Bamzooki: Difference between revisions

*Bamzooki*
Bamzooki
Also known as	Bamzooki: Street Rules
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	English
No. of series	4
No. of episodes	56
Production
Running time	30 minutes
Original release
Network	CBBC (2004, 2009–10); BBC One (2006);
Release	8 March 2004 –; 3 February 2010

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Bamzooki (styled as BAMZOOKi) is a British children's television game show for CBBC. Teams engage in knockout tournaments comprising a series of augmented reality contests, utilizing their virtual mobile creatures, known as "Zooks." The Zooks were created by the contestants using a computer-generated toolkit developed by Gameware Development.^[1] The toolkit was free to download from the CBBC website for the public to use.

The original series premiered in March 2004 on the CBBC channel, and was presented by Jake Humphrey. It initially ran until 2006, airing over forty episodes across three seasons. A new thirteen-part revival series, set on a street, titled "Bamzooki: Street Rules”, premiered in November 2009 with new presenters—Barney Harwood and Gemma Hunt—, a revamped toolkit with improved graphics and physics, new contests, new "House Zooks," a new format, and a "Zook Doctor."

History

Bamzooki: Street Rules

Following the show's initial run, a new series entitled "Bamzooki: Street Rules" was broadcast between 2009 and 2010. The premise of "Street Rules" involved the government treating the competition as if it were an illegal combat sport, leading to attempted crackdowns. In each episode, four teams participated, with each team having one Zook.

They took part in a street race at the beginning of each show, and the winning team picked an opponent for the next game, a best of three, one-on-one round. The two losing Zooks took part in another challenge called "Pressure Pusher," with the loser being destroyed. The final three Zooks competed in a time-trial challenge, with the losing zook being destroyed. The final two competed in a rooftop assault course, with the going to the next stage, along with the three losers.^[2]

A total of nine house Zooks competed in the game, including Mimi (who serves as the mascot in this series as well as in the Boulder Dash and Zook chicken games), The Beast, Peachy, Derek, Predator, Centi, Punka, Punkalicious, and Mean Green.

Technology

A Zook is an autonomous creature designed by users and contestants on the gameshow. Created using 3D primitives, Zooks move autonomously based on IK points assigned by the designer.

Inspired by nature, contestants design Zooks to compete in various competitions. The toolkit for designing Zooks is available for download on the show's website. Recently, two new features have been added to the Zook-Kit, allowing users to simulate TV contests and replay their Zooks' performances from multiple angles.

Gameware's Creature Labs team uses artificial life programming techniques to provide the Zooks' autonomous movement and behavior. This is integrated with the BBC's virtual studio system for real-time visualizations in a studio setting.

The Bamzooki Zook Kit enables users to build virtual creatures, called Zooks, and test them in a real-time, physically simulated environment. Kids used this software to build Zooks and submitted them to the BBC. Selected teams were invited to the studio to enter their Zooks in various contests. The new series "Bamzooki: Street Rules," which aired in November 2009, features fully interactive contests where participants direct their Zooks by shouting instructions, as well as contests set on the streets and rooftops. Thirty-six teams were selected for the championships, which included nine heats, a semi-final, and a final.

The software and manual were freely available from the BBC website. Although designed to be easy enough for children to use, it is highly flexible and versatile. Zooks are constructed from basic components that users shape and assemble. Users are not restricted to particular body designs or topologies, although the control system uses a standard Braitenberg architecture.

The BBC's Virtual Studio technology was used to enable real-time composition of the 3D-rendered graphics with live camera feeds. Each studio camera has a dedicated render PC to render the virtual scene from that camera's perspective. To know what a studio camera's perspective is, each camera is fitted with a second "Free-D" camera that points towards the ceiling. On the ceiling are reflective, circular bar codes. The 3-D camera data is fed to a computer system that identifies the targets on the ceiling and calculates the camera's position and orientation 50 times a second. Series 4 adopted Vinten tracking peds instead of FREE-D as an alternative approach.

The contest runs in real time on a networked PC. All the clients receive contest scene information and render their scenes from their studio camera's point of view. A bank of chroma key boxes then composites the virtual and the live feed together to provide a real-time composite. This video stream can be sent to the studio camera monitors so that camera operators can view the composite and hence follow the action in real time.

