Bring Back Knightmare

Perhaps not a full MMORPG, but you could do something like an asymmetric VR game (one player has a headset and the others watch and guide them via a regular computer screen). Something like Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes, Acron Attack Of The Squirrels, Davigo, Panoptic, etc. You could have a lobby system (the multiplayer part) where new players find people to create a team and maybe other players can choose to watch games while they aren't active. They compete as individuals and/or teams, but while in a game they are alone in the dungeons.

Could Lego Knightmare be returning from its long hiatus?

I still don't think that aspect alone would be as challenging financially or technically as it was back then. I am one of the few that had some exact numbers regarding the financial costs of both series 8 and geek week. Unless I've missed something the cost hasn't changed (taking inflation into account). The major expenditure arises from the slow filming process, which burns huge amounts of studio time. When you have a crew of 100+ and a full day's work (due to the use of chromakey) only nets you 20 minutes of footage, this is the cost that quickly adds up. That also answers the point about technical difficulty. If you want some real numbers on that, geek week acquired about 40 minutes of footage (less if you cut the long introduction) and took two looooong days to film. My team's quest (20 years prior) was about 35 minutes (from memory) and filmed over 2.5 much shorter days. In other words, the process today is no quicker. (Theoretically, it's always been possible to do it quicker by simply assuming that the void will align with the virtual environment. That's what we did at the convention. But you may have noticed that the alignment/perspective was never quite perfect. Therefore, to do it properly, you have to manually align the rooms to the virtual environments, and tinker. This takes time.) What the pace of technology has done is put basic chromakey into the hands of amateurs. As you say, YouTubers do this endlessly. But it's not comparable because it's not the chromakey itself that costs the money, but more accurately it's the consequences of using chromakey that costs the money.

I don't believe there's a market for the idea you suggest. I mean look at the other franchises mentioned in the above, the pull and attraction far outweighs our show. Surely it's not a viable venture - as much as we'd like to see it. As mentioned on another post just now, the Knightmare series would seem too obscure to the casual or impartial viewer. They haven't (as yet) brought out any DVD releases as a case in point, which is a great pity, but from a business perspective you can kind of understand the reasoning.

Yes, I am the original "Leggy1210" that posted the weekly episodes way back when, as well as the other other Challenge TV clips. I'm really surprised the Knightmare community hasn't yet come together to fund a DVD release of one of the most amazing cult TV shows! What are we waiting for?! Good to see you back here after so long. If you want any help getting access to your original account, which is still active, please let us know. I'm sure you appreciate the irony of a former purveyor of unofficial downloads asking about an official release... 'The Knightmare community' is a vague concept that could mean anything from Knightmare.com forum regulars to anybody who likes, shares or posts about Knightmare online. This vagueness means that what most people are waiting for is somebody else to take an active role. You may not be aware of the difficulty we had funding the Knightmare convention four years ago. We only needed to raise slightly over £12,000. Despite offering a unique experience and reaching thousands of potential crowdfunding donors on social media, only 280 donated to the campaign. These included some extremely generous four-figure donations, without which the convention could not have gone ahead. Arguably the nostalgia bubble has burst, or at least shrunk. The Crystal Maze Experience crowdfunding campaign did well but the Fun House Live campaign raised only 9% of its goal last year. Knightmare Live's 2013 crowdfunding campaign beat its goal of £6000; its 2016 campaign, despite three years of good reviews and a lower goal, raised £2807. The 'slacktive' interest in Knightmare DVDs will continue to exist. The active interest - people willing to put their hand in their pocket rather than their thumb on a Facebook post - is not enough to raise the sum we'd need. If you enjoyed your return visit to the website and forum, Leggy, please feel free to stay and join in with other threads. Helping to keep Knightmare.com's life force green can only be good for Knightmare.

i would love more episodes and series of knightmare....... i would also love to make a tv programme.

I don't really know whow KM in VR can work, who would be wearing the headsets? or maybe the Dungeoneers will no longer be blind ? So far modern tech hasn't really made any impact or improvements on Knightmare, other than maybe quickness. Even the CGI rooms and effects look worse then how they once were. It seems the old school appearance of blue screen and paintings is still the best format. Knightmare VR would have to really change the format and style of game play. Then it wouldn't be Knightmare anymore.

Some very good points there, Brett. Looking back on episodes of Knightmare nowadays, how I could relate to your assignment of team members' roles: The Warrior - essentially the dungeoneer who goes into Knightmare to redeem/rescue the quest object. (Also worth pointing out that in Knightmare Live, whenever the dungeoneer is asked to give their name the actor questioning them would then follow it up with "A Warrior's Name!") The Decider - could be the vital component to the advisor designated as team captain. If their dungeoneer is in peril (i.e surrounded by an army of goblins) it would be down to them to make the all important decision in time to ensure that the dungeoneer escapes from the dungeoneer safely. The Navigator - advisor who gives the directions to the dungeoneer, wary of any forthcoming pitfalls. It would be their task to give commands such as "walk forward" or "sidestep". The Sage - lastly, the other advisor who has swotted up on any potential riddles and could also be the one who is assigned to cast any spells given to the team during their quest.

audience wouldn't know which team was which. And while we're watching one team we are missing the other. KM isn't a race. Life force should service a real purpose to speed things along but then goblins fill that role too. But two teams????? nah, wrong show mate.

