News: Commercial Breaks: The Battle for Santa's Software

February 10, 2006, 09:15 AM

by mathew, via various -
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2006_02_10_commercial.jpg It's been doing the rounds as a torrent for a while now, but now that it's appeared on YouTube it's as good a time as any for us to link it. Commercial Breaks - The Battle for Santa's Software is fascinating look at the internal machinations of UK software companies Imagine and Ocean in 1984, as well as a nice blast of nostalgia for anyone used to tape loading games. The documentary covers Imagine's implosion due to mismanagement and the demands of 'Bandersnatch', one of Spectrum gaming's most legendarily hyped games, never to appear, later released by Psygnosis as 'Brataccas' on the 16-bits. A nice companion piece is the coverage in a blistering article from January 1985's Crash magazine- still an utterly essential piece of games journalisim. The documentary also covers Ocean's clever image management with a slightly less cynical eye. Thanks to all at the World of Stuart Forum for the heads up.