The Gamesmaster: Almost Famous in the Geek '80s by Flint Dille

The Gamesmaster: Almost Famous in the Geek '80s Reviews

• 
  Chad

  Flint Dille has worked on a lot of projects that influenced my childhood, Transformers, G.I. Joe, Dungeons & Dragons... The book starts off really strong, telling some great stories. Like how when he was starting out in his first job, writing for animation, he was paired up with "Jack" to come up with some new ideas. Days later Jack mentions in passing that he created Captain America. Yes, "Jack" was Jack Kirby. His grandfather created Buck Rogers (He seems to have a little resentment towards the character.). Part way through the book, the stories take a back seat to Dille talking about the writing process. There's a lot of this throughout the book, so if you are an inspiring writer, you are probably going to love this book. One of the things I found disappointing is that he alludes to a ton of great projects he worked on that he never goes into detail about. Tiny Tunes, Diablo, Uncharted. It sounds like he's had a fascinating career since the 80's but he doesn't get into it. It stops at 1987 when he gets hired onto Tiny Toons. I would have liked to have seen what was here edited down to its core and heard about all these things we are teased with. All in all though, there's are some great tidbits here, especially with Gary Gygax and TSR.
  
  Received a review copy from Rare Bird Books and Edelweiss. All thoughts are my own and in no way influenced by the aforementioned.
• 
  Sean Gibson

  I can’t see any earthly reason why one would read this if one didn’t A) grow up in the 1980s; B) have an obsession with Transformers, G.I. Joe, Visionaries, and numerous other toy-related cartoons; and C) immerse one’s self in the geek culture of the 60s and 70s that begat that rise of geekdom in the 80s and its subsequent global domination in later decades.
  
  If, however, you, like me, fall into that rather specific category of people, you’ll likely enjoy Dille’s rambling recollections, which are a combination of war stories, humorous anecdotes, and creative advice. Dille really was at the center of a web that connected cartoons, games (table-top and video), books, movies, and comics—it’s absurd the many different ways he’s connected to a who’s-who of geek/pop culture cornerstones.
  
• 
  Richard Thompson

  I have been Flint's lawyer for over twenty-five years, meeting him just a few years after the time period covered by this book. I get an acknowledgement in the back, though my assistance with the book was more in the way of moral support, not legal or editorial.
  
  I already knew most of Flint's history, and over the years he has told me many of the stories presented here, but it still seemed fresh and fun. Flint's voice comes through strongly and unmistakably. Reading the book was like having an extended conversation with my friend, and I think that will be the experience of any reader, whether or not they have the good fortune to know Flint personally.
  
  There are many things that I liked here, but two things stuck in my mind as I finished the book:
  
  First, I enjoyed and related to the view of life as a game, a form of participatory theater. Part of this is a structure that Flint imposes as an author to make the story work. It is a structure that fits naturally with the time period and events that are described. It works as an authorial tool that gives coherence to real events and is a sort of meta-story that comments on the story. It is also a natural outgrowth of Flint's partial detachment from the world in which he is immersed -- he is a mostly grounded person in a world of fantasy, a modest drinker and non-drug user in a world sometimes fueled by mind bending substances, a mild fan in a world of superfans. He is part of it, but not part of it, so he can get inside of this world and it bends him a little, but he remains separate enough to allow for some objectivity and broader perspective.
  
  Second, (to borrow a metaphor from the classical world that Flint knows so well) I liked the way that the TV shows and stories that Flint writes, the events and people of his life in this time period and the content of the book itself all navigate the narrow channel between the Scylla of cliche and the Charybdis of originality. I sometimes liken the best creative works to the best kind of party, which for me is one that includes a lot of people I know and like and a few new people that I can meet and get to know in a context where I am already comfortable and can fit them into the picture of my life. This is much better than a group of strangers or a party with only one or two friends who huddle with me in a corner. But a party of all old friends is boring. So in a piece of writing, a familiar structure like the hero's journey and iconic elements like a secret lair can give context and comfort, but they also need a twist, an extra element of surprise that fits nicely into the mostly familiar world so that the familiar world does not become stale and so that the cliches are touchstones instead of crutches.
• 
  Bernard

  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=gZDRC...
• 
  Shannon Appelcline

  A deeply disappointing book, in large part due to poor marketing (or maybe poor decisions into what went into the book, it's hard to say). This book presents itself as a look at both Dille's work on gaming with Gary Gygax and his work on a variety of animated shows, but it turns out that Dille only reluctantly talks about Gygax and gaming, with that taking up perhaps a tenth of the book. So, if you're diving in for that reason, expect to also be disappointed.
  
