''FightBox'' is a

game show A game show (or gameshow) is a genre of broadcast viewing entertainment where contestants compete in a game for rewards. The shows are typically directed by a game show host, host, who explains the rules of the program as well as commentating a ...

that aired on

BBC Three BBC Three is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was first launched on 9 February 2003 with programmes for a 16 to 34-year-old target aud ...

from 13 October to 10 November 2003 and is hosted by

Lisa Snowdon Lisa Snowdon
7 May 2001, ''People'' (born Lisa Snawdon; 23 January 1972) is an English television and ...

and

Trevor Nelson Trevor Ricardo Nelson, MBE (born 7 January 1964) is an English DJ and radio presenter. He is best known for presenting a range of shows across BBC Radio. Early life Born in Hackney to a family of St Lucian heritage, Nelson attended Centra ...

with Paul Dickenson as commentator.

Format

Contestants design their fighters and submit them to the BBC. Out of hundreds of submissions, only sixty were chosen to appear on the programme. As well as battling each other, the fighters would face one of six "Sentients", warriors who had won previous (unseen) tournaments and achieved this honour. The Sentients were Banshi, Big George, Kodiak, Nail, Pearl and Vesuvius. Although

immortal Immortality is the ability to live forever, or eternal life. Immortal or Immortality may also refer to: Film * ''The Immortals'' (1995 film), an American crime film * ''Immortality'', an alternate title for the 1998 British film '' The Wisdom of ...

, they did have certain weaknesses which a fighter could use against them. After winning the first series, competitor warrior Kill Frenzy, created by Usman Arshad, achieved sentience and joined the current six. These seven Sentients featured in the video game mentioned below. Six Games were played during the show these were: Conquest, Demolition, Duel, Helix, Panic and Revolution. Another game was Showdown, a straight one on one battle to determine the winner of each tournament.

Production

''FightBox'' was shot using ten cameras in front of an audience of around 200 people. The show used "FreeD" virtual camera technology, which allowed the creation of realtime composite images. Several video game companies were considered for the development of the show's

game engine A game engine is a software framework primarily designed for the development of video games which generally includes relevant libraries and support programs such as a level editor. The "engine" terminology is akin to the term " software engine" u ...

, including Kuju and

Warthog Games Warthog Games Limited, or Warthog plc, was a British video game developer, located in Cheadle Hulme, Metropolitan Borough of Stockport, Stockport, with studios in Sweden and the United States. The developer later developed titles as Gizmondo E ...

. Runecraft was eventually chosen for the job. During the airing of the show, Runecraft was shut down and to keep the show alive, BBC acquired the company and renamed it to Gamezlab, where it became part of BBC Multimedia. Gamezlab developed the video game adaptation for the

PlayStation 2 The PlayStation 2 (PS2) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on 4 March 2000, in North America on 26 October, in Europe on 24 Novembe ...

, PC and

Game Boy Advance The (GBA) is a 32-bit handheld game console, manufactured by Nintendo, which was released in Japan on March 21, 2001, and to international markets that June. It was later released in mainland China in 2004, under the name iQue Game Boy Advanc ...

Reception

After three weeks, the show had an average audience of 22,000 viewers.

Video Game

Following the TV show's conclusion, a video game adaptation for

Microsoft Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

, and

was released in the United Kingdom on 6 February 2004.

References

External links

* (archived) *{{UKGameshow, FightBox 2003 British television series debuts 2003 British television series endings BBC television game shows 2000s British game shows British English-language television shows Sports entertainment