Just recently, Rockstar announced GTA 6. In honor of this, we decided to remember how the great Grand Theft Auto series began and what led to the fact that millions of GTA fans admire and look forward to GTA 6. In our new documentary, we invite you to go to a fascinating journey through time and consider the entire long path of GTA becoming a legendary series of games, starting with the first game in the series, released back in 1997. We will tell you about the history of the creation of each game in the Grand Theft Auto series, as well as how the developers of Rockstar Games surprised and impressed their fans with each new part of GTA. We will reveal all the details of the history of the Grand Theft Auto series.
We will monitor the development of graphics capabilities and gameplay. How did Rockstar go from 8-bit pixelated cities to huge open worlds with ultra-realistic graphics? Let’s find out what new functions and features were added in each subsequent part of GTA, and what innovations influenced the industry and video game development in general.
In our new documentary, we will delve into the plot of each game, with many of the characters and events that took place in the world of Grand Theft Auto. How such legendary characters as CJ, Tommy Vercetti, Niko Bellic, Michael de Santa and others appeared. Find out how the game combines dramatic storylines, dark humor and reality-defying social commentary from the mouths of characters such as CJ, Tommy Vercetti, Niko Bellic, Michael de Santa and others.
You will learn how problems that arose when creating games were overcome and led to fantastic results. We will also look at the influence of the great Grand Theft Auto series on culture, music and cinema.
Together we will go the entire way of Grand Theft Auto. Welcome to the PressX channel! In our video today we will tell the history of the Grand Theft Auto series, as well as where such legendary GTA characters as CJ from San Andreas, Tommy Vercetti from Vice City, Niko Bellic from GTA 4, Michael de Santa from GTA 5 and others came from.
00:00 Intro
01:55 History of DMA
23:27 A new era of DMA
33:20 The Houser brothers
36:20 “Race and Chase” Development
42:39 Music and Radio
56:18 Gameplay
1:01:08 Game release
1:06:40 Rockstar North
1:09:44 Grand Theft Auto London
1:11:36 Grand Theft Auto 2
#GTAHistory #Rockstar #Documentary #pressx
Tags: History of GTA, History of Rockstar, GTA Documentary, Rockstar Documentary, Ups and Downs Rockstar, Ups and Downs GTA, history of gta development, how gta was made, the creation of gta, history of grand theft auto, Rise and Fall of GTA, rise and fall of grand theft auto, gta interesting facts, gta you didn’t know, gta san andreas, gta 6, gta 5, gta vice city, gta london, CJ, Tommy Vercetti, Niko Bellic, atari, DMG design, lemmings, Rockstar North, documentary about games, pressX
Before Grand Theft Auto became this It was like this Apparently, only newborn gamers do not know what Grand Theft Auto is. But once they hear this soundtrack …a gun appears in their little hands, a bandana is on their head, and they are instantly ready to fight for Grove Street. Moreover,
In light of the release of GTA 6, which fans have been waiting for 10 years! Of course, the world of the game industry knows much bigger long-term developments. But if RockStar spends that much time on their game, it’s worth it. GTA has always kept pace with the culture and
The world around it, while at the same time adjusting the world to suit itself. Its history has big bumps on the road to success. So today we will begin to explore all the ups and downs
Of both the GTA series itself and its authors, as well as touch on the history of their other projects that influenced the series and the studio itself. What studio projects have influenced the GTA series and the gaming industry in general How did the developers make music a unique
Source of pleasure for all modern gamers with the help of GTA Why was America the key to the franchise’s success What stories are hidden behind the open world of Grand Theft Auto, which seems to mirror ours What is this a game about stealing cars, or something more
You are watching PressX and today we will tell you how the Rockstar studio was born. So grab yourself a treat from Cluckin’ Bell. Don’t forget to check if your car stereo is subscribed to our channel. And let’s get started! History of DMA (RockStar’s Grandfather)
Before diving into the history of Grand Theft Auto, for a better understanding of the context in which the first part of GTA was created, who exactly is behind it and how, we will dig a little deeper and devote a significant part of this video to the background of the company Rockstar,
The Houser brothers and Grand Theft Auto itself. After all, it will be difficult to understand without it why exactly this game has become so popular and successful. Just like almost any gangsta rapper can’t do without expensive cars and girls,
Any game is impossible without the people behind it. Especially the GTA series, which gave life to one of the most influential game companies in the world today – RockStar games. RockStar, which actually owns the status of the company that develops the largest games, such as Grand
Theft Auto, Red dead Redemption, or Max Payne 3, is difficult to be called the studio responsible for this line of games. Before the idea of the RockStar company even appeared, the DMA company was going to its future Olympus of glory. It is the de facto father of the GTA series.
