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…
Remember the maddening process of waiting thirty-minutes for a tape to load?
Bruce Bayley studied computer science at RMIT. He worked at Beam Software on games such as The Way of the Exploding Fist(1985) and Rock’n Wrestle(1985). This profile is yet to be completed. Contribute what you know and help to complete the Archive.
Greg Holland studied art at Bendigo College and went on to study at the Victorian College of Arts in Melbourne. Upon graduating, Holland got a job at Beam Software in Melbourne. When he joined Beam Software, the role of game artist was a position and career that previously had not existed.
Gregg Barnett’s first job at Beam was to convert “The Hobbit” for to the Commodore 64 , and to create versions of “Hungry Horace” and “Horace Goes Skiing”. He went on to produce a more elaborate version of “The Hobbit” with sound and richer graphics in 1985 for by the Commodore 64 disk drive. With plenty of ideas for games of his own he put forward an idea for a martial arts game. “The Way of the Exploding Fist” which combined Barnett’s interests in sport simulation and interface design.
Brennan was responsible for the sound in all Beam Software games, composing much of it himself, from his arrival in 1983 till his departure in 1988.
Melbourne House (Publishers) Ltd, founded by Alfred Milgrom and Naomi Besen in 1977, was a book publishing company with offices in both Melbourne and London. Publishing laws at the time tied Australia to the UK market, meaning that it was difficult for Australians to buy American published books that had not been embraced by a UK publisher.