https://youtu.be/buuUZFh_pyk
this documentary uploaded by the BBC Archive today provides a very interesting window into that strange little time in the gaming industry when 8bit games were just being absolutely pumped out by teenagers in their bedrooms and in so called "software houses." Before the bubble burst the hype for microcomputer gaming seems to have been huge. I am only 24 but both my Dad and uncle fondly remember their ZX Spectrums owned as kids. My uncle learned to code on his, and has worked as a software engineer his entire adult life as a result, and continues to make silly money doing so. I've always been fascinated by the ZX Spectrum out of all the microcomputers of the era and bought myself a boxed 48k model at a car boot sale when I was around 13 and fell in love with it. My uncle brought me round some games from his loft and I had a lot of fun with them, I even wrote a few crap programs in Sinclair BASIC.

I know it's funny to shit on muh speccy and amigger and all that because the games are so primitive and there is an immense amount of shovelware and just slop that was produced for microcomputers. But it was a very humble and charming little time in gaming and some of the games are even worth playing today. It also was integral for building the gaming industry, and ultimately companies such as Rare and DMA/Rockstar would have likely not existed if it weren't for the era of affordable computing for the youth of the 1980s. Anyone from the time have any memories to share?

Is there any game on it actually worth playing that doesn't have a better port? These always seemed like a way shittier commodore

>>11798429
Chaose: The Battle of Wizards. Programmed by the future creator of X-com.

I really liked this documentary. I miss when this country looked healthy.

>>11798367 (OP)
i like this video. it's a great view into how they were developing software for speccy, c64 etc. the development kit/system they are using is called the "sage", one of the fastest 68000 based computers in the world - at the time. ended up very popular in the world of software development for other computers because it was just so damn fast.

>>11798429
Enjoying the Speccy these days is more about appreciating how impressive the games are considering the hardware

For other Brits in here, I was born in 1990 and grew up in the north west, my first console was a PlayStation and I wasn't really exposed to microcomputers until much later in life. I think I may have been aware of them when I started emulating NES games when I was around 11 or 12 but never really looked into them properly. When and where was usage of them at their highest? I'm pretty ignorant to the topic still, I knew one guy from Rotherham who was 10 years older than me who had a ZX Spectrum but haven't really come across many others. It is fascinating to see old school videogame development in this country.

>>11800128
1984-1988 was probably the 8-bit games boom, with a huge amount of titles releasing on the Spectrum, C64 and CPC.

>>11799929
Yeah that is the second thing you notice, it's like even if by some miracle we got rid of all the browns, the average working class white Brit is incredibly fat and unhealthy.
>>11799958
Thank you for the info anon, I have never even heard of it before. I just looked and the SAGE IV released in 1983 retailed for $3,600 USD (for the single-floppy entry-level configuration) which today is $11,619.22. Expensive bit of kit but I guess worth every penny for the power.
>>11800128
I was born in 2000 and my first gaming experiences were with the PS2, and later the Nintendo DS and Wii. But was introduced to The ZX Spectrum by my aforementioned uncle and I played around with emulators on the family computer a lot before I ever got my speccy. You're right it is an fascinating avenue of study.

>>11800163
I only want to deal with our health problems and not the problems of so fucking many waddling Africans and South Asians who are the result of cousin marriage.

The 80s were a true wonder (even as compared to the 90s). Those British kids still in school earning huge money from game developing is a peculiar thing unlikely to happen ever again.

>>11800163
>I have never even heard of it before.
not many people have.
> Expensive bit of kit but I guess worth every penny for the power.
yes. and time is money. being able to quickly edit your art, music, compile stuff etc. and dump the code out directly to target machine or via an in-ciruit emulator saved a lot of time and money. rod coleman, the designer/creator of it, wrote a long blog post about how he created the business and designed the machine. it's a wild ride:
https://suddendisruption.blogspot.com/2007/10/booting-sage-computer-subjective_5926.html

>>11800163
>I have never even heard of it before.
not many people have.
> Expensive bit of kit but I guess worth every penny for the power.
yes. and time is money. being able to quickly edit your art, music, compile stuff etc. and dump the code out directly to target machine or via an in-circuit emulator saved a lot of time and money. rod coleman, the designer/creator of it, wrote a long blog post about how he created the business and designed the machine. it's a wild ride:
https://suddendisruption.blogspot.com/2007/10/booting-sage-computer-subjective_5926.html

>>11800208
>Those British kids still in school earning huge money from game developing is a peculiar thing unlikely to happen ever again.
you're joking aren't you? they're making more money via computers than ever before. just playing games while on a stream earns people more money than some of these 80s games developers ever saw. are you unwell?