Well, probably everyone knows that. Do you want an unexpected twist It would seem logical if the person who laid the foundation of the guidelines of the company developing the game, which took place in the United States, was an American. After all, GTA is the first game in which events take
Place as if in real places. Perhaps its author lived in America for at least some time and saw a world measured in miles, not kilometers But it is not the case. In fact, the game about stealing cars and chasing through US cities was created from the very beginning in the most
Unexpected place on Earth – in a post-industrial port town on the east coast of Scotland. The future father of the studio, David Scott Jones [ˈdeɪvɪd skɑt ʤoʊnz], was born in the city of Dundee [dʌnˈdiː] in October 1965. A town that didn’t even smell like America. And
For many centuries it smelled of fish, dying textile factories, sofa and car industries, and everything that could only cause depression. But amid this industrial gloom, there was one American watch company, Timex, in Dundee. And in 1981, the factory signed a large contract
With Sinclair Research Ltd, which produced the ZX Spectrum 8-bit home computer – it became the most popular in Europe. Therefore, now the children of the small town of Dundee had at least some opportunity to spend their rainy Scottish weekdays playing with friends in the computer club.
The same fate befell David Jones. David was only 16 years old when the home computer boom happened. Like every boy of that time, he went to the local computer club, Kingsway. But David was not interested in just playing and exchanging games with his friends, as most
Children did at that time. He wanted to make games himself, because interest in most of the trivial arcades of that period quickly disappeared. The desire to do something unique and get out of the unpromising town gathered like-minded people around David – his future colleagues.
Russell Kay [keɪ] was the first to join David. Together with him, they developed an upcoming game called “Moonshadow”, which eventually turned into “Zone Trooper”. David’s enthusiasm was a rarity for Scottish teenagers. Everyone was surprised that creating games is a completely accessible reality, and not some mystical secret that only large companies know. Therefore,
Mike Daley and Steve Hammond [maɪk ˈdeɪli ænd stiv ˈhæmənd] became the next enthusiasts in David’s team. Together they completed their first game “Zone Trooper” which was published by Game Busters in 1988. The question was, how did it happen that
The company that made most of the arcade games in Britain, bought the game from some unknown children It’s very simple. In 1985, a science fiction film about the Second World War called Zone Troopers was released. It’s not known if Jones was inspired by this movie when making the
Game, but some similar elements such as flying saucers, soldiers and aliens could be found in both the movie and the game. That’s why Game Busters without hesitating bought Zone Trooper, because games based on movies at that time were something new and modern. And so David and his
Team received their first paychecks. This small success gave the four boys more than banal joy or pride in themselves – they realized that their future could lie behind the games development! After Zone Trooper release, with the proceeds from its sale, David bought himself an Amiga
1000 – the first multimedia PC. He started the development of the new game Menace. The development looked like a typical American series about teenagers. David wrote software on the Amiga in his parents’ bedroom, and Mike came to Russell’s and they worked on a homemade
Table. Miraculously, after the game framework was almost ready, David managed to conclude a contract to publish Menace with the well-known Amiga publisher Psygnosis. A deal was quickly concluded, bringing in Tony Smith [smɪθ] from Amiga to work on the game’s graphics.
After working with Tony Smith, Dave was impressed by his work and the collaboration with the Kent Team, which was a southern Amiga group. It was from the Kent Team that Dave gathered the rest of his team, which turned out to be not just a group of acquaintances, but a full-fledged
Company that wanted to develop games. Therefore, David decided to register his first company and name it ACME. But an American company was already using the name “ACME”, so David had to change the name of his company to “DMA”. Legend has it that when Jones was thinking
Of a new name, he happened to look at Amiga programming manuals and saw the abbreviation DMA, which stood for direct access to memory… although journalists were often told that the title stands for Doesn’t Mean Anything. Which of this is true – we will never know.
