© Channel 4If you're from the UK and are over the age of 30, then chances are you'll vividly recall tuning in to Channel 4's GamesMaster TV show back in the '90s.
A truly revolutionary piece of television programming, the show was based around a series of challenges where members of the public and celebrities would take on the top video games of the day in front of a live audience in the hope of claiming the iconic Golden Joystick. The format would also include reviews, previews, tips and features.
The show ran from 1992 to 1998, and was hosted (for the most part) by Dominik Diamond (Dexter Fletcher, who recently directed the Hollywood movie Rocketman, was the host for one series). Astronomer and TV presenter Sir Patrick Moore was famously cast as the all-knowing "GamesMaster", despite knowing precious little about video games. A magazine was spun-off from the show and would remain in print until 2018.
The new show – which has been pitched to potential advertisers – will be spread across Channel 4's E4 channel, YouTube and social media. Five celebrities will compete across three television episodes.
© Channel 4The pitch reads as follows:
They’ll undergo challenges, races and fights in virtual battle across all genres of gaming under the watchful eye of the all-knowing GamesMaster.
Each week at least one celeb will be eliminated…Over the three episodes, five will become one and the winner will be crowned.
They’ll play each other at everything from iconic classics to brand new releases. We’ll also be serving tonnes of extra gaming-themed content to our audiences to keep them coming back for more.
Interestingly, an image located on Channel 4's website shows Patrick Stewart of Star Trek fame, hinting that he could be filling the shoes of the late Patrick Moore. However, no mention is made of Stewart in the pitch document.
© Channel 4If you're interested in the history of GamesMaster, check out the Under Consoletation podcast, which runs through each episode of the series.
[source videogameschronicle.com]
Comments (70)
I'm just here for the comments.
I have no idea what you UK bois are talking about, but I wanna know 😂
This could be awesome........................if done right. For godsake don't have Dominic Diamond fronting it. I'd vote for the dudes from Going 8bit to co host it together. They're game savvy and knowledgeable and funny too. I think you could re-purpose Dara O'Brian as the Gamesmaster too. Going 8-Bit wasn't a great format, but all the guys are genuinely into their games.
I'm not sure about just having Celebs on it thought. For gordsake get real people involved again if it goes to a proper full series.
Patrick Stewart for Patrick Moore is a good replacement however I'm not sure if getting Patrick Stewart means it's a sign it's gonna be good as they are putting loads of effort into it or if Patrick Stewart has kinda given up so will go along with things for the cash now.
For godsake have Dominik Diamond fronting it. He was the heart and soul of the show. Also get Dave Perry involved somehow, maybe make him the new 'Gamesmaster', a bitter, twisted tattooed manifestation of gaming's darker side.
OK, hear me out here...
So, Patrick Moore was an spacey-planet dude so you know who else is keen on astrology and is ALSO a gamer?
Dara O'Brien. He should be the new replacement for Patrick Moore
@martynstuff But more importantly Dara O'Briain is bald too.
I dunno, I really don't think it'll work in this modern time of the internet. I mean why watch this when you can simply watch a let's play/commentary review or better yet go on a video game news website (e.g. Nintendo Life)?
I just think their reviving it for the ten people that have nostalgia for it.
Used to love games master hope it really does make a comeback seeing Dave the games animal Perry getting beat off that kid on Mario 64 was priceless
@Jakiboy ten people. In that case Nintendolife only has 3 people who visit the site, using your grasp of numbers.
I misread that and for a few brief moments thought that Dominik Diamond directed Rocketman.
SIR Patrick Stewart!
Yep the circle of retro life is complete, happy memories of this as I'm wrong side of 50 All we need now is for Nintendo to resurrect VC in all it's glory and TMNT in time re-released....... Please!
They should bring back "Bits" and "Vids" while they're at it...
@Lordplops
It's called hyperbole, sweetie~
Still I think it won't get much views. If they rebooted in the 2000's maybe they would have had a chance.
It's perhaps strange for anyone born post internet age how big Gamesmaster was- it was obe of the only ways to see live videogame footage, especially of new games that hadn't been released. A lot of the time we didn't know when games were coming out unless we saw an advert or read it in a magazine.
Patrick Stewart? Make it so.
