10 PRINT “BIG WILLY”

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It was the first piece of code that many of us got to grips with as children, tapping quickly into a brand new machine that arrived on the shelves of Dixons, that we quickly abused on our way back from school.

And that machine was the revolutionary home computer, with the most popular in this country being produced by Sir Clive Sinclair, which bore his name: the Sinclair ZX Spectrum.

This documentary is an affectionate look back at the success of his home computer, and how it helped develop the British gaming industry.

It’s the latest from directing couple Anthony and Nicola Caulfield, who have already produced a number of documentaries on the gaming industry, including Burning Hope: The Making of Hitman Absolution and From Bedrooms to Billions.

This will resonate with a particular demographic for sure, Generation X’ers, predominately male, who were the first to experience the pleasure – and frustration – of playing video games at home.

There was already an appetite there after the release of the Atari 2600 and the game that everyone owned with it Space Invaders, which Sir Clive Sinclair wanted to take advantage of, with the release of his home PC’s, the ZX 80 and the ZX 81.

It wasn’t until the release of the ZX Spectrum however that gaming became mainstream, with not only the ability to play games on tape on them, but also to write games yourself.

This documentary looks at the how Sinclair’s PC revolutionised gaming in the UK, by being the most affordable of its kind. It was unlike any other, by being very portable, no bigger than a hardback book, and rubbery keys that were more tactile than those with membranes.

It features a large number of creators of early titles, as well as developers that got on board from the start. To that end, the documentary is very white, nerd-centric, offering a lot of talking heads who are extremely knowledgeable, but sadly lack much in the way of sparkling personalities. Certainly the inclusion of The Gadget Show presenter Jason Bradbury and radio presenter James O’Brien certainly helps to make it more personable, but the documentary would have benefitted from more like them, like Jonathon Ross for example.

What it captures however is an undeniable passion for gaming in the UK, right at its infancy. It would have been nice to see how this translates into today, with British talent behind the likes of Rockstar for instance, and their phenomenal success with their Grand Theft Auto franchise, but perhaps they’re saving that for another doc.

It’s a little self indulgent in places too, like ‘The Land of Make Believe’ by Bucks Fizz, playing in its entirety, against a backdrop of extremely short clips of classic games; you can appreciate that it’s there to break up the myriad of stern talking heads, but it’s just a little too much in one chunk.

What it will be is a generous serving of gaming nostalgia for many, with fond memories of not only playing these games, but also the rituals that came with it, such as keeping your fingers crossed the game will load first time (it very rarely did), as well as attempting to copy code from many of the gaming magazines out at the time (featured in the doc), that never worked at all.

The biggest take away from it of course is that it proves just how lucky gamers are today, with their instant gaming gratification, as this documentary shows, it wasn’t always the way.