Menace was released in 1988, and it was this game that actually made the name of the DMA led by David Jones. The gameplay was very simple. It was a horizontal scrolling shooter where the player controlled an alien space fighter through six stages on the planet
Draconia. But this completely simple gameplay was complemented by very cool design of levels, enemies and weapon effects. Just look at this The six stages are six bosses that exist as living defense mechanisms for Draconia. In the player’s arsenal there was a whole ship
Filled with various lasers and cannons to destroy the enemies on its way. And while progressing through the game stages, the player could find space debris that could be turned into upgrades for the ship. For example, such as a protective shield, or an additional weapon.
Just so you know, the game sold 15,000 copies and earned David an amazing £20,000 at the time, which he used to buy a car. Gaining production momentum, immediately after the Menace release, DMA Design began development of the game Blood Money, which Jones
Considered a further development of the scrolling shooter mechanics used in Menace. David received the green light in the form of an advance from Liverpool Amiga company Psygnosis, and decided to open his small office above a toy shop to get out of the development underground. The entire
DMA Design team was now based in this office. To maintain the company’s financial independence, the team ported Amiga games to various platforms while Jones developed “Blood Money”. In Blood Money he wanted to use the full color gamut of the Amiga, and decided to use a blitter
(the great-grandfather of the GPU) instead of hardware scrolling. Blitter allowed him to quickly draw graphics. Tony Smith, who worked on the game Menace, created graphics for Blood Money, which reached a completely new level. This guaranteed the project a huge number of
Positive reviews and the title of best designed and most smoothly animated games on Amiga. And to show off their animation even more, DMA decided to create a long intro video in the game that took up an entire diskette As a result, Blood Money offered the player
To go through four stages on a space planet, taking control of different vehicles in each level a helicopter in the metal world, a submarine in the water world, a spacesuit in the ice world, and a fighter aircraft in the fire world. Also, as in Menace, the player could improve his
Vehicle with power-ups. Among the improvements were additional weapons and various upgrades such as support missiles and neutron bombs. Despite the fact that Blood Money was very similar to Menace in terms of its gameplay, this did not prevent it from selling twice
As much as its ideological forefather. The commercial success from the sale of 40,000 copies of the game amounted to more than 50 thousand pounds of profit. All the guys, who at that time just played games in the computer club, were jealous at Jones’s success.
But as it always happens, the work had its difficulties. One of the problems with the “Blood Money development was the enemies scaling. Jones wanted the game to have robots similar to the AT-AT from the Star Wars series He invited Scott Johnson [ˈʤɑnsən], an animator
With a degree, who had just quit McDonald’s. But at the beginning of development, the desired AT-AT did not look as convincing as it did in the film. Therefore, they were looking for something to contrast with the robots. This is how they got the idea to create sprites of enemies that will
Move under the robots. However, Mike Daley decided that the 16×16 pixel figures were not small enough to make the AT-ATs look convincingly large. Then they started thinking about the sprite’s animation while maintaining believable movements. The team faced the dilemma. Some argued that it
Was impossible to achieve good animation, as in Prince of Persia. By the way, we can tell you a lot of interesting things about this game too. So write in the comments if you want us to make a separate video about this fabulous series. Returning to animation,
Mike Daley, on the contrary, believed that it was possible to achieve the most realistic animation using an image of only 8×8 pixels. In an interview many years later, Russell Kay recalls the process of creating animation It was this approach to small details that
Gave birth to a new legendary game by DMA Design, which was released in 1991 – Lemmings. To give you an idea of how legendary this game is and the impact it has had on the gaming industry and the real world, Blizzard studio developer Bob Fitch [fɪʧ] said that the inspiration for the first
Warcraft game partially came from Lemmings. Lemmings were also mentioned by the writer Terry Pratchett [‘præʧᵊt] in his novel Interesting Times. Furthermore, Lemmings was one of six games featured in a series of stamps issued by Royal Mail in 2020 to pay tribute to one of the pioneers
Of the UK video game industry. They even made a sculpture of these cuties near the original DMA office. And this is only the tip of the iceberg of Lemmings’ influence on the game industry. In general, the game did not make any discoveries. Lemmings are not fiction.
Lemmings are real creatures like wild hamsters. They look something like this There is even a myth that these little wild hamsters do something during their migration that neither we nor YouTube share and condemn in every possible way.
