A*mazing

infobox television
show_name = A*mazing
format = Game show
rating = G
runtime = 26 min
presenter = James Sherry
Writer = Luke Bolland
country = Australia
network = Seven Network
first_aired = 1993
last_aired = 1998
num_episodes =
num_seasons = 4
website =
composer =
imdb_id = 0823638 |

"A*mazing" was an Australian children's television game show that aired between 1993 and 1998 on the Seven Network. It was famous for a relatively large and elaborate maze/obstacle course that was part of the show's studio set. "A*mazing" was hosted by James Sherry for the entire run of the series. A*mazing was produced at Channel 7 Brisbane from 1993-1996 and then at Channel 7 Perth from 1997-1998.

Format

The show pitted teams from two different primary schools against each other during the course of a week. Points gained by each contestant during the week would be totalled up to decide the winning school at the end of each week.

Round one

In the first round of the game, a 90 second countdown timer begins and the contestants have to guess the answer to a question. The host begins by saying clues to the word or phrase one after another. Then he starts saying first letter is this, second letter is that and so on until the last letter. If the contestants still doesn't get it, Sherry spells the word or phrase out then says the answer. If a correct response is given, they would then have to spell out the answer by stomping out the letters on a large QWERTY keyboard mounted in the floor. If the answer had two words, contestants don't need to hit the spacebar or enter key. After this, the countdown timer stops and contestants are awarded points depending on the time taken to correctly type the answer. The second school's contestants then do the same thing with the same number of letters as the first answer to make the rounds even and fair.

Round two

After that, the first two contestants then enter the maze and attempt to collect the letters of the answer which are hidden in such places as a garbage can, or behind a mock cactus. The amount of time they have to find these letters depends on how much time it took to guess and type the answer in the first round. Ten points is given for every letter they retrieve inside the maze before their time runs out.

Occasionally the maze will include letters that are not part of the answer. Even if they collected these a team were not awarded any points.

Round three

In the third round the contestants competed in a video game face off. During the course of the show, two different gaming platforms were used. Originally the Super Nintendo and later the Nintendo 64.

Games played include "Tetris", "Bubsy", "Donkey Kong Country", "Donkey Kong Country 2", "Super Mario Brothers 3", "Nigel Mansell's World Championship", "Plok", "1080° Snowboarding", "Donkey Kong Country 3", "Wave Race 64", "Super Mario Kart", "Mario Kart 64", "San Francisco Rush", "MRC", "Cruis'n USA", "Diddy Kong Racing" and the fly-swatting minigame from "Mario Paint".

The team with the most points/fastest time win 50 points for their team, while runners-up in this challenge win 25 points for their team. Should there be a tie (e.g. score the same number of coins in Super Mario Kart or hit the same number of flies in the fly-swatting minigame from Mario Paint), both teams score 25 points each. Originally 100 points were awarded to the winners and 50 points to the runners-up.

This segment has been noted as the first Televised eSports event worldwide.

Bonus Round

After the third round, the team with the highest score would then go back to the maze for 90 seconds (later changed to 120 seconds) to collect keys. One player will choose which side of the maze they want to explore. Only when that player exits that maze can the other player enter the other half of the maze. There were seven keys including a bonus one in the maze and each key was worth 100 points. If either of the contestants found the bonus key, then both of the contestants will each get an original Game Boy, which later became a Game Boy Pocket. Only once were all seven keys found in the maze (under the 90 second rule limit).

If there was a tie after the third round, a sudden death question was read out to both teams in the style of the first round, and whoever answered the question correctly would technically win the game for the day and go into the maze to find keys.

Outcome

By the end of the week, the school with the highest number of points would win a grand prize, often educational computer software. Other prizes include tickets to the Wet n Wild theme park in Australia.

The Maze

*The only parts of the maze that remained for every series were (left to right, start to finish): the mirrored doors, the pirates cove, the desert, the bamboo walk, the yellow slide, the padded stairs and the penguins.
*In the first series, players entering the left hand side of the maze would run past the ball pit, into the mirrored doors, through the toy shop, through the pipe into the pirates' cove, into the desert, up the ladder, across the bamboo walk, and down the yellow slide into the ball pit.
*In the first series, players entering the right hand side of the maze would run up the steps, past the pots, through the curved red pipe, down the stairs, into the snowstorm, up the padded stairs, past the penguins, down the ice slide and into the foam pit.
*In the second series, players entering the left hand side of the maze would go through an aquarium, into the mirrored doors, through the toy shop, through the pipe into the pirates' cove, into the desert, up the ladder, across the jungle walk, and down the yellow slide into the ball pit.
*In the second series, players entering the right hand side of the maze would run up the steps, past the pots, through the curved red pipe, into a thunderbox, down by the fireman's pole, get through the car, up the padded stairs, past the penguins, down the ice slide, into the pit and pass the three wheelie bins.
*In the third series, players entering the left hand side of the maze would pass through the Swiss cheese, into the mirrored doors, through the laboratory, through the revolving pipe, into the pirates' cove, into the desert, up the ladder, across the bamboo walk, pass through three Donkey Kongs, down the slide and into the ball pit.
*In the third series, players entering the right hand side of the maze would pass through the pet shop, up the padded stairs, go through the castle themed platform with the zig-zag run, down the fireman's pole, through the dungeon, get through the car, pass the luggage and the four toilets before exiting the maze.
*There was only one occasion during the entire run of the show when host James Sherry was shown to venture onto the maze during the game portion of the show. During series two, one player from the winning team grabbed one key and got the key entangled in the fish net at the start of the left-hand side of the maze. After 30 seconds of trying to untangle it, James told them that the key was theirs. After the run, James ventured into the maze to count the keys they collected from the fish net.
*One of the most common locations to find the bonus key was in the car. Unfortunately, most of the time, the key is never found.
*The shortest ever maze run was 5 seconds after one team took 85 seconds to correctly answer and type "Todd Woodbridge" (most letters to type at 14). The team managed to grab an "S", but because "S" isn't in "Todd Woodbridge", the team managed to score 5 points (the lowest ever in a round).
*Towards the end of the show's run, parts of the set from another show on the Seven Network, "Time Masters", appeared on the set of A*mazing as part of the maze. The Zig-Zag Run from the BrainStrain game appeared on the castle, and the Revolving Pipe replaced the green pipe at the entrance to the pirates' cove.
*The jungle obstacle in the final season featured the Three Wise Monkeys who were designed after Donkey Kong.

** Controversially with the maze if contestants chose the left route they had to step into a 'smoke filled pit'. At the base of this pit were a large number of ping-pong balls. These balls made (unsurprisingly) the contestants fall back onto their spine on a hard edge. The balls were removed after the first two episodes.

External links

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