All Games Radio

Infobox Website
name = All Games Radio


caption =
url = http://www.allgames.com/
type = Gaming & Entertainment
registration = Free, Forum member
owner = [http://www.allgames.com/feature.asp?aid=329 All Games Productions]
author = Scot Rubin
launch date = March 10, 1996
current status = Active

Allgames.com (previously known as the All Games Network) is an online website notable for being the precursor to G4tvfact|date=June 2008 Launching along the same timeframe as IGN and GameSpot, AllGames has been a large part of the American gaming media for over a decade. The site was briefly abandoned in 2001 when creator Scot Rubin left to start G4. When G4 began focusing less on video games, and more on general male audiences, Scot left the station to resume AllGames. AGN continues today much the way it did prior to G4's launch. The site still airs video game podcasts, all of which are featured on iTunes and other podcast directories.

History

1996-2000

The All Games Network was started by Scot Rubin in 1996 as a multimedia network for gamers. On March 17 1996, AGN began to produce "Game Time!" using Real Audio by using a tape recorder in his apartment. The show featured interviews with game developers, reviews of new software, and news about the computer and video game industry. 1996 was a period when competing game sites were few and far between, and AllGames was able to stand out.

On July 12 1996, "Game Time!" went daily with a different genre per day.
* Monday - Sports
* Tuesday - Flying and Driving Sims
* Wednesday - Action and Adventure
* Thursday - Strategy and Role Playing Games
* Friday - Internet Multiplayer Games

On September 22 1997, AllGames began producing at Pseudo Programming's broadcast station in Soho, New York. They had been given interest from Jupiter Communications founder Josh Harris, who had just founded pseudo.com with the money that remained from Jupiter's buyout with Media Metrix.

Pseudo aimed to become an online TV station, producing niche content through a series of micro-channels while surrounding it with rich media, chat, and e-commerce. They had Sports, Hip-Hop, Performance Art, Rock and Roll, and All Games Network.During this time, the shows went from being audio only to using RealVideo. GameTime featured live callers and an interactive chat room where the hosts on the set read chat comments and relayed questions from the chatters to their guests.

The show was hosted by Scot, former AOTS producer Jim Downs, Josh Krane, Chris Many, Laura Foy, Stephanie Bergman, and other contributors. Other shows that debuted on AllGames were the "240 Seconds of Gaming" (a 5 minute look at one game), "Shooters" (all about first person shooters), "Lillith and Eve" (all about girl gamers, hosted by Stephanie Bergman and Laura Foy), "AGN Hardware" (all about PC hardware, hosted by Josh Krane), and "Gametime Part Deux" (an aftershow on Thursday nights to expand upon GameTime's topics).

Pseudo was huge through the end of the 2000, and AllGames was reaping the rewards of being the most popular of Pseudo's channels. But just after E3 2000, a change in management at Pseudo caused a change in direction. The new CEO (previously working on CNN) was attempting to pave the way for Pseudocenter, which he intended would become an online CNN. While he said he would refrain from tampering with Pseudo's micro-channels, all the networks, including AllGames, were disbanded about a month into his tenure.

Several months later, Pseudo became just a statistic as it was another dot-com to go bankrupt. But not before most of the Pseudo's remaining money were spent covering the 2000 Republican National Convention, and a small portion to the Democratic Convention. Pseudo lives on as music video site, but not in the style that it used to.

2000-2004

After the crash, Comcast hired Scot Rubin to help develop and launch G4, the video game television network. Over half a dozen others from AGN made the jump to California to work at G4. However he didn't have any chairman control and was only signed on as a consultant. Originally the network followed much of its original video game intentions. All 24 hours were filled with gaming content, and for the most part it was generally well received by gamers.

Scot was given a new show along with Laura and Tina that followed much of the original guidelines of GameTime. Called G4tv.com, the show wasn't an improvement other than that it was now television viewable. The motif of G4tv.com was a radio talk show, however people couldn't call in, and chat was only seen rarely on the bottom of the screen.

The network was driven by ratings, which is a catch 22 when you're channel 500 and only distributed to about 10 million homes. Many shows got cut within the first year, including 10 Play, Game Gods, Game on, Gamer.TV, Starcade, Game Sauce, and Hi-Score. The shows that survived lived to see TechTV merge with G4 to acquire its home distribution.

At this point the bigger people in G4 were taking the network in a different direction. Programs like Video Game Vixens and Cinematech: Nocturnal Emissions were in production; the channel no longer was focused on video game television. Scot left soon after, with Geoff Keighley replacing him on G4tv.com. The channel did little to improve itself. In April 2006 it was reported that G4 was the least watched cable network in the country.

