Skip to main content

From Bedrooms to Billions: The Amiga Years! Review

From Bedrooms to Billions: The Amiga Years!
'From Bedrooms to Billions: The Amiga Years!' is a feature film documentary that takes you on a detailed, and I mean detailed journey through the development, and life of the Commodore Amiga.

If you grew up in the 80's and 90's then you will know how cool the Amiga was.  I remember the first time I powered up my Commodore Amiga 500 and dropped 'Shadow of the Beast' into the disk drive.  I was blown away by the graphics, sound and music.  Especially as my previous computer was a trusty ZX Spectrum and that's how it was for millions of computer users in the late 80's.  Going from a Speccy or C64 to this leviathan, this monster of a machine was mind blowing.

The Amiga introduced me, for the first time to classic games such as the mighty absorbing Lucasarts titles.  The Secret of Monkey Island and Indiana Jones were just a few games that were new to me and it was the Amiga that allowed me to experience the talents of Ron Gilbert and Tim Schafer for the first time.

lucasarts amiga
So if you had an Amiga then 'From Bedrooms to Billions: The Amiga Years!' will certainly appeal to you.  Written and directed by Anthony Caulfield and Nicola Caulfield, this movie doc begins with a brief history of video games.  Pong, Intellivision and of course the wood-grained Atari 2600 are all the precursor for their more powerful off-springs.  What will surprise you is even though the Amiga was released in 1985 (which of course is covered extensively in this doc,) the idea for the computer was first discussed way back in the late 70's.

The documentary is packed with interviews and the aforementioned Ron Gilbert gives his two cents on the computer.  Peter Molyneux, Julian Eggebrecht (who worked on Star Wars: Rogue Squadron) and Martin Edmondson are all interviewed but that's just the tip of the iceberg.  The documentary has a cast list which seems to consist of a who's who of anyone who was even remotely involved in the games industry back in the 1990's.  There are snippets of sound bites throughout and there's the problem of 'From Bedrooms to Billions: The Amiga Years!'

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed this feature film documentary but get this, the feature comes in at a whopping 2 hours and 32 minutes! At first I was hooked and enthralled to watch such a detailed documentary, especially on a subject matter that I have a huge interest in.  There's a detailed section on what powered the Amiga.  The architecture underneath the bonnet will impress you and by the end of the documentary you will know what a 'blitter' is.

But after about half way through I noticed there was a problem with the documentary.  It repeats itself.  Or rather the people being interviewed repeat what someone in the documentary has already said.  It seemed to me that the directors had plenty of interview material at their disposal but wanted all of it in the documentary.

Once you get past the launch of the computer, the decision to focus on games and Commodore's marketing strategy, it's all talking heads praising the machine.  The last half hour consists of everyone that has featured in the documentary saying how wonderful the Amiga is.

I felt that the documentary should have come in at under two hours and then it would have been a bit more punchy.  Instead we get a documentary that was the equivalent of playing an adventure game on the Amiga that came on 20 disks.  After a while the repetitiveness of swapping the discs just got in the way of the entertainment*.

I want to end on a positive because 'From Bedrooms to Billions: The Amiga Years!' deserves it.  If you had an Amiga then you will love this documentary, even if you didn't you will still enjoy this documentary.  The retro ads and game footage will make you smile and make you want to fire up that trusty Amiga and play some classics once more.  Lemmings anyone?


Rob Wainfur



*Excluding the Lucasarts titles because they were awesome.
The Bearded Trio - The Site For Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, John Williams and a whole lot more.

Popular posts from this blog

Did Paul Freeman Accidentally Eat A Fly In Raiders of the Lost Ark?

The Famous Indiana Jones Fly In Belloq's Mouth Scene.  Did It Really Happen? I've always wondered if Paul Freeman unintentionally consumed a fly in this scene in  Raiders of the Lost Ark ?  It's the scene where Indiana Jones shouts down to Bellosh...I mean Belloq and threatens to blow up the ark.  Did a fly go in his mouth? I remember watching this scene back in the early eighties and my ten year old mind thought he definitely had a snack while filming.  I recall talking about 'flygate' in my school playground at the time and the general consensus with my friends was that Freeman definitely had a sneaky snack. Paul Freeman talks about the famous 'fly' scene in an interview with TheIndyExperience.com  and settled 'flygate:' This is a bit of a dicey question so don’t get too upset. (Laughs) A movie’s always got bloopers in it, some have a lot, and some only have three or four. And the most remarkable blooper was right before the opening of th...

Star Wars VII Movie Poster - Every End Is A New Beginning

Star Wars VII Movie Poster Just saw this Star Wars VII movie poster on Kyle Newman's Facebook fee d.  The poster is by  Lyndon Berresford and Paul Bateman.  I am loving this.  Who do you think the two characters are?  Lando and Leia?  Han and Leia's children? Have you seen other Star Wars VII movie posters?  Let me know. Rob Wainfur @welshslider

Explaining That "Weird" Cut In Poltergeist. Read The Missing Scene

Why Is There A Strange Cut In The 1982 Horror Classic, Poltergeist? If you're a fan of the 1982 Horror classic, Poltergeist then you will be very familiar with that "weird" cut in the movie.  It's 32 minutes and 47 seconds in to the movie and the scene is where Diane is explaining the strange phenomenon that is happening in the kitchen.  First, she shows to Steve a chair scraping across the floor all on its own then she does the same with Carol Anne.  Steve leans up against the kitchen wall and is completely shocked at what just happened.  It's at this point Diane starts to explain the sensation of being pulled and then...A very abrupt cut.  One moment we are listening to Diane and suddenly it cuts to Diane and Steve at their next door neighbours door.  Why the sudden cut?  It's on the VHS, DVD, Blu-Ray and even the streaming versions.  Why does this awful and weird cut exist in the movie, Poltergeist?  Watch the clip below to see the cut...