Gaming goes mainstream - Videogames and the TV show.

From the late '80s to the late '90s computer gaming went through what I would like to call a grudging-acceptance phase. Despite the complaining, both official and otherwise, it was widely understood that gaming as a hobby and even as an industry was not going to disappear no-matter how much people protested. Perhaps the rise of the internet became the new peoples' scapegoat or perhaps that was mere coincidence.

Gaming as a pastime was evolving. Even though the first Pong machines in their rudimentary cabinets were installed in bars around Silicon Valley, for the most part computing and gaming were seen as mutually exclusive; so much so that as technology developed, computer manufacturers quite often created machines either for the business or home markets. There were attempts by some to create a machine that was capable of operating in both markets but by-and-large, these did not gain much market traction and ultimately failed. The only exception to this rule I can bring to bear is the Atari ST range that although  quite  successful home computers with  extensive game libraries, as a consequence of the systems' inclusion of on-board midi ports, some recording studios and school music departments and musicians made extensive use of them. The reverse can be said of the BBC Micro and later the Acorn Archimedes line of computers, which whilst very popular in British schools, did not have the same appeal for the home market.

Meanwhile, within the home  computing camp there were two divisions: computer and videogame systems. The former could be used as a spurious salve for collective parents' consciences - "at least" they would think "if I get my son [or daughter] a computer, they can do their homework on it and learn how to program"; whereas the latter, used exclusively for game playing were generally frowned upon by teachers and the chattering classes alike. In reality however, if a computer was owned by any of the aforementioned children of yesteryear, you can guarantee that a vast amount of time was spent playing games and hardly any doing any sort of meaningful work. As computers, and videogame systems began appearing in houses in large numbers during this period, even the parents that had metaphorically buried their heads in the sand and believed that there was lots of coding and school report writing going on in little Johnny's bedroom were starting to realise that a vast majority of time that would have been spent in their youth perhaps riding bikes and building campfires was going to be spent riding bikes and smashing windows (during the course of a game of Paperboy) or using a flamethrower to torch aliens (in the course of a game of Alien 3).

At about this time, the media were beginning to pick-up on this trend: On the one hand, news outlets were running stories that in someway predicted excessive game playing as a catalyst for the downfall of society. Often they would use tenuous isolated  examples of  juveniles who having murdered a group of people; it was discovered (after the event) that at some point in the intermediate build-up to the crime had played a video game that involved guns. On the other hand were the producers of a very new type of TV show that in some respects deliberately courted this controversy and, in a tongue in cheek way, exacerbated it. These shows were of course the video game/computer review show that were produced either as part of the children's television provision of several broadcasters, or were clearly aimed at young adults given the time-slot in which they were shown and the content they provided.

The  two shows that I am going to provide an overview of here were not (I strongly assume) the only ones to be aired during this time period. However, they are the only two that I had direct and regular viewing experience of both at the time of original broadcast and subsequently. This is due in large part to the following reasons:

1. I am British and was bought up in England,
2. At this time I only had access to terrestrial television channels (of which there were four in the UK during this period). My parents did not have a Sky or cable subscription.

On with the reviews:

Name of Show: Bad Influence!

Presenters: Violet Berlin, Andy Crane; Andy Wear (as Nam Rood); Sam Wright and Sonya Saul.

Original run: 1992 - 1996 airing on CITV (a sub-section of ITV that during weekdays broadcast TV                           shows for children.

Oveview

Bad Influence! title card

Despite being aired during the children's slot of ITV air-time once per week during its series run, Bad Influence! was enjoyed by teens and young adults alike as a consequence of its factual content which usually consisted of several reviews of gaming hardware and software (mainly) and infrequently developments in the then emerging fields of Virtual Reality and PC Gaming; These were often filmed on location at company offices in the US and presented by Z Wright (a then teen, American correspondent) There was also a cheats section hosted by Nam Rood, a fictitious anarchic character that I can best describe as a cross between Vivian of The Young Ones and a supermarket trolley collector. The set from which he gave out cheats to viewers was made to look like either a garden shed or basement and Rood would often refer to the audience in a puerile and mock-offensive way.

