Back in 2019, I read an interview with Dave ‘The Games Animal’ Perry. Of course, said interview covered his stint on GamesMaster and THAT very infamous moment. After I read that interview (long story short), I began writing a GamesMaster retrospective on this very blog. The thing about that retrospective was that it was never researched fully and was really just me watching episodes and jotting down a few light details. I always wanted to do it properly and so, I decided to use that retrospective as a springboard for a book.

I copy & pasted my retrospective into a word processor and it came it at just under 70,000 words. I then spent a lot more time doing some deep research and rewrote the entire thing. That (almost) 70,000-word blog retrospective eventually turned into a 131,000+ word book. Much more detail and crammed with tons of information that I previously missed… as well as correcting several mistakes. GamesMaster: The Completely Full Pair Of Trouser is a mass retrospective of the greatest video game TV show ever made.

In the ’90s, it was a dark time in terms of gaming and television. One or two examples aside, gaming was not very well represented on TV and there was a thirst for a true and dedicated video game TV show. That’s where Jane Hewland came in and changed the way that games and gaming were accepted by the media.

GamesMaster was the coming together of a small group of people with a plan to help make gaming more mainstream, and it worked. Running for seven series and a whopping one hundred and twenty-six episodes, GamesMaster was THE gaming TV show of the ‘90s. Packed with news reviews, challenges, celebrities and even just a smidgen of humour.

Between 1992 and 1998, GamesMaster took the viewer through one of the most iconic eras of gaming. We got to see the 8-bit machines make way for their 16-bit siblings. We witnessed the early days of VR and the heyday of the arcade. We watched in awe as the 32-bit consoles bridged the gap between 2D and 3D graphics. And through most of that, Dominik Diamond was making nob jokes.

The highs and lows of GamesMaster are explored in this book. Every series, every episode and every challenge won and lost. I also take a look at some of the more surprising faces who appeared on the show. People who, back then, were unknown but went on to forge very impressive careers. From TV hosts to story writers for some of Hollywood’s biggest franchises. And yes, I do explore THAT incident too.

GamesMaster: The Completely Stuffed Pair Of Trouser is crammed with GamesMaster goodness on every page. Available to buy now from Amazon for Kindle, paperback and hardback formats. Oh, and with a foreword from Dave ‘The Games Animal’ Perry himself too.