Enjoy the good times of an average schoolkid afternoon with memories of a fantastic game show.From 1994 to 1998, the rush home from school was a must-do for every Australian child, to get home and ‘do their homework’ in order to watch one of the coolest game shows on TV –Â A*Mazing.
Hosted by James Sherry, schools from around Australia would compete against each other in teams of two, answering standard trivia, which proceeded in spelling the answer on a giant foot keyboard within a 90 second time frame.
Whatever time is remaining, they use that time to enter the iconic maze – full of tid-bits and novelty sections used a distractions to find designated perspex letters to their original answer. This happens twice to give both players in each team a go at the maze.
The second part of the show has a team player playing the Super Nintendo or Nintendo 64 – mainly because it was sponsored by Nintendo – with the goal of achieving the highest score within a restricted time frame, or finishing first, depending on the game played. Some games were Tetris, Donkey Kong Country, Cruisin’ USA, Mario Kart 64, and Mario Paint – Gnat Attack.
Whatever team ends up with the highest point tally overall, gets to go into the final round – a chance to find all 7 keys in the maze. With a bonus – one of the numbered keys hidden has a bonus prize attached. Usually it was a Game Boy console.
Thanks to the a*mazing world of the internet, and the popularity of hard-to-find nostalgia, host James Sherry has been working hard for years to get the show back on air. But the next best thing is to take a page out of the CheezTV boys and create a brand-spankin’ Facebook page, with behind-the-scenes photos of the studio, props, stories and even potential future releases of full episodes.
So head on over to their official Facebook page now and marvel at remembering yelling at the TV when a contestant misses the bonus key in the stomach of one of the penguins.
