The TV Show that didn't want you to know it was a Video Game
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- Опубліковано 25 лип 2018
- Here's the story of how Total War ended up on the telly as a show called Time Commanders. Three episodes into People Make Games and Chris has become entirely self-indulgent in the topics he's researching.
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Written and presented by Chris Bratt:
/ bratterz
Design and anni-mation by Anni Sayers:
/ anni_sayers
Additional camerawork by: Tom Sayers
#TimeCommanders #TotalWar - Ігри
Who are you spying on...?
The video games industry.
@@PeopleMakeGames suuuurrrrre 😏
@@PeopleMakeGames hey, wanna play feel the snow with me?
@@fluffyotter4468 its his free tv doesn't need to pay for a license
Do u want to build a snow
"It tells the story of a nineteenth-century American engineer who, upon getting smacked, wakes up in the world of King Arthur."
I didn't know that Mark Twain created Isekai Anime before.
has a long title too
It actually sounds like a really good script... And it would be amazing if that movie would be made In modern quality.
@@nostromisofficial6894 There's a movie from 2001 with a similar premise, Black Knight.
Except the guy gets a historical harem that hates him
@@philomath6190 that was one of my favorite movies as a kid growing up!
I saw my parents watching that show when I was younger. When I told them they were just watching people play a game that I play in my bedroom, on my PC, they were less interested in the show.
Ha, interesting. A shame they didn't ask to come and play it instead!
Ironically, you playing the game that was on the show probably made it less cool to them, cause kids nowadays don't like things their parents like.
@@tommydoez what a weird stereotype
@jocaguz18 tbh, no alot of people i know get their interests from their parents. its actually very common to inherit beliefs and interests from you family.
@jocaguz18 I love how me making an anecdote makes me stupid. Maybe I don't want to write a research paper on the inheritance/Installment of ideals and interests for some random on the internet.
Also, intelligence has long been proven to not to be inherited.
I can't believe we have Mark twain to thank for creating the isekai genre
Improve your life by never watching anime ever again
You mean blame?
@@gitman3486 Improve your life by not immediately dismissing works of art as bad just because of the country they're from.
@@primo4915 Correction, don't watch isekai. It's the same goddam story. While there are good ones, most them aren't.
@@mabimabi212 yeah isekai is bad, but there are some great animes out there. He said 'anime', not 'isekai'.
I remember the History channel regularly playing total war, they just hand waved it as a simulation and never admitted it!
Hopalongtom I also remembered History Channel using Battlefield 3.
surviving gamer really?
MRJ2012 Yes. They were talking about war or something and soldiers were running and a grenade blew up and left a hole, they were all BF3 graphics.
Hopalongtom There also was another documentary on the Inca that used the scenario editor from Age of Empires 3. I believe it was on Discovery.
Total War isn't a simulation bud. It's a game. That's like calling Call of Duty or Battlefield a simulation. They're not, they're games.
In the future we will have a videogame where you act as the Director General of the BBC, deciding how to deploy the combined might of the Greg Wallace force which existed between 2005 and 2015.
I wonder if people from the future will use their knowledge of history and science to do it better than the actual people did it?
I could see a BBC simulator do quite well.
Especially if its measured by how much you can fuck things up, and you're punished for doing well.
Instant GOTY
My dad was on this with his three best mates when I was little, and - hilariously - someone's made them all IMDB pages with that as their one credit ("as self"). Also some lovely intern on set made two extra Lieutenant's badges so my dad could bring one home for me and my brother. I still have mine tucked away somewhere.
The idea to have a team with split control really was a stroke of genius - it's not just that it forces people to interact on camera rather than just looking over someone's shoulder as they play, but it also brings in an element that has been missing from games for decades - the chain of command/hierarchical control - having the generals giving orders to the lieutenants giving orders to the sergeants(?) giving orders to the troops. Suddenly questions of delegation and force division become relevant - do you give both lieutenants roughly equal forces, or do you give one the horse and the other the foot, or give one a smallish specialist force to go cause trouble while the other tries to hold the front line together? Do you micromanage, or do you give them broad objectives and only interrupt when something important happens?
