The Zone

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The Zone
Studio: Beyond Television Productions
Number of seasons: 1
Number of episodes: 57
Original airdate: 1994-04-30 — 1995-07-01
Original channel(s): Nine Network

The Zone was a video games focused television programme that aired on the Nine Network on Saturday mornings at 8:30AM AEST from 30 April 1994 to 1 July 1995. The show was produced by Beyond Television Productions and was hosted for the majority of its run by Adam Riley. Sega Ozisoft was a major sponsor of the show.

Format

The Zone took on a format similar to most magazine style programmes on television. The show generally opened with an introduction from Adam of what would be on the show that week, followed by the latest gaming news, previews, reviews and some random stuff like gamer jargon. Reviews and previews were typically presented by two people, many of whom were Sydney-based freelancers or worked on magazines such as HYPER>> and Gamestar.

The most popular member of the show's on air crew was Justin "Mutlee" Mansour, who also acted as the voice of the Sega Hotline at the time.[1] Mansour also worked behind the scenes on the show's technical production.

Production

The Zone was notorious for its low budget. According to one member of the crew, the show was filmed in a disused storage room. A cameraman for the show remembers only being paid $20 per episode each week.

Cancellation

The precise reasons for the cancellation of The Zone are not known. The final episode made fun of the fact that the show had got the axe.

Legacy

Due to the aged nature of the content, the potential rights issues concerning footage and the distinct lack of a market, it is unlikely that The Zone will ever see any sort of release on DVD or anything similar. Some dedicated fans and former crew have posted episodes of the show on YouTube, usually captured from VHS tapes that were used to record the show on their first airing. (This is why the SD footage quality is so poor. The recording would depend on the broadcast reception as well as the VCR and tape used.)

Criticism

Due to the show's G rating and the early morning timeslot in which it aired, The Zone was unable to show gameplay footage of games with a rating higher than M, which many of the popular titles of the time such as Doom and Mortal Kombat II carried. Rather than simply not covering these titles, the on-screen talent of the show would act out gameplay sequences from these games.

Despite being a contributor to a number of magazines, Amos Wong drew the ire of many Nintendo Magazine System readers for reviewing games on Sega platforms on the show.

Notes

Two episodes remain unaired. Produced on Monday, aired on Saturday mornings. According to Justin Mansour, Richard Parnell has the whole series on tape. Adam Riley was originally brought in to do the music, but wound up being the host when a suitable candidate could not be found, and his screen test was well received. Stuart Clarke was also editor for HYPER>> at the time.

