From Bedrooms to Billions - Review

[Dos_Box]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7qKCzbaof0

 

This crowd funded documentary by Anthony and Nicola Caulfield has been a long time in the making and the time, effort and love put into this film shows. The project began when they tried to put their idea to the major UK TV channels, all of who rejected a documentary about the history of the UK as too ‘niche’. They decided to do it themselves and, after two successful crowdfunding campaigns (Indigogo and Kickstarter) they had raised over £80,000, enough to carry out two years of filming and ensure that the finished product was as good as it could possibly be.

 

The premise of the film, taken from their website here (they say it far better than I ever could)...

‘From Bedrooms to Billions' is a 150 minute feature length documentary movie telling the remarkable, true story of the British Video Games Industry from 1979 to the present.

'From Bedrooms to Billions' tells the story of how the creativity and vision of a relatively small number of individuals allowed the UK to play a pioneering and key role in the shaping of the billion dollar video games industry, which today dominates the modern world’s entertainment landscape.

….barely covers the myriad of content in this 2.5 hour long movie bursting with detailed, revealing interviews and footage in every minute. It would be fair to say that, even after the three times I've watched it, I am still seeing and hearing new things!

 

Starting from the early days of the UK games industry, with the rise of the bedroom coder in 1979, and interviews with programming legends such as Jeff Minter, Matthew Smith and early computer musicians like Martin Galway and Ben Daglish who lift the lid on what went on behind the scenes. It was an amazing time to those of us on the outside who simply played the games throughout the 80s, until the sudden death of many of the well known software houses and distributors in the early 90s as they were blind-sided by the sudden rise of the Japanese console market.

 

What this film is not is a games-focused trip down memory lane. Although there is plenty of game footage, it is a serious look at how an entire industry was created. By home coders who started selling their games via adverts placed in the back of magazines, to the rise of distributors like US Gold and the dominance of software houses like Ocean, Elite and Gremlin Graphics. Almost anyone who was anyone back then is interviewed, sometimes quite candidly. In particular, the interview with Matthew Smith of Manic Miner/Jet Set Willy fame makes you realise the toll it took on some of those solo pioneers back then.

 

One thing that makes this a movie rather than a documentary, apart from its length, is that there is zero narration. The film is carried along at a pace by the dozens of wonderfully shot interviews and the archive footage (some previously unseen) located during the production period. The excitement is clear, starting off with the smiles and obvious joy that the interviewees demonstrate when they talk about how they began. Their first games and the pure fun of being in at the birth of an industry when nobody knew what they were doing but loved every minute of it.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZQ6elyEAR4

 

It then moves through to the ‘middle period’ where an almost rock-star status was granted to these legendary lone coders, musicians, magazine reviewers and small teams, finishing with the almost drawn faces and hard looks where they talk about how it all finally changed. Unfortunately, many had to eventually become a part of larger game production companies. In turn the orginality and innovation that were the trademark of many UK made games became stifled due to the economic pressures of having to develop for consoles.

 

But. Thankfully, the film doesn't finish on a low note. Discussion in the last 15 minutes of the film turns towards the future of the UK games industry, when the still present characters in the field give a more up-beat analysis of the future of the UK gaming industry; and the future looks bright indeed

 

I would highly recommend that anyone with even a passing interest in gaming, history or even business gives this film a look. If you buy one indie film this year, or indeed ever, make it this one.

 

‘From Bedrooms to Billions’ is only available to order online with prices starting from £9.95 for the standard edition (download or view online) to £50 for the special edition Blu-Ray. All are available from their store here: Shop | From Bedrooms to Billions

Edited October 7, 2014 by Dos_Box

[Dos_Box]

*BUMP* - I've just moved this from where it had been parked for editing purposes

[Dos_Box]

I forgot to mention just how awesome the sountrack is too with penty of classic gaming tunes as well as a lot of tracks by The British IBM

 

[Trapper]

On this topic anyone who hasn't yet watched Micro Men I would highly suggest you do so. Watch out for a quick appearance from Sophie (Roger) Wilson the designer of the ARM processor and Nigel Searle (from Sinclair)

[gmj]

Looks fab, will have to watch me that

[Dos_Box]

On this topic anyone who hasn't yet watched Micro Men I would highly suggest you do so. Watch out for a quick appearance from Sophie (Roger) Wilson the designer of the ARM processor and Nigel Searle (from Sinclair)

 

Micro Men is a great little tv movie and it's nice that the UK contribution to computing and technology get recognised like that. These parts of our recent history are much too important to restrict to books and specilist websites\blogs.

[Trapper]

Watching it now. Bought it via school, I'm tempted to show parts of this during Computer Club.

[Dos_Box]

Watching it now. Bought it via school, I'm tempted to show parts of this during Computer Club.

@Trapper

What did you think of it?

[mulderite]

I bought this at the weekend and I must say I thought it was simply fantastic! Then again, I was a teenager of the 80s so I could easily connect with the games and knew of most of the contributors in this documentary. I've still got my ZX Spectrum and my bread-bin 64 (and all the boxed games), so to hear the likes of Tony Crowther, Rob Hubbard, Jeff Minter & Simon Nicol (to name but a few) relating their stories of the 8-bit boom was a real treat. Just don't buy the Blu Ray version as it's priced at a whopping £50! I bought the standard digital download version instead for £9.95. With that you get a few extras, such as Matthew Smith talking about creating Manic Miner and David Braben discussing Elite. Solid gold.

[tmcd35]

I was a little disappointed towards the end. They did a good job of focusing on the beginnings and the 8-bit era, they then seemed to completely downplay if not ignore the importance of the Amiga/ST on the UK market and give far too much importance to consoles of the time. Almost feeding into the American world view that Nintendo saved video gaming. The whole 88-95 era seemed misrepresented and rushed.

 

Still, good enjoyable documentary and great to hear the views of so many industry legends.

[Trapper]

I enjoyed it. Kids haven't seen it yet, no time!

[Dos_Box]

I was a little disappointed towards the end. They did a good job of focusing on the beginnings and the 8-bit era, they then seemed to completely downplay if not ignore the importance of the Amiga/ST on the UK market and give far too much importance to consoles of the time. Almost feeding into the American world view that Nintendo saved video gaming. The whole 88-95 era seemed misrepresented and rushed.

 

Still, good enjoyable documentary and great to hear the views of so many industry legends.

 

I suspect that this was because the premis of the documentary was about how the UK games undustry was created. When the 16 bit era arrived it was still the same companies and characters involved hense the lack of a mention.

I suppose that it also gets wrapped up in the section about how consoles became the primery gaming platform and caught them all off guard. Yes, whilst there were a lot of Amigas and ST's out there the money was in consoles. For which you needed (even more) money (as the documentary explained).

Well worth a watch if you think Apple got top sew up an industry. The way Sega and Nintendo beahved was jaw dropping.

Edited October 21, 2014 by Dos_Box