GamesMaster

*GamesMaster*
GamesMaster
Created by	Jane Hewland
Starring	Dominik Diamond (Series 1-2,4-7); Dexter Fletcher (Series 3); Sir Patrick Moore; Dave Perry (Series 1-6);
Country of origin	United Kingdom
No. of series	7
No. of episodes	126
Production
Running time	30 minutes
Original release
Network	Channel 4
Release	7 January 1992 –; 3 February 1998

GamesMaster was a British show, screened on Channel 4 from 1992 to 1998, and was the first-ever UK television show dedicated to computer and video games.

Origins

GamesMaster began when Jane Hewland, formerly of LWT, who had set up her own production company Hewland International, took an interest in her son's love of video games [1]. She put together a pitch for a show that would translate the excitement of games playing into watchable television. It was Channel 4 that became interested in the concept and greenlit production. However, because it had been pitched as a competitive event programme, the show was always under the jurisdiction of the "sports" department amongst shows such as Football Italia, horse racing and Indian volleyball.

Format and hosts

File:Gm4-1.jpg

Dominik Diamond and Dave Perry present Series 4 of GamesMaster.

Though it featured reviews of games, most of the show was about challenges where game players would compete against one another for the title of "GamesMaster Champion". Contestants who were successful at their challenges were rewarded with the coveted "GamesMaster Golden Joystick" trophy. Dominik Diamond usually presented the show with Sir Patrick Moore appearing in pre-recorded inserts as the 'Games Master'. During these challenges, Dominik was joined by a host of commentators. These included Derrick Lynch, Kirk Ewing, Rik Henderson, Dave Perry, Tim Boone, Edward Laurence amongst others.

For the third series, Dexter Fletcher became the main presenter; this change was criticised by fans, who saw the new host as over-the-top, and too 'in-your-face'. To balance this, the production company dropped all other co-presenters and gave UK games champion Dave Perry a regular co-presenter slot on every show. Fletcher was more well known for playing an American character called "Spike" in the ITV drama series Press Gang. Without his fake accent, some viewers thought his genuine Cockney slang was actually put on for the effect of making the show seem more trendy.

File:Dexter Fletcher, Gamesmaster.jpg

Dexter Fletcher on the set of GamesMaster, of which he hosted only one series.

Review segments

From the very first episode, GamesMaster included reviews of forthcoming titles. In an attempt to give the show some authority and get the gaming press on their side, as well as eliminate the need for extra staff to review games, the reviews featured a host of magazines journalists from the publishing house EMAP. This meant the show could pool the collective opinions of magazines like Mean Machines, C&VG and ACE.

However, by series 5 it was decided that the reviews would be better presented by two of the show's co-commentators, namely Rik Henderson and Dave Perry. It brought a much-needed stability to the format and some interesting banter between the reviewers. Series 6 featured the same two reviewers, while series 7, due to time constraints and Dave Perry having resigned from the show's cast, employed two of its own research staff to present the slot, including Richard Pitt.

One of the earliest know uses of the term "Pants!" was Dominik Diamond's frequent use in relation to degrading something, due to its appalling quality.

Relationship with the games industry

Prior to GamesMaster appearing, games companies had very few TV shows on which to have their titles featured. UK broadcasters had shown sporadic interest in the scene, normally confining coverage to segments within Saturday morning children's programming. From time to time, news programmes would report on one of the very successful British games studios, but in contrast to programming involving films and music videos, there was no regular showcase for videogames.

GamesMaster was first broadcast in 1992, during the fourth (16-bit) console generation - after the launch of the Mega Drive, but before the SNES. 16-bit consoles were regarded as responsible for bringing gaming into UK culture, though it would take the ability of consoles with 3D graphics such as those found on the PlayStation for consoles to become largely popular. Youth culture was probably more focused on the gaming scene than ever before, and even arcades were still a big business, unlike today. That GamesMaster regularly drew in audiences in the millions proved that there was a huge and so far untapped audience.

Despite competition with specialist gaming magazines, the show managed to secure several exclusives over the series, showing games that were months or even years away from being finished. Because GamesMaster was largely a challenged-based show, games studios could, for example, present a single level to be used for these competitive segments. Blast Corps is one example of a game that was demonstrated long before it, or even the N64 that it played on, were released.

Occasionally, games studios made levels specifically for use on one of the challenges. Shiny Entertainment were one such studio when they put together a special level of Earthworm Jim. Though this worked out well for both game studio and the show, the experience was somewhat soured when this code ended up being leaked on the internet. It is believed that the only way for this to have happened is that one of the staff on the show must have had links with online ROM crackers. It led to a great deal of embarrassment and likely upset the trust that existed between the production, Shiny Entertainment and their publisher, Virgin Interactive.

Series 2 cold opening

For Series 2, the show began originally as in Series 1, except for it was plagued by numerous apparent technical faults, with the first challenge being a as-yet-unshown Marble Madness challenge. As the challenger was coming to the podium, the program "crashed", and then "rebooted" with the regular series opener, and a Street Fighter II challenge, the cast acting like the short segment before had not happened.

