Madmanmusic: Knightmare VR - View video and music clips of the development, from the company that produced the music and sound effects.

11.07.2005 - Knightmare VR - Update

09.09.2004 - Knightmare VR - Pilot Episode

Tim Child has reported in the Knightmare Discussion Forum that a pilot episode for Knightmare VR has been filmed, and is currently being distributed broadcasters around the world.

The pilot episode has been made available as a 48.3MB download in Windows Media Player format, and a couple of people are distributing it on Kazaa and Shareaza (search for kmvr). If you don't know what that is, then you can also downloaded it on the web at: http://km.furry.co.uk/kmvr.wmv. Thanks to Dan on the forum for supplying this facility.

Please note that the clip obviously doesn't show the pilot in its upmost glory in order to keep the  file size down. For those who are on dial up and would like smaller files, the Televirtual website has been updated with clips of individual scenes from the pilot.

06.06.2004 - Knightmare VR - New Clips

Tim Child reported in the Knightmare Discussion Forum that the Knightmare VR Demonstrator is almost complete, and last month there was a live demonstration of it in London, spanning a day and a half in front of invited guests from the UK TV industry. A selected group of schoolchildren were invited to test out the new dungeon.

As a result, three new clips of Knightmare VR in development are now available from the Televirtual website in Windows Media Player format. They are entitled 'The Return of Lord Fear', 'Despair Encounter' and 'Arthur's Quest'.

05.04.2004 - Knightmare VR Demonstrator

A video clip of the first rough animation test from the Knightmare VR demonstrator is now available to download from the Televirtual website. Make sure your sound is turned on!

10.07.2003 - Televirtual wins lottery funding for Knightmare VR

Televirtual has secured a £40k National Lottery funded media development grant to help relaunch it's classic children's TV adventure game, Knightmare.

The grant investment by SCREEN EAST means that the Norwich based company will be able to build a Virtual Reality demonstrator or real time pilot for the new version of the cult dungeon exploration show. A dramatised adventure game in which real children explored a compelling fantasy world, Knightmare regularly attracted audiences in excess of 5 million, and spawned foreign language versions across Europe. It was the most successful children's programme ever produced in the East of England. The show pioneered what are now called 'Virtual Studio' techniques, mixing real characters with computer hosted scenes via a Cromakey or blue-screen production.

For the new show, it's expected that the production will make the full transition into Virtual Reality, with actors and players appearing as 3D avatars or virtual humans. Knightmare creator and Televirtual founder Tim Child explained: 'whilst the new show will be retro, and hopefully recapture the atmosphere of it's predecessor, these proposed virtual production techniques are so radical that people will not really understand what to expect until they see the show. That's why we need to build the demonstrator to show potential broadcasters and distributors what we're planning. The investment by SCREEN EAST has now made this possible.'

Screen East: http://www.screeneast.co.uk

03.03.2003 - New software helps to rekindle Knightmare

BROADCAST magazine - 21st February 2003

The maker of 1980s kids adventure show Knightmare is developing new software to bring the show back as a live interactive virtual reality dungeon adventure show, writes SAM ESPENSEN.

Devised by Televirtual's Tim Child, the original show pioneered blue-screen technology involving blindfolding a'dungeoneer' and sending him into a blue screen studio.The player would then 'walk' around a hand drawn cromakey dungeon.The new version will feature virtual reality and avatar (3d cloning) technology.

Mixed reality shows are costly, Child said, because they combine the most expensive elements - studios, real people and interactive computerised environments. So Child has been developing a RAP (realtime animated pipeline), a PC-based system that allows several characters to interact with each other and dispense with the need for a studio. Child is surprisingly not looking for a commission for the new Knightmare because he said, right issues surrounding the original meant that: 'it made 17 million quid and everyone got a big drink except us. I'm not saying if someone comes to me I won't do it.'

'We believe there's a worldwide market for this show, but everyone's waiting for everyone else to show them the way and we think the only way to slash through the Gordian Knot is to start putting together the system ourselves.'

Child added that steering clear of kids channels means he won't have 'characterised animation forced on us. Perhaps we won't be customising some of this content to the market we want to address, but we want to do something deep, dark, dirty and full of dangerous things.'

22.12.2002 - Knew Knightmare VR development page

Following the recent announcement that Knightmare is to be re-formatted as a live show, Televirtual have launched a new Knightmare development page. This will contain all test dungeoneer avatar graphics, logos, demo sequences etc. Check there regularly for updates.

Also, the first test encounter scene graphic for the new Knightmare show is now available. Please note that it is a development picture and no firm decisions have been taken on the dungeoneer's appearance.

Don't confuse the re-format of Knightmare with TimeGate, which remains a separate development as a far more advanced show for a youth/adult audience. A full promotional trailer for TimeGate is now available. The filename is timegate.wmv and it is 8.8MB in size. If you have a slow connection you are advised to right-click on the file and select 'Save Target As' (or similar) to download and save to your hard disk first.

25.11.2002 - **Makers of Knightmare announce re-format**

Press Release from Televirtual

After a nine year gap, Televirtual is to re-format the cult TV adventure game series KNIGHTMARE, which was produced by its parent company, Broadsword TV in the 80's and 90's, and re-create it as a LIVE TV event.

Televirtual founder Tim Child explained:' we have only just reclaimed full ownership of the format, which was jointly owned by ourselves and Anglia (now Granada Media), since 1986. The full rights recently reverted to us, and whereas it was financially impractical to carry the burden of reformatting under shared ownership, that is no longer the case.'

The original show involved blindfolding a young player or dungeoneer with a knight's helmet and sending them into a blue walled studio. Cromakey techniques then transposed this into an enthralling hand-drawn dungeon, created by artist David Rowe. A revived show would stay true to those early principles but with virtual reality and avatar (3d cloning) technology removing the need for any blindfolding or guiding of the studio based adventurer.

With a growing demand for shows which allow greater audience access and influence, playing Knightmare for live is a challenge in itself. 'We would aim to keep the game very simple and retro-looking," said Tim Child. 'Having said that, it won't be any simpler than the original eighties versions when we really didn't have the interactive technology to attempt half the things we tried."

Players in the revived dungeon will be transformed into 3d avatars, and will appear as themselves. They will be able to meet and converse with the similarly animated cast of characters and monsters in the dungeon.

The new Knightmare TV quest is being designed to sit within a longer, live, childrens' programming strand, with the game playing in two, separated 10-12 minute segments. This will allow polling decisions by the home audience to influence the dungeon-based obstacles and affect the narrative. Viewers of digital channels would also be able to access some of the multiple viewpoints available from Televirtual's RAP (Real time Animation Pipeline) system.