Nam Rood who despite being
childishly err...rude was quite tame in
comparison to Dominik Diamond 

Despite the series title, which was clearly a nod to the prevailing notion held at the time by many (as descried above) that pass times involving video gaming or computing were indeed a bad influence on young people, the show itself had a healthy mix of both entertainment and factual content that was not based exclusively (albeit extensively) on the subject of gaming. Youtube channel DynamiteHeaddy has quite an extensive (if not complete) back catalog of episodes from this series that are available to view should you feel so inclined. The show has aged quite well and if you fancy a trip down Memory Lane in this regard, this would not be a bad place to start.

Name of Show: Games Master

Presenters: Dominik Diamond; Dexter Fletcher; Patrick Moore

Original run: 1992 - 1998 airing on Channel 4

Despite being credited as the first British television series dedicated to gaming and indeed the first gaming series to air on British terrestrial television, I have chosen to review Gamesmaster second, as this was the order in which I first saw these two shows.

Overview

Patrick Moore latterly Sir Patrick Moore in his digitised
role as the Gamesmaster

Whilst not aimed directly at the children's television market, indeed, if memory serves, Channel 4 did not have dedicated childrens programming on weekday afternoons - unlike the BBC and ITV, the content of both Bad Influence! and Gamesmaster was in many respects quite similar. However, as will be discussed later, the presentational style of Dominik diamond especially was quite different to that of Violet Berlin, Andy Crane et al.

On balance, it could be argued that whereas Bad Influence! despite its title was careful not to annoy the parents of children viewing the show and perhaps this is why more balanced content was provided, the producers of Gamesmaster, which seemed to cater for a more late teen market and screened at a slightly later time of 6 pm did not seem overly concerned about parental opinion regarding the show. Indeed, on many occasions it could be argued that Diamond (scripted or otherwise) deliberately walked a fine line between being funny and lascivious or creepy. Reviews of games on multiple platforms ranging from the Amiga to the 3DO and Playstation 1 (depending upon what series you were watching) from both teenage panelists and industry veterans such a videogame magazine

Dominick Diamond, one of the main presenters of
Gamesmaster.

editors and game designers were interspersed with thinly veiled innuendo laden statements relating to how much fun teenage boys could be having furiously waggling joysticks in their bedrooms (as opposed to the obvious smutty equivalent). Weekly competitions were also held between both regular teenage game players (who I assume had contacted the show) and less frequently father and son or other family combinations along with celebrity challenges in which regular viewers would compete against a celebrity associated with the game of choice in someway or another. For example a viewer might play Sensible Soccer on the Amiga against Ian Wright. The winner of both varients of this competition were then awarded the golden Joystick a type of trophy shaped like a joystick, gold in colour and placed in a presentation case.

The namesake of the show and the main feature was the Gamesmaster, somewhat like Krang in the animated series of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in appearance, and perhaps a direct homage, the Gamesmaster was in-fact a digitised representation of Patrick Moore's head (Patrick Moore being a famous British astronomer, now deceased) which voiced by Moore himself would provide gaming tips and cheats to people that had contacted the show. The way this was carried out was quite eclectic, as Moore even at the time of broadcast being both quite elderly and quintessentially British was probably the last person expected to be chosen to take on this role, especially in a digitised guise. Nevertheless, Moore's quips and put-downs often made for entertaining viewing.  The Youtube channel DynamiteHeaddy once again holds an extensive selection of episodes from this series if you feel like revisiting them.

Concluding remarks

Whilst in many respects Bad Influence and Gamesmaster are both entertaining programmes and are both worthy of a revisit; I cannot help but think that Dominik Diamond's persona (constructed or otherwise) in this show is somewhat cringe-worthy. Perhaps as a teen viewer his innuendos passed me by. However, on a recent viewing (and perhaps it is because I am now a parent myself), I cannot help but think that in some respects, some of the remarks he made were near the knuckle to say the least and in places were creepy. Thus, if you like that sense of humor, you will of course be likely to find this presentational style funny. However, needless to say, I don't, and for that reason, if I were to choose between the two programmes both then and now, I would have to go with Bad Influence!