From Bedrooms to Billions
Though the cinematic landscape is hardly inundated with documentaries on videogames, there have been enough of late to feel like the subject has really started to gain silver screen traction. However, game enthusiasts over the age of 30 may well have noticed a fairly sizeable hole in such narratives, that being the rise and dominance of the UK computer games industry in the 1980s. Despite the title, last year's Video Games: The Movie all but missed out that particular chapter, condensing the movement down to a single, throwaway line, whereas others have neglected it altogether.
From Bedrooms to Billions seeks to rectify such sleights with a comprehensive overview of the pioneering movement that saw a small cabal of bedroom coders change the world forever. That’s no hyperbole either, as one of the many things Bedrooms shows is that far from being the localised and insular event that many may perceive it to be, the effects of the UK gaming charge are still being felt, not least with so many of its key players talking to directors Anthony and Nicola Caulfield from lofty positions in the US games industry today.
With such a project, the quality and quantity of interviewees can make or break the documentary. Thankfully, the Caulfields' little black book is clearly bulging with all the right contacts, from venerable faces such as Peter Molyneux, to the always-amiable Jeff Minter to the more elusive likes of Manic Miner creator Matthew Smith. For the aficionado (and really, Bedrooms is for no one else), it’s an impressive cast and the Caulfields do a sterling job of weaving these individual tales into a well-realised, three-act movie structure.
On more than one occasion, the whole movement is likened to the punk scene from several years prior, and while there are some similarities (gobby teen journo Julian ‘Jaz’ Rignall could certainly lay claim to being the Johnny Rotten of the industry) it also does a huge disservice to things. Whereas punk chewed and spat out the rulebook, the pioneers of home computing and the subsequent game invasion had to quite literally write out their own, particularly for the early home computers, such was the wholly new ground they were breaking.
From Bedrooms to Billions captures this spirit brilliantly with plenty of archive footage to complement the up-to-date interviews. Yet along with the anarchic spirit that clearly pervades here, the lasting artistry is another aspect that’s well highlighted. Often smirked at or, at best, remembered with amusement, the technical wizardry, graphical craftsmanship and musical chutzpah are all presented and argued as being as culturally important as any other work of art. To revisit Wizball from the Commodore 64 in Blu-ray with surround sound speakers certainly bolsters the point.
As the rather nifty opening credits forecast, and indeed anyone with half an interest in the subject already knows, the Japanese and American resurgence of games publishers in the early 90s decimated the UK industry. Bedrooms' peek behind the curtain in this regard is quite fascinating, where highly strident and creative individuals began to find themselves as smaller and smaller cogs, ticking publishing boxes for safe sequels and licensed titles above any kind of risk and ingenuity. It remains unspoken but there’s a tangible sense of ‘what could have been’ between Bedrooms' spoken words.
At around two-and-a-half hours, Bedrooms feels exhaustive, but in the way a good work out can make you feel. Its uplifting coda (the resurgence of small developers cutting out the middlemen via digital distribution) gives it a movie-style ending, a sense of the cycles of life and the hope that big ideas will, eventually, win over big bucks. Yet whatever the future for the huge list of those involved here, From Bedrooms to Billions is a captivating and definitive account of their pioneering past.