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A review by brassaf
The Gamesmaster: My Life in the '80s Geek Culture Trenches with G.I. Joe, Dungeons & Dragons, and the Transformers by Flint Dille
5.0
I’m a child of the 80s. I was a collector of Transformers, a watcher of the cartoon, a fan of the movie. I went to my friend’s house to setup and fight battles with his G.I. Joe figures. I watched Star Trek reruns and rewatched Star Wars. I remember my family renting Battle Beyond the Stars from the VHS rental store. Multiple times—I remember the Valkyrie pilot and her revealing outfit. I collected comic books and therefore became familiar with many artists’ and writers’ names. I read Dragonlance novels and played D&D with my brother and friends. I watched Buck Rogers and the Mr. T cartoon (and begged my mom to buy his cereal—“I pity the fool who don’t eat my breakfast cereal!”). I never watched Droids (irony? or a weirdly appropriate solidarity? given the gornishing Mr. Dille suffered by LucasFilm) but I should have! I played the Atari 2600 so much we probably wore out a dozen joysticks. Asteroids’ low heart beat music on both the console and quarter-gobbling arcade cabinet will forever be in my memory.
The point is: I never knew how much I needed this book. Dille covers the behind the scenes of all of this, and more. As an adult, I can appreciate the inside story of all of these phenomenon, as he lived through it and contributed to it. What is it? It is the Golden Age of the Geek 80s. I understand this decade so much better now.
Thanks to my local independent bookstore (Read It Again Books) in Suwanee, Georgia, for the ARC. I gobbled this book in just a few days and was totally engrossed by Dille’s own version of the Hero’s Journey he loved in this decade. I’m not even an aspiring script writer, animator, production assistant, or film editor, and even those parts of the book were captivating to me.
The conversational approach to his own story works not only to relate his story but also when he casually gives out advice to anyone following a career dream. His advice feels like a good friend’s advice: welcome and hard-earned.
I still have my collection of Robots in Disguise. I still have the epic soundtrack of TF: The Movie in my brain. I still have all my Dragonlance novels and vast collection of comics and Atari tapes. I still have my vintage D&D things and enjoy playing the game with the next generation amid the game’s super popular hey day of the current times.
My wife wonders why I kept all this old stuff. How could I not? It’s part of my identity. But the book isn’t just a trip down memory lane of Mr. Dille’s toy time. I’ve grown up, and can appreciate the animation and film studio and toy company and game company politics in a way that helps me to understand that decade I lived and its intersection with my game time.
I didn’t recognize Flint Dille’s name. Why would I? As he writes, he was a Professional Noob throughout his career, floating from one gig to the next or juggling several gigs simultaneously, contributing his creativity all over the 80s, and collaborating or otherwise running into the actors (including the Valkyrie) and creators (Gygax! Lucas! Spielberg!). He truly was “Almost Famous in the Geek ‘80s” but here in the 2020s, we can perhaps finally give him the fame he earned.
This well written, easy to read and fascinating tale awaits my fellow 80s geeks and nerds. I challenge you to pick it up or listen to the audio book. It’ll give you new appreciation for the decade you survived.
And now I’m wondering... what did Flint Dille do in the 90s? And the decades we never named, as he referred to the years 2000-2020. Maybe he became more than almost famous or maybe he didn’t. No matter—he was a loveable Forrest Gump of the 80s toy and game and animation scenes and that’s about all I have to say about that.
Addendum: I got to interview Mr. Dille! I geeked out hard! Check it out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZDRCxB-VZw
The point is: I never knew how much I needed this book. Dille covers the behind the scenes of all of this, and more. As an adult, I can appreciate the inside story of all of these phenomenon, as he lived through it and contributed to it. What is it? It is the Golden Age of the Geek 80s. I understand this decade so much better now.
Thanks to my local independent bookstore (Read It Again Books) in Suwanee, Georgia, for the ARC. I gobbled this book in just a few days and was totally engrossed by Dille’s own version of the Hero’s Journey he loved in this decade. I’m not even an aspiring script writer, animator, production assistant, or film editor, and even those parts of the book were captivating to me.
The conversational approach to his own story works not only to relate his story but also when he casually gives out advice to anyone following a career dream. His advice feels like a good friend’s advice: welcome and hard-earned.
I still have my collection of Robots in Disguise. I still have the epic soundtrack of TF: The Movie in my brain. I still have all my Dragonlance novels and vast collection of comics and Atari tapes. I still have my vintage D&D things and enjoy playing the game with the next generation amid the game’s super popular hey day of the current times.
My wife wonders why I kept all this old stuff. How could I not? It’s part of my identity. But the book isn’t just a trip down memory lane of Mr. Dille’s toy time. I’ve grown up, and can appreciate the animation and film studio and toy company and game company politics in a way that helps me to understand that decade I lived and its intersection with my game time.
I didn’t recognize Flint Dille’s name. Why would I? As he writes, he was a Professional Noob throughout his career, floating from one gig to the next or juggling several gigs simultaneously, contributing his creativity all over the 80s, and collaborating or otherwise running into the actors (including the Valkyrie) and creators (Gygax! Lucas! Spielberg!). He truly was “Almost Famous in the Geek ‘80s” but here in the 2020s, we can perhaps finally give him the fame he earned.
This well written, easy to read and fascinating tale awaits my fellow 80s geeks and nerds. I challenge you to pick it up or listen to the audio book. It’ll give you new appreciation for the decade you survived.
And now I’m wondering... what did Flint Dille do in the 90s? And the decades we never named, as he referred to the years 2000-2020. Maybe he became more than almost famous or maybe he didn’t. No matter—he was a loveable Forrest Gump of the 80s toy and game and animation scenes and that’s about all I have to say about that.
Addendum: I got to interview Mr. Dille! I geeked out hard! Check it out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZDRCxB-VZw