If you grew up in the 90s and liked video games – that’s pretty much everyone who grew up in the 90s – then you will no doubt have absolutely loved ‘Gamesmaster’ and so you’ll be pleased to hear that an oral history of the awesome television programme is being released by none other than original presenter Dominik Diamond.

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The team are funding the book through Kickstarter and you can check out all the deals over on their official page, but the long and short of it is that the book costs £30 or an autographed copy will set you back £50. That might sound like a lot for a book, but in fairness it does look like a hefty tone and they’ve done a bunch of geeky things with the lettering and the cover and stuff that might actually make it worth spending that much money on it. It’s basically gonna look pretty good on your bookcase.

Here’s a couple of choice quotes about it though:

Guided by show host Dominik Diamond and featuring a foreword by one-time games playing champion Robbie Williams, GamesMaster: The Oral History spans over 80,000 words and features over 40 contributors including production crew, celebrity guests and the games playing members of the public who became either playground heroes or defeated outcasts vying for the iconic Golden Joystick prize.

Bringing videogames to a mainstream television audience, GamesMaster built event challenges around the hottest new games and technology, presided over by the god-like GamesMaster himself (played by astronomer Sir Patrick Moore). Every week Dominik and the show’s roster of game pundits would offer wise commentary to contestants, while the GamesMaster himself begrudgingly offered cheats.

Multiple console launches were covered in the lifespan of GamesMaster including the UK release of the SNES, Jaguar, Playstation, Saturn and N64. Similarly, many industry-defining games of the ’90s appeared as challenges on the show including Sonic 2, Mortal Kombat, WipEout and, of course, Mario 64.

Jumping between the voices of contributors, Dominik narrates a searingly candid story of fame, friendship, fallout and television dreams beyond videogames. It is also a searingly funny story of disinterested rock stars, partying with gangs in San Francisco, getting banned from major airlines, and plenty more besides…

Sounds pretty good doesn’t it? If you’ve got a whole load of cash spare, you can even have a day out with Dominik Diamond where you get tattooed and then get pisssed. Not sure too many people are going to want to be claiming that, but you never know I guess.

For more of the same, check out 9 of the most Y2K video game covers of the 2000s. What a time to be alive.