GAMESMASTER......
Back in 1992 British kids up and down the country had a reason to get home before 6.30pm......that reason was the Games Master TV show on Channel 4 presented by the then Fresh Faced Scottish Comedian Dominik Diamond (we never realised he was a comedian until Wikipedia told us so!)
Games Master was the first of its kind in the UK and it took the country by storm as it was ingrained into the gaming population's after school / after work routine of getting home, have dinner and watch TV.
Games Master filled a hole that no other UK gaming show has managed to fill since, a prime time TV show that talks about Video Games for a solid half-hour and manages to entertain the viewers with a mix of humour, challenges and reviews.
Games Master ran from 1992 until 1998 for 7 Seasons and 126 episodes of Video Gaming insight. In this time Reviews of some of the great games of the day were aired and were backed up by journalists of the day from such great magazines as Mean Machines and CVG.
The main events within each show were the challenges that guests were put through in order to win the legendary "GAMES MASTER GOLDEN JOYSTICK" (wonder if there are any of these knocking about on eBay right now?!)
To top it all the producers pulled off a masterstroke by casting Sir Patrick Moore as THE Games Master who introduced each of the Challenges as well as giving out tips on current games to gamers who were stuck.
The first series was created at the time of 16 Bit console era with the first episode being aired at the time of the MegaDrive and just before the SNES being released.
It was this era of gaming that Video Games had just begun to get into the mainstream and it was truly an exciting time for gamers everywhere.
Thinking back to Games Master makes us think of the cold winter nights in front of the TV in anticipation of which cool game would be featured in that week's show. It was such a fun show and really caught the mood of the gaming nation for the 6 years it was aired.
If you were an 80's child in the UK then Games Master was firmly a part of growing up.
Sadly the show was axed in 1998 even though viewing figures were consistently high throughout its history. Since 98 nothing has really come close to matching Games Master and the only Video Games TV show we could currently find was The Blurb on Challenge TV.
So, why not sit back and relax while you watch Episode 1 of Series 1 featuring the legendary CVG & Mean Machines writer Julian Jaz Rignall!
Do you remember GamesMaster with the same fondness as we do?
Has there been a better Video Games TV Show Since?
Is there still a market for a prime time UK Video Games show?
