actress in as few hints as possible. For example, can you Name That Movie By Cast in five actors, four actors, three actors or just two actors? Or, as another example, can you Name That Actress By Show in five, four, three or just two of her TV series? The table below summarizes the various "flavors" of our "Name That..." game.

Versions of the Game

Name That Description
Movie By Cast We give you the names of two cast members who have appeared together in only one movie. Can you name the movie? Can you name the movie in 3, 4 or 5 cast members?
Movie By Quote We give you two quotes (i.e. lines of dialogue) from a movie. Can you name the movie? Can you name the movie in 3, 4 or 5 quotes?
Show By Cast Can you name that TV show in 2, 3, 4 or 5 cast members?
Show By Quote Can you name that TV show in 2, 3, 4 or 5 quotes?
Actor By Movies We give you the titles of two movies; only one actor appeared in both films. Can you name that actor? Can you name the actor in 3, 4 or 5 of his movies?
Actor By Show Can you name that actor in 2, 3, 4 or 5 TV series? (The quizzes try to list only TV shows in which the actor was a regular or recurring character.)
Actress By Movies We give you the titles of two movies; only one actress appeared in both films. Can you name that actress? Can you name the actress in 3, 4 or 5 of her movies?
Actress By Show Can you name that actress in 2, 3, 4 or 5 TV series? (The quizzes try to list only TV shows in which the actor was a regular or recurring character.)

Technical Requirements

The "Name That" Quiz game engine is compatible with the following browsers:

  • Windows: Microsoft Internet Explorer (version 6 or higher)
  • Macintosh: Safari

The game, unfortunately, is not compatible with either Opera or Firefox and other Mozilla-based browsers (due to apparent bugs in those browsers). In the future, we may offer compatibility with additional browsers; we apologize if you are unable to play.

How To Play

Below is a screenshot of a sample "Name That" quiz. Please refer to it while reading the instructions below.

Sample Quiz: Screenshot

  1. You start each quiz with two hints. During each round of the game, you may choose either to submit a guess or to show another hint. The maximum number of hints is five; after the fifth hint displays, you may either submit a final guess or click Reveal Answer; either way, the answer will be revealed.
  2. The Status field at the top of each quiz indicates whether your guess was correct or incorrect.
  3. The Hints section displays between two and five hints. To the best of our ability, we guarantee that there is only one unique answer to the quiz—for example, in the quiz shown above, Sarah Jessica Parker and Rick Moranis have appeared together in only one movie, so the quiz has only one possible answer.
  4. Each quiz has a Bonus Hint (for Movie quizzes: "Year" of the film's release, for Show quizzes: year the show "Premiered", for Actor and Actress quizzes: year he or she was "Born"). The bonus hint appears in the field when you click on the bonus hint link (the "Year" link in the example above). The default bonus hint preference is "show hint when clicked". However, if you would like the bonus hint to always appear automatically when quizzes load, you can click on the "change preference" link to set your preference to "always show bonus hint".
  5. The Guess section allows you to type and submit your guess during each round. Your guesses are not case-sensitive, but to win the game, you must enter an exact phrase from the full answer without misspellings. For example, for the movie "Raiders of the Lost Ark", "lost ark" and "Raiders" would be correct guesses but "Raiders Lost Ark" and "Lost Arc" would not. For the actor "Harrison Ford", "harrison" would be a correct guess but "Harisson Ford" would not. When you guess correctly, the answer and all five hints are displayed. When you guess incorrectly, the next hint appears and you can guess again.
  6. The Help section offers the following buttons:

    Show Another Hint Click this button if you are stumped (i.e. can't think of a guess) and the next hint will appear.
    Reveal Answer Click this button at any time to give up and see the answer and all five hints.
    Reset Game Click this button if you would like to reset the game back to its starting point, with only two hints visible.
  7. The Navigate area allows you to go to the next or previous quiz in the series or jump directly to a particular quiz number. It also allows you to switch to a different type of "Name That" quiz to play.
  8. Currently, the "Name That" quizzes are for fun only. There is no scoring system, although we may add this feature in the future.
  9. Have fun!

Please read our Frequently Asked Questions for more information.