From Bedrooms to Billions on Steam

From Bedrooms to Billions

This fascinating documentary film tells the incredible true story of the pioneers of the British Video Games Industry from 1979 to the present day.

All Reviews:

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Release Date:

Mar 31, 2015

Production:

Gracious Films Ltd

Distributor:

Gracious Films Ltd

	Original	Full Audio	Subtitles
English	✔	✔	✔
French			✔
Italian			✔
German			✔
Spanish - Spain			✔
Portuguese - Portugal			✔

Steam Video

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About This Video

From Bedrooms to Billions tells the incredible true story of the pioneers of the British video games industry. As home computer technology development gathered pace in the 1970’s and 1980’s computers such as the ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, BBC Micro and later the Commodore Amiga and Atari ST saw a generation of small team enthusiasts, hobbyists, school kids, and entrepreneurs emerge. Their creativity and vision, along with those that followed allowed the UK to play a key role in the shaping of the largest entertainment business in the world today, the billion dollar video games industry!

The film journeys through those early 8-bit game design years, the transition into the 16-bit era and PC, the influence of the Japanese and American consoles (Sega Genesis/Mega Drive, Nintendo SNES), the availability of finance caused by rising development costs, right through to the present day of big budget triple A games, indie development and the future. Featuring interviews with Mark Healey (Little Big Planet), Ian Livingstone (Tomb Raider), Peter Molyneux (Populous), Jeff Minter (TxK), David Braben (Elite Dangerous), David Perry (Earthworm Jim), Mark Cerny (Sonic the Hedgehog 2) and many others from across video game development, publishing and journalism from over the last 40 years, combined with compelling archive footage and music.

The film reveals some of the remarkable stories, struggles and successes that saw the UK video games industry go from quite literally nothing into a major force littered with original thinkers, innovators and eccentric characters.

Extra Content

9 videos, 60 minutes

Buy From Bedrooms to Billions and receive the following extra content:

Making of Speedball 2

Bonus Content

6 minutes

Mike Montgomery of The Bitmap Brothers tells us how one of their most famous games came about complete with infamous "ICE CREAM! ICE CREAM!" call from an eager salesmen taking advantage of another horrific injury on the pitch to sell a few more ice creams to the ecstatic crowd!

Creating Sensible World of Soccer

Bonus Content

6 minutes

Jon Hare talks about how by the early 1990's the opportunity was there to finally create 'his' kind of football game. This film looks at how one of the most famous football or 'soccer' games ever came to be, complete with players of all the right leagues, nationalities and even colors.

Making Games and Sheep in Space

Bonus Content

4 minutes

British Game Developer and Llamasoft Founder Jeff Minter talks about how he used to create his early games as well as revealing his thinking behind his much loved Commodore 64 title 'Sheep in Space'...

Making music for the Commodore 64

Bonus Content

10 minutes

Rob Hubbard is generally regarded as one of the greatest Commodore 64 musicians of all time, though he would be the last to say that! In this film Rob talks about what first interested him into getting a Commodore 64 and from there working out how to use the SID Chip to make music.

Making Head Over Heels

Bonus Content

5 minutes

By the mid-1980's developer Jon Ritman had already established himself as a brilliant developer having hits such as 'Match Day II' and 'Batman'. His next title 'Head Over Heels' had certain design elements that caused the gaming press of the time to hail Jon as an innovator.

Making Shadow of the Beast

Bonus Content

8 minutes

Martin Edmondson who later in his career had smash hits with titles such as 'DRIVER' and 'Destruction Derby' talks about how a few years earlier he turned a technical demo for the Commodore Amiga 500 into a fully formed game that was 'Shadow of the Beast'.

Teaching Nintendo 3D

Bonus Content

7 minutes

In 1989 when Nintendo released their Gameboy Jez San could not resist cracking their copy protection technology! This led to a sequence of events which went from simply an offer to teach Nintendo how to create 3D games through to the development of the groundbreaking Super FX Chip!

Making Manic Miner

Bonus Content

6 minutes

'Manic Miner' was and still is one of the most iconic British Video Games of all time. Its creator Matthew Smith at the age of just sixteen shot to fame in the early 1980's when the game was released in 1983 for the ZX Spectrum.

Making Elite

Bonus Content

8 minutes

David Braben and Ian Bell created the seminal Space Trading Combat game 'Elite' whilst still at University in the early 1980's. David gives his thoughts on how this classic game was devised, created and released.

System Requirements

Windows

macOS

SteamOS + Linux

Minimum:

OS *: Windows 7
Processor: Intel Core 2 or AMD equivalent
Memory: 1 GB RAM
Network: Broadband Internet connection
Storage: 200 MB available space
Additional Notes: Network Bandwidth of 5Mbps for 540p, 3Mbps for 360p.

Recommended:

OS: Windows 10
Processor: Intel Core I3+ or AMD equivalent recommended for HD 1080p playback
Memory: 2 GB RAM
Network: Broadband Internet connection
Storage: 500 MB available space
Additional Notes: Network Bandwidth of 12Mbps for 1080p or 8Mbps for 720p.

* Starting January 1st, 2024, the Steam Client will only support Windows 10 and later versions.

Minimum:

OS: Mac OSX 10.7
Processor: Intel Core 2 or AMD equivalent
Memory: 1 GB RAM
Network: Broadband Internet connection
Storage: 200 MB available space
Additional Notes: Network Bandwidth of 5Mbps for 540p, 3Mbps for 360p.

Recommended:

OS: Mac OSX 10.10+
Processor: Intel Core I3+ or AMD equivalent recommended for HD 1080p playback
Memory: 2 GB RAM
Network: Broadband Internet connection
Storage: 500 MB available space
Additional Notes: Network Bandwidth of 12Mbps for 1080p or 8Mbps for 720p.

* Starting February 15, 2024, the Steam Client will no longer support 32-bit games or macOS 10.14 or lower.

Minimum:

OS: Linux Ubuntu 12.04 or later, SteamOS 2.20 or later
Processor: Intel Core 2 or AMD equivalent
Memory: 1 GB RAM
Network: Broadband Internet connection
Storage: 200 MB available space
Additional Notes: Network Bandwidth of 5Mbps for 540p, 3Mbps for 360p.

Recommended:

OS: Linux Ubuntu 12.04 or later, SteamOS 2.20 or later
Processor: Intel Core I3+ or AMD equivalent recommended for HD 1080p playback
Memory: 2 GB RAM
Network: Broadband Internet connection
Storage: 500 MB available space
Additional Notes: Network Bandwidth of 12Mbps for 1080p or 8Mbps for 720p.

Steam Video

About This Video

Extra Content

System Requirements

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