I remember it being on somewhere in the 1983-1987 time period. It was a game show for kids where it was essentially a video game competition. Players would play on the old upright arcade games (Zaxxon, Pac-Man, etc).
It would appear that you are describing the old game show “Starcade”, which was hosted by Geoff Edwards, and ran for a single season in (I believe) 1982-1983.
If you get the G4TV network (the video game channel), you can see reruns of the show.