When it comes to books about video games or micro computing history, no one does it better than Read-Only Memory.
The creators of The Sensible Software 1986 – 1999, Mega Drive and the recently crowdfunded Bitmap Bros books) are publishing a book this August made up of interviews from the original From Bedrooms to Billions film. Ant and Nic Caulfield (creators of From Bedrooms to Billions) have given permission to Read-Only Memory to look through their film transcripts and then use them to construct a unique and awesome book. Nearly a year in the making, the clever layout oozes Read-Only Memory quality! It’s great to see such wonderful interview material find a home such as this and it does also include a new interview with Andrew Braybrook!
Britsoft: An Oral History, a collective story of the early British games industry
Composed of interviews with thirty-five people who shaped the modern videogame, including David Braben (Elite), Peter Molyneux (Populous), Rob Hubbard (Commando) and Jeff Minter (Attack of the Mutant Camels), Britsoft: An Oral History documents the start of a new form of entertainment – created in bedrooms and living rooms on ZX Spectrums, Commodore 64s, Amigas and Atari STs.
The book is a companion piece to the 2014 documentary, From Bedrooms to Billions, and uses exclusive cuts from the hundreds of hours of interview footage to carve its original story. Through the voices of programmers, musicians, journalists and business people, it traces the making of games such as Dizzy, Elite, Paradroid and Kick Off; and birth of publishers, magazines and software houses, from Codemasters to Zzap!64.
Britsoft: An Oral History is edited by Alex Wiltshire, former editor of ‘videogame Bible’ Edge magazine, and its striking page layouts are designed by London-based studio Julia. It includes rarely-seen archive images, such as candid period photographs and magazine ads, which perfectly set the Britsoft scene. Pre-order your copy now!
Features
• Exclusive anecdotes and stories from 35 industry luminaries
• Brand new interviews with Andrew Braybrook (Uridium) and Sean Cooper (Syndicate) conducted specially for the book, plus new stories from Mike Montgomery, Julian Gollop and Jon Hare
• Archive photographs, adverts and ephemera
• 39 original illustrations of the cult hardware, consoles and home computers of the era
Specification
• Hardcover
• 160mm x 230mm
• 422 pages
• Lay-flat binding
• Multiple paper stocks
• 125,000 words
source: Read-Only Memory