Suddenly you've got the middle ground between micro-managing every unit and leaving it entirely to the default AI...
ever tried planet side 2? can easily get 500 player mosh pits on it if a three way fight happens
@Stale Bagelz only if you play blueberry style and dont squad up. it also helps if you arnt a anal hitler or stalin wannabe. there are active and organized clans still playing ps2 what other fps game allows you to field 30+ clan buddys at once and still has a active communite where we can pub stomp?
welcome to eve online
There is a star trek game where you and your friends man a star ship. One person as captain, the rest as bridge crew. Each are responsible for their own posts. Always wanted to play that. I should probably get some friends though.
@@EURIPODES artemis bridge simulator - I think this is what you're referring to.
This is so weird, I'd completely forgotten about this TV programme. I now remember watching Time Commanders back in the day with my dad. My favourite episode was when the contestants were trying to hold a hill for some reason and they kept saying "It's okay, we have the high ground" as their troops just got slaughtered, and the expert would just say something like "Great. They are going to die on a hill."
The CastAway DC Yeah, I don't know if it's the pilot episode, or something people just expect to work, but the high ground was so over prioritised, by that team in particular. The host was even trying to hint if I remember it right xD
I remember that I think, didn't it end with a suicidal charge towards the enemy general? It did not go well.
Was it them as Romans against Boudica or something along those lines? That really rings a bell with me for some reason!
I believe that was the scenario.
"It's over, Boadicea, we have the high ground!"
I love to play strategy games, and consider myself fairly good at them, but I think people tend to overestimate how good they would actually be back in the period in question. We have numerous advantages that make things far easier, aside from just a knowledge of history and the study of various military figures.
These types of games offer far more information than a period commander would have had. Not just about your own forces, but that of your enemy, the terrain, the weather, etc. and you have it in real time. You also have your orders relayed instantly without error, and obeyed immediately.
I think modern wargamers would do better than most at this sort of thing, but thinking we'd easily beat Napoleon with the available information, communications methods, etc. of the time is just hubris.
Interesting video though, and well-presented.
Although if you consider we'd know what Napoleon is going to do, the weaknesses of his men's gear, the political situation of basically the entire world, and even that it would rain on the days of certain battles...
Over half of the effectiveness in battle is being able to hold your composture and the interpersonal skills. A modern wargames in an eighteen century battle would faint just from the gunshot sounds.
Not to mention that warfare is all about logistics. It doesn't matter how good of a strategy you have- if you can't feed your men you aren't going to win. This crucial element of warfare is mostly absent from RTS games.
It also requires you to micromanage every decision these little idiotic robots on the screen do.
Not something Ceasar really would have had to do.
Edit: Well groups of idiotic robots. Not individual robots.
@@jacksonlarson6099 Not entirely in classic RTS games! In from Starcraft to Age of Empires to Command and Conquer, one of the BEST strategies is to launch a strike at their villagers / resource units, because those are basically abstracts for wartime economy and logistics.
Losing just 2 or 3 gatherers in the first 10 minutes can basically cost you the entire match.
Source: I suck at RTS games and keep forgetting to spam-build resource units lol.
Have David Mitchell host it! The BBC will agree to any idea he puts out, and he would absolutely love dressing up in armor and acting like he's in charge of things
ha you should work at the BBC, thats an inspired decision
sleepytime999998 he’d somehow fit in Stalingrad
Joe Worpole
Now I want to see him in Stalingrad in standard issue Roman armour!
FOUR LEGIONS? THATS INSANE
Think you're getting mark Corrigan mixed up with david mitchell
e-sport before it was a trend
dunno about you but I was following quake, bw and cs well before this show started
More like Machinima
Exactly what I was thinking. Extremely accessible amateur e-sports.
I can just imagine Chris playing Time Commanders:
Chris: Can we pause?
Gregg: No.
Chris:...How about now?
Gregg: No.
*Chris gets mullered in the middle*
FuzzyDunlop I did approach Gregg for an interview ahead of this video. He politely declined.
- Okay, I want you to bring the cavalry in just enough to pull the other cavalry's aggro, then bait and switch with the spearmen.
- They won't fall for that, they aren't stupid.
- WHAT?
"They didn't like Craig". Gold. Absolute gold.
Screw Craig.
People Make Games akin to trying to beat the creator of Tekken in an arcade in Tokyo. Not gonna happen Craig!
