Games on TV

If you’re not quite aware what the name of my blogs refer too then you must be one of these ‘young people,’ I hear tell of. Movies, Games and Videos was a weekly TV show that provided tiny portions of geekery to its hungry audience. This was back in the olden times when internet news was only digested by myself in limited slots, when the noise of the dial up connection was enough to summon a phone bill carrying  mother from anywhere in the world. 

During that weekly half hour show we were regularly treated to about five minutes of game coverage. Truly spoilt.

If you really wanted to see games on TV then there was only one source. GamesMaster! Stargazer Patrick Moore somehow got roped in to dressing up and talking down to spotty lads as they competed in bouts of Mortal Kombat. Dominik Diamond was also there as the sarky host, perfect for the teenage audience of a hobby that had itself only just hit puberty. If you wanted news (and I did) then again this wasn’t the show for you. It was all about challenges, about competitive gaming in an age before ‘esports,’ was even a phrase. You got the occasional review and those challenges were mostly games I hadn’t saved up enough pocket money to buy yet, but news was never the point. You still had to buy the magazines for that. 

After that ended we were stuck, we were confined to reading about games in the monthly glossies and praying for some kind of wizardry that would bring unlimited internet and a choice of videos chosen by You, watched on the Tube. Someday…. 

The next attempt (that I remember) was Bits. Another show all about games but this time presented by three lady folk. Girls playing games!! Crazy idea for 1999 and 14 year old me was left with weird feelings that Princess Peach had only started to stir. This show had games. I think it had more news. I’ll be honest my memory of it is a bit foggy now but I’m fairly sure it was a bit more hyper than GamesMaster. One of the presenters was American and another one had a large bosom. Oh dear, 14 year old me wasn’t really paying attention much. Let’s move back to adulthood and (kind of) mature me. 

Gaming TV disappeared. The internet became wonderful and my insatiable appetite was fed constantly. My twitter feed is a drip feed of game news and opinions, my phone is used just as much for reading NeoGaf posts as it is for communicating and my YouTube choices tend to be game trailers and watching people sitting round tables talking about games. It never stops, I’ve never had enough. There’s no need for games on TV.

Go 8 Bit has just come along. Airing weekly on Dave, it’s a game show about videogames. Dara O’Briain hosts and folk play games. It doesn’t have news or reviews, it doesn’t even stick to new stuff. So far they’ve used the likes of Sonic 2, Star Wars Battlefront and even Snake. They play games and they crack jokes. If you’re after an in depth and serious show about games then this isn’t for you. It’s light hearted fun, its people who grew up on games having a laugh with games instead of at them. I said before that GamesMasters host was perfect for that time, when gamers were primarily teenage boys. Go 8 Bit is a show that could only exist in today’s time, when an audience of 30 plus gamers have all the gaming news and coverage they need already, when our hobby being a bit of fun is perfectly ok. It's the gaming show i didn't know I wanted.

If you do want more games on TV then I can’t give enough of a recommendation for Charlie Brookers How Videogames Changed World. It talks through both the bad and the good, the brilliance of games and the still prevalent immaturity of an industry that’s still growing. Plus it’s by Charlie Brooker, and features a host of pundits even the non geeky among you would recognise (Jonathon Ross, Dara O’Brien again). The whole things on YouTube. And after you’ve read this and watched that then maybe, just maybe you might play a game. Hurrah!