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Is that Dave Lee Travis at 2:29?

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What were the best selling games for Christmas 84?

THAT CONTRAST

I would love to go to that British computer multimedia store funny that I could download all of these libraries I'm not sure bandersnatch can be emulated I imagine it could be I will look for it on my beebem emulator or spectrum I live on the usa when in the heyday the ibm pc or clones were popular commodore 64 some amigas apple computers tandy trs80 coco and black and white model 1 and three computers

Pleased to hear the Joe Walsh tune in situ as it has been muted due to copyright on the other uploads of this.

18:07 I like how happy David Ward looks when he starts talking about schoolkids ripping off Oceans games.

15:54 - professional counterfeiter sounds like hell of a job though

I saved up and bought a second hand one, when I was a kid (I'm 53 now!)

Boy booting the door when he's back from the pub.

Okay, I feel like I'm missing something here coz I can't see anyone else un the comments who mentioned this. 9:50, I could be wrong but I'm pretty certain that's not Hunchback 2, its Donkey Kong Jr, right? Please, someone correct me on this if I'm wrong

i will always miss this.

A £40 game in 1984… adjusted for inflation, that £164 in 2022 money. Who’d pay that for a game back in the day? Just crazy to even “imagine” it would ever work. Watching it back, it has car crash written all over it from the start. Just shows how people can be blinded by their own ideas.

Boomers. Boomers everywhere.

I wonder if the guy ever got his bag back out of the office? If I could go back in time to show Ocean my version of Hunchback I'm working on - they'd probably force money into my hands to get me to make it as quick as possible!

Listen to this through a subwoofer. The LFE is awesome

It’s obvious why Imagine conceived the ‘Mega game’: An increasingly competitive and subsequently stagnating games market was placing a quickly acquired lifestyle of luxury cars, high living and penury-inducing expenditure in jeopardy. Instead of the much needed belt tightening and Porsche selling necessary in such lean times though Imagine instead convinced themselves that they could sell a £40 ‘mega game’ in the same high numbers as regular £5 software and keep the Bollinger flowing unimpeded! Delusional. Regardless, Bandersnatch actually looked quite good but can you imagine tech-sceptic parents being convinced by their excited offspring to buy something for forty quid that looks just like every other six quid Speccy game? Nah!

Hard to believe that 20 years ago, one of the best licensed games of all time was a freaking launch title for the Nintendo GameCube. The Force was truly strong with this game. Happy 20th Anniversary, Rogue Leader!

The difference between Ocean and Imagine is so stark in this programme. A realistic, level headed business versus a bunch of egotistical charlatans.

That sound from Pogo at 22:34 grabbed me right in the memories.

14:05 I always wonder was that the cassette duplicator guy out in the lobby, calling in trying to get the attention of anybody to help him while the boys were inside having their meeting.

Wow, I have never seen such sophisticated pirate copies. We got most of our Commodore 64 games on unmarked cassettes that we swapped with friends at school to copy for ourselves. At least I can say with honesty that the games we were truly dedicated to (Gunship, Silent Service, Project Stealth Fighter, Pirates!) we purchased at full price. Funny how most games we loved were military simulators by American company Microsoft ("Wild" Bill Stealy, Sid Meier). Some others we purchased from the legal stores: Defender of the Crown (Cinemaware), Theatre Europe (PSS), Labyrinth (Lucasfilm Games) and a few more. Most of the games we got for free weren't that interesting to us anyway. Oh, the very first game I bought, just based on the excellent screenshots: Raid over Moscow (US Gold) And of course Castle of Terror (Melbourne House). We also bought Visible Solar System made by Commodore themselves but it was pretty lame.

02:44 I never knew George McFly worked at Imagine as a programmer

Bounced here from kims imagine retrospective myself x

Still nostalgic even 20 years later

Doesn't anybody know the story of why there is the message "Depressing isn't it" on the Commodore 64 screen?

HELP SPAIN NECESITO ESE JUEGO COMO LO PUEDO CONSEGUIR... AYUDA PORFAVOR, ES UN JUEGO DE MI INFANCIA CUALQUIER AYUDA ES APRECIADA MUCHAS GRACIAS!

Best splash screen. Though I do like the ps2 and GameCube and sega cd.

Pacman intermission but the directions are backwards

Can anyone help? At the beginning it says to click the screen to be taken to an interview about the documentary. When I click it the video simply pauses! What am I doing wrong??

as the nephew of mark butler from imagine software , i would like the opportunity to speak to anyone interested in there rise and fall, im available at galaxycruiser@me.com

I can’t seem to find it now, but a while back I tried to find details of Imagine’s distribution company featured in this documentary (Express Marketing) and found an old page which seemed to suggest it went bankrupt in or around May 1985. Obviously, causation does not imply correlation and all that, but it wouldn’t surprise me if Imagine’s downfall not only impacted Imagine’s staff, but those who supported, financed, and were in debt to the company.

Sounds like someone is playing Lode Runner at 18:47.

What happened here was the difference between a company that was set on creating the next big thing versus one that was entirely focussed on staying in business. Ocean succeeded by following the tried and trusted "Entertainment House" model as used by the big companies like Atari, and those of the film and music industries: Making sure there's a profitable product by cherry-picking the best options available. Imagine fell apart because they were more interested in the product than keeping afloat. While the money was coming in, they squandered it on huge salaries and lavish offices and frivolous pet projects that would never have made back their development budget.

So was it Ocean (using the Imagine name on the box) that released Yie Ar Kung Fu?

there games was the best for sure. Ocean, Imagine, psygnosis & US Gold.

Top

One of Bally's best.

FML an unbiased documentary - can't have been put out on the BBC back in the day, they must have cancelled it. Cracking stuff!

At 0:11 there is a short clip of a song that I KNOW I've heard before. Does anyone else recognize it and where is it from? Thanks!

Ian Weatherborn later committed suicide at 23.

black mirror is real?

I own a demo copy of Bandersnatch. Cool game.

For anyone interested in more info about the making of this documentary and the company itself, check out this page for the full story: www.crashonline.org.uk/12/imagine.htm It's archived from an old tech magazine and provides some context you won't find this video.

As soon as I saw Bandesnatch on Netflix it made me think of Imagine - clearly inspired by this story. It was good to see all the real kit floating around the show (like the Spectrum with DKTroniks keyboard in the flat) etc. and it was really odd seeing an 80's WH Smith. Great job Netflix and Charlie Brooker.

⑃

Relax. Don’t do it.

Black mirror anyone?

4:00 I like the wet fart sounds of that game.

14:06 - YO!!!