Games Disaster

Games Disaster
Genre:	Game Show
First Broadcast:	1999
Last Broadcast:	2003
Producer(s):	Paul Soulsby, Michael Prior-Jones, Ed Jellard

Games Disaster was Paul Soulsby's brainchild - a computer games tournament in which different teams competed over several episodes for a final prize. Paul made two series - one in 1999 and the second in 2000. He also wrote the title music. The first series was a conventional Games Master style setup with two teams from other campus societies playing against each other on the sofa in the YSTV studio, and a title sequence featuring shots of various retro games consoles.

Games Disaster 2, 2000

The second introduced a more glossy feel and was hosted by a computerised voice, illustrated on Big Telly by sound waves. The new look title sequence (a far more stylish version of the first sequence) and graphics which appeared in this season were designed by Matt Hammond. The set featured a steel walkway on which contestants were invited to walk along to read the console being used for that round, this was infact just the cable trunking which would later form the monitor rack shelves built to house the Cub monitors.

It was revived for a third series in November 2002 by Michael Prior-Jones with an attempt at a more Sci-Fi look and feel (the title sequence was an obvious Red Dwarf rip-off!). The same title music and graphics were used for this series, which was hosted by Dave Baker as a disembodied head. The titles featured Michael and Ed Jellard running around Goodricke in boiler suits, which went onto be the stock "uniform" for all the contestants and were used many times for other productions in years to come. An enormous set of the space station "bridge" was constructed in the studio, so enormous in fact that the cameras couldn't really do justice to it. The photos on YSTV's website however illustrate it quite well. The series was transmitted after Bulletin every week in Spring 2003, culminating in the grand final on the night of Elections 2003.

Series 2 and 3 can be seen on the YSTV website, and there are also photos from Series 2 and Series 3 in the YSTV archive.

Games Disaster 4, 2003

A final (so far!) series was made in October 2003 by Ed Jellard with a different format to previous years, mimicking the format of a BBC daytime game show of the period that Ed had been watching called Judgemental. Unlike most of the previous episodes it was made once a week rather than all over a weekend, however it only lasted a couple of episodes due to the immense amount of time it took to set up each week. For this incarnation the series 2 title sequence was revived.