The Rise and Fall of Britain's Bedroom Coders | Design Icons

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GMTK's game history series Design Icons takes a trip to the UK, to see how the early British games business started as a cottage industry of bedroom coders
Sources
[1] November 1984 | CVG
archive.org/de...
[2] Interview: CCP on the Freedoms of EVE Online | Gamasutra
www.gamasutra....
[3] The forgotten interview with Chris Roberts | Paul Dean
paullicino.tum...
[4] No Man's Sky creator: 'We wanted to build a universe' | The Guardian
www.theguardia...
[5] The Replay Interviews: Gary Penn | Gamasutra
www.gamasutra....
[6] January 1984 | CVG
archive.org/de...
[7] March 1985 | CVG
archive.org/de...
[8] Commercial Breaks - The Battle For Santa's Software | BBC (Archived on KZbin)
• Commercial Breaks - Th...
[9] Geeks who rocked the world: Documentary looks back at origins of the computer-games industry | The Independent
www.independen...
[10] Feature: Jez San On Star Fox, Super FX And Teaching Nintendo How To Fly | Nintendo Life
www.nintendoli...
Find out more
From Bedrooms to Billions | Steam
store.steampow...
Sinclair ZX80 and the Dawn of 'Surreal' U.K. Game Industry | Wired
www.wired.com/...
How British video games became a billion pound industry | BBC
www.bbc.co.uk/...
Bandersnatch: The game that killed a company and inspired a Black Mirror episode
tiredoldhack.c...
The Complete History of DMA Design | Mike Dailly
www.javalemming...
Credits
Thumbnail Image licensed from Adobe Stock
Fastfall by Lifeformed used under CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 license
Ending Music from Robocop on Spectrum
Other Music by Lee Rosevere (leerosevere.ba...)
Black Mirror: Bandersnatch © Netflix
Further credits - pastebin.com/V...
Contribute translated subtitles - amara.org/en-g...

[@BurtKocain]

I suppose that's also why we used to call them "computer games" here more often than "video games".

[@mandtcousins7121]

My parents still call them that to this day, probably cos my mum had Manic Miner

[@williamwallace234]

Not British, but when I was a kid I always used to use computer game, and TV game respectively. But now I and everyone I know just calls it all "game", and use PC and console when differiention is needed. Everything is cross platform now so I guess it doesn't make a difference.

[@bearianna]

I have a distinction in my head as well for computer game vs. video game, and I'm American! So it's not exclusively regional, but I think it was more based on what you're exposed to! 🤔🖥

[@effexon]

computer games were for adults, video games for kids. that hint I got as kid, how people used these words.

[@coreyclark2179]

Damn, this just reminded me that when I was a lot younger I was bewildered to what a video game was and only knew the term video to apply to VHS tapes. Everyone would say computer games back in the 2000's.

[@Danidev]

Super interesting video man!

[@reyariass]

I swear, I see you show up in the comment section of videos where they mention Unity... Wait, or am I just unintentionally cherry picking..?

[@TK-sr2hz]

@@reyariass maybe because hes a unity dev...I swear everytime I look in popular UTuber's replys theres always these...intresting people.

[@gamestroyer891]

Dude you are becoming Justin y Focus on the game plz

[@basicallytutorials2107]

Wow, you really are everywhere lol, I literally see you in every comment section, you either have good taste or just have a bot sending replys everywhere

[@andremaldonado7410]

Ok this is getting weird this is like the fifth time I've seen you in the comment section just this week lol

[@CompleteAnimation]

Never thought I'd see the day when GMTK would make an Ahoy episode.

[@thijsvandervoort8261]

Exactly, it has that same feel/vibe I think

[@minecraftshieldworshiper7776]

isn't the last episode in this series like that as well?

[@ToriKo_]

Hahahah great comment

[@alyastastic]

Ahoy!

[@benplace5714]

Lol

[@nathanpartridge543]

Very fun history! This is a very romantic time for the medium, in that it seems like it was less bogged down by the business side of the industry and allowed creators more space for auteurship. It also seems like the Wild West in the way those first companies played so hard and fast with their money, and how fast the industry changed in those early days. Like you said, in some ways, it feels like we're looping back around with affordable and software with relatively low barriers to entry.

