Pathfinder (pricing game)

Pathfinder is a pricing game on the American television game show "The Price Is Right". Debuting on April 7, 1987, it is played for a car and uses three small prizes.

Gameplay

The contestant is asked to stand on the center space of a 5-by-5 grid of 25 digits; that space represents the first digit in the price of the car. The second number in the price is on one of the four squares adjacent (not diagonal) to where the contestant is standing. The contestant is asked to step to the square they believe is the second digit. If they are right, they proceed to step to the third, fourth, and fifth digits in order, without using the same spaces twice. Doing so wins the car.

However, if at any point the contestant steps to an incorrect space, they must return to the previous space and earn a chance to continue. To earn these chances, three small prizes are used. The contestant is asked to choose a small prize and select which of two displayed prices is correct. If they guess correctly, they win that item and may continue with the price of the car; if they are wrong, they must select one of the other small prizes. The game is lost if the contestant makes an incorrect step with no small prizes left, or guesses the final small prize incorrectly after having already made an incorrect step.

History

When Pathfinder debuted in 1987, "The Price Is Right" still offered cars worth less than $10,000. When played for a four-digit car, the center space where the contestant began was an asterisk, the first digit in the overhead display was a dollar sign, and the contestant needed to light up all four digits in the car's price.

The tall prop at the back of the game board used to display the car's price is recycled from Add 'em Up. The sound indicating a contestant's misstep was originally used as the "trap" sound from the short lived game show "Trivia Trap".