  Maybe the rest will appeal to fans of The Transformers and the forgotten other-animations that Dille worked on like Visionaries? Maybe. Personally, I found it overwritten, with all kinds of nonsense about a Hero's Journey that largely fizzles out. The whole book just turns out to be a roughly organized series of anecdotes about working in the animation field, with very occasional asides about Gygax's LA mansion.
  
  Oh, and if it's not clear from the title (and it isn't) this stops before the '80s even end. Things like TSR West and Dragonstrike get almost no attention.
  
  I'd like to read Dille's actual account on his work with Gary and with TSR. At least if there was an actual editor involved, to stave off his worst instincts. This ain't it.
• 
  Patrick

  The book I didn’t know I needed to read
  
  Wow, what a thrill ride. If you were a child of the Eighties, a D&D nerd, a cartoon lover, or (like me) all three, this book is for you. Flint Dille gives you an inside look at the golden age of Saturday morning animation and Gary Gygax’s Hollywood years. A great book, and fascinating.
• 
  John

  Flint Dille was involved in some of the hottest of geek properties in the 80s, and this is his biography from those years. The main geek properties he had some connection to were GI Joe, Dungeons & Dragons, and The Transformers.
  
  The narrative tends to jump around a bit throughout the book. While things move generally forwards in time, there’s a lot of bouncing back and forth that sometimes makes it difficult to know in just what order things happened.
  
  I’m also not sure just how reliable a narrator the author is. He admits more than once to totally forgetting things that fans brought up as he was writing the book. He also claims that he tends to forget the bad stuff, and just remember the good stuff.
  
  There’s also some problematic content, specifically concerning Kasey Kasem and his leaving the Transformers over a racist stereotype of an Arab man. The author implies that there was no intentional racism, but has this to say: “we didn’t know, nor honestly care, that Abdul was an Arab name and not a Libyan name.” It’s one thing to not realize you’re being racist, and it’s another thing entirely to not care that you’re being racist.
  
  Even before this section, which is in the latter part of the book, I’d been struggling to work my way through. I just can’t recommend it.
  
• 
  Austin

  Aside from being someone you've (perhaps) never heard of, Frank Dille is one of the most-connected creators of 80's/90's culture I could imagine. Appearing in his memoir as personal acquaintances and friends are: Jack Kirby, Stan Lee, Gary Gygax, Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Orson Welles, Frank Miller, the voice casts of GI Joe, Transformers, Garbage Pail Kids, and Tiny Toon Adventures; and so many more. As a child of the 80s and 90s, it was thrilling to relive the era from the creative side.
  
  The memoir starts strong, but gets a bit scattered as he moves through his career. There's a general structure, based on Joe Campbell's monomyth, but it is abandoned about a third to halfway through, and replaced with chronologically scrambled recollections. Which is fine, but it feels a little like listening to an elder recounting a memorable life, rather than a cohesive and honed narrative.
  
  Unfortunately, this book only covers the first portion of Dille's career, and he teases you near the end with a summary of what he did after his work in the 80's and early 90's. That tease is so densely packed, I wanted him to keep going and give us a memoir of the latter half. Maybe he will. I'd be the first to sign up for that ride.
• 
  Jim Geraghty

  My friend Flint Dille’s memoir of working in entertainment in the 1980s, The Gamesmaster, is a remarkable simulation of our evenings when he’s in the Washington area. Flint is a wild storyteller, a fascinating character, and an overflowing fountain of ideas expressed in his own unique, Hollywood-y, snarky, historically-literate idiom — enthralling, often hilarious, occasionally confusing, and never boring. In the span of a decade, Flint worked with Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Frank Miller, Jack Kirby, and Gary Gygax, creator of Dungeons & Dragons — and yes, he’s the namesake of that “Flint” from G.I. Joe. If you watched cartoons in the 1980s, chances are Flint has some fascinating behind-the-scenes story — such as the time he bailed one of his voice actors out of jail.
• 
  Devin

  So much of this book takes place in a four or five year span that was pivotal for Dille, and it’s a great look behind the nostalgia curtain, but I wish he’d carried on and shared more about his later adventures in film and video games.
• 
  Emanuele Gemelli

  It stick to the label given with the 2*: "it was ok". More than anything else, this is an auto-biography of somebody who will be known only by a very restricted niche of people; I guess that being the first person to put up a review of this book, not even stars w/o comments, after one year it was published says something about it as well. Long story short, if you love D&D and his creator, maybe you want to read parts of this book; if you are a fanatic of the Transformers or or G.I. Joe, this might be for you or even if you want to understand who is behind the creation of some of your favorite entertainment products of the 80's, but that's about it.