|
Round 1
All six teams competed in this round. An obstacle
awaited each team in the moat. For example, some giant icebergs floating in the moat or a rope hanging down in the middle
of the moat. Sometimes there were challenges that were completed by both team members at the same time. But the basic object
was to cross the moat in the style prescribed. When both players reached the other side of the moat, the 2nd player's job
was to run over to a gong and hit the button on top. The first 4 teams to activate their gongs went to the 2nd round. The
other 2 teams were eliminated.
Round 2
The 4 remaining teams would hear
the days legend from Olmec, a giant talking stone head. The teams had to pay attention to each part of the legend. After the
legend was told, Olmec revealed where the day's treasure was placed inside the temple. Now came time for a test of memory
skills and general knowledge. All 4 teams were standing at the top of a 4 step stairway. Olmec would start firing questions
at the teams directly about, or relating to, the days story. All questions were jump in. Or stomp in, in this case. On each
of the steps was a marking that was the signaling button. The team that rang in first got the chance to answer. If correct,
they moved down one step. If they were wrong, or ran out of time, the other 3 teams got to ring in. If the teams were wrong
twice, the question was thrown out. It took 3 right answers to reach the bottom step, and that was the goal. The first 2 teams
to reach the bottom step advance to the next round. The other 2 teams were eliminated
Round 3
The 2 teams that made it this far now competed in
games of strength, smarts and stamina. 3 games were played. The first 2 games were individual games, the final game was a
team effort. The player, or team, that won each game, didn't earn money or points. They earned "Pendants of Life". They were
essential to the next round, more on that in the next page. The individual games were each worth a 1/2 pendant, the team game
was worth a full pendant. Now, if there was a tie in a particular temple game, both teams would receive the proper pendant
amount. The team with the most pendants would go to the Temple. If both teams were tied after all 3 games were played, a tiebreaker
question was asked. Whoever answered correctly would go to the temple. If incorrect or if time ran out, the other team got
a chance to answer. In the first season, if a team was incorrect in the tiebreaker, the other team automatically went to the
temple.
Final Round
The winning team now would make their way through Olmec's temple
to try and get the days treasure. The temple was made up of 13 different rooms, each with its own different obstacle. The
rooms are listed on the next 2 pages, since there were so many rooms used during the show's 3 year run, Here was the basic
premise. When Kirk gave the signal to begin, one player would have 3 minutes to race through the temple gate, into the temple
itself and made their way, through the rooms, to the days treasure. In addition to the obstacles in each room, the temple
also had many locked doors and dead ends. And if that weren't bad enough, also in the temple were temple guards, who were
assigned to protect 3 specific rooms, one guard per room. This is where the Pendants of Life came into play. If you were caught
by a temple guard, and had a pendant, you could give it to the temple guard and continue on. But if a temple guard caught
you, and you had no pendant, you were taken out of the temple and it was your partner's turn to enter and try to get the treasure.
Same rules applied for the 2nd player, only they had the remaining time to get the job done. And if that player was captured
by a temple guard, and they didn't have a full pendant, the run was over. Since it was possible for a team to have 1 &
1/2 pendants going in, when that happened, they hid the other half pendant somewhere in the temple. If it was found, and the
2nd player had the first half, it acted just like a full pendant. If a team had 1 pendant going in, and it did happen, the
2nd player had to depend on luck not to get caught by a temple guard, because they did not hide another pendant inside. When
a team got a hold of the treasure, all of the doors of the temple were instantly unlocked and the temple guards, if any were
still waiting, would vanish. Now the player had to get out of the temple as fast as they could and exit through the temple
gate within the 3 minute time limit
The Rooms of the Temple
|
