Lingo can be played online at a number of sites. The most popular of these are www.bigmoneyarcade.com, www.slingo.com and www.the1337arcade.com. The games on these websites are free to play and there are no prizes available, the game is played just for fun. The game is based on the US television game show that aired from 1987 - 1988 and then again from 2002 - 2007. The game featured two teams of two who attempted to guess five-letter words and place markers on a Lingo board (which is 5 squares by 5 squares). The name Lingo comes from Bingo with the L meaning letters. The challenging team was shown the first letter of a five-letter word and one team member would try and guess and spell the word. Any letters that were in the correct position were uncovered and other letters that were correct but in the incorrect position were circled. If the team fails to guess the word within five tries, or takes longer than five seconds to answer, or gives a word that is not five letters in length then control of the game passes to the other team, where they have guesses (again with five seconds for each answer). The team that guesses the word correctly receives two Lingo balls. These balls have numbers that are also on their Lingo board. They need to be placed on the board and there are 18 balls in total, three of which are prize balls, giving prizes such as a vacation and money. The team to win the game is the team that places 5 balls in a row on the board, vertically, horizontally or diagonally. Www.gsn.com, owned by Game Show Network, who produced the show, occasionally has prize Lingo games.
