In 1978, Bruce Everiss opened Microdigital on Dale Street in Liverpool, establishing one of Britain's earliest specialized computer retail stores. Located just a short distance from Great Charlotte Street, where Brian Epstein had managed his NEMS record store in 1961, Microdigital arrived during a decade of severe economic decline across Merseyside. The collapse of traditional shipping work had left vast numbers of young Liverpool residents living on the dole. Everiss envisioned computer technology as a practical route off state support, attempting to build a bridge between working-class Scousers and the emerging technical sector.
A Haven on Dale Street
Microdigital functioned as both a commercial shop and an informal neighborhood hub. In addition to handling mail-order sales for hobbyist hackers across Britain, Everiss filled his floor with build-it-yourself computer kits and imported Commodore PET systems. He encouraged unemployed local youth to hang out, learn programming, and play with hardware they could not afford to purchase. Everiss reinforced this outreach by donating computer equipment to the Victoria Settlement youth charity. According to the Digital Antiquarian, the shop on Dale Street became Ground Zero for a distinct Liverpool computing scene, offering creative shelter during lean economic times.
From Hangers-On to Programmers
The store floor provided a direct pipeline into professional technology work. Everiss recruited Mark Butler off the shop floor, appointing him as Microdigital's day-to-day manager so Everiss could focus on broader expansion strategy. In the summer of 1979, nineteen-year-old Dave Lawson visited the shop after leaving the merchant navy. Using money saved from odd jobs, Lawson purchased a Nascom kit computer from Microdigital. Lawson skipped BASIC entirely, learning machine language in a single week. He became a fixture in the shop, first meeting Butler while playing Star Raiders on one of the demonstration machines.
The Rise of Bug-Byte
In July 1980, Everiss sold Microdigital to electronics chain Laskys, remaining as general manager for two and a half years under the terms of the sale. The concentration of self-taught coders around Dale Street soon drew software publishers to the city. In July 1981, one year after the Laskys deal, Oxford scions Tony Baden and Tony Milner relocated their publishing firm, Bug-Byte, to Liverpool. Bug-Byte recruited heavily from Microdigital regulars, growing to twelve employees with an average age of nineteen. Lawson became Bug-Byte's star programmer, coding early commercial hits such as VIC Men for the Commodore VIC-20, Space Warp for the BBC Micro, and Spectres for the Sinclair Spectrum.
The Seed of Imagine Software
Unhappy with their financial terms at Bug-Byte, Lawson and Butler departed in autumn 1982 to form Imagine Software, releasing the Spectrum hit game Arcadia. Everiss joined his former shop floor protégés as a full partner in January 1983 after completing his management commitment to Laskys. The community atmosphere cultivated on Dale Street turned Liverpool into a major hub for 1980s software publishing, laying the roots for Imagine Software and its eventual successor, Psygnosis.
AI-generated editorial illustration; not a documentary photograph.
Source: Games on the Mersey, Part 1: Taking Scousers Off the Dole
SIGNAL TITANS
Leave a Reply