>>11800250
Wait til you find out what kids are actually going to school in the UK now.

>>11800261
> not joking, actually retarded
grim.

>>11800269
I don't think you understand what I'm getting at.

>>11798448
man that looks awful

When am I gonna get retro cheevos for the c64, amiga, and speccy, especially those first two (I just hate the speccy sounds but the more recent homebrew has far more acceptable sound). ITS TIME FOR ISOMETRIC PUZZLE GAMES LADS.

>>11800301
Any tips for micro computer games via retro arch? Amiga and Commadore are fine but Amstrad and ZX are off with keyboard controls and don’t work at all with a gamepad

>>11800349
You can remap them to whatever you want in the Input settings. It’s gonna depend on what the controls for the game are so you might want to use a per game override.

>>11798367 (OP)
>Anyone from the time have any memories to share?
I worked at Tiertex for 3 years and know all their dirty secrets and was involved in 2 arcade conversions for Capcom arcade machines.
I worked there while Mick West was there who went on to great acclaim with the Tony Hawk games and later UFO debunking.
I went for an interview with Ocean Software and Software Projects and didnt get the job.
I also worked for Lothlorien and basically worked for free as a 17 year old.

ask me anything

>>11800179
I mean that we need to get rid of the browns as our first and biggest problem, the next problem we would need to deal with being the health and obesity of the British (white) people.

>>11800881
Wow, thanks for dropping in anon.
>ask me anything
First, what year did you start working there? What games did you work on/were present during the development of? How much were you paid at Tiertex? What are your favourite memories from your time at both Tiertex and Lothlorien?

Third worlder who grew up with a Spectrum here. You silly English twats don't seem to know the lefty BBC you are paying for (you are paying that licence, right? You're white) has censored this before releasing. Here you are, the 40 seconds that have been cut off.
https://files.catbox.moe/ypztfw.webm

>>11800881
What was your favorite game or software that you worked on?

It's such a weird feeling watching young people try to catch up to eras you lived through vicariously through tiny snippets of video. Like a vague mild toothache.

>>11801498
Fuck you thirdy, thanks for the info though. And no, I put all their letters in the bin and I am White as all British people are. Fuck the BBC, but there is no discernable reason to censor that footage, it most likely had issues on the higher quality tape that they have in their archive.

>>11800115
So, what you're saying is no.

>>11798367 (OP)
I'm always confused by how this all played out
>Massive investments during the 80s
>The whole BBC computer thing, too
>By the end of the decade, have one of the largest and best trained programmer population that is almost exclusively focused on making games
>Late 80s till mid 90s are fucking El Dorado
>From late 90s onward, it all just fades away, no company formed during those days has any kind of lasting success, the ones that did run themselves to the ground by early 00s
>All the talent gets squandered, all the investment turns into dust, no continuation in the 90s and 00s of any kind
What in actual fuck? What important ingredient I'm missing here?
Germs did roughly the same (and with far more work and effort put into the 80s), but their native gaming industry is doing just about fine to this day, even if bought up by late 00s by suits from all across the globe. Brits had barely anything to sell by that time.

>>11802242
*far less work

>>11802242
Two words: Tony Blair

>>11802315
... and?
Because I honestly have no idea how this relates. Dunno, some specific laws or acts being passed? Appointing some new commission or something?
I am not a Bong, so I don't know what he did other than being best pal with Yanks and being running a Labour in-name-only government

>>11802242
>>Late 80s till mid 90s are fucking El Dorado
it was a gold rush back then. you could produce some slop in BASIC and it would get published. games started to cost more money, take longer to develop, etc. and budgets kept getting bigger as tech evolved. became an industry only for the big boys with big bank accounts and willing investors. 2000s was the beginning of the end for most of their industry as many of them went broke, couldn't compete, got bought up and shut down
>but their native gaming industry is doing just about fine to this day,
nice. they were always great when it came to producing games.

>>11802232
>why are you playing mortal kombat on game boy when the arcade version is obviously superior?
thats what u sound like

>>11802804
>2000s was the beginning of the end for most of their industry as many of them went broke, couldn't compete, got bought up and shut down
But my question is WHY. If you have people that make games for past 15 years and they all end up out of business in a very short window, it's just weird.

>>11802814
that's a valid statement. why would you play the inferior version

>>11804229
You stupid contrarian faggot. You are missing the point. It's the soul of ZX Spectrum games. Sure a lot of them were hard or clunky as fuck, but there are a few that cannot be experienced any other way.

The color scheme is fantastic as well, so kiss my ass, Zoomer.