I don't want Knightmare on C5, put it on a BBC Channel where there's no adverts.. Aussie soap Neighbours is now on C5 and is IMO ruined by advert breaks in the middle.. I don't want my perving at the gorgeous Jane "Rebecca" Hall to be broken by ad breaks!

Facebook'd, Livejournal'd, and Tweeted for Great Justice.

Danke

We've been trying to convince Granada Media to launch a DVD for years; they were the ones who suggested the idea in the first place! But they hardly even bother to respond to requests and petitions about it, so we really can't explain why they won't launch it. Just vague stuff about no one suggesting a viable form to release it in is all we are told. Knightmare is on Challenge on weekday mornings at the moment. Their rights to the series are expiring, but they haven't ruled out renewing them.

That's a Damn Shame. Perhaps Lord Fear is now in command of Granada and does not want any pesky Dungeoneers getting any ideas of challenging the Dungeon once more....

I agree that the advisorys where what made Knightmare. Where would we be without the hilarious, "Side-Step to the Right, No Le..." Too late for the Dungeoneer

The Crystal Maze seems to come and go, though. And it appears they don't have the full set - I've been waiting to see the two Tudor-Pole series for ages now, and when I had the inclination to check Challenge religiously every say it was a constant spiral of series 1-4. They have had the T-P series shown before, though - some time circa 2003, before I had access to Challenge, and I know this because there's a Challenge trailer from around that time clearly showing ET-P charging around the maze, along with scenes from Knightmare as they were doing a double-header. Possibly I picked up the trailer from this site? It's been long enough for me to forget.

I have captured all the TV series on to about 8 DVDs and are all pretty high quality!! I just haven't designed the menus yet.. The way that I done it was from a Video Recorder on to a DVD Recorder connected to the TV... This way might have been the longest way of doing it but it worked for me.

Yes, I got that response from them too (e-mailed them months ago). Get more people emailing them!

(Crikes - it's been a while since I've bored people on the forums!) Well - the last 24 hours have been rather clinical and conclusive as to KM's future; and even though I've replied to Pooka on closer ground, I'd like to shed it here as well. I'm not as regular a visitor to the forums as I used to be, probably because there's a certain apathetic ambience that comes over with the 'not-knowing'. Now that news has come, definitely feel re-awakened, ironically so, if Knightmare is indeed to be put to rest. Please forgive me anybody who doesn't like cross-posting (albeit not on these forums). This was first reaction to negative criticism (slightly edited where relevant): "We appreciate, we have appreciated and will forever appreciate K.M. - amongst its biggest fans. And yet how on earth do any of us have the right to demand that someone, least of all the creator of the show we all love and which brought us together, has to yield to will, otherwise come under perusal? Where has respect and humility gone? I agree with what Tim says really - this news was not a great surprise to me. Knightmare was the bigger picture back in the late 1980s, and let's not forget that it wasn't his fault that the show was axed when it was - but it's also not his fault that the times have changed. Knightmare would potentially be huge current day, but teenagers have changed pretty much a generation in a decade. Not only that, but television companies have merged and merged, television is not what it was a decade or two ago. I've worked for Yorkshire T.V. before on a project, and been with the news crew of Tyne-Tees a couple of times ~ they all knew how quickly independent programme making would dissipate. KM is no longer the bigger picture, and although disappointed, I'm just pleased that Televirtual's new technological bigger picture even considered rekindling Knightmare as a project - it held onto the dream a little longer." Tim is a legend to me: as corny as it sounds, I've built a life around Knightmare and its fans. I owe all I have and all I am to Knightmare - trying to consider that any involvement I have or have had the privilege to have over the past couple of years is just a way of trying to give a little back. Anyone with a bad word to say about Tim or Televirtual severely bruises all the relationships built through Knightmare. I do firmly believe in the BBK campaign (wow - even got a small mention in related posts earlier [thank you!]) ~ yet talking about 'the plan of attack', the language and approach I've seen through this time has 'fashioned', it seems to me, some cult-led war against the 'opposition' that stand in the way of Knightmare's comeback, in whatever sense. Getting back on Challenge for a number of years has been a dream; I think it's taken for granted that Knightmare must have the same panache now as it did before, and it feels awkward to me. Some of this community does feel rather cult-like sometimes: and as I have been advised by asking journalists, advertising agents and a film-making advisor from the BBC about K.M. (& the R.P.G.), continued, creative interest is welcomed; aggressive, over-forthright interest will put the cause at the foot of the ladder. Will leave it there - this is far more emotional to write than I realised - but now it seems there is a definitive answer to the future of Knightmare, rather than bitterness over the future of K.M., it will mean most to me that the ineffable, sacred, special legacy for what has been is protected. Love, Peace & Harmony.