[@RegoneFF]

How is that 8 hours ago when it got released just now :O

[@deltajee7_org]

@@RegoneFF 😂he's a member actually..gets a pre released version everytime..(like a day before the video is released for everyone)

[@PandemonicHypercube]

As someone who went through both eras, the very early iPhone era reminded me a lot of the ZX Spectrum era. There was another boom of very small teams making it big with really weird and original games. I guess it's still somewhat true today with the indie game scene, but it's a lot more difficult for a single hobby project coder to release something successful nowadays due to the market being absolutely swamped.

[@relo999]

Except the barrier to entry isn't low today, it simply switched places for your indie game dev. 10/20 years ago the hard part to enter was development itself, which never really was that hard. The thing that is hard these days is simply marketing, unless you are an already established name or know someone part of what I can only dub the "indie cartel" nobody will see your game. Not only is the game market swamped with asset flips, in part due to it having become big business and it becoming mainstream, the normal networks you communicate through are also swamped. Where in the 80's you could relatively easily made a game, buy an advert in some mag relating to the target machine that is somewhat gaming related and your fine. These days gaming media is more focused on clicks (you also see this in general news). Some rando making or releasing a game isn't very clickable unless you can attach some attention grabbing headline to it.

[@felipedaiber2991]

And it may continue to become even more like that since FOSS has catched up to corporative software with programs like Blender or Godot

[@fredsnicker]

This video gives waaaaaaaay more context to the entire story of Black Mirror's Bandersnatch episode

[@kumatorahaltmanndreemurr]

I had no idea it was an homage to a real game, that just makes it even cooler.

[@Dev-nr4dw]

Doesn't matter because Bandersnatch is shit.

[@DrGandW]

@@Dev-nr4dw The unreleased game or the episode?

[@snage-thesnakemage]

@@Dev-nr4dw oi the Netflix episode was *ok* it wasn't hot film garbage like some stuff on there but it wasn't a masterpiece either I get that

[@snage-thesnakemage]

@@DrGandW think they are talking about the episode since the video said that the game was never released

[@dylanparrish-subda7141]

I really like this full circle analysis. Interesting.

[@taxevader674]

It even fits in with the design icons logo

[@ravenJB1729]

I know that it's a completely different thing, but the one time this kind of roundabout got me really deep in Mark's videos was in the Dark Souls World Design video. Never knew anything about the game before it, bought it on Steam a week after watching. Him going full circle there too creates such a strong impression about the game.

[@subprogram32]

Wow, those early game-making times seem wild as heck indeed. I too am very glad that the new indie wave has seen a resurgance in independant games being made, variety is the spice of life after all. And I always like the Design Icons videos in particular too, I am happy to have seen another! :)

[@ahmir5798]

Hi member!

[@flavoredchin]

This really felt like a Tom Scott/ Computerphile video in the best way at the beginning.

[@safe-keeper1042]

Wow, yes, he actually even sounded a tad bit like Tom Scott.

[@berylliosis5250]

I came here from some computerphile videos, and yeah, it had that vibe

[@FoulballHangover]

The British Bedroom Coder is definitely back! I'm a solo developer and released my game Hydroneer in May which did pretty well :)

[@Danmarinja]

Congrats!

[@Twyzan]

> May > Last month Nice

[@saeta5733]

Hydroneer is your game? Good job man! I'll be looking forward to your new games!

[@stanclark6972]

Yo i got that. good game

[@FoulballHangover]

@@Twyzan whoopsie.

[@mollyheadycarroll]

British 80's bedroom programmers are one of my favourite game dev scenes in history. It doesn't get enough attention globally, kudos for covering it. :)

[@NelsonsTrousers]

"After a long, long holiday, the British bedroom developer is back." I think that was the first time in my life (and I'm not young) that I've experienced actual patriotism. It's weird, man.

[@reillywalker195]

I got an odd feeling of pride from watching this, too, and I'm just a Canadian with Scottish and English heritage. Perhaps it's because I grew up watching British shows and movies, listening to British music, and playing British games like _Roller Coaster Tycoon_ and _Micro Machines_ among others that I feel somewhat connected to the United Kingdom even though I've never been there myself.

[@firstlast-gh9ig]

I'm French and this made me mutter "God save the Queen (and Lord Sinclair)"

[@mrsalty6884]

Makes me proud to be British.

[@firstlast-gh9ig]

@@mrsalty6884 You have a Colin Furze, god dammit! Knight him!

