Mikey can't go left. Clearly he is at the edge of the screen.

October 10, 2011 5:58 PM

From 1992 to 1993 Nickelodeon aired a gameshow called "Nick Arcade" which was all about videogames. Upon reflection, it's much stranger than I remember it being.

The uploader, BigBangBlitz has a few other videos in the series "What the Hell Was Wrong With..." that focus on other bizarre titles (with varying degrees of quality).

Trio the Punch
Cosmic Race
The 3DO System
Legends of the Hidden Temple
Captain N

posted by codacorolla (45 comments total)

I DREAMED about being on this show growing up. DREAMED.
posted by The Whelk at 6:02 PM on October 10, 2011 [8 favorites]

"What the Hell Was Wrong With...Legends of the Hidden Temple"

I'll answer that one: not a goddamn thing.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 6:02 PM on October 10, 2011 [13 favorites]

".Legends of the Hidden Temple"

I would pay an unusual amount of money to have a gym/workout system based around this.
posted by The Whelk at 6:03 PM on October 10, 2011 [10 favorites]

The most agonizing parts of these shows was by my professional judgment as a kid, they picked the dumbest people imaginable where I obviously would've succeeded.
posted by Ghostride The Whip at 6:27 PM on October 10, 2011 [13 favorites]

the 90's don't look a whole lot better than the 80's. but I'm sure they'll be saying that about where we are now in 10 years.
posted by TMezz at 6:27 PM on October 10, 2011

I would pay an unusual amount of money to have a gym/workout system based around this.
You mean there isn't a place in Williamsburg that does this already? I think I just got a million-dollar idea.
posted by modernserf at 6:32 PM on October 10, 2011 [4 favorites]

All I remember about Nick Arcade, aside from the crappy final arcade game, was the prototype of Sonic 2 they used to have on the show. I so very badly wanted to play that game.
posted by gc at 6:39 PM on October 10, 2011 [1 favorite]

Oh god... This isn't just me!

When my parents caved and got cable these shows epitomized for me everything that was wrong with my peers. Of course ignoring my, at the time, complete lack of basic social skills, it was proof that not just the kids I interacted with but all kids my age were just that dumb as to not be able to put the fucking monkey together right, and whats more not watch an episode or two to figure it out. It was proof that I didn't need social skills, could I really have a meaningful conversation with someone I was sure could figure out that going backwards in the hidden temple was a bad idea anyways? Of course I knew I wouldn't have been able to hash even the basic physical skills, but THAT JUST MADE IT THAT MUCH MORE UNFAIR.

This is bringing out a lot of weird emotions for me. Of course something making sense on a couch is different from something making sense on national television. These were kids in a very weird scary place with strong pressures a kid on a couch couldn't see. I know this now.

That doesn't mean I wouldn't so totally pown that maze now that I'm an adult scientist able to bench press my weight and it doesn't have to mean that I should feel bad at myself for thinking so.
posted by Blasdelb at 6:45 PM on October 10, 2011 [6 favorites]

Yes please.

That Addams Family SNES game was the best.
posted by yellowbinder at 6:46 PM on October 10, 2011

Remembering this show makes me quite seriously question my sanity.

Also, putting live 11-15 year old kids into video games was remarkably subversive for it's time. Imagine if we tried that now?

"Okay Timmy, you have exactly two minutes to defeat GLaDOS before she hilariously releases neurotoxin into the studio audience. Yes, Timmy, the Supreme Court has ruled that this is quite legal. Now go!"
posted by Avenger at 6:46 PM on October 10, 2011

What movie begins with the words "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...?"
"Space Trek..?"

Surely, Nick Arcade with its potent combination of :
-not-so-subliminal juxtapositions of hot dogs and Freddy Kreuger (within milliseconds of each other), perhaps merely just to torture...
-the opportunity to play ten seconds of a video game a time
-rapid-fire questions that just come off as excruciatingly ...boring and/or middle-school level (yet to come) for these kids; e.g. "The Rio Grande River separates Mexico from what country?"
neatly portrays the inception of attention defec

Oooooh, video games....
posted by obscurator at 6:48 PM on October 10, 2011 [1 favorite]

To this day, I am still shocked that Host Dude didn't snap and kill some of those buffoons.
posted by cerulgalactus at 6:49 PM on October 10, 2011 [2 favorites]

I also envision a modern-day Nick Arcade where American children play "Drone Warz" against their unarmed Muslim counterparts. "Remember to get a lead on them when they run! Do it for the Homeland!"

