TV Powww, now there's a name I haven't heard in a long time. I was actually picked as a contestant, but it conflicted with the annual Xmas trek up the coast to be with the grandparents. I tried and tried to convince my parents to let me stay home, reasoning that my toy haul on that show would far exceed anything I'd get from the extended family and naturally ignoring the spirit of Xmas altogether in my argument. To this day, the mere mention of TV Powww makes me go "Niagra Falls" on people--

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grampaspanky

For a second there I was thinking that back in the day Jim Crockett put arcade game advertisements or something into Starcade (the first major yearly Wrestling Closed circuit and later PPV event; even before Wrestlemania.)

battra92

I was overseas when Starcade was originally on the air, but I watched it religiously when it was on G4. I love the charm of it and the overall feel. Seeing classics like Crystal Castles and Moon Patrol is worth it by itself.

I did get to watch Video Power and Nick Arcade when they were originally aired. I liked both of those and they make an interesting contrast with Starcade. I also remember a British show that had one of those green screen games, but I can't remember what it was.

kingofallcosmos

I grew up watching TV POW in Sacramento on UHF channel 40, hosted by Captain Mitch during his "Cartoons Ahoy" show.

I'm pretty sure the games were bowling and some type of space shootery thing, all on a Magnavox Odyssey console.

sandwiches

@thinkfreemind: wow, two of the cheesiest things I've ever seen in one day... all from one show.

Swizzler121

Thanks for reminding me of Barney's Clubhouse Pow, which ran in Green Bay, Wisconsin (for only one year? Seemed longer.)

It would appear that the kids who thought they had Figured It Out by going "POWPOWPOWPOWPOWPOW" were universal to all markets.

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someToast

We had TV Pow in Hawaii when I was a kid, I remember that the prizes were all McDonald's toys...and to a kid, McDonald's was the shizzle. If you were really cool you had your birthday at McDonald's.

Then a few years later Castle Park opened, then an ice skating rink, then Chuck E. Cheese...

Hmm...anyway, forgive the old man rambling. Yes, I remember TV Pow.

Islandkiwi

I find it hilarious that Geoff Edwards has a slight similar facial appearance to Scrubs actor John C. McGinley.

codedemon

Starcade was on when I lived in the SF Bay area, it was the messiah of all things cool to come. My week consisted of watching Starcade Saturday morning (increasingly early hours)... and waiting for Saturday when Starcade was on.

I also saw TV-POWWW, in Spokane, WA and also the SF Bay area, when I was about 8. My friend actually got on the show to play while I was at his house. The show I saw was definitely played on an Intellivision. The two games I remember most were Space Battle and Intellivision Football. My guess is there was a guy in the studio who pressed the button whenever the kid said "pow", it was barely synched up at all, mostly random luck! Ahh, good times.

mr.dandy

best post ever..."I'll choose Pengo"

KoolAssKid

@Orionsaint: Exactly. Pong made its millions in bars, amongst the Swinging Singles.

Evil Tortie's Mom

@thinkfreemind:

Yep with Johnny Arcade. God was he annoying, even at the time. His voice got under my skin. They used to show a Bigfoot cartoon to coincide with it if I recall correctly.

Orionsaint

You younger folk are probably wondering why can adults be on the show. Well at the time Video Games weren't thought of as just for kids. It was a phenomenon sweeping the world, like a crazy new dance, like a fad. Everyone was doin it. It wasn't really till NES that Video Games started being perceived as something just for kids.

Orionsaint

I'm old enough to remember this turd. It's just as cheesy as I remember it if not more. At that time video games were so big. TV excutives were scrambling to get anything video game related on TV. Hey we know! A gameshow! Everyone loves gameshows! hehe.