[@PlaySA]

Patriotism is best expressed in small doses, regardless :)

[@pseudoiq2039]

I've seem a fair few KZbin vids on video game history and a lot of them just echo pong and repeat one another. This, with a very specific focus on Britain's video game history (or England's I guess?), is very refreshing to see!

[@reillywalker195]

It makes sense that the British gaming industry would be centred on England since most of Britain's people live there, but it's worth noting that _Roller Coaster Tycoon_ creator Chris Sawyer and famous video game composer Grant Kirkhope are Scottish.

[@shawnheatherly]

Fascinating, I've never really heard about the UK's contribution to the rise of the gaming industry at the start. This was really cool.

[@eugenebebs7767]

This video and the one about RPGs in Japan are really interesting mini-docs. It woulde be awesome to learn about gamedev history from other corners of the world.

[@bluwbyte]

Absolutely! As an Australian I think it would be amazing to expose our game history, but it would be close to America and Britain and I think the space would be so much more deserved to Eastern Europe, Western Asia, Africa or South America. Some very hard fought and beautiful dev stories.

[@bluwbyte]

I am encouraged to do my own research in this way :)

[@IvanezRus]

There are some interesting parts in the gamemaking of countries of former USSR, even though they couldn't keep up and pretty much stopped making good stuff at the end of 2000's

[@thatowenperson7745]

You really should make more types of vids like this im loving it

[@TheEvilCheesecake]

Mark's made plenty of videos about the history of game dev, check the channel archive.

[@apeeatape]

I'm so glad that there're more and more of history of videogames journeys like this. Living in Russia in the 80s and 90s I completely missed almost everything. I had a nes and PC but that's about it. Gaming landscape of my childhood was absolutely different. So thank you very much for that. Can't wait for more of this design icons series )

[@HelloMisterJAMWAH]

This is the story of my childhood! Only playing the games and reading the mags, I was never a programmer except the odd experiment with my 48k Spectrum. Glad you highlighted this era, it seems to have been forgotten by many. Love that final line too (and the Ocean Loader music was the cherry on top!)

[@dondontsai9135]

I got chills when you draw the link between the bedroom coders before and the indie developers now. Great job!

[@indylockheart3082]

American here..today is definitely a good day to focus on good/interesting things from outside the US. Thank you Mark.

[@generallykaiden]

I owned a commodore 64 back at the start of the 90s (Australia), and I remember owning a lot of these games. Ocean pretty much defined my Commodore 64 experience. But I didn't realise that British games had their own cultural history separate from American and Japanese. I find the early history of the rise of the home computer to be fascinating.

[@lucasprizant6157]

This was amazing, it's so cool to see how much insight you have about the origin of games in the UK. It makes sense that you're so eloquent with the making of modern games; you can see the evolution. Favorite channel on youtube!

[@michaelsander2878]

I'm an American bedroom coder (or at least I'm trying to be). It is pretty cool that technology has afforded us this sort of opportunity to be craftsmen like those in the renaissance.

[@fishface9789]

I love learning about the early history of gaming. Great video keep up the good work!

[@spitfire5180]

I'll be honest, the most surprising fact to me is that boots used to sell games lol

[@pepsicoder]

Boots in the early 80's from what i had witnessed was the best place for games, you could not move for people in the software isles on a saturday it really was a golden time. Must not forget the silica shop that also was also a good computer shop of which i was offord a job their many moons ago.

[@mrmonkeyman79]

Wasn't expecting a whistle stop tour of my childhood today but glad I got one. This was a great video, thanks!

[@ThunderRazorYT]

Teasing that RoboCop Chiptune theme at the end there! Representing a little more UK love with the skills of Jonathan Dunn. Kudos, Mark!

[@Steampark]

That burst of nostalgia ! :) That's how we started my and my brother, making small games and demomaking in our bedroom. Thanks for that video. Cheers.

[@zeedar412]

The Oliver twins gave an awesome guest lecture at my uni last year. They made SO many games.

[@KuraIthys]

They've provided various resources to a project called FUZE, which exists to recapture some of the feel of what it was like to work with old 8 bit systems, but with modern resources. There were some dedicated devices running FUZE initially, but then they made a version that runs on the Nintendo Switch. (called Fuze4Switch) - there's also a PC version. It's fascinating to see such a thing, especially on something like the Nintendo Switch. Fun way to scratch that coding itch in a portable form factor. XD

[@Potpan0]

One of my first experiences playing computer games was Manic Miner on a Spectrum Emulator that my Mom put on our PC. I could never get very far in it as a 7 year old, but it's really nice to see some of those foundational old British PC games shown to a broader audience.

