Starcade Musings

[digitalpress]

I've been watching a LOT of this show lately, ah the memories. I saw maybe a dozen of these back in the day but in the past two weeks have seen three times that many.

Here are my random thoughts.

Geoff Edwards is both a riot and a total dick, pretty much the same reasons for both. He doesn't know jack about video games and never seemed to catch on. After a kid told him he had mastered Dragon's Lair, Edwards continued to call it "Devil's Lair". During a "Name the Game" competition, he called Galaga "GUY ALLA" (as if the kids weren't having a hard enough time). He's also really condescending. Of course, all of these things make me laugh.

The "interviews" with the contestants are PAINFUL. I mean, is there any other game show with such awkward contestants? Most of them can barely get a word out. And the ones who can AIN'T GOT NO GAME!

I wonder why no one ever did the Crystal Castles warp trick. That would not only win the game, but it would win THE GAME. No one gets 140,000 total on one show.

Which leads to another musing. The scoring system is just terrible. If you're really really good at a low scoring game like Space Invaders or Tron, you have no advantage if the other guy is even mediocre at a high scoring game like Pole Position. It's very badly balanced, and yet it still seems like the better player typically gets a shot at that big prize.

I wish I could go back and play. Even the crappy prizes are really cool TODAY, like that "Mister Disc" portable record player or the big Mattel Aquarius set-up. And oh what I wouldn't do for a Wacko arcade machine.

It's almost a guarantee. Poindexter always wins. The "cool kids" almost always lose.

The real genius of the show is "Kevin", the guy you never see who explains the game and announces the gifts. He gets his digs in to Geoff Edwards and they're genuinely funny AND impromptu. When "Kevin" talks, I LISTEN!

In SEVERAL separate episodes, Geoff Edwards attempts to throw a dig at "Kevin" by calling him a "snake in the grass" or "resident snake" immediately after a contestant chooses Super Cobra. Now you'd think after "Kevin" explains that there are no snakes in this game the first time, Edwards would try a different approach. Whadda dummy.

I saw a mildly retarded kid kick an adult's ass, that was my favorite episode so far. I also saw two females, twins, one of whom was extremely hot (the other one was very "butch") beat twin teen boys. These girls were by far the most enthusiastic players I have seen on the show. Unlike most of the morose, downplayed excitement, these two were jumping around like they were on crack. Just awesome.

Were there two "Journey" arcade games? Seems the marquees are different, and the first "Journey" looksl ike some 360-degree shooter, not the game with the band. I've never seen this cabinet before and unfortunately haven't seen anyone PLAY this game on the show.

I want to run a Starcade game. At CGE, or Philly, or right here on the forums.

Watching the game show has prompted me to pick a few titles up again (on MAME) after a long time away, most notably Congo Bongo and Munch Mobile. I keep thinking when I watch the show that I would never have as much trouble playing these games as the contestants do! But you know what? I suck at them too.

That's it for now. Just wanted to dump my Starcade brainwaves so I can move on.

[Sniderman]

I want to run a Starcade game. At CGE, or Philly, or right here on the forums.

Great minds think alike....

Starcade LIVE! (http://www.digitpress.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7383)

[Starcade]

It is the greatest video game show of all time

[Arcade Antics]

Have you seen the one where the two brothers pick the ANTeater game?

I don't have G4, but that episode cracks me the hell up for some reason. Just the way the kid is SO excited about it, and his delivery.

""ANTeater."

[MrRetroGamer]

Actually, over at the G4 Starcade boards, there is a regular poster who was involved in the production of Starcade in the 80's. I think he was one of the producers.

http://forums.g4tv.com/categories.cfm?catid=28

According to what I remember reading, and contrary to the way it looks, he said that Geoff was actually very heavily into all the video games of the time, even had his own personal Burgertime machine in his dressing room! There is also a regular poster who was a contestant and winner on the show.

It's hard to recommend reading that forum, however, because many of the posts are not very supportive of the show. Perhaps a few DP members want to liven things up there, that would be a definite improvment.

[NE146]

And makes you wonder about the games that AREN'T in Mame.. Mazer Blazer, Stern Journey, etc.

I've always wondered about CHANGE LANES! I've never had the luck to play this game, but it was on, like every other episode of Starcade. The one time I found an actual machine, it was broken. Argh!

[kainemaxwell]

I want to run a Starcade game. At CGE, or Philly, or right here on the forums.