It’s good that this is just a myth and nothing more. But who cares and who will be investigating whether it is true or not. So many years ago, one of the writers began to use the word “lemming” to
Describe people who are guided by herd instinct, like sheep. But at the time of the game creation, all this knowledge did not exist for DMA. Company developer Russell Kay recalls Lemmings was developed for about 9 months, and it all started with creating the lemming’s
Appearance. The main question was to decide what shape and color this strange thing should be. And since the game was created in the 90s, the green, white and blue colors of the lemming image were related to the color palette that personal computers of that time had. On the
Amiga you could have any color you wanted, but on the PC the choice was limited. So it was either green hair and blue robes, or blue hair and green robes. The developers simply chose the option that looked better – green hair and blue robes. It’s good that they weren’t scaled
Either… After all, the team had such ideas. Once Russell Kay developed the first prototype of the mass movement of lemmings, the team decided that 10 lemmings was not enough to be able to play. And 20 too. According to Russell Kay, they wanted to make the lemmings follow the landscape,
Just as the salamander bullets followed the landscape. But how could they do it According to Mike Daley, the next big challenge was the game’s levels and landscape, because it was the main component of the entire gameplay. Everything depended on the
Developers’ imagination. Inventing levels was a collective game of who would make the best level, or the most difficult, or the longest. As a result, each game level begins with a bunch of little men walking around. Each lemming can be assigned a task. And the game goal
Is to guide the Lemmings from the beginning of the level to the end of the location with the help of digging, scratching and crawling. Lemmings are divided into several levels grouped into four difficulty categories. Each level begins with one or more hatches that open from above.
Following each other, the lemmings fall through the hatch to the level. The levels include various obstacles that prevent the lemmings from reaching the exit. These include, for example, large drops, mine traps, and lava pools. And that’s all! Just imagine how simple gameplay has conquered millions
Sold 20,000 copies, and “Blood Money” doubled it to 40,000. And that was the full life cycle of the product, not first day sales. It was later estimated that sales of the original Lemmings game exceeded 15,000,000 copies worldwide. Very few games in today’s globalized market trends,
With all possible marketing techniques, sell even close to this result. This critical success of the game led to the developers receiving a huge number of awards. The UK’s Mega magazine gave Lemmings the 23rd Best Game of All Time award for 1994, and Amiga Power magazine gave the
Game the Second Best Amiga Game of All Time. Moreover, Lemmings received two victories in the Game of the Year in Europe nomination. Within 2 years of the game’s release, more than 2 million copies of Lemmings had been sold, making the 25-year-old Jones, who had been already
Married with a young child, rich and famous. The phenomenon of the Lemmings popularity, like any phenomenon of popularity, is difficult to explain. Most likely, a huge number of factors played their role here. Simplicity, but at the same time high variability of the gameplay,
Thanks to which people could relax and have fun. Graphic design that was at the highest level. Animation that rivaled Prince of Persia and many famous games of the time. The style, genre and character of Lemmings were so enjoyable that it was hard not to buy this DMA project.
The wild success of the Lemmings in 1991 gave DMA the opportunity to expand and increase its pace of work. About 5 to 10 people were involved in the development of the first Lemmings. But by 1995, the company already had about 50 people. A numerous staff allowed to take more contracts
For porting games to different platforms, and to develop new ones simultaneously. So DMA decided to release three new games at once, which they postponed earlier due to lack of budget and time. In 1993, the game Walker was released. It was a creation of Ian Dunlop and
Neill Glancy [iən ˈdʌnˌlɑp ænd nil ˈɡlænsi], of course, under David Jones’s supervision. Walker was very reminiscent of Blood Money. But if in Blood Money players controlled a spaceship and killed robots similar to AT-ATs from Star Wars, here everything was the opposite.
The player controlled a two-legged AT-ST robot… …to progress through four stages of the game, each consisting of two levels Berlin 1944, Los Angeles 2019, the modern Middle East, and Earth 2420 during the Great War… The game featured virtually no new gameplay, just a modified functionality of
Some and the same techniques as in Blood Money. The player also moved through the game locations, but not by flying, but by moving on the ground. A similar system of combat with enemies. By the way,
Now there were twice as many of them as there had been in Blood Money. And the system of final bosses generally remained unchanged. Walker received positive reviews from critics upon release. Reviewers especially praised the game’s graphics and sound design. Journalist
James Price [praɪs] of Amiga Force called it one of the most exciting shooters ever, while Paul Roundell [[ROWN] + [DUHL]] of Amiga Computing wrote that the developers managed to combine the best elements of several games. In the same 1993, Graham Stafford and Scott Johnston [ɡræm ˈstæfərd ænd skɑt ˈʤɑnstən] developed a new game,
Called Hired Guns. It was something new for DMA. Hired Guns was the first first-person RPG to feature the distinctive visual signature of the developers’ 2D scrolling shooters. The game used a system of four simultaneous perspectives of the world from the first
Person. Each character could be controlled individually and occupied its own square, unlike for example Dungeon Master from 1987 by FTL Games, where the whole party occupied one square. Each character could follow another character, or walk independently. But the group was always
Led by only one player. The gameplay was advanced for its time, as it allowed up to four players to play simultaneously using a mouse and keyboard. Or a modified Sega Mega Drive joystick with a parallel port adapter that allowed four joysticks to be used simultaneously.
