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Why British Telecom Sold Games in the '80s - With Richard Hewison

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6th January 2025 58 min

πŸ›  Check out PCBWay at https://pcbway.com for all your PCB needs! πŸ› 

Why did the publicly owned British Telecom venture into video games in the '80s? Today we find out with a complete history of Firebird Software, presented by former employee Richard Hewison, author of Memories of Firebird.

EXTRA: Watch Richard's work history at Firebird: https://youtu.be

#retrogames #retrogaming #gaming #history

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● Episode Links

EXTRA: Richard's work history at Firebird: https://youtu.be

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● Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Richard Hewison

01:11 Who are PCBway.com

01:39 Why BT were interested in software

09:07 Firebird is born

12:01 Jason on submitting a game to Telecomsoft

15:28 Don't Buy This Game!

16:31 The Launch Games

21:27 The Best Seller at Launch

24:40 The Firebird Β£1.99 Range

26:14 Firebird Gold Range

26:45 Elite Conversions

33:38 Geoff Crammond

38:22 Bubble Bobble and licensing

41:17 Other Labels from Firebird

47:03 The 16-Bit Range

51:33 The End of the Budget Era

52:04 Where did Firebird go?

56:40 Outro

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Thanks to Wallsy1703 for the music used in this episode.

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  • nostalgia
  • computer history
  • tech history
  • british telecom
  • firebird software
  • retro computer history
  • retro collective
  • zx spectrum
  • commodore 64
  • amstrad
  • old games

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