Great minds think alike....

Starcade LIVE! (http://www.digitpress.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7383)
I'll second that notion!

[digitalpress]

Had to revive this topic after watching a dozen or so shows that I've never seen before.

- Mark Richards? So it seems Geoff Edwards wasn't the MC for the whole run. It started with a different guy. He's less condescending but also less interesting. Fumbles over words a lot, I'm not surprised he was replaced.

- So the original show actually had TWO of the "name the game" contests. The first one works as it did in the Geoff Edwards era, but the second one was based on the person who won the third game, regardless of the total score of all games. Interesting but I'm glad this was replaced with "Hotline", which today is just so much fun to watch.

- The orginal game theme kicks ass, it has a real sense of chaos and urgency. As much as I like the Geoff Edwards' era theme, the Mark Richards era theme music is much much more suted to the game show.

- The only "special" shows I saw were the Dragon's Lair and the Cliffhanger episodes and I thought those were both disasters, having to watch the same scenes over and over and over... but I just watched episode 196 which is a Track & Field episode and that kicks ass. First time I've ever seen Starcade contestants play head-to-head and they were pretty evenly matched (and decent at the game). Check it out, great episode.

That's it for now!

[Captain Wrong]

*capt cries because he wants to see this show again so bad but doesn't have cable or a good enough connection to download*

I loved this show back in the day. I like reading your thoughts on seeing it again now.

[bigdaddychester]

I'm right there Captain!! I've got cable but not this "G4" I keep reading about. I grew up watching Starcade on TBS. I think it came on saturdays just before Georgia Championship Wrestling (before it became WCW). I wish I could ge a couple episodes on VCD or DVD *hint hint*

[WizDawg]

I've watched a few shows on G4 when I'm at my parent's house(I don't have cable). I kinda like Mark Richards, he doesn't do commentary when the kids are playing the games. And those side angle shots of the kids playing the games kill me.

[NE146]

Any status of having a redone "Starcade-like" competition at the upcoming CGE?

[Hep038]

Man the timing on this topic is weird! I dont have G4 but my friend does, so he tapes shows for me. Last week I was sick so I stayed home from work and decided to watch some of the Starcade shows. Their was this one show where it was just pole position II only. You could only choose driffrent tracks each round. Well it was a close game and came down to the last race with the kid leading the adult. The Kid goes first and actually qualifies for the next race but time runs out before he can start. So the adult comes up to play and Geoff tells him he can only crash 1 time if he wants to win, well the guy crashes twice and does not qualify, but as you know you get to keep racing untill the time runs out. Well those extra 5 seconds of racing gets him enough points to win the game. I laughed so hard it made my upset stomach even worse, they showed that kid after he lost and I thought he was going to break out crying LOL . Even Geoff said "Wow thats weird "the adult" crashed twice and still ended up winning!

[digitalpress]

Another note based on the recent postings of the "Hawaii" shows to alt.binaries.emulators.misc

- These "Hawaii" shows. The ones where the grand prize is a paid week for two to Hawaii featuring four previous champions. Damn, this is good stuff. It's especially cool when you remember the contestants, and the level of play is typically much better as you might imagine.

- Does anyone know how many total Starcade episodes there are? I've now got about 75 episodes on VCD.

- Also, can anyone confirm that Marc Richards was BEFORE Geoff Edwards? I had read or heard this before but it doesn't seem right... the stage and production actually seem a bit more polished in the Richards' shows, despite his trouble with getting a full sentence out.

[ManekiNeko]

"I wonder why no one ever did the Crystal Castles warp trick. That would not only win the game, but it would win THE GAME. No one gets 140,000 total on one show."

It's probably because they didn't know about it. There was no Internet back then; only primitive, unsupported services like Compuserve and QuantumLink. Information like the Crystal Castles warp wasn't made public, and the people who DID know about it weren't interested in sharing their secret.
So what's this I've heard about an alternate theme song for Starcade? Does anyone have a link to it? For that matter, where can I download episodes of the show?

JR

P.S. I could have sworn that in 1983, just before the crash, they'd introduced a video game show with a higher budget than Starcade. One of the games (perhaps the final round) was similar to Pathfinder on The Price is Right. The contestant had to step from one square to another on a giant grid, trying to find prizes while avoiding an invisible nemesis.

[AB Positive]

DP: you have Starcade on VCD?

... so, what might us peons have to do to obtain copies of those? ;-)

-AG

[NE146]

"I wonder why no one ever did the Crystal Castles warp trick. That would not only win the game, but it would win THE GAME. No one gets 140,000 total on one show."

It's probably because they didn't know about it. There was no Internet back then; only primitive, unsupported services like Compuserve and QuantumLink. Information like the Crystal Castles warp wasn't made public, and the people who DID know about it weren't interested in sharing their secret.

True.. EXCEPT you forgot about our favorite means of finding out info then.. MAGAZINES! The trick was made public and that's how I found out about the CC Warp Tricks.. right out of the DEC 1983 issue of Joystik magazine. :D

But even if you didn't read it. If you played Crystal Castle enough you would've found at least the first warp point. I mean who didn't travel to the back corner of the castle.. it was just there you know what I mean? :)

http://www.stormaster.com/RGVAC-Manuals/Joystik-Magazines/Dec83/dec83-10.JPG


So what's this I've heard about an alternate theme song for Starcade? Does anyone have a link to it? For that matter, where can I download episodes of the show?

Again, they KEEP getting posted regularly to alt.binaries.emulators.misc If your ISP doesn't provide you with newsgroup service (which they usually do.. although probably not the best quality service). You can always go with a pay service like usenetserver (www.usenetserver.com)

[Arcade Antics]

I could have sworn that in 1983, just before the crash, they'd introduced a video game show with a higher budget than Starcade.

<Ed McMahon>

"You are correct, sir."

</Ed McMahon>

However, I don't remember the name -- wasn't it (super-original) "The Video Game"? Snidey?

[Arcade Antics]

- Also, can anyone confirm that Marc Richards was BEFORE Geoff Edwards? I had read or heard this before but it doesn't seem right... the stage and production actually seem a bit more polished in the Richards' shows, despite his trouble with getting a full sentence out.

I'm looking into it. Here's a neat-o-riffic little fun factoid for ya:

Mike Eruzione was the host of the unaired pilot episode.

Can you guess who was the host of the SECOND unaired pilot?

The answer is...


ALEX TREBEK.

:)

[Arcade Antics]

Mark Richards is confirmed to have hosted the first 23 episodes. Then Geoff Edwards hosted the remaining 110 episodes for a total of 133.

[NE146]

- Also, can anyone confirm that Marc Richards was BEFORE Geoff Edwards? I had read or heard this before but it doesn't seem right... the stage and production actually seem a bit more polished in the Richards' shows, despite his trouble with getting a full sentence out.

Joe,

check the starcade forums at G4tv.com. A producer who worked on the show posts there pretty often I think

[kingpong]

I could have sworn that in 1983, just before the crash, they'd introduced a video game show with a higher budget than Starcade.

<Ed McMahon>

"You are correct, sir."

</Ed McMahon>

However, I don't remember the name -- wasn't it (super-original) "The Video Game"? Snidey?

Yep, that was it. Never much cared for that show compared to Starcade. I seem to recall that instead of arcade games they played C64 games, which didn't go over too well with me (I've always equated "video games" with arcade and consoles, with computer games being something totally different, for some unknown reason). Search around and you can find some game show tape collectors who have a few episodes.

[IntvGene]

I've had to revive this topic again, with its current run on the newsgroups.

First of all, Geoff Edwards is easily the funniest host of all time. DP's original comments are right on the money. I love it when his jokes just totally fall flat on the audience, and his scripted jokes with the initial interviews are the best. I also love the shows where he kicks the kids off the games in the final seconds, and tries to show them up. He's the greatest. LOL

I really wonder about the fairness of the choices of the games. I saw a young girl's team play lately, and they might have had a chance, if all the games weren't space shooters.

I just watched an episode tonight, #185, where I swear it was almost impossible for the kid to get 3,800 in Zoo Keeper in 30 seconds. Yet, sometimes, the game's score is set so low, like Donkey Kong where it's almost automatic. There's no way that these are the "average scores of twenty players".

I also wonder about so many more quirks of the show. A kid gets 3/4 on the Name the Game board and wins a Colecovision. Next episode, someone gets 4/4 and gets a Colecovision. How many bloody RB5X robots did they give away in the show? The whole point is that the final prize is the arcade game, it just doesn't feel the same without the arcade cabs. Why do they announce the prizes for the Name the Game board before playing only sometimes? And they totally reused some of the Starcade Hotlines too.

Anyway, it's easily the best video game show of all-time. I love it.