[@spiderside3892]

both of my fathers were programmers, born and raised in england in the mid 1970s so i am so so excited to see this story retold :)

[@superwooper5210]

Wow, this was amazing! I had no clue the average person was able to get into game design like that then and I didn't realize how similar things can be done now! Bravo, Mark. Bravo.

[@firstlast-gh9ig]

I'm 46 and just a glimpse at some of these old games brought back incredible memories, and I can recall the awe at those brand new unbelievable 16 color graphics, or those incredibly realistic monochrome 3D wireframes, or those superfast and smooth sprite movement animations... No game has brought me such a sense of wonder in the last decade or more : we are just slowly improving things that were then totally new. The only recent real feelings of wonder I can remember today are the first massive multiplayer games, and the first augmented reality games (but I'm still waiting for the first RA killer app or game). But it's incredible how vivid the feelings evoked by mere seconds of gameplay are. I remember I had wet dreams of the ZX81..

[@rupel190]

I think through analyzing that sense of wonder and working on it we can gain some of that back by changing our perspective, our lifestyle. But yes, it's hard when so many factors play into it, mostly as you said the natural trend of improving rather than innovating.

[@scality4309]

The introduction of 3D killed it all imho.

[@KuraIthys]

That sense of wonder is definitely something that gets harder to find over the years. I wasn't really old enough for 8 bit systems (though I owned an 800XL - albeit in 1990), but The SNES, N64 and the 2nd generation 3d systems (PS2, Xbox, Gamecube) really were amazing at the time... I pretty much never got that feeling again after that point. (maybe a small echo of it when I first saw the world in Breath of the Wild. Which, goes to show it's not always about technology as such) Unfortunately, completely new things don't come around very often... The 2d to 3d transition was very significant, even if in hindsight those early 3d games don't look so hot anymore...

[@mrsalty6884]

Now today we have things like wireless VR

[@firstlast-gh9ig]

@@mrsalty6884 Yes, but we are still waiting for that killer game that will define a new genre (and create drama because people will get physically hurt playing it :).

[@m0zzy71]

As a man of 49 who messed with Basic in the early 80s and now still a bedroom coder,.. i was so glad that u mentioned the ‘full circle’ we have come,.. cheers.! 👍🏻 (@mozzy31)

[@GoldenJLR]

It's super cool to see the video game history of other countries that is not USA and Japan. Brazil has an interesting history and an unique video game market thanks to a company called TecToy that I only saw in videos and documentary in Portuguese and I would love to see being show for the rest of the world.

[@lechindianer]

While being aware of the British computer industry back then I never researched the game landscape back then. Thanks for researching and connecting it to current game development

[@MaximumRD]

As a Canadian I appreciate this insight into Britain's bedroom coders. While there are many similarities to Canada there are certainly distinct differences regarding the popular machines people choose to code on etc due to regional market differences.

[@zuratu5743]

I hadn't realized Elite: Dangerous had an unbroken history going back so far. I was also surprised it wasn't even mentioned here among it's contemporaries. I had to look it up to be sure the two space sim games were indeed connected. Great video!

[@DavetheTurnip]

I love that the spirit of the bedroom coder is still alive and well. I guess it was only a matter of time until you made a video on the British gaming scene 😄

[@GreyWolfLeaderTW]

So many classic British developers from Rare to Psynosis to Sony Cambridge to Argonaut to DMA Design to Core Design to Bullfrog/Lionhead Games to Mythos/Microprose to Codemasters began as small single and two-man teams messing around with the making of games as hobbies and passions. Only really Rare, DMA Design (now Rockstar North), and Codemasters still exist.

[@reillywalker195]

Codemasters is still thriving, too. It has several well liked game franchises and even has international divisions in Malaysia and India.

[@scality4309]

Yeah, due to EA killing them all.

[@reillywalker195]

@@scality4309 Many were killed off by EA, but Psygnosis was killed off by Sony. To say it was "killed off" might not be totally accurate since its Liverpool office site is still open, but its development studio that was once Psygnosis was closed due to restructuring of Sony's European operations.

[@scality4309]

@@reillywalker195 Why is their office site still open?

[@brynshannon6692]

Oh thank goodness this had a good ending, because I read the title, am British, getting into programming so I can use Unity properly, and was thinking "Well, this isn't good news for me."

