Alfred Milgrom and Naomi Besen established Melbourne House as the London distribution arm for their general book publishing company in 1977. In the early 1980s, Milgrom read an article in the Australian Financial Review that discussed publishing ‘How To’ books for the emerging home computer market…
Alfred Milgrom co-founded Melbourne House publishing and Beam Software games development studio. Melbourne House established in 1978 with his wife Noami Besen was orginally a UK registered book publishing company. In 1980, Milgrom and Besen started Beam Software, the electronic gaming arm with distribution through Melbourne House. The name “BEAM” is an amalgam of their names. Beam became successful enough for Melbourne House to cease book publishing and to concentrate on electronic games.
Best known as the author of the Horace games William Tang was Beam Software’s first employee. He was studying commerce and computer science at the University of Melbourne when Alfred Milgrom hired him in December 1980 to work during his University break. Bundled with the Sinclair ZXSpectrum Tang’s Horace games were often the first computer games a generation of people played.
Creating games and other software for the ZX81 and ZX Spectrum, developer Psion Software had an intimate relationship with Sinclair Research. Founded in 1980, the companies name is an acronym for Potter Scientific Instruments after the company’s founder David Potter.
With the dream of a computer in every British home, Sir Clive Sinclair’s company created the ZX80 in 1980. Started in 1961, the electronics research company created the world’s first pocket calculator in 1971.