Icons
About Icons
Icons was one of G4's original launch series and takes a documentary style look at gaming legends and the people behind them. Icons detailed the histories of Pac-Man, Yuji Naka, EA, Apple, Peter Molyneux, Dreamcast and more. Adding to the documentary are contributors from around the gaming industry who have worked with or merely admired the Icons.
Later, the show was revamped to take the same (albiet more "underground") documentary style look at pop-culture producers, directors, artists and more. The show dropped all gaming content and all the previous game-related episodes of Icons were renamed "GameMakers."
Hosts
Little was known about Icon's original narrator, Jack Steele. G4's site lists that he lives in the underwater city of Atlantis. Icons also has regular contributions from Geoff Keighley and Epic Games' Cliffy B, as well as others related specifically to each episode's content.
History
Icons, by large and far, was hearlded as G4's best show, due to it's behind the scenes look at classic and noteworthy games and game makers. When the show was revamped shortly after the TechTV merger, there was much outcry from fans to no avail. The show began running episodes on emerging artists and film makers such as J.J. Abrams and Eli Roth, looking for a more edgy wider audience. The show only lasted one season under it's new format and ended in March of 2007.
Every previous episode of Icons that focused on games was renamed "GameMakers" and their opening intros changed to fit the new name. GameMakers was treated as if it had always been a seperate show, but never had any new episodes. GameMakers is occasionally still aired in early mornings and was featured during the G4 Rewind block in the summer of 2008.
BTW!
- Icons was one of the original 13 series that debuted with G4
- Icons had not regular host, every episode was narrated by voice overs
- Filter experienced a similar makeover as Icons when it was revamped to feature pop-culture content
- Parts of Icons can been seen on the Dead or Alive Ultimate Collection (Xbox) disc and on the Mega Man Collection (GameCube) disc.
List of Subjects Covered by Icons:
Oddworld
Nolan Bushnell
Pac-Man
Tomb Raider
Activison
Shigeru Miyamoto
EverQuest
BioWare
Will Wright
Women in Gaming
Insomniac Games
Sid Meier
Scary Games
Richard Garriott
Bruce Shelley
Madden Football
Splinter Cell
Lord of the Rings
Atari
Music Makers
Unreal
Yu Suzuki
Intellivision
Zelda
Xbox
Arcades
E3
LucasArts
Red Storm
Warren Spector
PC Gaming
The Gaming Crash
Games in the Military
Naughty Dog
Mario
Onimusha
Mega Man
Yuji Naka
Final Fantasy
Dungeons and Dragons
Music Games
Dreamcast
ESRB
Peter Molyneux
Game Boy
Tetris
EA
Donkey Kong
Nobuo Uematsu
Doom
Dead or Alive
SNK
Mortal Kombat
Prince of Persia
Mark Cuban
Metal Gear
Half-Life
Bungie
Apple II
Fighting Games
Gran Turismo