Every other series had the original series' closing moments portrayed in the series itself, with the final series breaking the fourth wall as the set is dismantled and the studio closed down.

Demise

Prior to Gamesmaster leaving UK television, there had been a crisis of confidence in games television over at rival channel ITV. Their children's department had commissioned another videogames show T.I.G.S.[2] to accompany Bad Influence. Then, one series later, they pulled the plug on both shows, deciding that kids did not need or want any games coverage on their channel.

Gamesmaster was not affected and continued with success. In 1998, towards the end of production for the 7th series, the show was looking set to be re-commissioned; viewing figures were still strong, and the show was finding a new audience, benefiting from the emerging PlayStation culture with the success of Sony's console bringing gaming into the mainstream. The production was also more oriented towards actual games players than the first few series, which had been decidedly light in feature content, and no longer poked fun at 'nerds' and 'geeks', as it was young adults and not children and teenagers who appeared on the show; indeed, they and the publicity-seeking celebrities were now the subject of jokes.

It is believed that Dominik Diamond, along with the show's producers, were wanting to make a more adult programme that would air in a late night, more mainstream time slot. There was also talk of a spin off show being made that would seek to emulate the US talk shows of the time. Whether this would have meant a programme that focused far less on games is unknown. No confirmation exists that any pilots of this concept were ever made; Channel 4 did not see the potential of a gaming show for an older, adult viewership.

However, changes in senior staff at Channel 4 were responsible for taking the show off the air. The new head of Channel 4 was Michael Jackson who had worked at LWT at the same time as Jane Hewland; the two never saw eye-to-eye. Alternatively, having been the head of BBC2, Jackson may have wanted less entertainment programming on Channel 4.

Also it has been rumoured that the GM production team were creatively burned out.

The first series of the show was repeated on Challenge? in 2003, but no further episodes have been shown. Challenge thought the show was "too dated" and "the games being played wouldn't stand up today".[3]

Broadcasting spin-offs

Several gaming shows were commissioned by Sky One in 1993 from Hewland International (one of which was Games World). Due to this close relationship with BSkyB, Hewland International were even successful in convincing them to launch a whole new channel dedicated to gaming, computers, the internet and technology. The Computer Channel launched in 1996 for only BSkyB subscribers, appearing for just two hours every night. Originally, the only gaming show was Game Over, made by some of the same production team as Gamesmaster and Games World. When The Computer Channel was relaunched as .tv in 1998, others shows began to start covering the gaming scene. These included Gear, Roadtest, ExMachina and also Games Republic [4].

The latter show was closest in style and tone to Gamesmaster, featured a themed studio set, studio challenges and the irreverent presenters Trevor and Simon. Though the show did not include any features or VT content, as it was a question based game show based on video games, it was produced by Gamesmaster and When Games Attack Producer Johnny Ffinch. The series unfortunately came into repute from fans after several questions asked in the show had incorrect answers, furiating several contestants over the series. (Incorrect questions about the Dreamcast's Online Capabilities and Characters from Tekken immediately come to mind).

Dominik Diamond returned to games television first as an interviewee in the 1999 documentary Games Wars, in which he commented that boys getting turned on by Lara Croft was tragic and "desperately sad". He then returned to presenting in 2004 with a show on Bravo, called When Games Attack. This programme was largely feature-based and contained plenty of Dominik's trademark humour. Prior to its broadcast, Dominik featured in a sizeable Edge interview, with his long time producer Johnny Ffinch. Both of them were quite vocal in stating their contempt for other shows about videogames that were doing a bad job.

When speaking about Gamezville, he expressed that: "I have more respect for suicide bombers than I do for the people who are involved with Gamezville... it's all fucking 'Yo mate...' I mean these guys can't even speak fucking English"

Though it did also feature minor celebrity challenges (mainly football players and glamour models), there were never any head-to-head competitions. To date, Bravo has yet to show a second series.

Gamesmaster was also the first UK show to feature the sport of robot fighting in a news item, which at the time was on Local Public Access Television in the US. Hewland International worked for several years to translate the sport into something for UK viewers. Though they never succeeded, another production company, Initial, were able to get their show concept Robot Wars picked up by BBC2.

Publishing spin-offs

In 1993, Future Publishing began a tie-in magazine, also called GamesMaster, which as of 2007 is still published, headed up by editor-in-chief Robin Alway.

In the Philippines, GamesMaster ceased its publication after three years of publishing. Its final issue was released September 2006. The magazine has a huge following of Filipino gamers and its demise has caused shockwaves in the local gaming community. An online commentary of the magazine's demise, and its effects, has been published recently [5].

Series guide

The following listed is a list of all episodes, by the celebrity who featured on each show. All transmission dates are as accurate as possible. The show was often switched, half way through a series run, between Tuesday and Thursday evening schedules.

