1984: BANDERSNATCH, BAILIFFS and the Battle for a HIT GAME | Commercial Breaks | BBC Archive

The market for home computer games in the UK has grown at an extraordinary rate. This Christmas, British shoppers are expected to spend over 30 million pounds on games. It's a market worth fighting for, but as more and more companies release more and more games each year, it's an extremely competitive one. Commercial Breaks follows two British software companies - Imagine Software and Ocean Software - as they seek a Christmas top ten hit.

The whizz-kids at Imagine are pinning their hopes on what they have dubbed "Megagames" - games so technically ambitious that they will exceed the computing capabilities of the Spectrum and Commodore. Their latest game, Bandersnatch, will feature so much complex animation that it will need to be packaged with a hardware add-on, and sold at a premium price - over four times more than average. It's a risky approach, and it's causing headaches for Imagine's artists, programmers, and sales team, but the company are hoping it will make Bandersnatch stand out against the competition.

For Ocean, a less radical approach. Ocean are returning to a game that sold well for them last year - Hunchback - and creating a sequel, Hunchback 2: Quasimodo's Revenge.

Which company's strategy will pay off? Will Bandersnatch or Hunchback 2 top the games charts?

This video has been edited since publication.

Clip taken from Commercial Breaks: The Race For Santa's Software, originally broadcast on BBC Two, 13 December, 1984.

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