The toolkit (a modified version of the Bonsai artificial life program) has at times been utilized by adults for their own purposes, including research.^[3]

Community

A popular aim in Bamzooki was to get a Zook into the galleries or leagues, as they are often the most viewed and downloaded Zooks. To get into the leagues, you have to make a maxed-out zook on a specific event; these events are sprint, block push, hurdles, high jump, and lap. Every month, the CBBC Bamzooki site releases a new gallery based on a topic like "space zooks" or "spooky zooks." For every gallery, there are 16 spaces, and the Zook moderators choose the best-looking zooks to take those places. A toolkit was praised for its educational value, teaching basic principles of physics, animation, and programming. Although primarily aimed at children, the software was sophisticated enough to be used by adults for research purposes.^[4]^[5]

A relatively new league is the Ultimate Zook Leaderboard, where scores from all the trials are aggregated into one score, which zooks are then compared on.

Episodes

Series	Start date	End date	Episodes
1	8 March 2004	2 April 2004	20
2	8 March 2005	1 April 2005	13
3	26 February 2006	26 March 2006	10
4	11 November 2009	3 February 2010	13

References

^ "Gameware Studio Diary". Gameware Development. Archived from the original on 17 May 2011. Retrieved 15 January 2023.
^ "Weaver's Week 2010-02-07". UKGameshows.com. 7 February 2010. Retrieved 15 January 2023.
^ Rea, Heather J (2015). "CBBC BAMZOOKi ™ as a Tool for Engineering Design Research". Academia.edu. Retrieved 15 January 2023.
^ "BAMZOOKi - Leagues". CBBC. Archived from the original on 23 December 2008.
^ "BAMZOOKi - Galleries". CBBC. Archived from the original on 23 December 2008.

External links

[1] "Gameware Studio Diary". Gameware Development. Archived from the original on 17 May 2011. Retrieved 15 January 2023.

[2] "Weaver's Week 2010-02-07". UKGameshows.com. 7 February 2010. Retrieved 15 January 2023.

[3] Rea, Heather J (2015). "CBBC BAMZOOKi ™ as a Tool for Engineering Design Research". Academia.edu. Retrieved 15 January 2023.

[4] "BAMZOOKi - Leagues". CBBC. Archived from the original on 23 December 2008.

[5] "BAMZOOKi - Galleries". CBBC. Archived from the original on 23 December 2008.

