The amazing tale of the UK game industry is a must-watch

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Way back when I was just a little boy, my first ever home computer was a Commodore VIC-20. I graduated to a Sinclair ZX Spectrum + a year or so later in about 1990. I can remember buying games on audio cassette in WH Smith, patiently typing in lines of BASIC from written instruction and my parents telling me that my £7.99 copy of Hero Quest was "too much for a game and we'll never spend that much on one game ever again". But those halcyon days of the games industry are long gone and in the heady days of PlayStation 4 and Xbox One's global success, the industry's UK roots are being forgotten. That's where From Bedrooms to Billions comes in.

The film was made by Anthony and Nicola Caulfield and was crowd-funded through Indiegogo (and I'm pleased to say we ran a story urging people to support it, back in 2012). It's a long film at some 2.5 hours long and there is as much bonus footage again available if you want it. Why is it so long? It's full of interviews with industry luminaries, like Peter Molyneux, The Oliver Twins, Dave Perry, Mark Healey and loads more. And they've all got interesting things to say.

I've watched the digital version of the film and would recommend it to anyone who wonders what gaming used to be like 'in the olden days', or already knows and wants to get nostalgic. You can buy it from www.frombedroomstobillions.com for £9.95 upwards, depending on which edition you want and whether you want a download or a boxed Blu-Ray or DVD.

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Justin Towell
Justin Towell
Freelance Writer

Justin was a GamesRadar+ staffer for 10 years but is now a freelance writer, musician and videographer. He's big on retro, Sega and racing games (especially retro Sega racing games) and currently also writes for Play Magazine, Traxion.gg, PC Gamer and TopTenReviews, as well as running his own YouTube channel. Having learned to love all platforms equally after Sega left the hardware industry (sniff), his favourite games include Christmas NiGHTS into Dreams, Zelda BotW, Sea of Thieves, Sega Rally Championship and Treasure Island Dizzy.