Something that caught my attention at the local branch of Forbidden Planet is the slowly growing range of video games-themed books they carry. As well as the rather nice looking tomes from Bitmap Books, Pen and Sword's White Owl imprint gets a look in and, on my last visit, this chunky title was also on the shelf. Never one to pass up the opportunity to read about the history of video gaming, I wasted no time in buying it.
The genesis of Britsoft comes from the documentary From Bedrooms to Billions. This was released several years ago and traced the early history of the British video games industry. As a companion to the documentary, Britsoft takes the vast amount of interviews and, under the eagle eyes of former Edge editor Alex Wiltshire, weaves the tale into a 420 page behemoth.
The book itself is divided into eight chronological chapters: First Contact, Money Makers, Going Pro, Booming Business, Game Press, The Coming of 16-Bit, Maturing Industry and End of an Era. The layout is a tad funky, but not overly confusing - as you can see from the image below. There are three images sections: a photo scrapbook, press clipping and game artworks. Full colour is limited only to the latter section and a pre-intro photo section. Other than that it's hues of blues and purple. Green is the other main colour used, delineating the chapters as well as providing the footnotes - I'll get to those later... There is an appendix which gives brief biographies of those whose recollections were included, as well as an illustrated timeline of the various machine released in the UK between 1973 and 1992 - the period covered by this book.
The book is an oral history and they have included many familiar (and some not-so familiar names) in the mix. The likes of Peter Molyneux, David Braben and Archer Maclean rub shoulders with Mel Croucher, Mo Warden and Tim Tyler. As these are all personal recollections, there is a small disclaimer at the front of the book about it not being a verified account and that these were personal recollections, and that's fair enough, as the various contributions combine to give the reader an excellent feel for the then young video games industry in Britain. A lovely touch is the way of navigating the entires. You can read the book linearly or you can follow each contributor in turn, with every entry showing the page number for that person's previous recollection and their next one.
I admit to having quite a varied video games book collection but Britsoft still provided yet more information and flavour of the early period in the UK than I already knew. It can feel quite a melancholy tale, as times have definitely changed and it's an impression that I've gained from several other books I've read (Shareware Heroes and Acorn: A World in Pixels are two that spring to mind). There are some funny stories, details of personal struggles and, in a funny way, just how humbly the industry started. As someone who has stood at a trestle table helping out at a war-games show, the depiction of early computer games shows feels eerily familiar.
I only have one niggle with Britsoft the book, and that's the footnotes. There are quite a few of these and usually that's not a problem. Except, and this may just be me, in any kind of artificial light, the light green colour used for the footnotes tended to make them disappear, or at least make them very difficult to read. Could be a personal thing, but it needed pointing out. Aside from that niggle, there is nothing else I can criticise here... except maybe a follow up for the more turbulent years of the 1990's?
You can pick up a copy from Read-Only Memory directly or, if you're lucky enough, your local Forbidden Planet. Otherwise, the usual online and physical bookstores should be able to get it for you. As someone with an avid interest in video games and computing history, this is another fine addition to a slowly growing library.
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