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@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
+{{Short description|British children's game show}}
-{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2013}}
-{{unreferenced|date=February 2013}}
+{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2016}}
+{{Multiple issues|
+{{Tone|date=January 2023}}
+{{More citations needed|date=January 2023}}
+}}
 {{Infobox television
-| show_name          = Bamzooki
+| image        = Bamzooki.png
+| alt_name     = Bamzooki: Street Rules
-| image              = [[Image:Bamzooki.png|220px]]
-| caption            =
+| genre        = [[Children's]] [[Game show]]
-| picture_format     = [[16:9]]
+| presenter    = {{Plainlist|
+* [[Jake Humphrey]] <small>(2004–06)</small>
-| runtime            = 30 minutes
+* [[Barney Harwood]] <small>(2009–10)</small>
-| creator            =
+* [[Gemma Hunt]] <small>(2009–10)</small>
-| starring           = [[Jake Humphrey]] (2004-2006)<br />[[Barney Harwood]] (2009-2010)<br />[[Gemma Hunt]] (2009-2010)
+}}
-| narrated           = [[Richie Webb]]
-| country            = United Kingdom
+| voices       = [[Richie Webb]]
-| network            = [[CBBC]]
+| country      = United Kingdom
-| company            = [[BBC]]
+| language     = English
+| num_series   = 4
-| first_aired        = 8 March 2004
+| num_episodes = 56
-| last_aired  = 3 February 2010
+| runtime      = 30 minutes
-  Revived series : 23 November 2011
-| num_series         = 4
+| network      = {{Plainlist|
+* [[CBBC]] <small>(2004, 2009–10)</small>
-| num_episodes       =
+* [[BBC One]] <small>(2006)</small>
+}}
+| first_aired  = {{Start date|2004|03|08|df=yes}}
+| last_aired   = {{End date|2010|02|03|df=yes}}
 }}
+'''''Bamzooki''''' (styled as '''''BAMZOOKi''''') is a British [[children's]] [[television]] [[game show]] for [[CBBC]]. Teams engage in knockout tournaments comprising a series of augmented reality contests, utilizing their virtual mobile creatures, known as "Zooks." The Zooks were created by the contestants using a computer-generated toolkit developed by Gameware Development.<ref>{{cite web |title=Gameware Studio Diary |url=http://www.gamewaredevelopment.com/diary.php |archive-date=2011-05-17 |access-date=2023-01-15 |website=Gameware Development|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110517015602/http://www.gamewaredevelopment.com/diary.php }}</ref> The toolkit was free to download from the CBBC website for the public to use.
-'''''Bamzooki''''' (styled as '''''BAMZOOKi''''') is a [[mixed reality]] [[television]] [[gameshow]] on the [[BBC]] which features a toolkit developed by Gameware Development. The first series aired in March 2004 on [[CBBC]]. The show was presented by [[Jake Humphrey]]. It has occasionally featured specials with [[Sophie McDonnell]]. In July 2008, it was announced on CBBC on BBC One 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 lets Young people show off their skills in zookiology. The first episode of the new series featured young people aged 6-13 in 2008, this included Joe Perrinski, Edward Gidman, Sarah Pritchard and Kelvin Cooper.
+The original series premiered in March 2004 on the [[CBBC|CBBC channel]], and was presented by [[Jake Humphrey]]. It initially ran until 2006, airing over forty episodes across three seasons. A new thirteen-part revival series, set on a street, titled "Bamzooki: Street Rules”, premiered in November 2009 with new presenters—[[Barney Harwood]] and [[Gemma Hunt]]—, a revamped toolkit with improved graphics and physics, new contests, new "House Zooks," a new format, and a "Zook Doctor."
-==Zooks==
-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.
+==History==
-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.
+=== ''Bamzooki: Street Rules'' ===
+Following the show's initial run, a new series entitled "''Bamzooki: Street Rules"'' was broadcast between 2009 and 2010. The premise of "Street Rules" involved the government treating the competition as if it were an illegal combat sport, leading to attempted crackdowns. In each episode, four teams participated, with each team having one Zook.
+They took part in a street race at the beginning of each show, and the winning team picked an opponent for the next game, a best of three, one-on-one round. The two losing Zooks took part in another challenge called "Pressure Pusher," with the loser being destroyed. The final three Zooks competed in a time-trial challenge, with the losing zook being destroyed. The final two competed in a rooftop assault course, with the going to the next stage, along with the three losers.<ref>{{cite web |date=2010-02-07 |title=Weaver's Week 2010-02-07 |url=http://www.ukgameshows.com/ukgs/Weaver%27s_Week_2010-02-07 |access-date=2023-01-15 |website=[[UKGameshows.com]]}}</ref>
-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.
+A total of nine house Zooks competed in the game, including Mimi (who serves as the mascot in this series as well as in the Boulder Dash and Zook chicken games), The Beast, Peachy, Derek, Predator, Centi, Punka, Punkalicious, and Mean Green.
-==In more detail==
-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.
+==Technology==