List of episodes

No.	Video	Original Air Date	News and Features	Game Reviews
1	120px	1994-04-30		Virtua Racing
2	120px	1994-05-07
3	120px	1994-05-14	The Buzz (News): Project Mars - Sega 32X (14:03) Feature: Sega Cleaning Kit (19:34)	Mutant League Hockey (time - 3:24) (score - 73.5) Prize Fighter (time - 9:43) (score - 70) Castlevania: The New Generation (time - 17:44) (score - 81.5)
4	120px	1994-05-21	The Buzz (News): Sega Ozisoft "Sega Classics" Rental Plan (10:15)	Art of Fighting (time - 0:00) (score - 62) Tomcat Alley (time - 5:03) (score - 86.5) Sonic 3 (time - 17:09) (score - 89.5)
5	120px	1994-05-28	Feature: Inside Hyper>> Magazine - brief glimpse of Streets of Rage 3 (time - 13:01)	FIFA International Soccer (time - 3:32) (score - 90) Eternal Champions (time - 8:35) (score - 67) Lame Games: The Simpsons: Bart's Nightmare (time - 16:59) (score - "F") Classic Review: The Revenge of Shinobi (time - 17:29) Ecco the Dolphin (Mega-CD) (time - 18:21) (score - 82)
6	120px	1994-06-04	Playguide: Skitchin' (time - 9:31)	Virtual Pinball (time - 2:18) (score - 90) Cool Spot (time - 7:29) (score - 88) Lame Games: Jurassic Park (time - 8:23) Lame Games: Home Alone (time - 8:31) Alien 3: The Gun (time - 8:43) (score - 3/10?) Jungle Strike (time - 13:38) (score - 85)
7	120px	1994-06-11	News: Australia hardware sales, as at Jun 1994 (time - 2:10) Game Gear - 50,000 Game Boy - 250,000 Master System - 300,000 NES - 500,000 Mega Drive - 600,000 SNES - 300,000 Mega CD - "heaps" Cheatz: Streets of Rage 2 (time - 5:38) Preview: Rise of the Robots (time - 14:02) (incomplete video) Cheatz: Super Street Fighter 2 (time - 14:11) The Buzz (News): The Incredible Hulk (time - 19:21) The Buzz (News): Mortal Kombat 2 (time - 19:37) The Buzz (News): Blockbuster World Game Master Competition (time - 19:55)	Sub-Terrania (time - 5:57) (score - 82.5) Classic Review: Double Dragon (time - 8:21) Streets of Rage 3 (time - 10:06) (score - 90)
8	120px	1994-06-18		Mortal Kombat 2
9	120px	1994-06-25
10	120px	1994-07-02
11	120px	1994-07-09	The Zone Top 10 games of 94 competition (time - 0:00) NBA Jam, Virtua Racing, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters, Skitchin', Rock 'n Roll Racing, Clayfighter, Madden NFL '94	The Jungle Book (time - 1:08) (score - 91) On the Streets: Daytona USA (time - 4:53)
12	120px	1994-07-16
13	120px	1994-07-23	"Oz Gamer Day" - 23 July (time - 0:00) Playguide: Sensible Soccer (time - 3:00) Feature: The Zone Top 10 games of 94 (time - 7:50) 10. Tomcat Alley 9. FIFA International Soccer 8. Rock 'n Roll Racing 7. Alone in the Dark 2 6. Star Wars: Rebel Assault 5. Virtua Racing 4. Jungle Book 3. Street Fighter 2 Turbo 2. Super Metroid 1. NBA Jam Cheatz: Virtua Racing (time - 10:45) Playguide: Sub-Terrania (time - 15:03) Cheat of the week: Sonic 3 (time 19:36)	Marko's Magic Football (time - 1:27) (score - 81.5) Landstalker (time - 15:46) (score - 81.5)
14	120px	1994-07-30	In the arcade review of Cyber Sled, the guys mention how the release of Daytona USA caused Ridge Racer to drop to half price (time - 4:59)	Dragon's Lair (time - 0:30) (score - 80) Bubba 'N' Stix (time - 3:15) (score - 81.5) Zool (time - 9:08) (score - 61)
15	120px	1994-08-06	Brought to you by Sega (time - 0:00) NBA Celebrity Shoot Out - Mutlee has a Sonic Basketball (time - 8:37) Blockbuster World Game Master Competition Finals - Sonic makes an appearance (time - 14:01) Almost a World Exclusive Sonic & Knuckles preview (time - 21:05)	Chuck Rock II: Son of Chuck (time - 4:06) (score - 82.5)
16	120px	1994-08-13	TZM Hint: Daytona USA (time - 3:35) Playguide: Marko's Magic Football (time - 5:56) Gamestar Cheat of the week: Aladdin (time - 12:28) World Exclusive Preview: Sonic & Knuckles (time - 13:15) Blockbuster World Game Master Competition Finals Part 2- Sonic makes an appearance (time - 19:48) (incomplete video)	Taz 2 (time - 11:15) (score - 87)
17		1994-08-20	Games Featured:
18		1994-08-27	Games Featured:
19		1994-09-03	Games Featured:
20		1994-09-10	Games Featured:
21		1994-09-17	Games Featured:
22		1994-09-24	Games Featured:
23		1994-10-01	Games Featured:
24	120px	1994-10-08	Games Featured:
25	120px	1994-10-15	Games Featured:
26	120px	1994-10-22	Games Featured:
27	120px	1994-10-29	Games Featured:
28	120px	1994-11-05	Games Featured:
29	120px	1994-11-12	Games Featured:
30	120px	1994-11-19	Games Featured:
31	120px	1994-12-03	Games Featured:
32	120px	1994-12-17	Games Featured:
33	120px	1994-12-24	Games Featured:
34	120px	1994-12-31	Games Featured:
35	120px	1995-01-07	Games Featured:
36	120px	1995-01-14	Games Featured:
37	120px	1995-01-21	Games Featured:
38	120px	1995-01-28	Games Featured:
39	120px	1995-02-04	Games Featured:
40	120px	1995-02-11	Games Featured:
41	120px	1995-02-18	Games Featured:
42	120px	1995-02-25	Games Featured:
43	120px	1995-03-04	Games Featured:
44	120px	Unconfirmed	Games Featured:
45	120px	Unconfirmed	Games Featured:
46	120px	Unconfirmed	Games Featured:
47	120px	Unconfirmed	Games Featured:
48	120px	Unconfirmed	Games Featured:
49	120px	Unconfirmed	Games Featured:
50	120px	Unconfirmed	Games Featured:
51	120px	Unconfirmed	Games Featured:
52	120px	Unconfirmed	Games Featured:
53	120px	Unconfirmed	Games Featured:
54	120px	Unconfirmed	Games Featured:
55	120px	Unconfirmed	Games Featured:
56	120px	Unconfirmed	Games Featured:
57		1995-07-01	Final Episode Games Featured: