Sky Gamestar

Sky Gamestar was an interactive service launched on 1st October 2001 as part of the launch of Sky Active, being the successor to the *Open....* interactive portal. The service consisted of over 200 games produced by different companies, albeit Denki, Waterfront Entertainment, Mind's Eye Productions etc.

The service initially pointed out for women and children. In December 2003, the Sky Gamestar portal received its first major UI overhaul - games now of a 4x2 grid of tiles which would play preview videos when hovered over

As seen on the entry for Gamestar's rebrand, 11% of boys aged 4-9 used the service, as 8% of girls aged 4-9 did so, 9% of boys aged 10-15, 10% of girls aged 10-15, 9% of men aged 16-24, 9% of women aged 16-24, 7% of men aged 25-44, 11% of women aged 25-44, 6% of men aged 45+ and 20% of women aged 45+ used the service perspectively.

Sky would often charge 60 pence for a game session, being known as "Pay2Play" - using the box's internal 33.6k modem to communicate transactions. Alternatively, a select number of games were selected weekly to be under the "Star Day Pass", of which people pay £1.50 to play those selected games for 24 hours. These payments would be added onto the customer's Sky bill.

New games would be released on Thursdays, as companies worked overtime to produce new titles for the service. After five years of service, Sky Gamestar was replaced by Sky Games on 4 April 2007.

Kathy Kavan designed the Sky Gamestar menus between 2003 and 2007.

## Gallery

### Guide

Sky Guide (1/11/01) (credit: UKTVfromthepast on Youtube)Sky Guide (23/3/02) (credit: UKTVfromthepast on Youtube)Coming next... (credit: UKTVfromthepast on Youtube)
### 2001-2003

Used between October 2001 and December 2003.

1 November 2001 (credit: UKTVfromthepast on Youtube)1 November 2001 (credit: UKTVfromthepast on Youtube)1 November 2001 (credit: UKTVfromthepast on Youtube)1 November 2001 (credit: UKTVfromthepast on Youtube)1 November 2001 (credit: UKTVfromthepast on Youtube)1 November 2001 (credit: UKTVfromthepast on Youtube)1 November 2001 (credit: UKTVfromthepast on Youtube)23 March 2002 (credit: UKTVfromthepast on Youtube)23 March 2002 (credit: UKTVfromthepast on Youtube)23 March 2002 (credit: UKTVfromthepast on Youtube)23 March 2002 (credit: UKTVfromthepast on Youtube)23 March 2002 (credit: UKTVfromthepast on Youtube)2002Autumn 2002 (credit: BroadbandBananas)Autumn 2002 (credit: BroadbandBananas)Autumn 2002 (credit: BroadbandBananas)August 2003 (credit: TV Archive)
### 2003-2005

Used between December 2003 and October 2005, designed by Kathy Kavan.

December 2003 (credit: Mind Eye Productions)December 2003 (credit: Mind Eye Productions)December 2003 (credit: Mind Eye Productions)December 2003 (credit: Mind Eye Productions)December 2003 (credit: Mind Eye Productions)December 2003 (credit: Mind Eye Productions)December 200313 February 2005 (credit: BroadbandBananas)13 February 2005 (credit: BroadbandBananas)13 February 2005 (credit: BroadbandBananas)13 February 2005 (credit: BroadbandBananas)8 August 2005 (credit: Denki Team)8 August 2005 (credit: Denki Team)8 August 2005 (credit: Denki Team)8 August 2005 (credit: Denki Team)8 August 2005 (credit: Denki Team)8 August 2005 (credit: Denki Team)8 August 2005 (credit: Denki Team)8 August 2005 (credit: Denki Team)8 August 2005 (credit: Denki Team)8 August 2005 (credit: Denki Team)8 August 2005 (credit: Denki Team)
### 2005-2007

Used between October 2005 to April 2007, designed by Kathy Kavan.

13 October 200513 October 200513 October 200513 October 200513 October 200513 October 200513 October 200513 October 200513 October 2005December 2006December 2006December 2006December 2006
## Payment screen

Note: These were used as late as January 2015 for some games released by Gamestar.

25 May 2013 (credit: JWS25 on Discord)Connecting(credit: JWS25 on Discord)Connection Failed (credit: JWS25 on Discord)Help (credit: JWS25 on Discord)
## Soundtracks

### 2001-2003

Loading & home screen: Sky Techno E-Tune 2 by David Hughes & John Murphy

Most sections: Sky Bassophere by David Hughes

Prizes Quizzes section: Sky Slimboy Fat by Danny Griffiths, David Hughes & John Murphy

Cartoon Network section: Unknown but contains some CN themes (remixed)

### 2003-2007

Over 8 music tracks were composed throughout the 2003 era (but it is unknown who composed them all), each track would last around 60 seconds and then loops itself.