Holy crap we are [[this close]] to futuristic dystopia.
posted by Avenger at 6:49 PM on October 10, 2011

"Name three office supplies from the following images."

BZZT

"...A hamburger?"
posted by Errant at 6:51 PM on October 10, 2011 [8 favorites]

One of my favorite internet things is when YTMND redesigned their front page, moving many features to inconvenient places and prompting one particularly smartass user to make this handy guide to finding the "Top 5" chart in the new layout.
posted by Rhaomi at 6:52 PM on October 10, 2011 [6 favorites]

Host: Name three out of five office supplies from these Flash Frames.

Kid: Hamburger....?

Host: No...

Kid: HUH? WTF?!
posted by tcv at 7:05 PM on October 10, 2011 [2 favorites]

I would consider lunch an office supply.
posted by chinesefood at 7:16 PM on October 10, 2011

I believe you have my hamburger.
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 7:22 PM on October 10, 2011 [2 favorites]

That repeated "Mikey can't go right" crap bothered me more than I would like to admit.

Yes he can go right. He just can't go to our right. He's facing us.
posted by Flunkie at 7:25 PM on October 10, 2011

Well, it beats both G4 and that in-store GameStop channel pretty handily.
posted by NoraReed at 7:33 PM on October 10, 2011 [2 favorites]

I would consider lunch an office supply.
posted by chinesefood at 21:16

delivery, I take it..
posted by obscurator at 7:38 PM on October 10, 2011

The other video game playing show.

Hidden Temple looked like a tonne of fun.

Apparently, there is no previous metafilter post on Double Dare. What.
posted by curious nu at 7:40 PM on October 10, 2011

I liked this show, but Legends of the Hidden Temple and Guts were pretty much live action videogames
posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn at 7:43 PM on October 10, 2011

Space Track?
posted by Sys Rq at 7:45 PM on October 10, 2011

From Wikipedia, some memorable episode themes from Legends of the Hidden Temple:

1x17 - "The Lucky Pig of Amelia Earhart"
1x23 - "The Bellybutton of Buddha"
2x19 - "The Very Tall Turban of Ahmed Baba"
2x33 - "The Golden Pepperoni of Catherine de' Medici"
2x37 - "The Levitating Dog Leash of Nostradamus"
3x04 - "The Much-Heralded Helmet of Sir Gawain"
3x15 - "The Useless Map of the Chibcha Chieftain"
3x29 - "The Metal Beard of the Egyptian Queen"
posted by dephlogisticated at 7:47 PM on October 10, 2011 [1 favorite]

esports has come a long way.
posted by empath at 7:57 PM on October 10, 2011 [2 favorites]

Kid about 45 secs in has the most epic 90s flat top
posted by T.D. Strange at 8:07 PM on October 10, 2011 [1 favorite]

The TRUE other video game playing show.
posted by Dirjy at 8:18 PM on October 10, 2011 [2 favorites]

Well, the production values are better than the Canadian video game show I watched as a kid, at least.
posted by Dismantled King at 8:42 PM on October 10, 2011

So "What the hell was wrong with..." series contains no commentary on what the hell was wrong with the shows in question, but is just a series of clips from said shows?

Genuinely confused.
posted by drjimmy11 at 8:43 PM on October 10, 2011

The TRUE other video game playing show.

The other other video game playing show (rightfully forgotten), from the producers of the show in Dirjy's post. (Warning, website may cause blindness and dizziness.)
posted by parliboy at 8:50 PM on October 10, 2011

This is the video game playing show for me.

Pix pix pix pix pix pix pix pix pix!

(And I still can't get over the "right" thing. He's facing us. HE'S FACING US! Auggggh!)
posted by Flunkie at 9:00 PM on October 10, 2011 [1 favorite]

So "What the hell was wrong with..." series contains no commentary on what the hell was wrong with the shows in question, but is just a series of clips from said shows?

