I just want to say Hugo the TV troll was so much fun to watch in the early 90s as a kid. I used to always wonder why all the people who dialled into the talk show to play the game sucked so much at the game itself, but I am sure this was because of a massive input lag.

Later I got the game for my PC and played it with my younger cousins and they loved it to bits as well.

There was something so playable about it and the graphics were magical to the watch for young minds.

Awesome story you have about the origins of the game :) Cheers.

Yes, latency. I joined some of the same people later in a spawned-off company that created a similar concept called The Nelly Nut Show (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0346350/). We had serious issues selling to the US because there was a required delay of 7 seconds on live shows so that any cursing could be bleeped out. Silly Americans :-D

I never saw the program, but it's a pretty cool concept, using a phone as a controller for live broadcast game-play.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3MSE8Kde9w

Go back a generation before that and check out TV POWWWW.

Yes, this was pretty hi-tech for 1979:

https://retrobitch.wordpress.com/2017/06/16/tv-poww-the-earl...

There was also a "Clube do Hugo" in Brazil! Never would have guessed it ran on an Amiga, by that time PC's were already commonplace. Brazil is a Huge country, but I think most telephone lines at the time were analog, so the delay was likely small enough to allow it.

I remember Hugo! It was shown on TV for young kids here in Argentina, so I wasn't its target audience (and never really paid attention to it). I never would have guessed it ran on an Amiga!

When the Video Toaster came out, many production companies had committed to the Mac platform, and pressured NewTek into releasing a Video Toaster for Mac product.

Such a product did come out, in the form of a box that plugged into the Mac's SCSI port with a "special keyboard" for "special commands". The box was, of course, a Toaster-equipped Amiga 2000 with its badge covered by a Video Toaster badge, and the "special keyboard" was the Amiga's keyboard.

I used to watch it in the 90's on Israeli TV!

I watched it in Finnish TV too! I never realized what a global phenomena it apparently was :D

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_(game_show)

It also became popular here in Spain.

Yeah I remember that program. When I saw it it immediately felt like that was something that was probably running on an Amiga, glad to see a confirmation.

I remember when I first heard the rumour that Hugo was made on the Amiga, very cool. Looks like you're Danish, but I always thought it was Swedish?

It was Danish indeed :-)

There was similar concept/copycat game running on Polish TV in late nineties. Between 24 and 6 a premium number letting you call in and waste money playing some fishing? or submarine? game with random prizes.

I can tell you it was quite popular in Portugal, keeping kids busy during the afternoon.

I used to love Hugo! Always called the station as a kid hoping I get to play with my phone keypad.

Holy ... This thing was a cultural smash at the time.