Escape rooms have appeared on a few television programmes. This is a testimony to their popularity. Some examples are:
Reality Television – Race to Escape (April 2015) –
Two groups of contestants compete to escape from a room full of clues and puzzles. Unlike the regular escape room situation there is a cash prize, but the prize amount steadily decreases thought the game. The faster the teams solve the puzzle and escape the more money they win.
The aired in the USA on the science channel, where the initial audience was moderate, but increased over the following episodes. The demographic interested in science seem to be the
Popular Sitcoms – The Big Bang Theory (Feb 2015)
Popular sitcom The Big Bang Theory had several of the main characters trying an escape room. Because of their level of intelligence (most are PhDs) they figure out the clues in 6 minutes. This particular Big Bang Theory episode was ranked #1 for the week ending 1 March 2015.
BBC Documentary (December 2014)
The BBC ran a documentary about escape rooms in Budapest. Apparently the real life games were inspired by computer simulations. Many of Britain’s escape room businesses were started by Hungarians.
CNN Documentary (Nov 2015)
United States channel CNN also ran a documentary on the escape room phenomena, noting how they are popular for team building.
Classic Literature – The Martian Chronicles (1950)
Short story ‘Usher II’ in Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles has an individual trying to escape a set of traps in a house based on several Edgar Allen Poe short stories. This predated the escape room phenomena by 2 generations.
Escape Room Game Sydney
Escape rooms and their variations are something that should be tried. Some game scenarios, such as CT adventures, pose a quest instead of just a way out.