Genuinely confused.

He's just asking the question - he doesn't claim to have any answers.
posted by codacorolla at 9:05 PM on October 10, 2011

Yes he can go right. He just can't go to our right. He's facing us.

This was an issue with the monkey idol too. The contestant had to make sure to assemble the thing so it'uzz facing away from them.

That Legends of the Hidden Temple video activated some pretty strong anxiety in me related to certain long-forgotten childhood bad dreams I had, my academic performance, and I think my parents' divorce some. Dang. Talk about target demographic.
posted by carsonb at 9:49 PM on October 10, 2011

Legends of the Hidden Temple
ORANGE IGUANAS RULE!!

posted by Redfield at 11:38 PM on October 10, 2011

I actually remember the Starcade episodes with Alex Trebek somehow, and was under the mistaken impression that Chuck Woolery hosted it for a while, too.
posted by Mister Moofoo at 1:50 AM on October 11, 2011

I just like that the kids used an Advanced Gravis Analog joystick to buzz in. That was a fine, fine game controller.
posted by aubilenon at 2:34 AM on October 11, 2011

Okay, first: Video Power was wierder. The dazed kids literally crawl through consumer electronics and stick them to themselves - consumerism like that would be expunged from television immediately today. I think. I don't watch much TV. Then there is the host...yeah.

Second: the 3DO was (like most failed technologies) ahead of it's time technologically, if it didn't exactly meet consumer demand. Story of my life.
posted by AndrewKemendo at 5:08 AM on October 11, 2011

consumerism like that would be expunged from television immediately today.

hahaha.
posted by empath at 5:25 AM on October 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

There was a Jeff Rubin podcast about Legends of the Hidden Temple recently. He interviewed the host and one of the (victorious) contestants.
posted by burnmp3s at 5:39 AM on October 11, 2011

5min 35sec into the Captain N video, am I hearing what I think I'm hearing?
posted by jwhite1979 at 5:45 PM on October 11, 2011

I remember being too jaded about Legends of the Hidden Temple. It was such a second-rate knock off of Finders Keepers.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 11:36 PM on October 11, 2011

> These were kids in a very weird scary place with strong pressures a kid on a couch couldn't see. I know this now.

Okay, this for me too. Maybe Finders Keepers was also better because the host wasn't shouting TURN IT AROUND OH NO YOU'RE RUNNING OUT OF TIME LOOK OUT A MAYAN GHOST TOUCH THE COINS NADINE BITCH DON'T GO IN THERE at them all the time. Shut up, host guys.

So, the in-a-game final part of Nick Arcade... how does that work, actually? Do I get to find out now that I'm a grown up?
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 11:50 PM on October 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

GOD THAT FUCKING MONKEY. Why can't kids get the monkey? If my parents had ever been godlike enough to get me on the show, I would have put those three freaking pieces together FLAWLESSLY.

I was SO angry about this as a kid.
posted by nile_red at 7:19 AM on October 12, 2011

So, the in-a-game final part of Nick Arcade... how does that work, actually? Do I get to find out now that I'm a grown up?

According to Wikipedia the production company that made them...

The show's format combined video game trivia with contestant-interactive virtual reality. The virtual reality games were designed by Bethea and Miteff for Bethea/Miteff Productions and programmed by Curt Toumainian for Saddleback/Live Studios and Dean Friedman (for InVideo Systems). The show was the first in America to regularly intermix live action with animation using a bluescreen. (Knightmare was the first show worldwide.) (The InVideo game, "Eat-a-Bug!", which aired in Bethea/Miteff-produced segments during 1989 on Nickelodeon's Total Panic, was one of the world's first regularly televised virtual reality games.)

There's this website, which is totally vague as to how Bethea/Miteff actually do anything they talk about.

If I had to guess I would say that they just watch what the kids are doing on the green screen and manipulate the simple videogame input to match - more like a dungeon master than an actual AI controlled video game.
posted by codacorolla at 2:24 PM on October 12, 2011