when you watch as much G4 as i have to try and see *everything* the channel had to offer you eventually run out of the really great shows the channel had to offer and you start to come across a lot of the more poorly aged things the channel put out, game on is one such show, one of the worst things to ever air on the channel and is as close as you get to G4 lost media. it's a show that seems to have had a ton of episodes made with tons of games featured, but you can't find almost any of them either in full or in clips, i can't even find what they were, there is a few episodes online in premium VHS quality, and by a few i mean 3 (two of which i only found onlin while writing this page), and that's it, in many cases this would be a big loss and something that'd make me upset as an old games tv dork.... but this is one time where we really don't seem to be missing much. the gist of this show is almost a glimpse into what would eventually be the channels main output, it's a horny, vuagly misogynist show about crass games challanges and grossout jokes, things like hiring a dominatrix and some, because this is a show made for the worst kind of men, overly sexualised lesbians to cosplay outlaw golf chracters and play the game so the male hosts can ogle them, make dirty jokes and the loser had to pose for a nude calander and this is all just one episode, it's kind of icky to watch, something you'd expect from very late post merger G4 or spike TV, it reminds me much less of the rest of the early G4 shows and much more of spikeTVs also awful fresh baked video games, which is just this but worse, these shows are both pretty bad and i'd never reccomend them other than as a novelty joke in a call with friends, it's hard to watch and undoubtably one of the channels worst shows, it honestly shocks me that it was part of that initial line-up since the rest of that lineup was *not* like this at all but in that way it's also a strange and ironic show, it didn't fit that lineup at all but like i said it would be a sign of what the channel would eventually become post merger, wannabe spike TV level trashy and it's funny how the first of those kind of shows ended up having no legacy beyond being a warning sign of what was to come, but at least it's an interesting footnote instead of an irrelevant one.

the other show i'd like to talk about is arena, a show with a ton more out there to watch and just a more interesting show to talk about in general. arena was an early E-sports show where they would get people from the net or locally (or sometimes interns early on when, due to the bad reputation of one of the shows producers they couldn't get anyone local to play) and get them to come in and play a variety of games for points, the winning team would stay on and compete until they lost and it's pretty cozy to watch, just a lan party with some fun commentary and it's charmingly dated in most ways, less charmingly in others though at times like the fact it has wil wheton who keeps making weirdly edgy jokes, but for the most part it has that early G4 charm that really endears it to you, it's scrappy and not very well made but it's trying it's best and it's fun to see these old games played at a lan party. it also feels like the first of these kinds of shows to feel like a real esports compitition, while many earlier ones like starcade or gamesmaster feel like more simple contests, this feels much closer to an esport thanks to those hosts and the games chosen, more hardcore FPS games, mech sims, RTS games, sports games and fighting games, it feels ahead of its time in that way, something close to a mix of twitch and esports.

the show also had multiple era's in its run, moreso than any other show on the channel it has so many distinct versions. you have the original run with wil wheton and travis oats, this feels like the purest form of the show because it feels so scrappy and passionate and more than a little corny with it's early G4 sense of humour, despite some behind the scenes issues with the earlier mentioned producer, the existance of wil wheton and moments where the hosts are clearly dealing with a rough situation. later on both hosts quit though a few years into the run and were replaced by Lee Reherman and Michael Louden but neither really nailed the role at first and louden would eventually be replaced by G4 intern kevin pereria, who would then go on to host attack of the show and be one of the main faces of the channel, people did eventually warm up to reherman though, but the show had a really rocky road and it would eventually be cancelled along with a lot of the original era programming once the merger hit, which is a shame, once the 10's rolled around and esports got big this could totally have been a hit for them, there was an attempt to revive it for the reboot but with none of the original hosts and was much more focused on non-game related stuff, barely ever showed any games being played and was basically just influencers trying to be funny rather than the public who cared about games like the original show, it sucked! (much like the rest of the reboot) still, it's interesting to go back to the original and i would reccomend it for this one, less so for game on, but i do think they make an interesting paralell, one show aged poorly while the other aged pretty well and both were a sign of the future, one of the channel and the other of the industry and that's neat to me.