The game was not particularly successful, but was received positively. In 1996, GamesMaster, a British television program, ranked “Hired Guns” 62nd in its list of the 100 Greatest Games of All Time. However, the most interesting thing is that the very idea
Of a game with several game characters was remembered by the developers, and, as we know, it would still play its role in the future. The last among the novelties of 1993 from DMA was Lemmings 2. Hopes that Lemmings 2 would sell as well as the first part
Quickly dissolved. Development under great pressure of responsibility, due to the success of the first part, made DMA jump over its head. But as always, such things do not end well. Now, in the new game, in order to lead the Lemmings to the exit, the player was given not eight skills,
Which were in the first part, but 43! You ask why Well, the skills differed in their purpose – some allowed you to overcome obstacles and hazards, some focused on creating bridges and transitions, and some allowed you to break through barriers. Thus, it made it possible to increase the number
Of levels, add even more puzzles and playing time to the game. But nothing else. Where did the former monster of creativity go DMA that has marched forward like a Juggernaut There was a clear explanation for this. DMA suffered from the typical problems of
Career growth. As soon as the company’s staff exceeded the first 10 employees, who knew each other almost from kindergarten, work processes and relationships became dependent on the human factor. Responsibility for all development processes lay not only on Jones,
But also on all other 50-70 members of the staff. Young and inexperienced people often did not help, but on the contrary hindered the completion of work by deadlines. And more and more often, the ordinary human factor spoiled the once harmonious teamwork. So, the time has come
For serious changes at DMA Design. A new era of DMA (DMA+Nintendo) DMA Design didn’t have much time to complain about its failures. After all, at that time it was already a large game studio in Britain. And the indicators it had were simply
Stunning… Especially considering that the developers started from the bottom. Therefore, while working on Lemmings 2, David Jones, using the authority earned on his cult games, decided to sign a contract with Nintendo. And he met not just anyone, but a real legend of
Game development – Shigeru Miyamoto [ʃɪˈɡeɪru mijɑˈmoʊtoʊ], who even came to DMA’s office. The Japanese game designer is called the father of modern video games, because it was he who created the world-famous Mario, Donkey Kong, The Legend of Zelda, produced many other series of Nintendo
Games, and it goes without saying that he has led the company to the success it has today. The fact is that in 1995, Shigeru Miyamoto decided to create a real team of successful developers under the code name Dream Team. Popular at that time, Rare, Acclaim, Midway
Games and LucasArts were included. They were all gathered to promote the new Nintendo 64 console. The company’s new product, the Nintendo 64, was supposed to hit the shelves in Japan at a price of $250 as early as next year. Nintendo has developed an innovative controller for its 64-bit
Gaming system. It introduced the possibility of controlling the game in two ways one was the control using the usual D-Pad cross, the other – using an analog stick. There were nine buttons on the controller, and there was also a special port on the back of the device for memory cards and
Other additional modules. This joystick actually looked a little strange. Were they coping… The only problem with the Nintendo 64 that caused Nintendo to have arguments with many important independent developers was the game cartridges. For game publishers and developers,
Regular CDs were more suitable. The cost of their production was small – they could be produced in large quantities, unlike expensive, and therefore risky, game cartridges. While it was not clear how the new console would be perceived by users. However, the pre-sale production of game modules
Already required quite significant costs. All competing consoles, namely Sony’s PlayStation and Sega’s Saturn, used CD-ROM as their media. In this regard, many major companies, including such long-time Nintendo partners as Square, Enix and Namco, refused to support the Nintendo 64 and announced their next projects for the new favorite – the PlayStation console.
Due to the fright of all major developers, the novelty from the Nintendo company was initially deprived of the attention of buyers and gamers. But the Japanese company was able to achieve success for the Nintendo 64, and as a result was second only to the PlayStation in terms of sales.
