Home computers

Alongside the video-game consoles, home computers started to arrive on the scene. Notable entrants were the Commodore 64 , the Sinclair ZX Spectrum , the BBC Micro , and the Acorn Electron machines. These machines allowed their operators to program their own software. Magazines would print reams of code, to be hand typed to produce a game. There were mailing lists and, at some locations, even local shops selling a programmer's wares on their shelves in the form of floppy discs, tapes, or cartridges.

By 1984, computer gaming had overtaken the console gaming market. While not as simple to use, the ability to create programs for them was appealing and the software was more readily available.

The Commodore 64 machine was launched in 1982 and shipped with a Beginners' All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code (BASIC) programming environment. This spawned a generation of bedroom programmers. They would work on software to show off their coding prowess, which could achieve the most impressive effects within the memory constraints of the machine, and are largely credited for creating the demo scene as it is today.

In 1985, the Atari ST and the Commodore Amiga machines arrived. While expensive initially, these machines became more affordable within a few years. The power of home computers was coming on in leaps and bounds, and both computers excelled in certain areas.

Home computers were ahead of contemporary game consoles in terms of graphical performance. The Amiga machine had many hardware revisions and the PC was improving with dedicated graphics and sound cards.

None of the game consoles allowed any hobbyist development, they all were closed systems. If you wanted to program, you would need to get a computer and learn how to code for it.

It was around this time that many small game companies were founded in the UK; Bitmap Brothers, Psygnosis, and Team 17 to name a few. While these companies started off small, the success of their games led to rapid expansion. While some have now ceased to exist and others have been bought out by larger companies, games based on their intellectual property and franchises still exist and are available for sale today. Some of the Bitmap Brothers games are available on Xbox Live Arcade, and Sony has just announced a remake of Shadow of the Beast, an early game from Psygnosis.