GamesMaster: Season 4
Broadcast: C4 6.30pm, 1994
Number of Shows: 18
Loacation: Hell

After the disaster of the Team Championship, Games Master was taken back to its roots and it was only fitting that Dominik Diamond returned to present the show. The Producer/Director team that had been working on Series 3 both left and up stepped Series 3 Juniors' Jonny Finch and Steve Wright who overtook proceedings. The new level of the show was now set in Hell (as Dominik had died in the explosion on the Oil Rig in Series 2) and after an impressive opening sequence featuring a train bursting straight down into the fiery pits of Hell, we were reacquainted with a shaven headed Dominik who said "I'm Dominik Diamond. I'm back, and I'm grumpy." Whilst The Games Master had always been surrounded by machinery and bits and bobs flying all over the place, this series he was now a floating head basked with surrounding flames.

The promise of the show taking a more serious look at games was kept as there was now a News section and outside broadcast feature that would deliver exclusives on the highly awaited Sony Playstation and Sega Saturn as well as other gaming news and aspects. Some of these features included Dominik going onto the set of the Mortal Kombat film, Lawnmower Man 2 and a look at motion capture technology in videogames.

The challenges went back to basics with each of the challenges featuring different members of the public, along with the traditional celebrity challenge inserted somewhere within the show. Sometimes challenges were stopped to make way for the Features, but usually this was only done in the case of a really crap challenge like the Robocop one or the 'Michael Jackson' Christmas challenge, so it was for the best. The winners of the of Dom's sharp wit before being ushered into 'The Cage'. Commentators this series included regular Dave Perry, Brad Burton, Jose Billson, Steve Merret and Simon Byron.

There were 18 shows in total for this series and whilst 17 of those 18 were normal shows, the last one was a Gore Special that looked at the most blood curling games around for the time and the future. The show had been intended to go in the normal 6.30pm timeslot, but after seeing the show in the daylight in a bland Channel 4 office, it was decided that the show was far too violent to be shown at that time and was instead offered a cult midnight offering on the following Friday the series had finished. However, they had more problems when they realised that the show was far too tame and needed 'spicing' up, so soft-porn gaming and more violent scenes were inserted into the show. It also had a cracking Feature where Dom headed off to California to meet up with the Sierra team on set of 'Phantasmagoria' and talk to the lead actors and gaming legend Roberta Williams.

The Gore Special had been a big ratings winner for the show, and so the full-uncut version was commercially released on video and VCD. These are known to be quite collectable now so if you spot one, you should grab hold of it! Other spin offs included a promotional deal with top breakfast cereal 'Sugar Puffs', which featured a comical advert with the Honey Monster mocking The Games Master with a floating head telling people that in "Special packs of Sugar Puffs" they could collect some mini Games Master maze toys where you had to guide a metal ball around a little maze from start to finish.

Something most people won't know is that this series of Games Master made interactive TV history by introducing a new service that would take messages from the Games Master based internet hat room and then place them on to TV, thanks to the Teletext subtitles. Whilst the service was very popular, there were delays in messages appearing on screen so it only ran for one season. However, no other show had thought of anything like it before so it was truly the forerunner in terms of creativity to the now common 'red button' interactivity.

Season 4 Judgement Rating - 92%

It was great to have Dominik back at the helm, and even funnier with his new hard-bloke style, but the show wasn't quite at its ultimate peak. Some great features and some top celebrities including Prince Naseems amongst others, but next series it was about to drastically change from the now tired platform challenges that kids would take to some proper gaming challenges that tested real players at their specialist games skills as well.

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SEASON 4 VIDEO PLAYER

Intro | File Size: AVI 2.01 MB

Reviews | File Size: AVI 1.99 MB

Consoletation Zone | File Size: AVI 2.68 MB

Ending | File Size: AVI 1.31 MB

SEASON 4 SOUND TEST

Intro Music | File Size: MP3 106.00 MB

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