Commercial Breaks - A documentary about Imagine and Ocean Software (Full Uncut Version)

I'm uploading this video as Google Video is closing down at the end of this month and wanted to have a place online for people to watch it.

But I'm tempted to create a new channel dedicated to archiving video game TV shows, would anyone be interested in that?

Fantastic bit of history showing a behind the scenes of software houses Ocean and Imagine circa 1983/4. Following text from http://home.iprimus.com.au/danmcpharlin/purpleowl/psygnosis-history.html In early 1984 the Imagine team were working on a spectacular project known as Bandersnatch. The game was to come in an A4 sized box containing around 30 'goodies' including a required additional piece of hardware for your Spectrum computer. The retail price of Bandersnatch was expected to be around £40 and it was to be a completely new concept in computer games. Apparently 10 professional artists were working on the graphics alone. Bandersnatch was never released. On the 9th of July 1984, Imagine went bust after only 18 months of operation. Interestingly, its demise was documented by a BBC television program.*** *** Note. This is the very video that the text is talking about. :-)

Category:

Gaming

Tags:

• commercial
• breaks
• documentary
• imagine
• software
• ocean
• TV
• xmas
• christmas
• bandersnatch

[PlatformThirtyTwo]

Great documentary, thanks for uploading this!

[GameReviewerArchive]

@PlatformThirtyTwo Neinen ze problemmo :D

[RosscoSpielburgo]

Ocean were awesome back in the days of Amiga. I remember saving up a tenner and shooting down to Toys R Us to pick up a copy of whatever they had in their £10 range, almost always some Ocean release like Batman. Robocop 3 just blew me away as a kid. Everyone has nostalgia for something but if you ask me you can't beat a bit of Amiga was some classic Ocean game.

[kikencorp]

That Speccy game looks amazing!

[StarfieldSoftware]

Thanks for uploading! Very interesting insight into how the UK game industry ran in the 80s.

[DSDMovies]

Seems like Imagine was run by tossers. Lots of new money, wasting it immiedately on frivolous nonsense and then going bust. Great.

[PinchySkree]

Playing the dark!

[RomeoKGT]

Wow what a wonderful insight in to 80's software companies Ocean and Imagine.

[cadmus98]

Looking at this, I'm reminded of all the hype over the dot-com bubble a decade later. Living in a financial fantasyland... completely out of touch with reality.

[evilartstudio]

If you archived video game TV shows, you would seriously be my hero... Thanks for posting this one!

[madcapoperator]

a brookside game would have sold no matter what

[MrArchangelfilms1]

Mark Butler does sound like a butler.

[MrArchangelfilms1]

i used to play computer games a long time ago. still do, but ive been too busy and lazy at the same time. :P