Hidden Pictures round

In the first half of each round, the object for the teams was to find hidden pictures drawn into a larger picture. The host read a clue, and the first team to buzz in was given a chance to find the correct object. If they failed to do so, the opposing team was given a chance to find it and steal the money.

On the Nickelodeon series, the picture was displayed on a telestrator and the teams used light pens to circle the objects on monitors set into their podiums. On the syndicated series, the picture was displayed on a large board and each team was given a set of plastic laminate stickers similar to Colorforms representing the objects. When a team buzzed in, one member had to run to the board, grab the sticker for the correct object in their color, and stick it onto the picture in the appropriate place.

Each correct item located earned $25 for the team and an opportunity to search one of four rooms in the house for that round. During the first half of the Nickelodeon series the players chose the rooms they wanted to search, but this was later changed so that each hidden object found awarded the opportunity to search a specific room.

Each picture had a maximum of six objects hidden within it. In the first half of the Nickelodeon series, an incorrect answer meant a room would go unclaimed. For the subsequent episodes and syndicated series, the round was played until all four rooms were claimed or all six clues were played, whichever came first.

Searching the house

The house consisted of eight rooms that could be whimsical versions of traditional rooms in a typical home (e.g., a living room, a bathroom, a den or a kitchen), or complete fantasy rooms, such as "Sherlock's Study," "Ali-Baba's bathroom", a sewer (which contained a pool of water), Tarzan's tree house, a pastry shop, or "Frankenstein's laboratory." The house was laid out with two floors of four rooms each, and a staircase ran up the middle.

In each room, the host read a clue describing an object hidden within. The team had 30 seconds to find the object, and were given one chance to show it to the host once found. Each room was worth $50, awarded to the searching team if they found the correct object, or to the opposing team if they either ran out of time or showed an incorrect object to the host. On the Nickelodeon version, while the team was trying to find the item associated with the clue, the camera would discreetly zoom in on it. On the syndicated version, a picture of the room would appear at the bottom of the screen with the target object marked by a flashing X.

Rooms were frequently set up with distractions to hinder the teams' searches, such as ping-pong balls falling onto them from cabinets or the ceiling, sprays of water or confetti, and (in later episodes) entire shelves collapsing. However, any breakable or collapsible objects were fabricated in such a way as to prevent any injuries to the host or contestants.

Round two

Two teams playing the hidden picture round on the syndicated series (note the laminate stickers on the boards)

The process repeated with a second hidden pictures round and set of rooms to search. The dollar values increased to $75 for finding a correct hidden picture and $100 for successfully finding a hidden object in a room.

One of the rooms in round two was secretly designated as the day's "Instant Prize Room." If a team won control of this room and found its hidden object, both members won a bonus prize that was theirs to keep regardless of the final outcome of the game.

The team with the most money at the end of this round won the game and advanced to the Room to Room Romp. Both teams kept all money earned, the losing team receiving consolation prizes.

Tiebreaker

If the scores were tied at the end of the second round, a shortened Hidden Pictures round was played as a tiebreaker. The first team to find two pictures won the game.