After Jane Hewland had made the announcement in July 1991 that a new videogames TV show was to be made, it was with great anticipation that Games Master finally aired at 6.30pm, Channel 4, on Tuesday January 7th 1992. On rolled the opening credits of a camera swooping through a virtual world with a fiery red sky, before focusing on a huge throne where The Games Master booted up, and up flashed the logo to an accompanying thunder strike.

So, up rose new-boy Dominik Diamond from a church organ and walk into the main gloriously smoke-filled games playing arena of the church. It looked quite spectacular coupled with the green lights and huge cromakey 'monitor' where The Games Master would introduce the challenges. The church was also littered with arcade machines along the far side of the church for eagle-eyed viewers. So for the first time Dominik introduced us as to what we could expect, "Welcome to Games Master. Television's first ever videogames magazine show. Dedicated especially to people out there who find Pictionairy pointless and Kerplunk a waste of marbles. Each week on the show, we'll be reviewing new games, taking a look at hardware and giving away exclusive tips and cheats on all the latest games, but the biggest portion of the show will be dedicated to the games playing challenges so I'd like to introduce a man you'll be seeing a lot more of in the next few weeks, The Games Master."

The format to the show each week was that there would be a games playing challenge with the public, a reviews section where 3 themed games would get the judgment from 3 games journalists, a feature which Dominik would adlib to some gaming aspect such as Sega Marketing or new consoles that were being released, a celebrity games playing challenge, a cheats section entitled the Consoletation Zone, and finally another games playing challenge with the public. It was quite a lot to get into a show, but it always managed it extremely well.

The challenges were played in order to win the ultimate gaming accolade, The Games Master Golden Joystick. For those winning challengers, they would be presented the Joystick by a hooded monk who would appear at Dominik's command. For those who don't know, the Monk was actually performed by co-commentator and researcher for the show, Dave Perry. The first challenge to be played on the show was by a young contestant named Daniel Blake who collected 50 coins and exited the first level of Super Mario Bros 3 in less than 2 minutes. Not especially hard at all, but the challenges got tougher as they went on through the series and indeed through its later years.

Dominik commentated upon each challenge, and to help him, games magazine experts and Games Master researchers gave advice and tips on the game to help the challengers out. For Series 1 there were five main co-commentators: Dave Perry, researcher to the show, Tim Boon from CVG Magazine; Julian 'Jazza' Rignall from Mean Machines Magazine; Tom Watson from Renegade; and Neil West from CVG Magazine. In a special celebrity challenge to the show Jimmy White commentated on an Archer MacLean Pool challenge.

The closing of the show each week would see Dominik slip on a smoking jacket and grab a mug of earl grey off the Monk, walking off into the mists of the Church with the Monk in pursuit. As they did this, the camera panned right out to the top of the church before the computer style closing credits ran with a familiar phrase to gamers saying 'Game Over' that would be flashing on and off at the end of each show.

Season 1 Judgment Rating - 84%