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Does anybody remember the early 90s show Video Power? I was at work today and was talking about video game theme music with a co-worker and suddenly remembered this gem of a show that I watched religiously as an 11-year old. The premise was pretty simple, make a game show with kids playing video games, we'll throw in a crazy host named Johnny Arcade, and at the and at the end we'll have the winner run through a maze of video games. This labyrinth was what kept me watching. The winning kid got a chance to run through walls and walls of all the hottest video games attaching them to velcro pads on their special suit and helmet. At the end, they'd slide through a tunnel and if they happened to uncover a special prize (I think it was a game that had a gold star under it or something), they would win a big grand prize like a Neo Geo or some other (at the time) elite gaming system. At left, is a picture of the slide.

I remember thinking at the time how much this show sucked but two things kept me watching a) my family was pretty poor and couldn't afford cable so we pretty much just got stuck with whatever was prime time b) I was completely obsessed with the idea of running through a maze or warehouse and pulling out things that I would later get to keep. I would systematically plan how I would attack such a mission if I were ever chosen to compete in such an event. This is probably the same thing that drives my passion for movies like "Dawn of the Dead", where even though people are boarded up inside an abandoned mall with zombies everywhere outside, it's still pretty fun to have a whole mall to yourself and do whatever you want. Interesting side-note, a year or two after this show ended my parents got to do a run through a warehouse because of this special promotion my dad won at work. Somewhere a videotape of this exists at my parent's house. I think we ended up with a new TV, entertainment system, stereo, and grill out of the deal. It was something else. Here is a sad story of a guy's experience as a young contestant on Video Power. Here is a link to some pictures and a RA clip of the theme song.

-ick!