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Right Brain Rumblings...
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Jan 1, 2020
Cyberpunk 2020
My new year’s resolution is to blog more. This is not likely to last long, based on previous experience. However…
I’ve started doing the housekeeping stuff expected of a new year – swapping over the keyboards from the two computers for example, and tidying up files – in my own little 5S. This is a holdover from when I used to work in a factory, the 5S being a management fad from Japan and standing for… well I forget. Sort, Store, Sustain, that kind of thing. Or as I used to think of it, Shovel Shit Sideways. Just a normal first day of a new year.
However this isn’t a normal new year1. Just look at that date! We’re now into the Cyberpunk 2020 decade, a roleplaying game I used to play from the 90s.
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Hogmanay as we say here. ↩
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Jan 1, 2020
Lockdown
Every creative type on the planet probably has one of these posts by now. So I guess this is mine. I’m writing it so that I can write something. I’m supposed to be working on material for a game right now. Can’t tell you much about it, other than it’s comedic.
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Aug 14, 2019
Lemmings Post-Mortem
Mike Dailly’s talk at GDC in San Francisco, March 2019, where he talks about the development of Lemmings. I’m in the audience, giggling along with other ex-DMA staff. Many apologies to the guy sitting in front of us for making a noise. (But when Mike put up a picture of us, how could we not react just a little?)
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Mar 7, 2019
GDC 2019
I will be going to GDC 2019 in a week’s time, in a development I still find quite surprising. Mike Dailly will be giving an hour long talk deconstructing Lemmings1, and has spent the previous month agonizing (I assume) over writing the content. He tells me this will be his biggest audience ever and, in part because I just turned 50 and to consider this a birthday gift, he wanted me to be there too. It’ll be a fascinating hour and you should definitely make time to come along.
If you fancy catching up with me, I’m sure I can talk about Hired Guns for a few hours.
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Wednesday 20th March 2019, from 5pm to 6pm. ↩
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Feb 3, 2019
Babbling On
In advance of Play Expo in Feb, I appeared on The Retro Hour podcast, which you can listen to at that link.
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Oct 25, 2018
Grand Theft Auto Begins
It’s been 20 years since the release of the original Grand Theft Auto.
Theoretically I’m currently writing a “complete”” history of DMA Design, a task which gets trickier as the timeline progresses. More and more I wasn’t physically present, because how could I be in two buildings at once? But I wrote the internal newsletter at the time, in between my games-related work. And re-reading them has proved to be intriguing.
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Jul 27, 2018
User Interface
Now, I’m not saying that Shreya was a bot, but it’s possible. Our broadband speed had been dropping out and fluctuating in speed for a couple of months. It had stabilised for the last two weeks on 1.5mb/s. We pay for 70mb/s, are advised to expect an average of 46mb/sec and usually get 20mb/s. And so I clicked the chat button on the support website. A panel popped up. Right. Here we go.
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Feb 3, 2018
Play Expo Blackpool
I’ll be on stage at Play Expo Blackpool sometime on the 10th being interviewed by The Retro Hour Podcast guys! There I’m going to talk about what it was like to be part of DMA from the earliest days, about some lesser-known games and some personal highlights. At least that’s the theory. Content may vary depending on what stupid thought occurs to me on the day.
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Right Brain Rumblings
Blog entries prior to 2012 have been transferred from my old Right Brain Rumblings at Blogspot and lightly reformatted, with typos corrected wherever I spotted one. I've also transferred the entries from my old DMA Design website. So if you were looking for the retro games stuff, it's going to be here now. I've also taken the opportunity to add images where I can.
Highlighted Posts
What is Science Fiction Anymore? From 2007, when I was astonished by what is, and isn't considered to be Science Fiction.
Categories
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