Main Game
Two couples, one usually a returning champion, competed to move across a bi-level seven monitor long archway by answering trivia questions. Play started with the team on the bottom level. Five possible answers were displayed on the show's game board. The couple decided how many questions they wanted to answer (one, two or three) and tried to complete a contract by answering those questions. If they were able to do so they gained control of their archway. If not, the team on the top level of the archway got a chance to complete the contract with the remaining answers.
Once a couple gained control, they began to move across the archway. Hidden among the seven monitors was a "bandit", which was shuffled around at the beginning of the couple's turn. The couple pushed a button beneath the first monitor to begin, and if the monitor displayed the name of a prize the couple won it. After this the couple was given an opportunity to stop and bank whatever prizes they had revealed to that point. If not, the process repeated until the couple revealed all the monitors or until they uncovered the bandit. Once a couple passed all of their monitors, they were again given the choice whether to bank the prizes or play on. If they decided to continue, a new set of answers was shown and the couple again decided how many questions to play. If the bandit came up at any time during either couple's turn, they lost all the prizes they had revealed and control passed to the other couple.
Once a couple got past the seventh monitor, they were asked one final "Strike It Rich" question. Answering it correctly won the game, but answering it incorrectly lost whatever prizes the couple had not banked and cost them control. The first team to answer the Strike It Rich question won the game and moved to the bonus round. Both teams kept whatever prizes they had banked during the course of the game.
Read more about this topic: Strike It Rich (1986 Game Show)
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“My first big mistake was made when, in a moment of weakness, I consented to learn the game; for a man who can frankly say “I do not play bridge” is allowed to go over in the corner and run the pianola by himself, while the poor neophyte, no matter how much he may protest that he isn’t “at all a good player, in fact I’m perfectly rotten,” is never believed, but dragged into a game where it is discovered, too late, that he spoke the truth.”
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