@@PeopleMakeGames Which episode was Craig in so that I can know what you are talking about!?
@@Rice_sama Craig shows up in series 2, episode 4, Battle of Cynocephalae.
Decisive Battles on the History Channel also used Rome: Total War. I liked how they used the great music throughout too.
Great video Sir, This is eerily similar on how Knightmare was concieved, and was essentially pitched as a live action version of Rare's/Ultimate's "Atic Atac" on the ZX Spectrum.
Larry Bundy Jr hey Larry you watch tons of stuff why?
Larry Bundy Jr Damn. It must have been awesome to have been a Brit.
boe jangles He is omnipresent.
boe jangles hey boe you watch tons of stuff why?
Hi! I keep seeing you everywhere XD
I was pretty sad and miffed that series 3 just abuptly ended. I never thought they'd even bring it back so I was loving it when I saw it crop up. Even got my dad to watch the Napoleon episode, since that's like one of his favourite history periods (it might have something to do with owning the French). Maybe it would have a better chance as an online series somehow. YT gaming combined with all the edutainment channels out there would justify it, I think.
I'd totally do that as a Web Show if I had the resources. We don't even need a major publisher for that, just a GoFundMe campaign.
Klobi for President As to quote Palpatine: "dewit"
Set it up, maybe someone knows someone who knows someone else that knows how to do stuff.
You never know until you try
Wow, it's like the Wizard but an actual game show instead of a giant promotional for a single gaming giant. And here I thought we were going to be talking about something from the History Channel, where they too used Total War engines to recreate historical battles.
DoomRater decisive battles?
A Walsh deadliest warrior too
Can’t remember the show, but I remember when I was younger: WoT had just come out and I was really into the History channel. Can’t remember the name of the show, but I remember it was about historical air and tank battles and they used the WoA and WoT engines, respectively. To me it was the greatest thing I’d ever seen at that point; getting to see the game I spent so much time playing actually being used to document real history. Thinky about all this has actually got me really interested in figuring out what that show was called… Wonder if it’s on UA-cam or streaming somewhere?
can someone please explain to me what "the Wizard", "WoT" and "WoA" are?
@@lordilluminati5836 The wizard is a movie about gaming from the 90s, WoT is world of tanks, WoA is nothing but I suspect they meant WoW which is World of Warplanes
I always did wonder why they didn't credit Total War.. Seemed a bit mean spirited to me, back in the day.
Yea, that's true. They could have released the modified version for sale as a tie-in. Vertical integration!
Night Cat
Thing is it was a BBC show so no ads allowed. They could have given the individual skirmishes from each episode away as freeware though as they've done that before (Bamzooki, Dr. Who and Dinosaur World come to mind).
Oh yea, bugger.
Crispman 777 still it’s not ads as it’s actually inconvenient to not show it
Propop pop
What do you mean?
Richard Hammond always seems to be a part of these quirky yet awesome shows. I remember first watching Brainiac on G4 and just loving it. I think the first episode I saw was the one where they put alkali metals in water.
It's that same BBC rule that means Top Gear could never mention Forza Motorsport even when they had a deal with them, but they could mention and feature Gran Turismo.
Top Gear didn't really toe the line with BBC rules, mind. One of many reasons Clarkson got the boot.
Can you elaborate more on why gran turismo would be allowed?
Gran Turismo was allowed to be shown and named on Top Gear because no-one at Top Gear has a connection to the game or could benefit from sales, so there's no conflict of interest there. The game was used a couple of times for features on the Leguna Seca race track.
They weren't allowed to use Forza Motorsport because Top Gear, the company not the show on TV, had a licensing deal with the game and such promotions aren't allowed on BBC TV in the UK because it's entirely state-funded and non-commercial.
Good trivia! I had no idea about that.
On the topic of Top Gear it’s interesting that in 2 years worth of comments no one mentioned the Hamster presenting the show
Well this was a lovely nostalgia-filled video, I can't believe I just saw Bamzooki again... I'm so inordinately happy about this, that show was my childhood! Another excellent video, they never fail to make me smile and teach me something new. Thank you so much!
I can't believe I had actually forgot about Bamzooki. A gap in my memory has now been filled. How bizarre.