[@prismarinestars7471]

Bryn Shannon You should try Godot instead of Unity

[@brynshannon6692]

​@@prismarinestars7471 I'm not about to restart now with how long it takes me to learn new skills, dang it. DX I'd consider this kind suggestion, but I really can't afford to. Mental problems, I'm not getting into it. Thanks, though, really.

[@prismarinestars7471]

Bryn Shannon Ok. I only suggested because it sounded like you hadn’t really learned much about unity yet, but if you are already far along with unity, it’s probably not a good idea to switch.

[@brynshannon6692]

@@prismarinestars7471 Thanks again. Sorry if I came across too salty, I'm just... desperate. DX

[@lyrisio]

Unreal better yet if you're not into Unity that far.

[@rungeon83]

As someone who is a bedroom coder in the UK, this makes me so happy! During 00s I was a bit down about indie games almost not existing, yet since I've released a game on xbox360 indie section, and now it's even easier to release games. I'm currently trying to teach other fellow bedroom coders on my youtube channel though.

[@IllKillemall]

This is the first GMTK video that cannot be translated into a other language.. I wish I could translate it Korean :(

[@GMTK]

Sorry - I'll be announcing information on subtitle translation soon!

[@jan-lukas]

@@GMTK you could do an external website where translations are submitted, if *you* can still add some

[@MisterAppleEsq]

@@jan-lukas Sounds to me like GMTK already has a plan in place for something like that.

[@n_aniki]

Same. I really wish I could translate this one to my language

[@sebbes333]

*@Game Maker's Toolkit* Very good that you put the game names in text into the video! :D

[@forceofhabit]

Who needs an office when you’ve got a bedroom anyway? Great video!

[@alexhoneydew7611]

1:59 "Mountains of Ket" sounds like a hell of an adventure.

[@nachikahn4923]

GMTK videos are always so well done and interesting

[@senza4591]

Consistently high quality content, im continually impressed Mark

[@GhassanPL]

I am shocked that you failed to mention The Last of the Bedroom Programmers, Introversion Software! Makers of Uplink, Darwinia, DEFCON, and Prison Architect.

[@MetaBloxer]

I completely forgot that Darwinia existed. I remember picking that up in a Barnes and Noble, then being unable to run it on my crappy computer...

[@Canadas_Very_Own]

Awesome video! I never knew much about the growth of video games in the UK...now I do!

[@markm5927]

Great video, love the personality and DIY aspects of this era. Definitely an inspiration for some of the indie developers of the modern day.

[@patenshreve8796]

You're almost at 1M subscribers. Good job! Your videos got me into game design, and got me to play some amazing games. Thank you.

[@hcpuefiuhfdue1996]

Awesome to feel part of a generation on the way to make an old one back to the top ! Gives me hope for my futur as an independent game developer ! Thanks for the video really interesting !

[@deltajee7_org]

Thanks GMTK- for another great video..! Sometimes these history insights are also too cool and interesting to watch..on how this gaming industry evolved as a whole.. especially the ads.. how much they have changed..!🔥🔥 Guys !! He has provided the links to the magazines in the description ..wow!!

[@eduardorpg64]

This was WAAY better than your previous video! This is the kind of high quality and profesional videos that I've come to expet from you and that had made you one of my favorite KZbinrs. This was amazingly done, and keep up the good work!

[@Eener1000]

Aww, no mention of my two favorite British coders: the Pickford brothers. They got snatched up by Rare and made Ironsword and Wizards and Warriors 3 for the nes amongst other games. They have a great website full of stories about making games back in the day and scans of original concept art and design stuff for games they worked on.

[@xairo8134]

After struggling to find a major and 'settling' for whatever I could get, this video was the final push which inspired me to switch university and pursue Computer Science. After thinking I wasn't capable of such a difficult course, 300 miles and one and a half years later I'm just about to finish my first year, and I've never felt more focussed or fulfilled in what I want to spend the rest of my life doing. Thanks GMT.

[@AlexClarkeGame]

My dad always told me stories of him starting coding on the BBC micro, and now I'm moving into indie gamedev myself!

[@UubTay]

Wow, this is a complete blindspot in my understanding of video game history. Thanks so much!

[@pranavroh]

Great video, I really love these unexplored corners of history!