Thanks in large part to its marketing efforts and staff, including the talented Shigeru Miyamoto. But let’s go back a little. The essence of the contract between DMA and Nintendo was extremely simple. The British studio makes the game exclusive to the console release,
And Nintendo includes it in the launch line with the Nintendo 64. So now DMA had more opportunities and money to release new games. One of the first games under the financial and publishing supervision of Nintendo, from DMA, was “Uniracers”. It was developed by Mike Daley – one
Of those who created the first Lemmings. The gameplay of “Uniracers” was very simple. It involved racing on unicycles (one-wheeled bicycles) on a two-dimensional track. Great attention was paid to performing tricks. Performing stunts on racing or ring tracks made the unicycle go faster and earned extra points. At first glance, the multiplayer game
Was interesting. It would sell like crazy. But! Unexpectedly, shortly after the game’s release, Pixar sued DMA Design for allegedly plagiarizing the unicycle design and concept from their 1987 short film Red’s Dream By the way, this is not a joke at all – at the
Beginning of their career, Pixar really released such terrible cartoons… Let’s return to the topic. DMA Design lost the lawsuit, and as a result, Nintendo was forced to stop production of further Uniracers cartridges. According to Daily Mail, the deal was that Nintendo would no longer
Make unicycles in their games, so only the initial “Uniracers” run of 300,000 copies was sold. Of course, that situation wasn’t a big failure for DMA, and even more so for Nintendo. The atmosphere in the company shook just a little. Shook in the sense that it created another
Wave of personnel reshuffles, the dismissal of development groups and the recruitment of new ones. This is a normal process for any large company – usually these personnel changes are practically invisible behind the studios’ walls. And for DMA, which at the time of 1995 employed
About 100 people, it wasn’t very noticeable. Perhaps you are wondering when the story of GTA and the great Rockstar will begin, because it is indicated in the title of the video Don’t you worry! We’re almost there. In the wake of 3d in games, Nintendo commissioned
A new game from DMA called “Body Harvest” under their contract for exclusive games for the Nintendo 64. Speaking of which, it’s worth mentioning that many studios in the UK lost out. Transition from personal computers to consoles, from two-dimensional graphics to
Three-dimensional made studios attract new people who knew at least something about it. Besides, they had to buy new equipment, learn new approaches to creating games, and so on. According to DMA sound engineer Colin Anderson [ˈændərsən] In DMA, there were opportunities to solve any
Difficult issues, but the company had to fully invest in this work. At that time, DMA had about a hundred people working on porting their projects to other media. And although DMA gained its respect thanks to the first Lemmings, they achieved success thanks to a brainstorming
Session in which all employees of the studio, which at that time numbered only 10 people, participated. When the studio became much larger and began to work on many different games, it became almost impossible to transfer the experience of brainstorming to a large team.
Small open world where the player took on the role of genetically modified soldier Adam Drake [dreɪk]. He had to investigate and destroy the alien forces that returned every 25 years to harvest Earth’s human population for organic material. Armed with a time travel device,
Drake had to go back in time and fight in five Earth locations spanning 100 years of historical events. In each level in “Body Harvest”, the player had to stop the aliens from killing everyone in the area marked on the map. The player could freely
Move around the map and come across cities where the aliens teleport to attack the city and kill the civilians. The aliens moved and could attack the player on the ground, in the air or sea. Basically, the gameplay consisted of completing a series of missions. Most of them were very
Simple. For example, to reach a certain area. Some could be more difficult and they required careful thought and player skill. After the player completed a mission, they were prompted to check the map to see what mission was next. The use of vehicles was a key aspect of this game.