Bloody useless at college a bunch of us installed the game, made zooks and competed to see who could complete the challenges better
PhillippaRMM Bamzooki was fascinating as a kid. Loved playing about with the editor. Either my sister downloaded or made one that could fly (albeit uncontrollably) and it gave me far more entertainment than it really should've.
Tiernoon - LOL (What you said at the end amused me.)
Bamzooki ruled you take that back
I can't believe this is one of the first comments on the video. Hahaha, that's really tickled me.
I think the bamzooki software was pretty neat too, I think I saw a link for it somewhere.
They could totally make a new show based around A.I :o
@@jackkraken3888 It was also strangely klunky and limited if you wanted to create anything that wasn't a deformed centipede/beetle.
@@roderik1990 Yup in fact you couldn't even make wheels although people somehow made workarounds that did something similar.
I loved Time Commanders to bits, and it took off around the time I was just getting into the Total War series. It was perhaps the perfect television show for me, and Rome TW is still an all-time favourite.
God, I have such fond memories of playing Rome: TW for the first time. What an incredible game that is.
I remember The Yogscast had a short series of sponsored videos promoting the original Total War: Warhammer that was done to emulate Time Commanders. It never dawned on me until I saw this that Time Commanders actually did use Total War...
Rtw is unironically one of the best games of all time
Have you played it recently?
I did love it, but I don't think it has aged well.
@@maxmustermann1455 I did played it very recently, and I was delighted by all most of its aspects. I spent a entire day playing with of house of caesar. So I guess it aged up well atleast for me.
It's on mobile now and it's not shit. But warhammer is arguably better
@jocaguz18 not really but okidoke.
@@waterfilledglass I like warhammer better but for a historical totalwar I think it aged well if you overlook the dated graphics. It's way better than the "historical" totalwars we are getting now.
"One of the greatest shows ever, Robotwars" You sir... deserve a sub!
Good episode. I would have appreciated a 10-30 second introduction of this show at the top of the episode. I didn't grow up with the BBC, so I've never heard of Time Commanders.
I watched this as a young lad and I was enamoured with the concept and in particular, the program. It wasn't until I got a copy of Medieval Total War 2 that I started connecting the dots with my memory of this show and the gameplay. Thank you for confirming what I had known deep down!!
"They didn't like Craig"
I need to find this episode now
i remember sitting in history class watching some documentary on the battle of marathon in around the 7th grade, right when i started binging total war. When i saw they were using that goofy, outdated arcade game for footage I almost burst out laughing
It was pretty good for CG documentary footage back in the day, but 15 years later LOL
I remember watching Time Commanders back in the day and thinking it looked like Total War. It's great to find out it actually was!
Yeah, when I saw the footage I instantly thought to myself that it's Rome. I spent too many hours with it, most of those being paused ;-)
Richard The Hamster Hammond
and he's not even a real hamster is he? he's not even a real hamster
Ahahhahaaa, gypsies
Hanging out with the bullies...
Wrecking ball hamtaro
Let's be honest: we wouldn't be very helpful in the far past. I know that gravity exists but I don't remember the formulas for it
I know about electricity but I don't know how to produce it, especially AC. I can't build machines and I can't predict an eclipse, no one would believe me
But what you could do is point the intelligent people of that time in the right direction. The real barrier is the fact no one would understand the way you speak.
Gravity can be explained without formulas. Present it as a theory hahaha. Ac is certainly a bit more confusing than DC, but isn't DC better? Tesla coils and shit? That's all very well documented. You could also talk about lands far away. Once 6ou get past the language barrier, you could be the one to discover the americas.
Great vid with quality animations and editing. Love the first hand accounts as well. Top vid
Wait, so 'The Connecticut Yankee' could be the inspiration behind that one Tintin episode as well? Where Tintin captured by local sun-worshipper tribes, and then during sacrifical ceremony pretends tl blocks the suns by chanting prayers as the Sun Eclipse appears
Holy hell, I remember watching this with my dad, and then him getting me into total war afterwards. Bloody hell, the memories. I remember so many of the specific moments you reference. Great video, thanks again.
Great video: good editing nice premise, funny, well realised. can't wait for more!
Excellent work as always Bratterz, animations were stunning too.
