With Charlie Brooker confirming this morning, via Twitter, that Gameswipe will be the latest hybrid of his Wipe alternation, we at Tech Digest though it would be fitting to have a look at the best games TV shows of years gone by.

So in no particular order, here are our five favourites of a genre that undoubtedly enjoyed its golden period in the 1990s but has never really threatened the prime-time mainstream:

Gamesmaster

Well, I did say in no particular order but clearly Gamesmaster is the undisputed king of the bunch. It had Patrick Moore, actually Sir Patrick Moore CBE to give the great man his proper title, appearing as The Gamesmaster – a sort of futuristic cyborg who would reign over the proceedings with great aplomb.

He would give instructions to contestants for various games challenges as well as giving out cheats for the latest games. The fact that he never really sounded as if he was too sure what he was talking about mattered not one iota. He had a floating head surrounded by, at the time, cool looking armour – we believed every word he said.

Originally hosted by Dominik Diamond and later Dexter Fletcher, Gamesmaster was the show to watch if you wanted to know your Golden Axe from your ToeJam & Earl.

Even Simon Amstell made an appearance: