The Def Guide to Zzap!64

4 CLIP ‘FROM BEDROOMS TO BILLIONS’ FILM BUNDLE AVAILABLE TO PRE-ORDERS ONLY!

'From Bedrooms to Billions' is a British two hour feature length documentary movie that tells the remarkable story of the UK Video games Industry.

Starting in the late 1970's the film shows how the creativity and vision of a relatively small number of British individuals, many of which were children, allowed the UK to play a key, pioneering role in the shaping of the worldwide billion dollar video games industry, which today dominates the modern world's entertainment landscape. The film features interviews with many major British game designers, musicians and journalists from across the last 30 years and has only been made possible by people ‘backing’ the project through pre-ordering and donations. The film, which features an all new soundtrack by SID musician legends Rob Hubbard, Ben Daglish and Martin Galway has been in production for nearly 18 months and is due for release in Spring 2014. This film is a must for anyone interested in the creation of games and the industry and not just those into retro gaming of the 80’s and 90’s!

Anyone who ‘Pre-Orders’ the film not only gets access to the films’ BACKER’S ZONE (http://www.frombedroomstobillions.com/backers) which is loaded with extended film clips and music but also immediately receives an exclusive pre-order only download bundle containing 4 extended clips which are; ‘Matthew Smith on Manic Miner’, ‘David Braben on Elite’, ‘Mel Croucher on Deus Ex Machina’ and ‘Rob Hubbard on Coding’.

The website http://www.frombedroomstobillions.com also contains various other items of merchandise such as the Official Soundtrack CD’s, T-Shirts, highly rare signed gaming items as well as the film’s official posters exclusively designed by veteran video game magazine artist Oliver Frey (ZZAP!64, CRASH).

Pre-order your copy now at http://www.frombedroomstobillions.com

...... However what perhaps some of you didn’t expect is that 31st May 2014 will be the last pre-order date for the film! Please understand all of you that we have always wanted to stay true to this project and its backers right from day 1. A ‘backer’ in our eyes is someone that takes a leap of faith and effectively pre-buys something before it has been made or finished. This means there is an element of risk involved which requires trust and belief from any ‘backer’. As you are aware we have allowed pre-orders to continue right through production and that production on this film ends 31st May 2014. We will only be able to carry out one single replication run for this ‘Backer Version’, if anyone wants it they must be on that replication run by having already pre-ordered by 31st May, if not then they will miss out on this unique version permanently a s the film in this format, packaging and content will never be released like this again!

That means that this version of the film that you all know with specially designed Oliver Frey cover and special features will be unique and highly collectable because it is really only for all of you who supported this project, who had the belief and goodwill to pre-order via Indiegogo, Kickstarter or from our website and get the film funded, allowing us to make it the very best we could.

This version will only be for all of you, once we hit 1st June 2014 the film will ‘no longer’ be available from our website and anyone wanting it after that point will have to wait until another distributor can take it forward. Assuming a distributor does move forward with it in the future it would not be the same version at all. There is a UK wide cinema tour being planned to start from September this year (see below). We assume the film will be out on all formats (DVD, Blu-ray etc) by Christmas, but if it does come out then it will not be the same as your version…the ‘backer version’ with Oliver Frey artwork as it would be repackaged and different. This makes the current ‘pre-order’ version highly unique and collectable and absolutely one only for all of you backers. This single replication run will take place on 1st June with postage out of all your own copies taking place within a few working days after that.

Film Progress

First of all we would like to welcome some new backers to the project. Thank you for believing in the project and we hope you have enjoyed the download bundles and material in the backers zone. As we mentioned last time we have committed to a screening of the film at Games Britannia on 28th June. That means that the film will be shown there and we will be present. It is a closed screening being run by the Games Britannia staff and though ‘free’ you must apply for tickets.In addition we are placing the entire film in the backers zone on the same day (28th June) for all backers to watch. We have decided to wait until 28th June for this because currently we are having trouble getting some of the 3rd party material cleared. Though requests went in some time ago we are dealing with outside ‘3rd parties’ and E3 has really not helped. We can’t press physical copies until t his is in place and have given them a cut-off timeframe. It is one of the issues of a project that has a historical angle, you have to bring in outside elements. What we will do therefore is give it until just before the screening and then strip out what can’t be used or cleared by that time.

As we mentioned last time the really generous guys at Trailerfarm have come onboard to do some really impressive intro credits so we are using this extra time to give them a little more time also, they are donating their time and have been massively busy due to their E3 workload. The key thing is that physical copies are different to digital, once pressed there’s no going back! What we are absolutely not prepared to do is rush out copies and then add material back in at a later date that may then get cleared, as this would mean you get inferior versions, that would be unacceptable. This version, ‘your’ version needs to be the definitive version. No one wants this all finished and dispatched more than us so we are committing to a screening both in public and to all our backers on June 28th, and prior to that we will do another newsletter as we want these out nice and regularly now to show the progress.

We have however just put a massive 17 minute sequence from the main film into the ‘Backers Zone’ for you all to watch right now. Check out the info below for more details on that and another brand new Rob Hubbard track.

We have decided to leave the film still available for pre-order for one simple reason, every penny raised over the next couple of weeks could just license a little more footage. At several thousand pounds per minute, even a couple of extra seconds would be a nice option if more backers decide to come onboard in the short window left.

Our focus is now on the extras and bonus features which are going to be for digital and physical versions. We really do have too much material and currently and as quickly as possible trying to decide what would work best for the digital/single disc (40mins of Special Features) release and digital/double disc Special Edition release. Expect a breakdown of what will be on what release for the next update.

New Material in the Backers Zone

Visit the ‘Backers Zone’ now and you will find two new items;

The first call ‘METAL’ is a 17 minute sequence from the main film. Coders out there...well perhaps the older ones will remember the term 'getting down to the metal' of a machine. The early machines...the really early ones required techniques like that if you wanted to create any kind of playable game. Getting hold of your computer for the first time often led to a quest to find something, anything to punch in and those early type-in listings were one of the gateways to learning! Pretty much all the coders we talked to spoke of the importance of those type-in listings. This is the longest clip we have eve released and we very much hope you like it. Again as we mentioned last time notice how we are using the 'ensemble' approach as the interviewees basically lead the film forward. Also notice how the archive has been applied, both moving and still. Editors out there will know how long it takes to develop a pace and rhythm with your editing to make sections with archive come alive rather than slow down.

The second new item is a brand new Rob Hubbard track called 'ANTHEM FOR US' that we mentioned last time which Rob dedicated to the unknown coders, the ones out there who didn’t get the praise and the recognition...and also perhaps the millions, but they were just as crucial. We would love to have filmed everyone, thousands of people that may have been, to create a permanent record of all the talent but obviously that would have been impossible and when we discussed that with Rob and how it bothered us when people would sometimes write to us saying we had missed someone out he wrote this! If you haven’t already bought the soundtrack and are interested then listen to the samples on the website and seriously consider it. The money is going to those who produced it, effectively for nothing just to give the film a decent soundtrack and it will reward their hard work!

The BBC had cleared and promised some footage but were having problems finding it.