From Bedrooms to Billions (2014)

What can I say about this film that has not already been said ?I was lucky enough to grow up through this age, playing the games, becoming a computer geek, even being an Amiga 'scene' demo programmer in my late teens which led to a career as a computer programmer.This film documented my childhood into my 20's, and any computer kid of the 70's included, as such I can't recommend it enough to people of our generation - but more importantly to those of the younger generation to see where it all began as to move forward you must always look back first.Looking forward to the new 'Amiga years' film A lot.

Just finished viewing this,and it made the hair on my back stand up.Apart from a few glaring omissions (probably from people saying no to participate in this documentary rather than the makers not asking) it is a thorough analysis of the emergence of the gaming industry,and takes us through it's ups and downs and rebirth of gaming as we now know it.Conspicuously it rather glazes over the Amiga days,but that is most likely due to the up coming new documentary from the creators of this.Can't praise this enough.Having lived through the 8-bit days,and later the 16-bit (read Amiga),it really is like revisiting the glory days.One last thing:The ending is one of the best I've seen in a documentary.Go on,give this one a try.

The narrative of this ambitious documentary is driven entirely by the interviewees as they reminisce on those heady days. The movie is host to an impressive line-up of movers and shakers from the cottage industry's hey-day. The roster includes many of the major players which is a fine achievement in itself and it feels like a real treat to have them all in the same place speaking so candidly. The movie's focus is the story of how and why bedroom coding was able to grow and flourish so rapidly, only to be effectively hijacked by the corporate suits in later years. While this is interesting enough in itself, ample time is also devoted to the culture which developed around gaming, computer game magazines, as well as a few anecdotes along the way. The filmmakers have done extremely well to find a positive angle on which to end the film, giving us something to look forward to and thereby elevating to more than a rose-tinted nostalgia piece. Not that there's anything wrong with nostalgia of course, this movie has it in spades.

This is an excellent documentary film featuring many of the pioneers from the UK computer games industry, which started at the end of the 1970s. The film contains interviews with people filmed in the present day reflecting back on their careers, many of whom are still in the games industry. I recognised many of the personalities featured but for some I knew the game but not the person behind it, so it was good to put faces and names to the games that I loved playing and to hear how the games came about.I found the film fascinating because it gives insight into what went on behind the scenes at these companies and how they were started on a shoestring but became incredibly successful, with each one having a different story to tell. As a child growing up I typed in computer listings into my ZX Spectrum and Amiga and played many of the games featured, so this film was of great interest to me. I'd recommend this film to anyone interested in the history of the UK games industry or who remembers playing games on early computers as this is a really well put together production. The Special Edition is worth getting for the extended interviews.