(moderate tempo music)
- [Narrator] It's the 1980s.
And up and down the United Kingdom,
schools are getting computers for the first time.
And these schools are looking for software
to run on them,
particularly, educational games.
And what better educational game can there be
than a business simulator.
Oh, yes.
I mean, after all, this is the era of Margaret Thatcher.
Let the Capitalist Indoctrination begin!
(slow tempo music)
(birds chirping)
- Where am I, Wes?
- [Narrator] I'm doing a video
about an old game for the BBC, called Tea Shop.
- Yeah, I guessed that, but why am I in the tea shop?
- [Narrator] Oh, that's because I'm the non-corporal voice
of the narrator,
and thus makes it hard to run the tea shop.
- So, who's were those hands in the last video?
- [Narrator] Don't be causing the continuity.
We haven't had the budget for it.
- Okay, I'm guessing I'm the proud owner of a tea shop.
Let's find the kettle I suppose.
- [Narrator] Rules of the game are quite simple.
Each round, the game gives you a weather prediction,
and asks you how many teas you want to prepare.
It tells you how much each tea costs to make,
with inflation driving up the price each and every round.
Well, it is the 1980s.
You choose the price you sell the tea at.
And, how many announcements you want to make.
- Can I just?
- [Shop Owner] Hang on mate, I'm just preparing these teas.
- [Narrator] The game now tells us how we did.
Oh, hang on, an event has occurred.
- A what?
- [Narrator] Extra supporters arrive.
All teas are sold out.
(yelling)
Oh, look how much profit we made.
Wow, you can tell this is 1980s pricing.
- With those final profits, these videos are going
to have to remain low budget for awhile, I think.
- [Narrator] Yeah.
- I just.
- [Shop Owner] If you don't mind,
I'm just sorting myself out here.
- [Narrator] Of course not every day was nice weather.
Sometimes it's raining, which we know,
how it makes an impact on business.
(heavy sigh)
- Busy!
- [Narrator] Sometimes events occurred
that can be negative too.
Look, I need to get the electricity back on today.
I've got a tea shop to run.
Yeah.
I am on the phone!
- [Narrator] And other bad events happened,
such as a plague of wasps drives everyone away.
- Wasps?
How have the interest in wasps been?
(wasps buzzing)
(mumbled yelling)
(one wasp buzzing)
- What?
I need to type these things in while I can.
- If you're using electricity,
you better be ordering something.
- Well, if I could just order.
- If you could come round?
Yeah, like I said, there's a plague.
No, I don't know how many wasps constitutes a plague.
Why don't you come and find out.
(heavy sigh)
- [Narrator] Some of the negative events include
a downpour, the match has rained off.
A Wall's ice cream van takes all the trade.
An early example of product placement there.
Not bad for 1983.
Comment below if you can think of an earlier example.
(laughing)
How's that YouTube's suggestion,
so I can get a lot views and be less sucky.
- Go on, clear off, this is my spot.
Yeah, that's right, keep moving.
- [Narrator] There was also a flu epidemic.
The match is canceled.
- Well, that was prescient.
- [Narrator] I know, right.
And finally, heat exhaustion.
Too hot in the tea tent!
There were also good events as well,
such as it's a very hot day,
everyone is thirsty.
- How is this different from bad even?
We get air con?
- [Narrator] Not in this channel's budget.
Our remaining good events are, extra supporters.
Your school team wins.
Extra time needed, people get hungry.
Passing tourists eat a lot of teas.
The weather improves, sales better than expected.
For such a simple game, we made it rather fun.
Especially, compared to doing actual school work.
In fact, we even played it occasionally,
at home with friends.
As it was written in BBC basic,
you could even change the events.
And in our school, we certainly did.
I mean, not a single one of them in broadcast-able.
But we changed them.
Given the game's success, it offered a need to strike here,
created a follow-up game called Zoo.
- No, I'm not running a zoo.
Find someone else to be your game reviews.
- [Narrator] Well, that's the end of our video.
And it just remains for me to say thank you for watching.
And please like, share, and comment.
In the description below you'll find links
to the channels of all our wonderful contributors.
Stu The Adventure Brummie.
And What Ho Snorkers.
And of course we must not forget ZombieWorkshop,
who provided the graphics for us.
- Do you know, I think he's gone home.
(crickets)