Cybermania '94: The Ultimate Gamer Awards was the first televised video game awards show. Created by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS), the two-hour show was broadcast live on TBS on November 5, 1994. Out of twelve award categories, Mortal Kombat won "Best Overall Game". Although the show was received negatively, it was seen by 1.1% of US households and the AIAS produced a less successful follow-up show in 1996. Geoff Keighley, who had been part of the production for Cybermania '94, went on to work on video game awards for other networks, eventually creating The Game Awards in 2014.
Background
Andrew Zucker, an entertainment lawyer, envisioned an awards show for video games while watching the 43rd Primetime Emmy Awards in 1991. The show briefly introduced Syd Cassyd, who had founded the administering Academy of Television Arts & Sciences in 1946, when televisions were scarce in American households. Zucker believed that the video game industry would experience similar growth in the future and subsequently established the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS) later in 1991.[1] The academy announced its first foray into awards ceremonies, the Ajax, in June 1993, aiming to distribute them at a self-funded event in April 1994.[2][3] In March 1994, it planned to announce the nominees in thirty-four categories in May and hand out the awards at the Pantages Theatre on June 16.[4]
In creating the awards for Cybermania '94, the group solicited nominations from 2,500 multimedia companies across the United States. Because of an application fee, only 200 competing entries were received. Some companies, such as LucasArts, decided to stay out of the event due to the unclear credibility of the AIAS. The nominations were voted on by the academy's 300-member body.[5] A total of fifty categories were prepared, of which twelve were to be televised and the rest mentioned in a crawl. Subscribers of the Prodigy service were asked to reduce the number of nominees for "Best Overall Game" by voting on nine candidates.[1] The AIAS pitched the idea of a televised awards show to several television networks and eventually reached an agreement with TBS.[6] According to early reports, the show was to be titled Cybermania: The 1994 Interactive Games Awards and later Cybermania '94: The Ultimate Gamers' Event, to be broadcast from Wilshire Theater in Beverly Hills.[7][8]
Format
Cybermania '94 was produced by the AIAS and TBS, with Peter Hayman of ICE Integrated Communications & Entertainment as executive producer.[6][9] It was staged in the Universal Amphitheatre and broadcast live on TBS on Saturday, November 5, 1994, at 5:05 p.m. PST.[10][11] The show ran for two hours with the actors Leslie Nielsen and Jonathan Taylor Thomas as hosts.[12]William Shatner narrated the nominee announcements.[9] Awards in twelve categories were handed out by a range of lesser-known celebrities, interlaced with acts like jugglers, wrestling, and dancers performing to music by Herbie Hancock, as well as comedic clips about the gaming scene.[5][12][13]
Televoting over an 800 number was used to determine the "Best Overall Game", with votes tabulated on a backstage computer in a process audited by Price Waterhouse.[6][12] The eventual winner was Mortal Kombat.[12] Four out of twelve awards, making for almost half of all entertainment categories, were won by Philips Interactive Media.[5][14] According to a representative, the company considered its products winning awards on national television "worthwhile" as a marketing strategy and morale boost for its employees.[5]
Awards
Winners are listed first, highlighted in boldface, and indicated with a double dagger (‡).
Governor's Award for Best Achievement in Virtual Reality: Iwerks Entertainment (Virtual Adventures)
Special Achievement in Education: Ruff's Bone
Individual Growth In Development: American Institute for Learning (Addiction and Its Processes)
Reception
The broadcast was seen by 1.1% of US households.[12] Journalistic reception was largely negative.[10]Bill Kunkel, writing for Electronic Games, criticized the show's production value, including missing details for games (such as platforms, developer, and publisher), no names for people who collected awards, missed cues, poor writing, and bad performances. He noted that, as a video game journalist, he never "had to endure anything like TBS' horrendous Cybermania '94, the first televised attempt to integrate electronic games and the tired TV award show format".[13] Chris Nashawaty of Entertainment Weekly described the ceremony as "a low-rent whack at the MTV Video Music Awards without the faintest whiff of Oscar's legitimacy".[12] In 2022, Time Extension contacted several of the show's winners, of whom several reported that they had not known the show was televised.[10]
Legacy
Cybermania '94 was the first televised video game awards show.[5][9] The AIAS produced a follow-up event to Cybermania '94, The Second Annual AIAS Awards, originally scheduled for December 1995. To broaden its audience, the academy sought a prime time slot on a major network and a well-known host. Considerations for the latter included Dennis Miller, Howie Mandel, and Sinbad.[15] The show was ultimately held online via Bravo on April 17, 1996, with host Ariana Richards.[16][17] According to Joseph Olin, the 2004–2010 president of the AIAS, "maybe five people watched it". Reestablished in 1996, the academy went on to create the Interactive Achievement Awards in 1998.[18]
A teenage Geoff Keighley was part of the production as the "interactive products specialist", writing Shatner's narrations. He said that being at an event with the creators behind popular games like Doom and Myst left a big impression on him. Keighley went on to work on the annually hosted award shows of G4 (G-Phoria) and Spike TV (Spike Video Game Awards) until 2013. In 2014, he created The Game Awards, which he hosts.[9]
