Go 8 Bit
Contents |
Host
Co-hosts
Team captains: Steve McNeil and Sam Pamphilon
Gaming expert: Ellie Gibson
Broadcast
DLT Entertainment for Dave, 5 September 2016 to present
Synopsis
Comedians play video games in front of an audience.
Steve McNeil and Sam Pamphilon team up with this week's guest celebrities for a romp through computer game history. Ellie Taylor explains the history of the game, and how it did (or didn't) alter game history.
The title sequence appears to come from 1984.
The best way to explore games is to play them, and Go 8 Bit has lots of challenges. Complete a level, out-score your opponent, shoot them in the points. The show mixes 8-bit games from the Spectrum and Atari, later Nintendo and Sega games, and some of the weirder ones on the market now.
Each week's final challenge is done live in the studio - a controller that works by tapping people, for instance.
Go 8 Bit is adapted from a stage show, hosted by the games expert. For this television version, they brought in Dara O'Briain. He leads the conversation with the players, teasing out why the celebs have nominated their games.
It is a contest, they do keep score - the audience votes with an app on their mobile computers to allocate a value.
And there's a gimmick where the stage rotates - the big sofa is at right-angles to the big screen, and that's no way to play games.
Let's play Global Themonuclear War Tetris.
Go 8 Bit has rough edges - the rotating stage gimmick is used too much, and the audience voting appears random. The programme is honest and respectful, it treats video games as a mature cultural work suitable for critique.
Inventors
Steve McNeil and Sam Pamphilon
Title music
Liam Tate, who used 8-bit synthesisers. Obviously.
