Relive ’80s cocktail enlightenment in ‘Ready Player One’

(CNN) — From Pac-Man to “Pretty in Pink,” Dungeons and Dragons to Devo, Rush to “School House Rock”: If this cocktail enlightenment washing list brings behind lustful memories, afterwards do yourself a preference and collect adult a duplicate of Ernest Cline’s new novel, “Ready Player One.”

Packed with ’80s nostalgia, it is partial intergalactic scavenger hunt, partial intrigue and all heart, a love-letter to flourishing adult geek.

Described as “Willy Wonka meets a Matrix” a book takes place in a dystopian future. The year is 2044 and a genuine star is an nauseous place. People shun their grave vicinity by accessing a OASIS, kind of like a Internet on steroids.

Hidden somewhere low inside this practical paradise is a ultimate golden ticket, a pivotal to sum happening and power, though to find it, players will have to clear an increasingly formidable array of cocktail enlightenment puzzles. It’s an addictive read. The book has spin a best-seller and a film is in a works.

“Ready Player One” came naturally to author Cline. He’s a self-described geek, a fan of video games, manga and Monty Python. He wrote a 2009 cult classical film “Fan Boys,” an paper to spooky “Star Wars” fans.

How critical is Cline’s geek cred? He has spent a final few weeks pushing cross-country to foster his book in a souped-up DeLorean. Cline’s duped out automobile incorporates elements from his favorite film vehicles, including “Back to a Future,” “Knight Rider,” “Buckaroo Banzai” and “Ghostbusters.” He’s even got an “ECTO 88″ personalized permit plate.

CNN spoke to Cline recently about his entrance novel. The following is an edited transcript.

CNN: What was a hint that led we to write “Ready Player One”?

Cline: The initial thought for a story came to me approach behind in a summer of 2001. we was operative a technical support pursuit during a time, assisting people use computers and a Internet, and so we spent a lot of time meditative about a destiny of a Internet. we believed it competence develop into a sprawling practical universe, arrange of a cranky between World of Warcraft and Facebook.

When we start devising what arrange of chairman would emanate such a practical world, we graphic a Willy Wonka-esque video diversion engineer holding a grand video diversion competition inside his practical world, and a rest of a story grew out of that initial idea.

CNN: What was your introduction to geek enlightenment flourishing up?

Cline: That’s tough to say. we feel like we was strike by all of geek enlightenment during once while we was flourishing adult in a ’70s and ’80s. Saturday morning cartoons like “Star Blazers” and “Robotech.” Live movement Japanese shows like “Ultraman” and “The Space Giants.” we spent many of my childhood welded to my Atari 2600, until we got my initial computer, a TRS-80. we grew adult immersing myself in all of these things, and they sensitive my whole adolescence.

CNN: You denote an encyclopedia-like believe of ’80s cocktail culture. It seems like a lifetime of investigate went into your novel.

Cline: It did, in a way, given we was essay about all we love. It took me a prolonged time to write this novel, and we confirmed my seductiveness in a plan by stuffing a story with things I’m ardent about. we was also being lazy, in a way, given we didn’t have to do a lot of new research.

Now, all of a geeking out I’ve been doing my whole life can retroactively be personal as “research” for my novel.

CNN: Tell me about “Ready Player One” a movie. we hear you’re essay a screenplay?

Cline: Yes, we wrote a initial breeze of a screenplay instrumentation progressing this year, and that’s what Warner Bros. is regulating to find a right director. They’re really vehement about a accepting a book is receiving, so a film could go into prolongation as early as subsequent year. Fingers crossed.

CNN: You also wrote a film “Fanboys.” How did that knowledge review to essay your initial novel?

Cline: It was a lot some-more frustrating, given we had to give adult control of a story to get a film made, and so a finish product didn’t spin out accurately a approach I’d hoped. That knowledge indeed encouraged me to finish “Ready Player One,” given we wanted to see what would occur if we was means to have sum control of my story, with no filters between me and a audience.

CNN: Tell me about your “Ecto 88″ DeLorean. we know you’re jacket adult a cross-country highway trip?

Cline: Well, I’ve wanted to possess a DeLorean given we was 10 years old, though it always seemed like a stupid daydream. Like owning a “A-Team” outpost or something. But once we sole my novel, it occurred to me that we could finally buy a DeLorean and us it to foster a book, given a protagonist drives one in a story.

I could poise with a automobile in my author photo, afterwards expostulate it opposite a nation on my book tour, so creation it a business expense! It’s one of a best ideas I’ve ever had. When we bought a car, we knew we wanted to pretence it out like a DeLorean in a book, that combines elements from Doc Brown’s Time Machine, KITT from “Knight Rider,” a “Ghostbusters” Ecto-1, and “Buckaroo Banzai’s” Jet Car.

So we went on a Internet and found a Flux Capacitor, an Oscillation Overthruster, and a far-reaching array of Ghostbusting equipment, including a screen-accurate Proton Pack (which rides shotgun). Then we commissioned a blue KITT scanner on a front of a automobile and got some personalized ECTO88 permit plates. Then we took my time traveling, Knight Riding, Ghostbusting Jet Car out on a road. It was a large strike during each bookstore we stopped during on my tour.