Konix

35 Rassau Industrial Estate, Ebbw Vale, Gwent, NP3

British hardware never had the same international profile as British software. The Enterprise had a degree of success in Hungary. The Dragon likewise in Spain. Acorn, Sinclair, and Amstrad all had a greater impact but you'd be hard pushed to describe any of them as globally famous. The Sinclair Spectrum sold five million units in total, a figure dwarfed by the 17 million Commodore 64s sold around the world. Then in 1989, one company came up with a device that could change everything. A console that could take on the world. 

EMAP: East Midland Allied Press

Priory Court, 30-32 Farringdon Lane, EC1R

EMAP were first. In 1981 they launched COMPUTER & VIDEO GAMES. The first magazine in the world dedicated to computer games. Not one of those qualified firsts, like the first "regularly published" video games magazine in the world or just the first games magazine "published in the UK" or the first "multiformat" video games magazine. The first. Anywhere. Number one. EMAP did it. [I stand. Sing two verses of Rule Britannia and then sit down again and apologise to the cat, who had been sleeping quietly on my lap].