Dominic Wheatley: My 'Eureka' moment in computer gaming

Knowing little about computer games but having a keen eye for the next big thing, Dominic Wheatley set up his computer games business - Domark - from scratch in 1984. Luckily for him the gaming industry was about to take off.

It was 1984. Dominic Wheatley, then 24, had returned home to spend Christmas with his family. "My little brother's present was a console and he spent the holiday glued to the machine." Wheatley realised that "computer entertainment was about to become a big industry". When he returned to his advertising job in London, he and a colleague, Mark Strachan, agreed to start a computer games publishing company. They worked on their business plan at lunch times and then approached the banks. "I think banks were more eager to lend to small businesses back then." Between the banks, friends and family, the pair secured start-up capital for their new firm Domark.

Accepting that they did "not know that much about computers", they outsourced the design of the first game and "focused on the marketing". Thanks to cheap designers in Hungary, 'Eureka' was developed for £50,000. The mystery puzzle game was played on early home computers, such as the Commodore 64 and the ZX Spectrum. They offered a £25,000 prize for the first person to complete Eureka in its first year and spent tens of thousands more on full-page advertisements in the national press.

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James McKeigue

James graduated from Keele University with a BA (Hons) in English literature and history, and has a certificate in journalism from the NCTJ. James has worked as a freelance journalist in various Latin American countries.He also had a spell at ITV, as welll as wring for Television Business International and covering the European equity markets for the Forbes.com London bureau. James has travelled extensively in emerging markets, reporting for international energy magazines such as Oil and Gas Investor, and institutional publications such as the Commonwealth Business Environment Report. He is currently the managing editor of LatAm INVESTOR, the UK's only Latin American finance magazine.