[@IXXIMASONIXXI]

So thankful to be around when gaming took off in the UK. Amiga 64 is where it all started for me with SWOS and Cannon Fodder :D

[@ersia87]

The rise of the indie game industry (or british bedroom coder industry) is one of the best things that's happened in recent years. While in some aspects the world has been led astray I simply adore the development of the games industry in this regard.

[@eduardorpg64]

You even provided links to the magazines in the description! You've really outdone yourself this time!

[@thomasbernard2136]

This is such a quality content. At first I was looking for sort of "design tips" but now this is my culutural game history chanel. You rocks, keep up the good work ! (No pressure though !)

[@RyumaXtheXKing]

Super cool to see someone cover the European computer industry. Hope you'll do some videos on some individual games like Project Firestart, the first survival horror game and Exile, an interesting early metroidvania. Love the Robocop theme as the outro. The director of Black Mirror sad that the GB version is one of his all time favorite tunes.

[@NobleEinherjar0]

This was such an amazing episode. I always love learning more about the history of game design. And as someone who plays Elite: Dangerous, it was a bonus to see that the ships in that game are fully realized versions of those old wireframe designs.

[@cartersmith6628]

As an American, so interesting to hear about this era of gaming in this region. It’s something I’ve never heard about before and honestly the way you describe it sounds like you’re giving an actual history lesson. Like I’m learning about art in the renaissance and how it was different in Rome and Greece

[@seanv42]

This was a really interesting piece of history. I didn't know publishers originiated in britian. It sounds like the US created the first tripple aaa devs, japan started development and home consoles, and britian started the publisher system for games.

[@BathroomTile]

Mark, thank you so much for making these videos. As video games as a medium become more and more mainstream, it's good to start examining game history the same way it is done with other media like films and music. These small stories are fascinating and put things into perspective. This is an important service you're doing in keeping these games' memories alive.

[@neogen23]

This was like reading Bob Pape's book in video format. I enjoyed it, as I enjoy all of your videos. Your content brings me back to my magazine reading days, when I would read every page looking for an analysis or back story like yours

[@stuhunt3857]

Outstanding choice of closing music there. :D

[@thezestfall1st107]

This one’s quite different from some of your other videos and I’m all for it

[@19maurice66]

The quality of your videos is so high and so consistent

[@pepsicoder]

Programming games has been my passion since 1981 when i was just 11 and bought my first micro the Sinclair ZX81. Ill never forget the first time i discovered how to move a character around the screen under keyboard control, i thought i was god. Currently working on a 2d pro gen platformer written in java with the framework libgdx which i love and also own the url bedroomcoder.co.uk for more years than i can remember just have to do something with it. Great video, thankyou.

[@Thraim.]

The rise of indi games that don't necessarily need photo realistic 3D graphics definitely helped small teams or even single people to make games again.

[@chrisatallah4297]

I'm absolutely enamoured with the history of video games and can't get enough so I'm really stoked to see you back on this roll! Keep up the great work and stay safe

[@simplesystemsstudios5122]

Kind of a neat dive into the past here. Awesome!

[@geraq0]

8:24 wow, awesome plot twist! Awesome video Mark!

[@baconlabs]

Or Barn Coders, in the case of Rare! Mad respect for all these guys.

[@maciej5866]

Finally European perspective on early gaming industry. I think Commodore, Amiga ZX Spectrum games are uderappreaciated and forgotten in US dominated world.

[@scality4309]

Yeah, europe was where it all happened. 'for the masses, not for the classes'

[@KuraIthys]

mmh.... The micros were something else. Even though there were so many US designed machines, Europe was where they thrived...

[@Lenriak]

Amiga is definitely underappreciated. It always annoys me when I see a "Top 100 Games of All Time" type list and there's never any Amiga games in there, except for one of those few games that was ported to anything with a microchip. XD

[@scality4309]

@@Lenriak But did the amiga had 'that' great games?

[@Lenriak]

@@scality4309 Yes. The Amiga had a lot of unusual games that did things differently than your more generic games of its day. To me, comparing the Amiga to the SNES and Mega Drive is almost the same as comparing todays Indie games to todays console AAA games. The Indies/Amiga games might not have the dev budget of the AAA console games, but they almost always felt more fun and creative than the more "metacritic checkbox ticking" AAA games.

[@iamnoimpact]

Rad to see some of the older stuff brought to light. I had a commodore 64 and largely played only what my brother would bring over from his dorm. Interesting to see “the industry” side in its infancy.

