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Right Brain Rumblings...
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Oct 25, 2017
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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Oct 6, 2017
Where Does the Time Go?
So it’s been over a year since the last post. Well it’s been a busy year, but possibly the most relevant part is that I’ve been helping CNN out with a documentary. It’s a series of short pieces about games history and one of them — of course — is about DMA Design. Specifically the 20th anniversary of the release of Grand Theft Auto in October 1997. A handful of us were interviewed over the course of a week back in May this year.
So for my interview we were on top of Dundee Law — the extinct volcano in the heart of Dundee — in bright sunshine. I talked for most of an hour and managed to get sunburn in Scotland. Not only that I somehow managed to become the default presenter for the day. That morning, as they drove me around, I pointed out parts of local history and the buildings where DMA made their games. All the while they filmed me.
It’s quite an experience being on one side of the road, seemingly talking to myself, when the camera was on the other side.
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Jan 17, 2017
16 Psyche
When Geoff Pell approached me back in August last year to ask if I would like to write the story for Inviolate, I was given a lot of leeway to change things around if I thought it was an improvement. Originally the game was set on the surface of a planet, which came with its own issues to resolve. Was it around another star system, how would the space travel work in the context of the game and so on. Given the distinct air of cyberpunk surrounding the project — not least that it’s a retro-style game circa 1995 or so — a distant planet felt to me like a different flavour of SF.
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Jan 17, 2017
Proof Mode
It’s every Science Fiction writer’s dream to have successfully predicted the future.
I did that once. But there’s a wee caveat.
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Oct 3, 2016
On No!
I’ve been quiet lately. Not as many updates to the site as I’ve hoped. The reason for that, however, is that I’ve been busy writing a book: Oh No! The History of DMA Design. It’s still in the rough first draft stage, it won’t be finished anytime soon. But it’ll be as comprehensive a history as it’s possible to be. Lemmings to GTA of course, but all the way back to the first days when we met at the KIngsway Amateur Computer Club in 1983.
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Aug 3, 2016
A Short Video History of DMA Design
Please find enclosed a short history of DMA Design, courtesy of Nostalgia Nerd who put together the video. And which I complained about for not crediting anybody for some of the content. And which I then got my ass handed to me because the list of credits is extensive*. Just not in the video itself.
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What amazing things I can find when rummaging around in the attic. I thought I had found all the DMA memorabilia, in boxes and scattered around everywhere, but apparently (and fortunately!) not. They were created, I believe, as promotional items for Lemmings 2: The Tribes. Of course there were twelve tribes in total and I’ve only found three pins. With any luck I have a complete set kicking about someplace. Now I just have to find them!
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Jan 20, 2016
Newly Appeared Lemmings Graffiti
Sometime in the last week someone has taken the effort to paint an entire Lemmings level on a wall in Dundee, which as you know is the spiritual and literal and physical home of Lemmings.
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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