Series 1 – 10 shows, shown Tuesdays at 6:30pm
Location: Church (St Paul's Church, Dock Street, London)
Recorded: 11th - 16th November 1991
Servant: Monk
Show 01 | (07/01/92) – John Fashanu
Show 02 | (14/01/92) – Gary Mason
Show 03 | (21/01/92) – Annabel Croft
Show 04 | (28/01/92) – Eric Bristow
Show 05 | (04/02/92) – Jimmy White
Show 06 | (11/02/92) – Pat Sharp
Show 07 | (18/02/92) – Wrestling - Featuring Kendo Nagasaki
Show 08 | (25/02/92) – Pat Cash
Show 09 | (03/03/92) – Gary Wilson
Show 10 | (10/03/92) – Emlyn Hughes

Series 3 – 26 shows, shown Thursdays then Tuesdays at 6:30pm
Location: Prison (Oxford Prison, New Road, Oxford, Oxfordshire) (until they lost the rights to film there!)
Servant: Caretaker
Show 01 | (09/09/93) – Mortal Kombat
Show 02 | (16/09/93) – Sean Maguire
Show 03 | (23/09/93) – Gabrielle
Show 04 | (30/09/93) – Gladiators 1
Show 05 | (07/10/93) – Gladiators 2
Show 06 | (14/10/93) – Gladiators Final
Show 07 | (21/10/93) – Mary Whitehouse Experience
Show 08 | (28/10/93) – Utah Saints
Show 09 | (04/11/93) – Paul Whitehouse
Show 10 | (11/11/93) – GamesMaster Live
Show 11 | (18/11/93) – Ian Botham vs Graham Gooch
Show 12 | (25/11/93) – Dani Behr
Show 13 | (02/12/93) – Feature on GM Team Championships
Show 14 | (09/12/93) – Start of GM TC. Footy 1 Vinnie Jones Vs. John Barnes
Show 15 | (16/12/93) – Footy 2
Show 16 | (23/12/93) – Christmas Special
Show 17 | (28/12/93) – Games Mistress
Show 18 | (04/01/94) – Kris Akabusi
Show 19 | (11/01/94) – Neighbours star
Show 20 | (18/01/94) – The Bill
Show 21 | (25/01/94) – Ronnie O'Sullivan
Show 22 | (01/02/94) – Randy Savage
Show 23 | (08/02/94) – 2 Unlimited
Show 24 | (15/02/94) – ?
Show 25 | (22/02/94) – Bad Boys Inc
Show 26 | (01/03/94) – GM TC Final

Series 5 – 18 shows, shown Thursdays at 6:30pm
Location: Heaven
Servants: Angels - Helena Tepper and Tanya Kecskes

Show 01 | (21/09/95) – The Shamen
Show 02 | (28/09/95) – Jadine Doran
Show 03 | (05/10/95) – Stephen Hendry
Show 04 | (12/10/95) – Donna Air and Vicky Taylor from Byker Grove
Show 05 | (19/10/95) – Stuart Wade and Tonicha Jeronimo from Emmerdale
Show 06 | (26/10/95) – Dean Holdsworth and David Kerslake
Show 07 | (02/11/95) – Phil Babb and Graeme Le Saux
Show 08 | (09/11/95) – Dean Holdsworth and Phil Babb
Show 09 | (16/11/95) – Johnny Herbert and Mark Blundell
Show 10 | (23/11/95) – Cobra and Panther from Gladiators
Show 11 | (30/11/95) – Ronnie O'Sullivan
Show 12 | (07/12/95) – EYC
Show 13 | (14/12/95) – Whigfield
Show 14 | (21/12/95) – Patsy Palmer and Dean Gaffney from Eastenders
Show 15 | (28/12/95) – Christmas Special - highlights from previous series
Show 16 | (04/01/96) – Mr Motivator
Show 17 | (11/01/96) – Stewart Lee and Richard Herring
Show 18 | (18/01/96) – Janick Gers

Series 6 – 18 shows, shown Thursdays at 6:00pm
Location: Atlantis
Servants: Mermaids - Theresa Tilley and Leigh-Ann Woodall

Series 7 – 10 shows, shown Wednesdays then Tuesdays at 6:00pm
Location: Desert Island
Servants: Castaways - Helena Tepper and Leigh-Ann Woodall

External links

The Official GamesMaster magazine website
GamesMasterLive.co.uk Dedicated to channel 4's GamesMaster, Downloads, GamesMaster Magazine Archives, Series info & More
First episode (1992), Google Video
GamesMaster at TV.com
Full listing (with guest appearances) on the IMDB
NTSC-uk.com's feature on the making of Gamesmaster
Former GamesMaster commentator Derrick Lynch on a UK television in 2001, giving his thoughts on the Tekken/Virtua Fighter rivalry
Website of co-presenter Dave Perry
Official Website of GamesMaster Magazine Philippines
Gamesmaster feature on the Bad Influence! Website
Clips From Gamer TV made by Ex GamesMaster staff (listed under Gaming & technology)
benpreece.com/photos/gamesmaster Photos taken during filming of the last series by a member of the production team