Orionsaint

I just watched a couple of eps a little earlier. Pretty fun (I watched a few eps back in the early 80s, so I knew what I was getting into). Great seeing those old arcade units (and they actually have a few arcade units for sale in their store!). It was a little cheesy, but tolerable (hey, I actually watched KISS Meets The Phantom of the Park in the late 70s, so if I could survive that, I can survive ANYthing ^_^). I'd recommend it just for showing a roomful of classic arcade units to lil' relatives so they could see how it used to be (weeeell, sans the cigarette burns on the control deck and the line of quarters on the marquee...).

relic1980

I watched this show a bunch when I was just a wee lad.

iamspoo

@thinkfreemind: Awesome. All day I'll be singing this.
Viiideeeeoooo Pooowweeer... Video Power!
Word to ya motha.

Erwin

Ohh man, Starcade! G4 used to even show reruns before they went downhill. If only I could have been on it. Seriously, those kids sucked at Time Pilot.

Erwin

@Swizzler121: You think that's cheesy? Check out the show intro.

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thinkfreemind

Gamesradar have a great little feature on the gaming shows of old (there is a significant British bias however - but all the better to introduce everyone to Gamesmaster and Dominik Diamond). Great little read. I find it strange that they wrote this article, then Kotaku goes and mentions it... Hmmmm... ;-)
[www.gamesradar.com]
Yikes, that's my second Gamesradar link today - I feel quite dirty...

Meldy

@thinkfreemind: wow, that had to be one of the cheesiest things i've seen... ever. thank you

"Are your parents big winners?"
"...No?"
"AWWW! come on!"

Swizzler121

PIX! PIX! PIX!

billnabors65

LOL the only episode of starcade i remember was the special show all about Dragon Lair episode. Some white kid with a uber big afro was trying to win a Dragon's Lair machine and lost horribly. Hahaha good times.

MURDERFACE

@Agm: Oh wow. No after watching that I don't want to be on it anymore. hehe. But I'm sure I would have still loved it back then.

Agm

@thinkfreemind: Thats the show!

I could never remember that damn one.

I used to want to be on it like made.

Agm

Anyone remember the game show "Video Power"? When you won you went on a video game run to grab as much as you could. I used to dream of going on this corny show when I was a kid. Good times.

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thinkfreemind

Ah, I remember Nick Arcade. Never heard of all these other ones, but what I remember from Nick Arcade is that they had a game board where the team who answered the question right (or maybe they alternated?) got to move a little character (Mikey, I think his name was). The space he went to would reveal to be an arcade challenge or other surprises. It was in my youth that I saw this, so all the games were mostly recognizable. Most of the ones on this Starcade show, I don't even recognize.

Also, the Starcade host's feigned excitement is pretty funny.

Konatsu

I used to watch this show on G4tv a few years back when they were new and still about videogames, it was one of the only shows I liked on the network. The others were Icons, G4tv.com, and Arena.

Magnum1024k

does anyone here remember Video & Arcade? (aired on YTV in the 90s)..

Exor

@3inst3in: haha I'm waiting as well :)

GodzillaVsJapan

@Pikadrew:

I was watching that on Nick GAS with a couple friends once. The kids would actually die or get stuck on Greenhill zone 1. Garbage.

J0hnny-Kickass

@Lou3000: They're teasing us. MOCKING us. Laughing maniacally while they sit and wait for us to -

Wait, where was I? Oh right.

I'm sure it's coming soon. :)

Spoony Bard

@3inst3in: Haha, you're not alone...

Ladybug is the best Pac-Manesque game next to Ms. Pac-Man. I play that every chance I get.

tk.

@Lou3000: LOL yeah I keep refreshing Kotaku in anticipation!

jiSh

Everyones review is up except yours,what gives?

SlowDeath420

Damn, that kid got ripped on episode 127

Riokenn

@3inst3in: Agreed, where is the review?

Lou3000

AHHHH Post the GTAIV review, it's 10am CrecenteTime! i'm antsy in the pantsy

3inst3in

@Pikadrew: haha - Yeah. I didn't even have a Genesis, but I'd watch them play Sonic and I remember thinking that these kids were awful at the games.

kosbee

That was really awkward to watch. They had the five-minute long introductions, and obviously the host was more interested in what the fathers did for a living than the actual games.

