Remembering GamesMaster

Dominik Diamond's smutty innuendo was legendary

Children and teenagers of the 90′s, rejoice.  I’m about to take you back to a time when the Geek universe was ruled by one man. A virtual god of video gaming and star of Channel 4′s ground breaking television series of the same name. He was, the GamesMaster.

GamesMaster looked a bit like Sir Patrick Moore with a metallic helmet and a kind of futuristic monocle. This would be because it was him, but I was ten, I didn’t watch The Sky at Night over on BBC One so never knew him as anyone but his Channel 4 character. I imagine if I had happened to get a glimpse of one his astronomy shows at the time and seen him in his human guise it would have been like learning the true identity of Santa Claus.

The show was a computer geeks wet dream – the first ever UK series dedicated to gaming. Each week the GamesMaster would set spotty teens and C-list celebrities challenges and they would battle each other on the latest video games. The prize? A golden Joystick presented to the winner by a hot babe wearing very little … or occasionally a cloaked druid, meh!

One of my favourite parts was the Consoleation Zone. If a viewer was stuck on a particular game and their parents were too stingy to allow a call to the Nintendo Hotline you could write to the GamesMaster for help. A chosen few would be filmed actually entering his virtual world and be rewarded with a tip or cheat. Sometimes they even allowed girls on the show, though rarely, as all boys at the time thought they smelled and played with Barbie dolls.

The original host of the show was Dominik Diamond. His smutty innuendo was legendary with much talk of joystick waggling and whatever Mario and Princess Peach might be getting up to in the sack (sack .. haha). Dominik got fed up and resigned after the second series, mainly because they made him wear a red blazer which he hated.

His replacement was Dexter Fletcher – well known for his role as Spike, a cool American dude in CITV kids series Press Gang. Unfortunately Dexter was far less interesting than his acting alter ego and when he turned up on GamesMaster speaking in his real cockney accent, with a less than confident presenting style viewers weren’t impressed. He lasted just one series.

Meanwhile, Dominik had found career opportunities after he had departed weren’t too great either, so he was persuaded to return. This time without the red blazer, rumours persist he shredded it “accidentally” whilst doing an impression of Edward Scissorhands.

Occasionally upcoming games like Earthworm Jim were released with secret levels designed especially for the show. These would be used in challenges, but there were times when the codes were leaked in magazines and everyone was able to play them. When this happened it was the talk of classrooms across the nation for weeks.

GamesMaster was hugely popular and lasted for seven series – it spawned its own magazine which has survived the show and is still published today. GamesMaster Live was another spin-off – the event took video games trade shows to the masses and allowed the general public to see stuff ‘in development’ and have their picture taken with out of work actors dressed as Sonic the Hedgehog.

I remember attending a taping of GamesMaster at The Second Future Entertainment Show where hundreds of us gathered around the stage to watch two contestants battle it out on Street Fighter 2 Turbo for the SNES. The atmosphere was electric as Dexter Fletcher screamed “Oi GamesMaster” to a screen above the stage which Sir Patrick Moore then appeared on to announce the challenge.

This kind of show is much missed and those that have tried to copy it since have failed to capture the mood, maybe it could return one day?

If you’d like to spend some more time remembering GamesMaster or even experience it for the first time then episodes are available on YouTube, while a thriving fan community for the show awaits you at GamesMaster Live.