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About MeLemmings: Can You Dig It? Guardian Review
Category: DMADesign Tags: Lemmings The Guardian-----
So The Guardian reviewed Lemmings: Can You Dig It? which I stumbled on via their Tweet Guardian Tweet. I read the review and, well, consider this a review of a review. In which – paranoia! – I was written out of history! Yikes!
Newspapers, especially tabloids, like a simplified version of history. Anything which makes it more story-like. People like narratives after all. I breezed past the “dodgy graphics” even for 1991 quote (the cheek!) before tripping up on this:
“A trio of kids – Russell Kay, Mike Dailly and David Jones – met at the city’s Kingsway Amateur Computer Club, and would go on to make games together…”
A trio… hold on a sec. I seem to be missing! I was there at the KACC, and I went on to make games with the rest of them. Indeed Mike Tweeted that I should really be included.
“We were all there at the start, we all worked on it, and leaving Steve out is neither true, nor fair.”
Cheers, Mike! Sure, my involvement with the original Lemmings wasn’t nearly as much as the others, but it wasn’t nothing either. And going to the KACC with the rest of them before going onto DMA Design is just a plain old boring fact.
Well, fair enough, if we’re talking about the, er, quattro? who went to the KACC. It makes a nice, neat, soundbite. Slightly better than having a single name, say Dave, and not mentioning anyone else. Making games is a team effort, after all.
Rather more startling is the omission of artist Gary Timmons who animated the Lemmings themselves.
The reviewer seems disappointed that we weren’t asked questions about how rich we were, and what we did with the money. A documentary about the development of lemmings talking about development? Nah, tell us about the money, mate. And then there’s this gem:
“(“Of course, nobody has ever credited DPaint with gaming on the Amiga,” opines renowned designer Peter Molyneux, bafflingly.)”
“Bafflingly”! 😂
Yeah, who on Earth imagined there could be a connection between game graphics and a graphics creation app? The fact of DPaint having animbrushes and how this helped enormously for Lemmings was even explored in the documentary.
And so the review ends by re-emphasising a “…tale of three lads from Dundee..” right before the obligatory Guardian paragraphs wanting us to support them.
“Tens of millions have placed their trust in the Guardian’s fearless journalism…”
Well, quite.
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Writing
Alan Grant • 16 Psyche • Proof Mode • I Am Freelance • The Circle is Complete! • Bit Patterns Redux • An Intrepid Update • Hammond’s Law • Edinburgh Book Festival • NaNoWriMo Crash and Burn • What is Science Fiction Anymore? • Blogging from Anywhere • NaNoWriMo has Stopped! • NaNoWriMo has Started! • NaNoWriMo • Why I Shouldn’t Skip PE •Moviemaking
Intrepid: Echoes • Intrepid Release Day • Where there’s a Sea… • The Stone unturned: Friday’s Shoot • The Stone Unturned • Come for the Cave, Stay for the Dead Whale • Where There’s a Sea • Lorraine Kelley Visits • And so it Begins •Intrepid
Bit Patterns Redux • Epistemology pt 3: How I founded a Star Trek Club • Intrepid Release Day • An Intrepid Update • Silicon Heaven • I’m Not in SciFi Now!!! • Where There’s a Sea • I’m Making a Movie! • I’m on Telly! • Holiday Coming Up •Whimsy
Windy OpSec • Wildly Improbable • Cyberpunk 2020 • User Interface • Lemmings Plushies • I Have a Bacon Number of 4! • Carl Sagan Sings! • So What Happens if I Say Yes? • Enchanted Picture • Twitter • Bob Exists • Currying Favour… • Convenience Reduction Measures • Buses • Music and Lyrics • Proof of Concept • Basic Assumption •Miscellaneous
A Long Overdue Update • Update from the Maemo • Overpackaged • Adventurous Scots • Light Aircraft Crash • A Wikipedia Upgrade • Too Tasty for Geeks • Microsoft Surface • Spooks Series 7: Episode 2 • The Satellite Dish • Cardiff • Deliveries • No More Intrepid Blog • Erk •Science Fiction
Alison Rowat and the Licensed Imagination • Bit Patterns Redux • An Intrepid Update • Hammond’s Law • Banks’ Law • Intrepid: Sisters • Arthur C Clarke • What is Science Fiction Anymore? •DMA Design
Public Appearances • Babbling On • Play Expo Blackpool • Grand Theft Auto Begins • Where Does the Time Go? • On No! • A Short Video History of DMA Design • • Newly Appeared Lemmings Graffiti • First Shots from GTA Drama • An Interview and a Repost • Lemmings Plushies • Bill Paxton Talks GTA Game Changer • Tweet from Brian Baglow (@flackboy) • Check This Disk! • The GTA Making-of Drama • Lemmings Merchandise is Go! • DMA Lives! • Project MyWorld • A Lemmings Conversion in 36 Hours • BBC Radio Scotland • You're definitely over the hill when... • Grand Theft Auto (via Gameswipe) • The Circle is Complete! • Epistemology pt 2: The Story of Hired Guns • Epistemology Pt.1: How I Co-Founded DMA Design • Lemmings II • DMA Design Office Tour • Kid Kirby • GTA Remembered •UFOs
Public Appearances • Rational Explanation Unlocked! • Seeing Shapes in the Cloud • The Scottish UFO Casebook • Naming those Pesky Flying UFO Objects • 
Post Tags
GTA
Bill Paxton Talks GTA Game Changer
Tweet from Brian Baglow (@flackboy)
You're definitely over the hill when...
Lemmings
Lemmings: Can You Dig It? Guardian Review
Lemmings: Can You Dig It? Released
A Short Video History of DMA Design
Newly Appeared Lemmings Graffiti
Hired Guns
A Short Video History of DMA Design
A Lemmings Conversion in 36 Hours