Wow, it's very cool to see a video on this! I saw the title and thought of Time Commanders (despite not having seen it since I was a kid and having little knowledge of its background, I didn't even remember its name!) and thought it couldn't be... and it was! I loved the show when I was a child and had no idea it was revived for a short time. Great video, I've only watched a couple of your videos but I've enjoyed what I've seen so far.
The key part that makes it not simply playing total war was that chain of command between the general the runner and the CA staff playing it.
Another fantastic video! This game and show seems like a lot of fun! Thanks for always doing your research, and creating quality content.
Insane there was a show that had Rome total war in it
Yeah and it's not even eSports.
This is an amazing deep dive into one of my favourite programs. Great show.
As an American I wish that had showed on my Television.
Potato King if you wanna see an episode you can get full episodes on youtube
There are tons of ways to get BBC content in the USA, even then.
Fun fact, they also used total war over here in the US for a few series about famous battles, but rather than have contestants trying to win, they used footage from the game for historical reenactments for things like Hannibal crossing the Alps or Greeks against the Persians in the peloponnesian war
You deserve more subscribers, I can imagine this channel growing so quickly in the next couple of months
Good to see you moving around the flat a bit, makes your presenting feel more dynamic. Another really interesting, well written and enjoyable story Chris. You’re really knocking this out of the park aren’t you 😉
your videos look so professional, especially for a slightly smaller channel. subbed right away. keep up the good work!
That's a really interesting video. You successfully managed to compel me into a video about a television series that I was never able to view because I aired in a different country for a video game that I wasn't alive for when it was manufactured and something I still haven't heard of today. Congratulations, you definitely found the right formula.
Time Commanders may not have been a big hit, but the people who watched it generally loved it. The concept was great and the military historians they brought on at the end to describe what happened in the real battle were really good storytellers as well. It wasn't hard to find out that the programme was made using Rome: Total War, but it was years and years before I owned a PC capable of running it.
I loved this show, sooo much,
in fact I wish the Total war series was a little bit more like this,
with more context about the original battle, how the original general did it,
the miscommunication, the fog of war. its just awesome.
loved this series, and am going to watch the old series again, and the new one apparantly!!!
2:02
I've been on the fence about this project until now, but with that one sentence you've totally won me over. All hail Chris Bratt and People Make Games.
The Bamzooki clip unlocked a deep memory of watching it with my brothers after school
Eddie Mair's sarcasm made the show for me. IDK if he actually understood what was happening but he was ruthless with his put-downs.
Mark Thorne he has also put Boris Johnson in his place twice.
Wow thanks for this, always wondered how this happened, was one of my favourite shows as a kid, completely got me into total war and strategy gamss!
I'm not ashamed to admit I was a big fan of "Deadliest Warrior" on US Spike TV when that show was still airing, and I'm also willing to say the few episodes of "Time Commanders" I've seen scratched that same itch quite nicely. Neither program is particularly deep or insightful regarding military strategy or history, but the sense of attempting to penetrate that cultural membrane is compelling enough for my liking, and I did gain a greater appreciation for the kinds of logistics and planning real-life soldiers and generals have had to deal with. It's a far trickier balancing act than I'd ever be able to reckon with, that's for sure.
Benjamin Kellog deadliest warrior had a very fun way of presenting the information
@@CGoody564 It did. Even if the information was garbage most of the time. xD It was a fun watch.
Great video Chris loving your new work
Left out of this commentary: The very first episode had a team of contestants who were high-ranking officers in the British Military and from Sandhurst. They did terribly, which was quite embarassing for them in their careers. Never again did the producers have actual military members as contestants.
Shared on Facebook, great show thanks for pointing giving us brits something of our own to think about :)
I'd never heard of Total War until this show and it was only due to a gaming magazine that I found out the name of the game. Which lead me to fall in love with Rome: Total War. I'd forgot about the show Bamzooki, another show I was fond of as a kid.
GREAT episode!! You have something here keep going!!
Brilliant. This is the first video of yours that I have seen and it's great. Plus 1 subscriber.
this was utterly superb, thank you!
I remember watching Time Commanders as a kid... and Robot Wars... and even Bamzooki. This episode was essentially TV nostalgia for me.