@martynstuff - Dara O'Briain would be ace! But as the Dominik Diamond replacement, imho
This was easily one of my favourite shows of the 90's but it also coincided with the most exciting age in gaming and more relaxed television rules than today. Domink Diamond was a great presenter and Patrick Moore perfect in his role, I'll definitely watch the reboot but doubt they'll recapture the magic
@Gs69 that was amazing, I can't believe he was so bad at it even for a first try
They should have GameGrumps on it so license fee payers can watch Arin run into the same spike trap 30 times in a row.
@martynstuff could definitely see Dara doing this, but Patrick Stewart would also be awesome. However (and just because I'm incredibly pedantic, sorry) Sir Patrick Moore was an amateur astronomer and presenter, definitely not an astrologist. Astrologists are the ones who tell you what kind of day you're going to have based on where the stars were when you were born. I.e. bullsh*t. Astronomy is science, astrology is magic.
I loved Game master so hope this does well. I wonder if this will trigger any other revivals. Not that there have been that many but there was CITVs Bad Influence, and on channel 4, Bits(N64 era) and then Thumb Bandits which only ran for one season. Probably not as Games Master was the only one with the game show aspect.
You could say what’s the point of magazines when there’s the internet, but they have also seen a... come back with Switch Player and Ninty Fresh. Although I’m not sure how successful they have been.
@Jakiboy yes I know what hyperbole is. You are very intelligent.
@Lordplops
With your passive aggressive attitude you seem to be very hurt by my opinion. You are very sensitive.
Surprised they didn't just put it on mashed (Channel 4's awful gaming channel)
Can’t see it working too well with all the Sercuity around company IPs.
Worried that they spend too much time on mobile games and for obvious reasons won’t cover games that carry a 15-18 cert due to airing time slot. (Which kinda rights off most PS and XB games).
But you never know...with XB desperate for sales to catch up they might throw a load of money at.
This was my childhood along with Bad Influence and then Games World on Sky One. As much as I really want it to work it more than likely won't last as their target audience probably won't even know it's on much like Dara O'Brian's Go 8-bit on Dave which was only on for a couple of years before getting cancelled.
@carlos82 ha 😂 it was classic tv he seamed to disappear for ages after that think he is a tattooist now
@jump If Patrick Stewart is doing it, then he'd be doing it for a bit of a laugh; doubt he needs money from all the millions he's getting from the new Picard series alone.
@Dethmunk "For godsake don't have Dominic Diamond fronting it"
Why on earth not? Without Dominic Diamond it's not Gamesmaster! (The Dexter Fletcher series sucked and viewers turned off) Agreed celebrities sounds very lame. 🙄 I want to see nerfs playing the games like back in the day.
And Dave Perry must be in it too!
OMG!! HELL YES!!!!! CANNOT WAIT FOR THIS!!!! Patrick Stewart is a brilliant choice
Provided it's NOT all Fortnite or other free to play Battle Royales
At the time I loved anything to do with games on mainstream TV, but recently been doing watch parties of some episodes and you know what... it was actually really rubbish. Dominik Diamond seems to be a genuinely horrible person too.
There are some celebrities who are genuinely 'hardcore' gamers that have worked with Channel 4 in the past. James Buckley (Jay from Inbetweeners) and Limmy are both regular twitch streamers.
I have a horrible feeing that companies like EA or Activision will only allow their games to be played if they have the final say over how the game is presented on TV and no mention of anything negative or any bugs that gets shown during filming.
If it doesn’t have Patrick Moore insulting little kids asking for cheats, it’s not Games Master.
But I’ll give it a shot, and Patrick Stewart is a great choice.
They need to run some winner-stays-on games, with celebs and nobodies, build up a bit of hype about knocking people off the top from week to week.
I’m now full of nostalgia
Asking for cheat codes to unlock characters on Mortal Kombat isn't going to be quite the same. 'Just enter these 16 numbers from the front, then these three from the back'.
I live in the U.S. and have no idea what you are talking about, but seems interesting.
It was a product of its time when basically was the only thing on tv about games.
I cant see a place for it in the era of YouTube and Twitch where can watch entire playthroughs google cheats and walkthroughs and read games news sites and watch trailers/directs and presentations on my phone.