2004-present

After leaving G4 due to management issues in 2005 [http://www.g4rewind.com/shows/past_shows/g4tvcom/ G4 Rewind: G4TV.com Archives ] ] , Scot quickly established All Games Productions, a company that specializes in creating TV, film, radio, and internet content geared toward gamers, much like AllGames Network was before G4. On July 9, the restructured Allgames.com Website launched with all new message boards. The new site uses GameSurge as its chat client instead of EFnet, which they used during the Pseudo days.

On August 13 2005, All Games Productions premiered a preview for a documentary on GameSpot that looks at the relationship between Hollywood and Games, shot in HDTV. Also debuting was the short film "As Real As Your Life", (written and directed by Michael Highland) a 20-minute documentary examining a life-long addiction to video games.The premiere party in Hollywood was streamed out live to Allgames members.

On July 24 2005, The Bobby Blackwolf Show premiered via a SHOUTcast stream, with live callers and chat room comments, thus beginning the new version of All Games Radio. On December 12 of that same year, All Games Interactive went live from the Arena Interactive Lounge in Los Angeles. Hosted by Scot Rubin and producer Lawrence Young, the show is streamed live Monday through Friday from 3:30 to about 5:30 pm Pacific Time and features live chat, phone calls, and interviews with game developers. When the Arena Lounge had closed on March 11 2007, AGI was moved to Scot Rubin's home.

On July 17th, AGI conducted its first test with Operator11, a web based video feed site that allows users to freely conduct live shows over the internet and allow participants to interact via webcam. Moving into the studios there, the show conducted several more tests in the coming weeks, culminating in the first official show on August 1st. The broadcast now features live video via Operator11 while maintaining the main bulk of its IRC and voice only feed at the main AGI website. AGI has since moved its operations to a new studio in early October, although it continues to maintain the video portion of its broadcast feed via Operator11.

In February 2007, AllGames launched three ning community sites. The main project is [http://community.allgames.com community.allgames.com] , which allows AllGames members to share albums, upload videos/images, interact with one another, and create customizable pages. The second, [http://digitalsports.ning.com/ digitalsports.ning.com] , was made for the idea of a radio show called "Digital Sports Report" has been discussed frequently on AGI, though it's still in early production. It is similar to the other site, except that it's geared towards sports games and sports in general. Finally, a site was created to mix games and other "content" together. Due to the graphic nature, the site is only available by listening to [http://www.allgamesradio.com/ AGI] Monday through Friday.http://Allgames.com

Now you can find the live video feed at http://www.justin.tv/allgames. It's no longer shown on Operator11 due to that website not being able to archive shows.

Game Tournaments

Every few weeks, AllGames hosts an online tournament primarily via Xbox Live. So far, AllGames has hosted a competition to Madden NFL 2006, NCAA Football 07, Fight Night Round 3, Ghost Recon: Advance Warfighter, Street Fighter II: Hyper Fighting Edition, Rockstar Table Tennis, Tetris DS, UNO (XLA), MLB 2K6, Pac Man - Championship Edition and most recently Advanced Wars - Days of Ruin. There are also AllGames game nights, Saturday poker matches, and annual leagues for the MLB 2K and Madden series.

References

External links

*On10.net Feature on All Games Radio: [http://on10.net/Blogs/laura/all-games-radio-scot-rubin-brings-you-daily/]
*AllGames website: [http://www.allgames.com www.allgames.com]
*AllGames Wiki: [http://wiki.allgames.com wiki.allgames.com]
*Chatterbox Radio homepage: [http://www.chatterboxgameshow.com/ www.chatterboxgameshow.com]
*Evil Avatar homepage: [http://evilavatar.com/ www.evilavatar.com]
*Game Addict Hotline homepage: [http://gameaddicthotline.com/ www.gameaddicthotline.com]
*Orange Lounge Radio homepage: [http://www.orangeloungeradio.com www.orangeloungeradio.com]
*VGNRadio's MediSpective homepage: [http://www.videogamenews.com/ www.videogamenews.com]
*Video Game Outsiders' homepage: [http://videogameoutsiders.com/ www.videogameoutsiders.com]
*Ultimate Quest' homepage: [http://www.ultimatequest.net/ www.ultimatequest.net]
*The Video Game Show's homepage: [http://www.videogamesshow.net/ www.videogamesshow.net]
*XBL Radio's homepage: [http://www.xblradio.com/blogcast/ http://www.xblradio.com]