2:16 (and the stuff before aswell) is pretty much what all ‘Isekai Anime’ are about, but they tend to add even more videogame aspects in there like magic, skills, classes.
Basically im saying , is the guy who wrote that book a weeb before weebs even existed?
Was gonna comment the exact same thing lol
Mark Twain would totally be one of those AniTubers who spends half their content dunking on siscons a LITTLE too much
I'd say it's a pretty normal thing to wonder how people from centuries ago would react to our society today when you consider just how far we've progressed technologically, sounds like YOU'RE the weeb here....
@@namelesskitty7037 No I'M the weeb here
I remember playing Total War in a computer shop. A lot of us do not know how the game works as typical kids. All that changed when I saw the show and brought back the knowledge to my peers. I feel like Alexander using hisHammer and Anvil tactics
Loving your videos!
I know of professor over hear which used total war in some of his class to teach his class. I also seen some of his scenarios go south. Like a unexpected revolt in a city.
Did any of the students besides you recognise the game.
Your audio quality is much better this time around. keep it up, dude.
This was really cool. Subbed
The thing I remember from the show were how keen the contestants were to go into the Testudo formation, because it was something they'd heard of, in spite of being told how limited a tactic it was and how it was pretty much asking to be slaughtered in the battles used in the show.
This channel needs more subscribers. The content is really enjoyable.
Great video. I had forgotten about that show, I used to enjoy that. 👍🏽
Your channel is a gold mine my friend.
This is the best channel I've been watching lately. The format, commitment and info quality are astonishing. CONGRATULATIONS from Brazil. Gonna contribute when possible. Thank you so much.
Thank YOU! You've put a huge smile on my face with this comment :)
This sounds incredible! I'm gonna have to watch this
I used to watch this SO MUCH as a kid. I loved it. It was my favourite show to watch.
Amazing video!
It would've been cool if, in Time Commanders, each unit in the battle was controlled by one assistant/Total War player, instead of two assistants controlling all of the units. Just like individual soldiers in battle, each assistant would fight in real time according to their own instincts, while also trying to listen for general orders, or orders for their unit specifically, shouted by the generals or passed on by lieutenants.
That'd require 40 people. (at minimum)
Eddie Mair was still my favourite host of Time Commanders (I think he only did series 1). He was the perfect blend of dry sarcasm and genuine enthusiasm. Great video!
There was another TV show that aired on History used Total War. I can't recall the name, just that I recognized the game. It broke down battles and how they were won using TW as the visual aid.
I loved time commanders as a child, I didn't realise it was total war until I was in university, and then I played 200 or so hours of it.
I loved this show. With the capabilities and graphics we have now, a modern version would be amazing.
Great vid!
That was a damn good video, I remember seeing that show as a kid and thinking "hey, that looks familiar..."
Three shows of my childhood all in one video! Nostalgia overload!
One of my favorite things to imagine teaching people in the past about is the bicycle. It’s an incredibly simple concept but it just was never conceived of until the 19th century. Imagine how much it would revolutionize travel and warfare to have a speedy method of transpiration which doesn’t require resources to maintain
>bicycle pikemen.
>bikemen.
Great episode Chris
I was literally obsessed with this program when I was younger. It was on instead of Star Trek the Next Generation on Thursdays I think and I completely didn't mind because it was just so damn rad
I now have the image in my mind that it was actually Richard Hammond kicking my ass in online Shogun 2.
I loved this programme, part of the golden age of BBC2 with The Simpsons, Robot Wars, Techno Games, Buffy, Malcolm in the Middle, Fresh Prince of Bel Air. Bliss.
This is great, just found there show and I love it!
An absolute delight to watch, Chris! Any love for Cyberzone here? Shouting AWOOGA at the tele while craig charles launches his jacket into the crowd. Ah, the nineties...
Very well edited... nice.
Oh this brings back memories. Time to see if the episodes are available on UA-cam...
This is extremely interesting. I kind of wanna watch Time Commanders now
Great vid! Thanks :)
I only really remember watching the first series, with, incredibly, Eddie Mair at the helm. Absolutely loved it, and it was great fun playing Rome Total War afterwards, fighting the same battles and hearing the same music!
That man who moved their forces uphill clearly understands the advantages of the high ground.