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Go 8 Bit video gaming TV show goes live on 5th September

by Mark Tyson on 29 July 2016, 13:01

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A new video gaming show entitled Go 8 Bit will be on air starting from 5th September. Broadcast on the Dave channel, the show will be hosted by comedian Dara O’Briain and feature "competitive and hilarious gaming contests".

The weekly 6-part series will feature team captains "gaming geek Steve McNeil and gaming cynic Sam Pamphilon" with a supporting celeb guest each. As O'Briain looks on, McNeil and Pamphilon will compete in their favourite computer games. In the first week the guests are former England goalkeeper David James square off against comedian and writer Susan Calman, and among the competitive bouts you will see the panel fight though a marathon bout of Tekken. The producers reckon that such a spectacle will be essential viewing "for gamers and non-gamers alike".

Gaming expert, and ex-EuroGamer writer, Ellie Gibson will provide gaming industry and gaming tech insight to fill in the gaps and generally support host Dara O'Briain .

Since it’s a 6-part series with two special guests per show, there will be a further 10 guest featured over the weeks and these include panel show favourites such as: Russell Howard, Bob Mortimer, Rachel Riley, Jason Manford, Dave Gorman, Marcus Brigstocke, Gina Yashere, Ed Byrne, Josie Long and Holly Walsh.

Above we mentioned fighting game Tekken as one of the games featured. For the sake of a wide demographic interest games will span a wide range of eras and platforms. Some of the oldest video gaming titles such as Pong and Tetris will feature, mobile games will too, but it won't be all arcade or casual - modern tiles like Star Wars Battlefront and the FIFA series will form part of the competitive landscape.

If you want a clearer idea of how the show might work you can look at the video clip embedded below. McNeil and Pamphilon did a Go 8-Bit live stage show during Edinburgh festival a couple of years back. The new TV show, coming to Dave soon, will likely share several features in its makeup and presentation.



HEXUS Forums :: 5 Comments

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So go 8-bit will be mostly games that exceed 8 bit? Nice one ;-P
I was thinking the other day that it's been a while since there was any sort of gaming show on TV. I remember Gamesmaster, then a show on Bravo with Violet Berlin, but not a lot since.

Edit: And now I've just seen there was VideoGame Nation on Challenge TV until recently. Must have missed that one, maybe Challenge TV isn't on Virgin…
TV about games is about non-existent now days. It's good to see someone try it again, hopefully there will be more attempts in different formats. Gaming is huge on YouTube, it obviously has an audience, but TV channels don't believe they can win over that audience and don't try. There's lots of different formats of shows that can be made based on games. Competitive, retro/nostalgic, reviews of current games, or looking forward to the future. Some good attempts in the past were Bad Influence (my favorite), GamesMaster, BITS.
ataru
TV about games is about non-existent now days. It's good to see someone try it again, hopefully there will be more attempts in different formats. Gaming is huge on YouTube, it obviously has an audience, but TV channels don't believe they can win over that audience and don't try. There's lots of different formats of shows that can be made based on games. Competitive, retro/nostalgic, reviews of current games, or looking forward to the future. Some good attempts in the past were Bad Influence (my favorite), GamesMaster, BITS.

BITS was brilliant. Utterly bonkers, but brilliant. I always had a thing for Bouff. You can find a few episodes at the internet archive - https://archive.org/details/channel4bits
Smudger
I was thinking the other day that it's been a while since there was any sort of gaming show on TV. I remember Gamesmaster, then a show on Bravo with Violet Berlin, but not a lot since.
Edit: And now I've just seen there was VideoGame Nation on Challenge TV until recently. Must have missed that one, maybe Challenge TV isn't on Virgin…
ataru
TV about games is about non-existent now days. It's good to see someone try it again, hopefully there will be more attempts in different formats. Gaming is huge on YouTube, it obviously has an audience, but TV channels don't believe they can win over that audience and don't try. There's lots of different formats of shows that can be made based on games. Competitive, retro/nostalgic, reviews of current games, or looking forward to the future. Some good attempts in the past were Bad Influence (my favorite), GamesMaster, BITS.
Erm, if you've got Virgin or Sky, then you should be able to get Ginx - maybe that'll go someway to satisfying your gaming tv itch? Although Ginx seems to concentrate on “eSports” these days … which makes me barf.