-The software was freely available from the BBC site along with the manual. Although designed to be easy enough to be used by kids, it is highly flexible and versatile. Zooks are built from the bottom-up with elementary component parts that the user shapes and sticks together. Users are not restricted to particular body designs or topologies, although the control system uses a standard [[Braitenberg Vehicles|Braitenberg]] architecture.
+A Zook is an autonomous creature designed by users and contestants on the gameshow. Created using 3D primitives, Zooks move autonomously based on IK points assigned by the designer.
+Inspired by nature, contestants design Zooks to compete in various competitions. The toolkit for designing Zooks is available for download on the show's website. Recently, two new features have been added to the Zook-Kit, allowing users to simulate TV contests and replay their Zooks' performances from multiple angles.
-The BBC's [[Virtual studio|Virtual Studio]] technology was used to enable real time composition of the 3D rendered graphics with live camera feeds. Each studio camera has a dedicated render PC to render the virtual scene from that camera's perspective. To know what a studio camera's perspective is, each camera is fitted with a second 'Free-D' camera which points towards the ceiling. On the ceiling are reflective, circular bar codes. The 3-D camera data is fed to a computer system that identifies the targets on the ceiling and calculates that camera's position and orientation, 50 times a second. Series 4 adopted [[vinten]] tracking peds instead of FREE-D as an alternative approach.
+Gameware's [[Creatures (video game series)|Creature Labs]] team uses [[artificial life]] programming techniques to provide the Zooks' autonomous movement and behavior. This is integrated with the BBC's virtual studio system for real-time visualizations in a studio setting.
-The contest runs in real time on a networked PC. All the clients receive contest scene information and render their scene from their studio camera's point of view. A bank of [[chromakey]] boxes then composite the virtual and the live feed together to provide a real time composite. This video stream can be sent to the studio camera monitors so that camera operators can view the composite and hence follow the action in real time.
+The Bamzooki Zook Kit enables users to build virtual creatures, called Zooks, and test them in a real-time, physically simulated environment. Kids used this software to build Zooks and submitted them to the BBC. Selected teams were invited to the studio to enter their Zooks in various contests. The new series "Bamzooki: Street Rules," which aired in November 2009, features fully interactive contests where participants direct their Zooks by shouting instructions, as well as contests set on the streets and rooftops. Thirty-six teams were selected for the championships, which included nine heats, a semi-final, and a final.
-There is a non-children's user-base establishing itself, using the toolkit (a modified version of the Bonsai artificial life program) for their own purposes.{{Citation needed|date=September 2009}}
+The software and manual were freely available from the BBC website. Although designed to be easy enough for children to use, it is highly flexible and versatile. Zooks are constructed from basic components that users shape and assemble. Users are not restricted to particular body designs or topologies, although the control system uses a standard [[Braitenberg Vehicles|Braitenberg]] architecture.
-===Story of 2009 series===
-The show itself has now been considered (fictionally) by the government as if it were an illegal combat sport, and have been trying to shut down the underground organisation (led by new presenters Barney and Gemma) ever since. There are now four teams in each episode with one zook each. They take part in a street race at the beginning of each show, and the winning team gets to pick an opponent in the next game (Which is one-on-one and best of three). The two losing zooks take part in another challenge called pressure pusher with the zook that loses it being destroyed (each time a zook is destroyed, edited stock footage is used to show the considerably comical demise of each zook). The final three do a time-trial challenge, and again the losing zook is destroyed. The last two then compete in a rooftop assault course. The winner of this goes through to the next stage, as do the three losers who were fastest in the street race (The rest are destroyed). There are more house zooks too, a total of nine, These house zooks are called Mimi (she is also used as the symbol of Bamzooki in this series, and also used in the Boulder Dash and zook chicken game), The Beast, Peachy, Derek, Predator, Centi, Punka and Punkalicious and the winner of the series, Mean Green.
-The new series finished on 3 February 2010; it was broadcast at 5:15pm on the CBBC Channel.
+The BBC's [[Virtual studio|Virtual Studio]] technology was used to enable real-time composition of the 3D-rendered graphics with live camera feeds. Each studio camera has a dedicated render PC to render the virtual scene from that camera's perspective. To know what a studio camera's perspective is, each camera is fitted with a second "Free-D" camera that points towards the ceiling. On the ceiling are reflective, circular bar codes. The 3-D camera data is fed to a computer system that identifies the targets on the ceiling and calculates the camera's position and orientation 50 times a second. Series 4 adopted [[Vinten]] tracking peds instead of FREE-D as an alternative approach.
