GamesMaster

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This article is about the television series. For the spinoff magazine, see GamesMaster (magazine)

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.

1 Origins
2 Format and hosts
3 Review segments
4 Relationship with the games industry
5 Controversy
6 Demise
7 Minor claims
8 Broadcasting spin-offs
9 Publishing spin-offs
10 Series guide
11 See also
12 External links

[edit] 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.

[edit] Format and hosts

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.

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

[edit] 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.

[edit] Relationship with the games industry

Prior to GamesMaster appearing, games companies had very few shows to have their titles featured on. 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 even 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.

[edit] Controversy

When gaming moved into the 3D era with the PlayStation, some claim that the show had a tendency to concentrate on those games with the most impressive graphics, rather than those with superior gameplay.

Certain reports have linked Dominik Diamond to mischievous behaviour both during the filming of the show and its feature reports. Dominik was always very cheeky with the guests, teenage contestants, commentators and - some would argue - Channel 4's censors (a fact that was ruthlessly parodied in the season six finalé).

One infamous incident involved Dave Perry, who had previously had a very good relationship with the show, losing a challenge at Mario 64 in record time. The challenge had famously been rigged by the show's producers. Dominik sensed Perry's wounded pride and anger and set about exposing his ego in a confrontational manner, similar to such presenters as Jeremy Paxman.
The embarrassed Perry pointed out repeatedly that the game had been changed at the last minute to (Super Mario 64) to ensure he hadn't played it, on account of it not being available in the UK, while his opponent (Dominik's best friend) had been aware of this and had practised for the past three months. Dominik pushed further by testing the validity of that claim, by suggesting that due to Perry being a journalist, he would own the console. Perry replied with saying he was in fact NOT a journalist but a Marketing Manager at that moment in time, and working for THQ who did NOT produce N64 titles, and that Dave Perry had publicly denounced the system in support of official formats that WERE available in the UK, and so had never even used the machine's (at that time) revolutionary Analogue Joystick control (which had been noted in previous shows to make playing certain games, such as Killer Instinct Gold, difficult to play) before he was handed it onscreen. Diamond also hurt Dave Perry's ego further by asking if we were "seeing sour grapes", to which Dave Perry replied. "No we are seeing somebody who is saying he's been set-up."

It is also alleged that on a visit to Virgin Interactive's US studio and LucasArts, Dominik became drunk on a flight to California, and was banned for life by Virgin Atlantic.

Dominik and the show may hold some responsibility for the reclusive nature of UK games studio Rare, in labeling founders Chris and Tim Stamper as "physically unattractive".

In 1995, there was a one off "Gore Special" that went out close to midnight on Channel 4. Despite being broadcast well after the watershed, it still received a huge number of viewer complaints for its "vivid" content.

The Gore special was released on VHS and VCD.

One edition of GamesMaster from Season 7 sparked a number of complaints as it showed violent excerpts from beat 'em up game Mortal Kombat 4.

[edit] 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 had 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.

[edit] Minor claims

Violet Berlin, of GamesMaster's closest rival, Bad Influence, argues that she was the first to provide regular videogames coverage on British television, though as this was for Sky One any coverage she did provide was not part of terrestrial network broadcasting.

Violet Berlin also made the following claim [3] in a recent interview:

"Gamesmaster was a niche challenge show on C4. It was essentially a game-show aimed at teenage boys. The audience was five times smaller"

It should be noted that Violet's ability to exaggerate viewing figures continued until the cancelling [4] of her own cable television show in 2004. Up until then, she had claimed [5] [6] [7] her show was getting 3 million viewers, for a channel that never got ratings above 1 million.

[edit] 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 [8].

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 a welcome replacement to the channel's previous games coverage, was largely feature-based and contained plenty of Dominik's trademark humour. Though it did also feature challenges, they were never 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.

[edit] Publishing spin-offs

In 1993, Future Publishing began a tie-in magazine, also called GamesMaster, which as of 2006 is still published, headed up by editor-in-chief Robin Alway.

In the Philippines, GamesMaster will cease 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 [9].

[edit] 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: 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 7 – 10 shows, shown Wednesdays then Tuesdays at 6:00pm
Location: Desert Island
Servants: Girl Fridays
Show 01 | (19/11/97) – Jo Guest
Show 02 | (26/11/97) – Kaleef
Show 03 | (03/12/97) – Boxers
Show 04 | (10/12/97) – Sol Campbell
Show 05 | (17/12/97) – Emma Kennedy (Xmas special)
Show 06 | (06/01/98) – All Saints
Show 07 | (13/01/98) – Sarah Vandenbergh
Show 08 | (20/01/98) – Catalina
Show 09 | (27/01/98) – Debbie Flett
Show 10 | (03/02/98) – Compilation Look-back Show