[@FlavourFool]

I loved this expertly concise history lesson, I have fond but limited memories starting from the ZX Spectrum. Well done!

[@Demonsub]

I now have an old Toshiba advert stuck in my head with that ending music (from Robocop 2 I believe). And on, and on, and on...

[@SeppelSquirrel]

And on, and on, and on, and Ariston. kzbin.info/www/bejne/n6KrnHqOa7uli7M

[@racheltadeu1692]

These are fantastic! I hope there is more to come!

[@jackfiend2710]

This takes me back, being an owner of an amstard cpc464 and an a500+ I have fond memories of zool, daily Thompson super challenge, dizzy and so many fantastic games of this era.

[@JiggyIcarus]

Probably some of the best content you've put out GMT! I love your historical analysis vids- super interesting.

[@merluzacongelada5361]

Bedroom coders were a thing with continentals too, it's just that the Brits seemed to be the ones who transitioned from that to the console market the best. This is not surprising at all because they already had the biggest video game industry in Europe back then, so getting a console licence was a no biggie for their big-ass companies. The smaller ones probably couldn't adapt and died out, or had to stuck to computers, becoming less and less relevant as time went on. That's what happened everywhere else afaik.

[@archvaldor]

This was such an exciting time to live through. The possibilties seemed endless.

[@MellowGaming]

Grew up on the Spectrum and remember always reading about these developers and they're projects. People always say Miyamoto was the first well known name in gaming but in the UK we all knew Matthew Smith, Jeff Minter and the Oliver Twins. I used to sit and copy code from magazines into my Speccy but was too impatient and not thorough enough to make sure I had got it right so never really learned a thing from it. Was a crazy time though.

[@reillywalker195]

Shigeru Miyamoto was the first game designer to become internationally renowned for his skill from what I could tell. The fact that he saved Nintendo's North American operations and helped to revive North American home gaming with games he designed undoubtedly helped to earn him that recognition. That said, it's wrong to call him a developer because he's an artist rather than a programmer, which made him unique among game designers back in the 1980s.

[@KuraIthys]

@@reillywalker195 mmh. Obviously the early industry largely predates any concept of specialised game development degrees, but it's still interesting to note that formally, Shigeru Miyamoto is an industrial designer; The kind of person that would have been trained in how to make everyday items look both interesting and functional...

[@Darashiva]

Finland had a very similar start to its video game industry. Most of the early games made here were done by individual working alone at home. It wasn't until the early- to mid-90's that actual development studios were founded.

[@spookaj6261]

Reminds me of my dad who grew up in New Zealand at around the same time you are talking about. He use to make a bunch of games from scratch like RPG's or a 3d maze. Maybe New Zealand computer culture was similar to England's.

[@KRYMauL]

The first video game was made by the MIT Model Rail Railroad Club, and they coined the name Hacker. They created a little game called Space Wars which is what inspired a young Nolan Bushnell to start Atari.

[@StrikerObi]

As an anglophile American, I am fascinating by all these weirdo British games we mostly never got to play. I'm glad today's indie developers are able to pick up that torch and re-light it. The British have such a unique sense of humor that I really vibe with, and I love a good silly game.

[@sojou.RN.]

Always a pleasure to watch your content, Mark! I definitely love the increase in game diversity that is accompanying this indie game trend.

[@sweetegg]

Great video, you never dissapoint. Btw that outro music is giving me goosebumps hearing it through headphones.

[@GrimmerPl]

What a beautiful history lesson.

[@Pe0ads]

Love this, been obsessed with this story for a while. Gamedev Tycoon is a great game if you want to play through it. Also Mark I know you make these games primarily with American English, but I felt physical pain when you referred to British kids making games in "college dorms" rather than "university halls".

[@SuperSoupy]

This one video was way better than that whole Netflix game doc series!

[@Jmcinally94]

We had a BBC Micro at my school. My mum worked there so I often turned up early and the teacher reluctantly let me sit in front of it before class. I used to just scour the file system. My proudest moment was finding the Earth Warp game. Nobody even knew it was on there and we'd literally just finished watching the show in class. The teacher even let me show everyone at the end of term and we all played it. I'm not sure if my love of computers would have blossomed if it hadn't been for easy access to that machine. Thank god for the BBC.

[@miinintapple]

Great work Mark! Loved the video (as usual)

[@johnspencer265]

this goes down as one of my fave yt videos cheers mark great vid