Bamzooki
| Bamzooki | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Also known as | 'Bamzooki: Street Rules (2009-10) |
| Genre | Children's Game show |
| Presented by |
Jake Humphrey (2004–06) Barney Harwood (2009-10) Gemma Hunt (2009-10) |
| Voices of | Richie Webb |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of series | 2 (Original series) 1 (Street Rules series) |
| No. of episodes | 30 (Original series) 13 (Street Rules series) |
| Production | |
| Running time | 30 minutes |
| Release | |
| Original network |
CBBC (2004, 2009-10) BBC One (2006) |
| Picture format | 16:9 |
| Original release | 8 March 2004 – 3 February 2010 |
Bamzooki (styled as BAMZOOKi) is a British children's television game show, which features a computer-generated toolkit developed by Gameware Development. The first series aired in March 2004 on CBBC and was presented by Jake Humphrey. It has very occasionally featured specials with Sophie McDonnell. The toolkit allowed children to construct digital mobile creatures known as "Zooks", which compete in a variety of computer-generated games. The games took place on a table using augmented reality technology. Each series was composed in a tournament format which determined a series champion. The original series lasted until 2006.
In July 2008, it was announced that Bamzooki was returning. A new thirteen-part series began in November 2009 and was now hosted by Barney Harwood and Gemma Hunt. The show was retitled "Bamzooki: Street Rules" and featured a dramatic change in the appearance (which appropriately took place on the streets and inside a tower), a revamped toolkit with improved physics and graphics and a "Zook Doctor". However, no series of Bamzooki has been aired since.
A Zook is an autonomous creature designed by users and contestants in the gameshow. Created using 3D primitives, Zooks move autonomously based on IK points that the designer assigns to them.
Using nature as inspiration, contestants design Zooks to compete against other Zooks in a variety of competitions. The tool kit for designing Zooks is offered for download on the show's website. Also, more recently, two new Zook-Kit features have been released that allow users to simulate the TV contests and then replay their Zooks' performances from multiple angles.
Gameware's Creature Labs team uses artificial life programming techniques to provide the Zooks' autonomous movement and behaviour and integrates this with the BBC's virtual studio system to enable real-time visualisations in a studio setting.
The toolkit, the Bamzooki Zook Kit, enables users to build virtual creatures, Zooks, and test them in a real time physically simulated environment. Kids used this software to build Zooks which were submitted to the BBC. Teams were selected and invited into the studio to enter their Zooks in various contests. The new series 'bamzooki streetrules' which aired in November 2009 features fully interactive contests, where the participants direct their zooks by shouting instructions as well as contests set on the streets and rooftops. 36 teams were selected to take part in the championships with 9 heats a semi finals and a final.
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Wikipedia