Play in your browser
No emulation: a real port!
The game has been rewritten from scratch, starting from the original code, instruction by instruction, and it runs right in any browser, with nothing to install or configure.
The classic TV management game
Television is back
on air.
A faithful rebuild to play Mad TV online, right in your browser, with nothing to install and a few small improvements.
- Safe
- Nothing to install
- Non-commercial project
Behind the scenes
A tribute to Mad TV
Mad TV captured the imagination of a whole generation of simulation and television fans. This independent project rebuilds the experience for the browser, preserving its atmosphere, humour and mechanics.
The port keeps the heart of the game intact, fixes some historic bugs and adds small improvements to make it run smoothly on modern platforms.
01
True to the original (and then some)
Same atmosphere and same gameplay, enriched with more languages and a secret kept hidden for over 35 years.
See the improvements
- The original game's atmosphere, humour and pace, preserved.
- More languages. Now you can play in Italian, French and Spanish too.
- The legend comes to life. The Game Boy works now! The legend of the Game Boy When we were kids, a rumour went around among the friends who played Mad TV. Someone swore that if you clicked the Game Boy, you could play Tetris. I clicked that Game Boy hundreds of times, in every way possible, and nothing ever happened. Over time I became convinced it was just a legend. More than thirty years later I decided to rebuild Mad TV from scratch, line by line, starting from the original 1991 code. And there, inside the executable, something turned up that I never expected. The Tetris game really was there. Hidden in the code of the DOS version was a complete Tetris-like minigame called MADRIS! It works perfectly: the graphics, the rules, the controls! Except that for 35 years nobody could ever play it (at least I never managed to!). Clicking the Game Boy was blocked by a single “switch” in the game's memory, and no instruction in the program ever turned it on. MADRIS was probably active in the development builds, and the code that unlocked it was removed shortly before release. Everything else stayed there, dormant, all these years. And the legend going around among the kids? Maybe pure invention: Tetris was the most popular Game Boy game back then. Or maybe someone had seen a test version and talked about it, and the rumour made its way to the school playgrounds. But one thing was certain: that Game Boy drawn on the desk, its screen flashing now and then, was just begging to be clicked! Today, in this tribute, you finally can. Walk into your office, click the Game Boy on the desk and play MADRIS, exactly as the Rainbow Arts programmers wrote it in 1991!
03
Historic bugs fixed
Always wanted to rearrange the room labels on the building's info board without the game freezing? No more crashes!
See the fixes
| Bug | What happened in 1991 |
|---|---|
| Ground-floor info board | Moving the labels around would sooner or later freeze the game (English version only). |
| Bomb in the archive | The game froze for good, usually while entering the room that was hit. |
| Day change at 01:00 | If 01:00 came while the supermarket clerk or the screenplay agent was about to talk to you, the game spun idly forever. |
More bugs fixed More bugs fixed Film no. 200 without a title. John Carpenter’s “Prince of Darkness” appeared as “xxx” in the English version, with a corrupted title and description in the German one. Bingo! When you caught a rival in your own room, only the first channel got the bonus, and clicking the door again paid it out again, forever. Now it works for every channel and the caught rival runs off at once. Ratings info card. Hovering over the current rating while an advert no longer under contract was on air could make the game search for it forever. Advertising offers card. With zero viewers the game would have stopped with a division-by-zero error. Casting at the supermarket. In some cases random fragments of graphics were drawn instead of the catalogue. Planner under the Control-Center. With the Control-Center window open, the programme and advert plates of the planner behind it did not update at the hour changes until you closed it. The letter that would not close. Clicking a letter in the planner left it on the screen while the programmes underneath were moved without being seen. Now it closes at once.
Open line
Visitors' guestbook
Leave a memory, a bug report or a suggestion. Messages are published immediately and may be moderated later.
Credits and rights
By fans, for fans.
This is an independent, free and non-commercial project, created purely as a tribute to Mad TV, the video game published by Rainbow Arts in 1991.
This project is unofficial and is not affiliated with, endorsed or sponsored by Rainbow Arts or any current rights holders. Mad TV and all material relating to the original game belong to their respective owners.
If you are a rights holder and believe that any content in this project infringes your rights, please contact me right away using the private form: I will change or remove the material concerned as soon as possible.
Thanks to everyone, Massimo Guareschi
Private channel
Contact the project
This form lets you reach me without any email address being made public. Messages are not shown on the site.
End credits
Thank you, Rainbow Arts.
Mad TV © 1991 Rainbow Arts. The rights to the original game belong to Rainbow Arts and its successors in title. Thanks to all the people who created this fantastic game:
- Project Manager, Idea
- Ralph Stock
- Graphics
- Thomas Andrae
- Programming Original PC Version
- Stefan Hoffmann
- Additional Programming
- Christian Krämer
- Programming Amiga & ST Version
- Heiko Schröder
- Sound Amiga & ST Version
- Rudolf Stember
- Sound PC Version
- Jochen Heß
- Additional Graphics
- Michael Hoffmann
- Testing
- Bastian Bongertz
- Andreas Königsdorff
- Manual and Cover-Design
- „schaff’MEISTER…!“, Düsseldorf
- Artwork
- International Top Artists, Dollnstein
- English translation
- Donald Maple
From the credits of the original manual.