-==Galleries and leagues==
-A popular aim in Bamzooki is to get a Zook onto the [http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/bamzooki/galleries/ galleries] or [http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/bamzooki/leagues/ leagues] as they are often the most viewed and downloaded Zooks.
-To get onto the leagues you have to make a maxed out Zook on a specific event, these events are [http://www.bbc.co.uk/cgi-perl/apps/cbbc/bamzooki/BAMZOOKi.cgi?rm=trialleague&trialid=1 sprint], [http://www.bbc.co.uk/cgi-perl/apps/cbbc/bamzooki/BAMZOOKi.cgi?rm=trialleague&trialid=4 block push], [http://www.bbc.co.uk/cgi-perl/apps/cbbc/bamzooki/BAMZOOKi.cgi?rm=trialleague&trialid=5 hurdles], [http://www.bbc.co.uk/cgi-perl/apps/cbbc/bamzooki/BAMZOOKi.cgi?rm=trialleague&trialid=2 high jump] and [http://www.bbc.co.uk/cgi-perl/apps/cbbc/bamzooki/BAMZOOKi.cgi?rm=trialleague&trialid=3 lap].
-Every month the CBBC Bamzooki site releases a new gallery based on a topic like space Zooks or spooky Zooks,  for every gallery there are 16 spaces and the Zook moderators choose the best looking zooks to take those places.
+The contest runs in real time on a networked PC. All the clients receive contest scene information and render their scenes from their studio camera's point of view. A bank of [[chroma key]] boxes then composites the virtual and the live feed together to provide a real-time composite. This video stream can be sent to the studio camera monitors so that camera operators can view the composite and hence follow the action in real time.
-A relatively new league is the Ultimate Zook leaderboard where scores from all the trials are aggregated into one score which zooks are then compared on.
+The toolkit (a modified version of the Bonsai artificial life program) has at times been utilized by adults for their own purposes, including research.<ref>{{cite web |last=Rea |first=Heather J |date=2015 |title=CBBC BAMZOOKi ™ as a Tool for Engineering Design Research |url=https://www.academia.edu/69901337 |access-date=2023-01-15 |website=[[Academia.edu]]}}</ref>
+==Community==
+{{Update|section|date=January 2023}}
+A popular aim in Bamzooki was to get a Zook into the galleries or leagues, as they are often the most viewed and downloaded Zooks. To get into the leagues, you have to make a maxed-out zook on a specific event; these events are sprint, block push, hurdles, high jump, and lap. Every month, the CBBC Bamzooki site releases a new gallery based on a topic like "space zooks" or "spooky zooks." For every gallery, there are 16 spaces, and the Zook moderators choose the best-looking zooks to take those places. A toolkit was praised for its educational value, teaching basic principles of physics, animation, and programming. Although primarily aimed at children, the software was sophisticated enough to be used by adults for research purposes.<ref>{{cite web |title=BAMZOOKi - Leagues |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/bamzooki/leagues/ |website=[[CBBC]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081223112245/https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/bamzooki/leagues/ |archive-date=23 December 2008 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=BAMZOOKi - Galleries|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/bamzooki/galleries/ |website=[[CBBC]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081223112230/http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/bamzooki/galleries/ |archive-date=23 December 2008 }}</ref>
+A relatively new league is the Ultimate Zook Leaderboard, where scores from all the trials are aggregated into one score, which zooks are then compared on.
+==Episodes==
+{{Disputed section|date=October 2023}}
+{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"
+|-
+! Series !! Start date !! End date !! Episodes
+|-
+| '''1''' || 8 March 2004 || 2 April 2004 || 20
+|-
+| '''2''' || 8 March 2005 || 1 April 2005 || 13
+|-
+|'''3''' || 26 February 2006 || 26 March 2006 || 10
+|-
+| '''4''' || 11 November 2009 || 3 February 2010 || 13
+|}
+==References==
+{{reflist}}
 ==External links==
+* {{BBC programme}}
-*{{BBC Online|id=cbbc/bamzooki|title=''Bamzooki''}}
+* {{IMDb title|id=2065104|title=Bamzooki}}
+* {{UKGameshow|Bamzooki}}
-[[Category:BBC children's television programmes]]
+[[Category:2004 British television series debuts]]
-[[Category:2000s British television series]]
+[[Category:2010 British television series endings]]
-[[Category:2004 British television programme debuts]]
+[[Category:2000s British children's television series]]
+[[Category:2010s British children's television series]]
+[[Category:BBC high definition shows]]
+[[Category:BBC children's television shows]]
+[[Category:British children's game shows]]
 [[Category:Gameware Development games]]
-[[Category:Video games based on game shows]]
 [[Category:Mixed reality]]
+[[Category:Video games based on game shows]]
+[[Category:British English-language television shows]]
+[[Category:Television shows shot at BBC Elstree Centre]]