And those horrible, Javier-Bardem-from-No-Country haircuts! Ahhhh! NOT THE EIGHTIES! ANYTHING BUT THAT!

peAr_nectAr

@kosbee: There was always 'Legends of the Hidden Temple' but yeah... I think you're remembering 'Nick Arcade'

JamisonRD

@kosbee:

yeah..the show was called (shockingly) Nick Arcade. I remember they played so shittily at all times and I kept wanting to be on the show to beat their faces in.

Pikadrew

@Tyber_Zann: The prizes are the best part of Starcade. :D Considering you can find many of them nowadays for $1.50 at a garage sale, watching everyone get hyped over them is pure comedy gold.

ShaggE

This reminds me of some arcade style game show that Nickelodeon had on the air for a couple of years. I can't remember the name of it for the life of me, but the contestants would face off against each other in a few different games, and then the winner would play a game trying to reach a certain score.

Anyone remember that show?

kosbee

a couple months ago when i was in my digital audio design class for our review for the final we actually played starcade X3. The way we did it was we had a question off the final, then we had a video game question. we didnt play games after everything single question.

I got to play double dragon and despite the emuator controls being messed up from what the instructor told me i still managed to get the high score X3. it was the most fun i've ever had with a final review X3

demonknightinuyasha

@MoeB: Nice to see Kotaku has a local fashionista.

Americo

I used to watch this all the time, I think it played a lot on G4. I'd usually watch it to see what crappy prizes they'd give away, like a huge jukebox that they said was 'portable', or computerized chess.

That show always made me feel uncomfortable, but I could never look away. Did the host ever kill himself from shame?

Tyber_Zann

there were a few Hugo based games on TV when I was growing up, you had to say directions to move as well as actions (like 'jump')

LEFTLEFTLEFTLEFTUPUPUPSHOOTSHOOTDOWNDOWN

the_dudefather

AWESOME. I caught a few episodes of this back when G4 wasn't totally awful...I was only about 3-4 years old when they originally aired so my memory of them in "real time" is pretty flimsy.

My favorite Starcade episodes were the ones where the grand prize was a vaguely described "robot."

KaneRobot

We didn't have TV-Powww, but here in NY we did have WPIX's version of it during the weekday after-school cartoons - where it was the same idea, but instead the kid on the phone would shout "PIX" when they wanted to shoot - and of course, the shot would follow a few seconds later.

Inevitably, it would just become some kid shouting "pixpixpixpixpixpix" for about a minute or two.

NYLatenite

I miss those days.

ez054098

Awesome

and @Jekht: you have no soul

Jabbertrack

Cool, neat find. reminds me of a more streamlined Nick arcade.

Nisori

I'm too young for that (21), but in my day (the early 90s) we had Nick Arcade, and I actually believed that they had the ability to transport you inside of a video game. I had no idea what blue screens were at the time, so I thought it was so awesome.

Doomstink

@Malvolio the Magician: The Sega we all know and love is long dead. Sammy took care of that when they killed studios and consolidated others. They managed to kill every ounce of creativity the company had and they either fired or shelved the best developers they had or chased them out altogether.

parad0x360

In the Uk there were Saturday morning kid's shows in which people would play different versions of that pow game, including having to give instructions to the guy shooting...

"left a bit, left a bit, right a bit, up a bit, FIRE!"

It was shite.

Cruithne

Love those pants...

MoeB

SEGA, Sega lives. It will never die.

Malvolio the Magician

yes! now i can finally watch people play angler dangler.

btw, that was not sarcasm

bigman88zz

I tried watching a little, but then i died inside.

Jekht

"Starcade"...one of the only game shows I can remember that had challenges based on a contestant's skill, and not luck or knowledge of semi-useless trivia. Today, it would be like some multi-game version of "Madden Nation" with a bunch of oppressive attention whores posturing and shit-talking in front of the camera for weeks on end.

"Here's hoping all your troubles get zapped!" I quoted that from memory. Did I get it verbatim?

P.S. "Sinistar" on XBLA, for the one millionth time!

jollydwarf