This year marks the 27th Golden Joystick Awards which will be held in London, England on 30 October 2009. For the maths-challenged that means the first GJAs was held way back in 1982.

This year, we're asking all our readers to vote, but we're aware that this being a 'global' website and the awards being a UK-based event, many of our readers might be thinking, 'WTF is this Golden Joystick thing, then?'

So to put you in the picture and give you some sense of history of the illustrious awards, here's 12 hot facts. Read it and you'll know more than the people that organise the thing... And don't forget to vote!

1. Jetpac won the first GJA Game of the Year award in 1982

Ultimate's Jetpac has the accolade of winning the first Game of the Year, which appeared on grandad game machines ZX Spectrum, BBC Micro and  the Vic-20. If you want to see why it won, you can play the original on XBLA as part of Jetpac Reloaded.

 
Above: Back in the day, games like this won awards

Other Game of the Years in the GJA's history have included bonafide classics like: Knight Lore (1984), Gauntlet (1986), Outrun (1988), Street Fighter 2 (1992), Grand Theft Auto III (2002) and Doom 3 (2004)

2. Voting has already started for the 2009 GJA Awards

As if we haven't already mentioned this, if you head over to GamesRadar's Golden Joystick Awards voting page you can give us your valuable opinion on which games deserve the coveted trophies. We genuinely want to know.

3. The winners get an actual golden (plated) joystick


Above: The gaming equivalent of an Oscar

4. The ceremony always has a celebrity compere

Everyone knows celebrities who turn up at a game events typically know nothing about games whatsoever. The Golden Joystick Awards is no exception.

 
Above: BBC's Jonathan Ross presented the 2002 awards

Aside from a few confessed gamer comperes (UK Talk Show host Jonathan Ross is a notable exception) the awards are normally presided over by an 'of-the-moment' comedian who knows naff all about games. They do one of two things - use their slot to take take the piss out of people who like or work in games (cue awkward laughter from the audience, who are 95% games industry) or say nothing whatsoever about games in their (usually very funny) opening routine.

Like we said, it's a tradition. And it wouldn't be the same without it. Globally famous presenters of the Golden Joystick Awards include Matt Lucas of Little Britain/USA, Jonthan Ross and David Mitchell (Peep Show).

 
Above: Yes, that's David Mitchell off Peep Show doing the 2007 awards

 
Above: And Little Britain's Majorie Doors (Matt Lucas) embarassed everyone in 2002

BONUS UK Specific celebrity corner:

For our UK readers here's a few other photos from the archives that show GJA presenters from the past. US readers get kudos for knowing who any of these people are...

 
Above: Radio One Superstar Dave Lee Travis in 1982

 
Above: 'Later...' presenter Jools Holland in 1987

Above: UK 'Millionaire' presenter Chris Tarrant took over in 1989

 
Above: Capital Radio DJ and general loud-mouth Danny Baker in 1991

 
Above: Friday Night Project funny man Justin Lee Collins in 2006

Okay that's enough now.

5. Some girls attend the awards


Above: Girls from The Sun newspaper give out an award

As if to remind the audience that *as a general rule* men like games more than girls, female-types are hired in to bring a bit of glamour to the proceedings, fill the gaps between the men and ensure backstage awards photographs don't look too hideous.

 

 
Not *too* hideous.

6. Mostly men of games attend

Here, have some men of games.

 

7. It's a big enough deal for the BBC to cover it

If you look carefully in the video below, broadcasted on BBC news, around the 00:12 mark you catch a glimpse of the world's most famous Cornish video game writer, our very own Matt Cundy (he's wearing a greyish suit).


Above: Click the image to see Cundy in action

Apparently his uncle has this once-in-a-lifetime moment of fame captured for eternity on a VHS tape. It was certainly a highlight in Cundy's career.

Here's the 2008 awards, as covered by the BBC.

 
Above: Click the image to watch the video

8. Last year Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare won nearly everything

We refer to the BBC once again...

 
Above: Call Of Duty 4 Modern Warfare guys got six awards. Click for the vid

9. There's always a celebrity-free 'aftershow party'

 

You know how the hottest tickets at major awards ceremonies like the Oscars, Grammies, BAFTAs and MTV are the aftershow parties? Well, after the Golden Joystick Awards there's a big aftershow party. It's exactly the same as say, the MTV Music Awards. Except it has less people at it, slightly lower-grade free drinks and no celebrities.



However, it is very much the UK games industry's drinking event of the year and if you're not there you're a nobody. Or a celebrity.

10. The voice of the UK National Lottery introduces all the nominations

We're scraping the barrel here. If you're reading this from anywhere west of Prince Edward Island, well done for scrolling this far down the page.

Anyway, the man who reads out nominations for the awards is called Alan Dedicoat, whose other claim to fame is reading out the UK National Lottery numbers on live TV.

 

That's what he looks like. If you really want to hear what he sounds like we've found a clip from YouTube for you.

11. It's the only game awards voted for by gamers

Setting the Golden Joysticks apart from other lesser game awards is the unique voting mechanic. Rather than use a bunch of stuffy uninformed judges, games are voted for by gamers themselves via CVG and GamesRadar. 

Each year a long list is voted by website users to narrow down the nominations for each category. This is followed by a shortlist phase to decide the ultimate winners, announced at an event in London, England.

This means that the games included in the list for 2009 had to have been released between May 22nd 2008 and May 22nd 2009.

12. It will be broadcast live on GamesRadar and CVG on October 30th

We don't know how or where just yet, so look out for more info on this nearer the time.