Anybody remember the old Time Commanders show?

[Arathir]

Back in the day of RTW (and according to wiki even before RTW was released) there was a British tv show Time Commanders which put teams of noobs against each other shouting orders while fighting historic battles using RTW engine. The battles were commentated by history experts providing both historic context of the battle as well as making remarks on the contestants' strategies.

It would be cool to see that show resurrected and now with RTW remaster... one can dream.

If anybody would be interested in watching the old show I found a playlist on youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkGVh102Tlw&list=PLRgTTtYi8pqmo-7DDUC4HKWdpp5hCqxxY&index=1

[J4MESOX4D]

Funnily enough I was just thinking about this show the other day but for the life of me I couldn't remember the name! Very revolutionary show at the time especially as the Total War titles (Shogun and Medieval) were big steps in the gaming genre too.

Definitely not as iconic as Knightmare and I don't think it ran that long either but still an interesting show and concept.

[Jambie Lionheart]

That time when they had the two teams facing each other, that was the ressurection. Originally, just before Rome: Total War came out (released) as a game, the same TV show had a single team fighting the historical battles. Some did great and some crashed out badly :D Was kinda fun to watch, but I can definitely see why the show died in the end. Not really a wide target audience.
I don't think it'll ever be ressurected again, especially since there are a few youtube channels now that pretty much replace Time Commanders as an entertainment show. and it works because the channel has one guy working is and the niche audience is more than enough for them most of the time.

[JediMasterDraco]

Yeah I enjoyed that show. Mainly in the form of calling 2/3rds of the contestants idiots for various things. I still remember those absolute morons who managed to lose Watling Street.

[Swansonhart]

Damn, that show got me excited for the Remaster a bit more:)) Want to return to the good ol' atmosphere of Rome 1.

[Andy]

I enjoyed the show at the time.
But, not sure it would/could ever come back. The first season launched before youtube.

[RON]

Man I used to love watching this, then I got Rome Total war later on and I was addicted, I miss those days, but not long and I can zoom back in time and relive those days remastered, cannot wait!

[The Wrath of Santa]

Yeah enjoyed the show at the time. Used to enjoy the military historians etc and the usually hapless and utterly lost teams. The losers were almost invariably led by an arrogant control freak egotist, always fun to see that types bubble burst on national tv. It is a very niche audience for tv though, nowadays the format is probably best suited for online platforms.

Saying that the old archaeology show Time Team has been resurrected on Youtube so you never know someone might try the same thing with Time Commanders however that would probably have to have the cooperation/endorsement of CA/Sega if it was in anyway a half way decent professional standard production.

[Toaster Maximus]

Pepperidge Farm Remembers and now so do I

[Cosmic Cat]

Not sure if you want that show to be resurrected in modern times, considering they might start claiming Caesar was black and similar nonsense

[Jambie Lionheart]

Originally posted by The Wrath of Santa:

Yeah enjoyed the show at the time. Used to enjoy the military historians etc and the usually hapless and utterly lost teams. The losers were almost invariably led by an arrogant control freak egotist, always fun to see that types bubble burst on national tv. It is a very niche audience for tv though, nowadays the format is probably best suited for online platforms.

Saying that the old archaeology show Time Team has been resurrected on Youtube so you never know someone might try the same thing with Time Commanders however that would probably have to have the cooperation/endorsement of CA/Sega if it was in anyway a half way decent professional standard production.

Search up Pixelated Apollo on youtube. You might not define it as professional, but in either case he literally takes over the role of time commanders on youtube but is more custom battle oriented rather than historical. That's just one out of at least a dozen other channels too. Time commanders was never really practical because of the small, niche audience, a sad truth, but a truth nomatter how you look at it.

I kinda want someone to make a professional tourney though. Similar to Time commanders with a lil bit of the pomp in it too. but in the format Apollo brings it to the audience.

[owen8964]

I wonder if the rise of e-sports means that there would now be more than a niche audience for something like Time Commanders.

With VR we might now see not just Joe Bloggs but get them kitted up and we see them as Alexander or Julius Caesar getting swamped by a barbarian horde...:) Possibilities there I think.

Loved the original concept but hated the actual show. They tried too hard to make it popular and failed.

[owen8964]

Oh, and on early Britain and black people, one of the most interesting ones I've seen recently was on, iirc, a show with the catchy title Mediaeval Dead, which has a forensic pathology department who do a lot of work with the Police but also do archaeological remains (ie skeletons). They were looking at a very early Christian graveyard where monks who came over either with or at the time of Augustine were buried and one of them, it seems, had a distinctively negroid face.

Since we also have written evidence from the time saying that some of the scholars who came over with or soon after St.Augustine were from North Africa, it seems very likely that at least one black person was involved in the original conversion of the English to Christianity.

[Legionari]

I used to watch this while I was at school :-)

Rome was also used to do a series called Decisive Battles https://youtu.be/z7Sfmn3hff4

[Sad but Packin']

So, there used to be a whole show dedicated solely to people playing a videogame, it was always the same game and they weren't even playing, but just giving instructions to someone else playing it. Hmm... the things one finds out.

It seems like they got their own custom units made just for the episodes tho, it would've been cool if somehow they added some of those units or factions to the game in a later patch, atleast for custom battles.

[Ravenscar]

I remember a great deal of:

Guide: "The commander of this particular battle knew that, where his troops to be surrounded, even on a defensible positions, they would be cut off from resupply and, with no reinforcements coming, face a slow death of ignominious surrender."

Contestants: "TAKE THE HILL!!! Alll strategy revolves around taking hills!!!!!"

Guide: "Yes, but historically in this battle..."

Contestant" HIIiiLLllLLsssSSS!!!!"

Army surrounded and destroyed.

Contestant in the debrief "well, at least we took the hill, so we're pretty happy with that, and we don't think we could have possible ever had any other outcome".