Mad TV, Back on Air: A Fan Editor and the ModTV-Goldstandard 2026
Christchurch, New Zealand — 03/11/26 — ModTV is the newest release from Vanterra Arts: a free, fan-made editor for the 1991 DOS classic Mad TV by Rainbow Arts – together with the ModTV-Goldstandard 2026, a carefully curated mod that brings the legendary TV station sim into the present day.
A Dream Decades in the Making
For Fred Vanterra, Mad TV is simply the crown of its genre: the pixel art, the gameplay, the unmistakable retro feeling. Sequels and imitators came and went, but one wish stayed for decades – more variety and more fresh ideas in the programme schedule. Only now, through the collaboration of human vision and Claude Code, did that wish finally become reality.
What’s Inside
ModTV is a standalone Windows editor that reads and writes Mad TV’s own data files – reverse-engineered byte by byte. Films, series and episodes, advertisers, news stories, genres, audience curves and even the little TV pictures can be changed and shared as small .modtv packages. The ModTV-Goldstandard 2026 shows what that makes possible:
- 200 films, from silent classics to Dune: Part Two, with fresh prices, ratings and box office values
- 50 series with real and invented episode titles – plus new comedy, drama and documentary series
- 50 advertisers, from tiny sherbet brands to global giants, each with its own campaign style and a few cheeky slogans
- 30 news stories that unfold over several days (yes, the climate gets 0.1 degrees warmer with every follow-up)
- New genres like horror and drama, with their own audience curves across the evening
- Five new TV pictures, gently pixelled in the original style
Human Vision, AI Craftsmanship
Like every recent Vanterra Arts project, ModTV is an AI hybrid. The file formats, a Huffman-compressed picture format and the audience formula hidden deep inside MTV.EXE were decoded together with Claude Code; the new TV pictures started out as ChatGPT artwork and were carefully pixelled into the original style. Every film, slogan and headline, however, was curated, playtested in DOSBox and finalised by human hand.
Limited Physical Edition 💾
Because a game from 1991 deserves it, the Goldstandard also comes on a real 3.5″ floppy disk – with installer, uninstaller and a readme in proper 90s style, all in just 435 KB. Limited, on request via Ko-fi. Donations are welcome, but never required.
Availability
ModTV and the ModTV-Goldstandard 2026 are available now for free on itch.io. ModTV is a German-language fan project made for the German release of Mad TV; you’ll need your own copy of the game, DOSBox and Windows 10 or 11.
ModTV is an unofficial fan project and is not affiliated with Rainbow Arts or the current rights holders of Mad TV. It contains no original game data. Mad TV is a trademark of its respective owners.
