The Video Game (game show)

"The Video Game" is a syndicated game show that ran from September 1984 to September 1985. It was created by JM Production Company, and debuted shortly after the cancellation of their other game show "Starcade". "The Video Game" was taped at Six Flags Magic Mountain amusement park. Greg Winfield hosted, Karen Lee modeled, and Christopher Kriesa announced.

Gameplay

To begin, two contestants were called down from the audience. They each played the same video game, and the first to reach a pre-determined score would win a prize and come up to play a special mini-game.

Mini-games played on the show included:

* "The Maze" – The game is played on a 5X5 grid on the floor. The contestant can start on any square on the grid. The contestant went across the board, one step in any direction, and could not go back to a space they had already stepped on. (Stepped-on spaces would turn white.) The object was to find the one square on the board that would turn green, the "Treasure". They had to avoid the space that would turn red, the "Monster", which was always placed one space away from the Treasure. If they found the Treasure, they had to move one more space; if that space wasn't the Monster, they would win a prize. If the Monster was hit at any time, the contestant would lose.

Christopher would provide the voice of the monster; he would growl and snarl as the contestants made their moves, and give periodic taunts.

* "Bit Attack" – Two questions about two different video games were asked. Each question won a different prize.

* "The Right Move" – The contestant would see a clip from a laser-disc video game on a big screen. They were then given four choices as to what move should be made in order to advance. Guessing correctly won a prize.

* "The Game Stalker" – A video game character is shown on the screen. The contestant is given two choices for the character's name; guessing correctly wins a prize. They then have to identify what game the character is from; guessing correctly wins another prize.

* "Audience Favorites" – A list of three games was given. The contestant picked which games they thought were the most popular and second-most popular in a studio audience survey. Each correct guess was worth a different prize.

Res-Off

After three mini-games were played, the three contestants would play Res-Off. This was played on the same 5X5 grid as The Maze. To start, nine boxes were placed on a board, each with a number between 1-9. Each contestant picked a box. The one who picked the lowest number would go first, the middle second, and the highest last. As shown below, it was advantageous to go last; in fact, Kriesa would sometimes tell the contestants to hope they do get the last turn in each round.

To begin, model Karen would stand in the middle of the grid. The contestant would tell Karen to move one or two spaces in any direction (a diagonal move would require calling two spaces, as the contestant may not directly make a diagonal move). If the space Karen landed turned white, that contestant was safe, and the next contestant took their turn. But if it turned red, that contestant was "de-resed" (computer graphics would make it look like they were disappearing) and out of the game. This continued until one contestant was left standing; that contestant advanced to the Grand Prize Round.

Grand Prize Round

The contestant had 30 seconds to play an arcade game; this game was picked by the contestant before the show, from a list of eight. To see what score they had to beat, they would stop a randomizer flashing 10 separate scores, each one taken from another person who had played the game for 30 seconds.

Beating this score would win the contestant their very own arcade machine.

External links

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* [http://www.jmpc.com/starcade/video.asp JM Productions website, where an episode of The Video Game may be viewed]