A short-lived hour long action show about a video game coming to life that aired on fledgling network {{UPN}} in 1995. Most notable for the involvement of Creator/LeonardNimoy as an executive producer and Creator/ChristopherLloyd as the series' BigBad, Jackal.

Recently-divorced physicist Gus Lloyd decides to take his mind off things by creating a video game in his spare time. In it, he is the hero "The Cold-Steel Kid". Along with LoveInterest "The Girl" (based off his ex-wife Lauren), he fights the forces of the evil Jackal, who are all based off [[WriteWhoYouKnow people from Gus's life who have upset him]].

[[HandWave Somehow]], Gus's latest experiment causes the characters from the game to come to life, and they're planning on carrying out the schemes from the game. Now Gus, along with his best friend Peter and the reluctant Lauren (since "her" charcter is important to the game), have to find and stop his characters before they can carry out their missions.

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!!Tropes:

* AttackItsWeakPoint: The villans are basically impervious to everything except a few, sometimes very specific, items.
* BigBad: Jackal
* ButtMonkey: Gus, apparently, based off the sheer number of people Gus feels have wronged him in his life. Shots of his game notes reveal there were several dozen villans in his game that never got episodes because the show got cancelled.
* ColorCodedForYourConvenience: [[SubvertedTrope Subverted.]] Jackal wears all white. [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] when Gus mentions he was subverting the black-clad bad guy trope when designing Jackal.
* DistressedDamsel: Lauren's video game alter-ego "The Girl". Not Lauren herself, though.
* EnemyMine: Gus and Jackal work together to defeat the villain Gus's practical joker friend Danny created.
* TheGameComeToLife
* HerCodeNameWasMarySue: This show would be a perfect example of this trope if it wasn't so obscure. The whole concept of the show is the main character created a video game where he's the hero, his ex-wife is the love interest, and the villains are all people he knows and who he thinks wronged him. HarsherInHindsight this side of [[{{Sonichu}} Chris-chan]].
* HeyItsThatGuy: Several appeared in the show, usually, but not always, as the episode's villain.
* InspectorJavert: A P.I. hired by Lauren's fiance after she disappears spends a few episodes following Gus around thinking he's up to something.
* MonsterOfTheWeek
* MsFanservice: Kathy Ireland's character, both in Gus's game and on the show.
* NewMediaAreEvil: It was a TV show about a video game that came to life and killed people.
* NotThatKindOfDoctor: Gus, who has a [=PhD=], in one episode has to point this out.
* TheOnlyOneAllowedToDefeatYou: The reason Jackal gives for saving Gus from a villain that isn't one of his.
* OpeningNarration
* PacManFever: All the "game footage" shown is actually regular live action footage. By comparison, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:ChronoTriggerInside.PNG what video games]] [[http://finalfight.classicgaming.gamespy.com/ff3level1.html actually looked like]] [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Civ2.png in the mid '90s]].
** Arguably subverted. There were plenty of games around the time the show was made that made used of digitized actors. Games such as [[http://ui27.gamefaqs.com/250/gfs_29347_2_8.jpg Lethal Enforcers]], [[http://ui13.gamefaqs.com/2316/gfs_36849_3_1.jpg Terminator 2 Arcade]], [[http://ui30.gamefaqs.com/2301/gfs_36835_2_27.jpg Revolution X]], [[http://www.examiner.com/images/blog/EXID14825/images/Night_Trap_3DO.jpg Night Trap]], [[http://ui06.gamefaqs.com/965/gfs_28415_2_15.jpg Seventh Guest]], [[http://ui24.gamefaqs.com/1431/gfs_36825_2_6.jpg Mortal Kombat]], and [[http://ui22.gamefaqs.com/2485/gfs_28904_2_9.jpg and WrestleMania Arcade]]. The games seem to be limited to Rail Shooter, Point and Click Adventure, and Fighting games, although it wasn't made that clear what type of game the guy was making, it could easily been the former two.
* PracticalJoke: One VillainOfTheWeek (played by Creator/BrentSpiner) has this as his theme, complete with a killer joy buzzer.
* RantInducingSlight: Every episode, Gus explains the incident with the person that week's villain is based off of. More than once, Lauren and/or Peter tell him it's a really silly thing to still be this upset over.
* RomanticRunnerUp: Lauren's new fiance.
* SaveTheGirlScrewTheWorld: When Lauren is accidentally dragged into the game, Gus recreates the accident that brought the characters to life. He rescues Lauren, but this also means bringing Jackal back to life.
* SaveThePrincess: Part of the game viewers see includes "The Girl" in a dungeon wondering where the hero is.
* ShinyNewAustralia: Jackal offers Lauren a chance to rule New York when he takes over if she'll stop helping Gus. Charcaters wondering whether he meant [[BigApplesauce the city]] or the state becomes a RunningGag in the episode.
* TheEndOrIsIt: The computer screen in the emtpy lab types away by itself, apparently opening a new program. We hear "Tough luck kid..." and then cut to credits.
* TheTropeKid
* WeaksauceWeakness: Some of the villans have weaknesses like water, sugar, and soap.
* WhyDontYouJustShootHim: Jackal spends an awful lot of time talking to Gus and not killing him, especially since he's the only one who knows about Jackal's unusual nature and how to stop him and his minions. Maybe he's just not programmed that way.
* WriteWhoYouKnow
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