For anyone hankering for a great gaming telly series there’s old episodes of Good Game on YouTube and Good Game Spawn Point (which is still ongoing) too. 📺
Them were the days. I loved Bad Influence as much as GM. To be a gamer pre the internet era! I would record Bad Influence on my well used VHS tape in order to replay the credits at a slow speed with crap image quality as they would be loads of game cheats that they provided.
Loved that crappy game of footy there 😆
Simons first goal was well offside. And Fash hitting the bar from 1 yard out. Magnificent TV 😆👍
Looked like Kick Off 2. I had that. Absolute turd of a game. All the mad glitches used to have me and my pal Stevie in stitches.
@JuiceMan_V I'm to here for the comments.
@Jackpaza0508 I use to watch gamezville, cant remember what channel it was on but it was god awful lol
Not going to lie, all these streamers who got famous gaming, are Gamesmaster contestants. It essentially pioneered modern gaming society by giving it the exposure it craved.
I’m extremely excited for this but would be better if they dropped the celebs
Just one celeb would be good for the celebrity challenge part but make everyone else take part 😊
Phenomenal news! I loved that show and am stoked to learn of its return 😍
@martynstuff So, Patrick Moore was an astrologist so you know who else is keen on astrology and is ALSO a gamer?
For a minute there I thought you were gonna say Professor Brian Cox 😂
Was only thinking about this the other day, how big the games industry is there isn't any programmes on TV dedicated to the medium. Its about time the industry got the recognition it deserves.
It was never good. A half hour of rushed challenges of games you didn't want to play. By Dominic Diamond- where is he now. The magazine was much better. The show is much loved but only cos there was no competition.
Is "Star Trek's Patrick Stewart" really necessary. "Patrick Stewart" should suffice......f*ck that, "SIR PATRICK STEWART".
Could the Nostalgia nerd be host please?
Oh God, cringe!
@Jakiboy Because competition-style game shows are very popular. I hope this is successful!
This will be very, very bad
It came around at the right time when the Snes and MG reined and ended when the next generation came along (not a Star Trek pun) it ended when the time was right . Let sleeping dogs lie
Patrick Steward feels like one of those stars who feel immortal. We just lost one that was on my list. R.I.P., Christopher Plummer!
This would be good if they had people playing retro games but I don't want to see someone rush through a level of COD on live tv. The original show was very peculiar and bizarre enough to watch quite a few from youtube.
@martynstuff I think you mean Astronomy and Astronomer. Astronomy is actual science, and Astrology is all that horoscope/star-sign nonsense
I used to love GamesMaster! It was essential viewing for me when I was growing up! I have vague memories of it and even saw a clip of it once where a very young David Walliams would give out hints and tips to help you beat the game. Aah the days before the internet...
VideoGaiden and Consolevania the damage, Consolevania still going on YouTube plus old clips of VideoGaiden on there too,
Gamesmaster with Patrick Stewart Dominik Diamond, and Bob Mills from Games World
‘Guru’ Larry Bundy Jr. oughta be host. I’m just saying.
The episode with Final Furlong will forever be imprinted on my mind.
@HeyL1sten @TopazLink Corrected it to its proper term. Thank you.
Also I guess I'd be OK with James Buckley hosting it as he seems quite knowledgeable about gaming
Yessssss! This is amazing. I remember when they showed the first footage of the SNES and Ghouls N Ghosts. I watched that fifteen-second clip for about six months whilst awaiting it's release.
Yet another reason why I am glad that I am subscribed to a VPN service!
Ha ha. Used to love this show. Flawed, but good fun
This bring back good memories👍
My parents hated computers and consoles and i did not get one, so for me this tv show was my escape.
could it be popular again?
why not, if done right.
right broadcasted time, mix of great games, combined with internet, presentation, setting.
Hands kid Golden Joystick award
"Now you can walk proud and erect!"
lol, I'm loving these innuendos.
If they bring it back I hope it's full of jokes too.
The fact it's on E4 suggests we'll get 'celebs' playing Call of Duty and FIFA. Which is a shame. The Gamesmaster in the 90s was random, a bit mad and very watchable. I fear this will be too sleek and nowhere near as interesting. However going back to the fact it's on E4 I would suggest I'm not the target audience and neither is anyone else who clearly remembers who Dominik Diamond is!
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