Vehicles provided significant protection against alien attacks and allowed the player to move at much faster speed. Adam Drake could fire most weapons from inside the vehicle, although many vehicles were equipped with their own powerful weapons. Doesn’t that remind you of anything
Basically, Body Harvest can be considered the first sprout of GTA. Especially since Nintendo was critical of the topic of violence in games and eventually abandoned Body Harvest, forcing DMA to find a new publisher for the game. The game was eventually published by
Midway Games and Gremlin Interactive in 1998. Remember these dates and these companies, because they will appear in our story later. The history of the development of the relationship between Nintendo and DMA is a topic for a separate video. Let’s put it this way – they continued to
Cooperate. But simultaneously with the beginning of Body Harvest development, on April 4, 1995, DMA signed an agreement with the American company BMG Interactive to publish Rаce and Chase, Tactics and Clan Wars. It was a big deal – a contract worth a couple of million pounds. The staff of DMA
Increased to 130-140 employees, and they opened another office in the same place in Scotland. In the winter of the same year, the publisher BMG Interactive granted DMA Design permission to develop the project Race & Chase for the Sega Saturn and Nintendo 64 platforms. Therefore,
The next two years of the company’s work became decisive in the history of DMA Design and the entire game industry. Who are BMG Interactive and why have they become so important to DMA and to all of us The Houser brothers
BMG Interactive is a company closely associated with the names of Sam and Dan Housers [sæm ænd dæn ˈhaʊzərz]. It was these two brothers who created RockStar. The Housers are involved in all the games that came out of this company, but more on that
Later. Since the new era of DMA, after signing a contract with BMG, the brothers have been quite close to DMA. How did it even happen Sam Houser and Dan Houser are the sons of an actress and a wealthy London lawyer. They were strange guys. The younger brother, Dan,
Spent all his free time immersed in fantasy literature. Dan Houser was an avid reader, and it was not surprising that he would write the screenplay for almost every part of Grand Theft Auto in the future, and then Bully from Red Dead Redemption. However, in his youth, he wasn’t much
Interested in video games. But Dan could not avoid the virtual world as the older brother, Sam, kept pushing the controller into his hands. And if Dan refused to play, he was seriously punched by Sam. The brothers grew up and entered a prestigious private institution, where they played croquet,
Went to theaters and listened to orchestra performances. But it didn’t affect them like the modern culture around them. They changed not only their interests, but also their tastes. Sam began to admire music artists from the American label Def Jam Recording (among them were Public Enemy,
LL Cool J, Method Man and others) and even dressed like a New York musician. The older brother fell in love with American culture, even though he had never been to America. One sunny day in London, Sam’s father took Sam to lunch with Heinz Hahn [haɪnz hɑn], his friend and part-time marketing
Director at BMG, Bertelsmann’s [ˈbɜrtəlzmənz] music and entertainment division, which combined the operations of such major music labels as RCA Records, RCA and Ariola Records. At this, as it turned out, unofficial interview, Sam got his first job in his life and immediately at BMG!
In his spare time during studies at the university, Sam produced some labels. And in 1992, he dived into the World Wide Web, where he noticed prospects in the publication of music albums on the Internet. Long before all kinds of iTunes and Spotify. Thus, BMG blew up the sales charts and
The company created a branch of BMG Interactive. The company management saw the future not only in the music industry development, but also in video games. The market of video games brought huge money, and family projects like SimCity 2000, Super Mario Bros. and All-Stars were sold off the
Shelves of stores all over the world. Therefore, Sam came close to the video game industry. After working for several years at BMG, Sam was invited to join a new interactive project with DMA. Which at this time was preparing Rаce and Chase, Tactics and Clan Wars. Apparently,
It was around this time that Dan Houser, who was two years younger, also became eager to take part in the project. This was the beginning of the future Rаce and Chase development, which in the future would turn into the well-known GTA. We will return to the Housers and to RockStar,
But in order to somehow preserve the chronology of events, we’ll start from 1995. From the beginning of Race and Chase development. “Race and Chase” (GTA) Development DMA began development of “Race and Chase” on April 4, 1995. The studio developed a design
Document for the upcoming Race and Chase, which even then stated The goal of creating Race & Chase is to get a fun, exciting multiplayer game about car chases and crashes at the output. The first and key question in the Rаce and Chase development, which arose before DMA and David
Jones himself, was in what space to make this game The 2D space was very familiar to DMA, and most of the successful projects were made in it. And on the other hand, it was 1995 outside! And it meant
That Wipeout from Psygnosis was already released – it was one of the first futuristic 3D racing video games. In it, players piloted anti-gravity ships and participated in various types of races. And the developers included a large number of music tracks and unexpectedly exciting gameplay.
Moreover, in 1996, Tomb Raider was released, which simply captured the industry of 3D games. Therefore, a logical question arose for DMA to keep up with the 3D world, already having a bad experience with Body Harvest, or to do something that they know and can do After considering
Everything, DMA decided to combine two things in the game. This was probably DMA’s best decision, as it gave the company a real opportunity to compete with other games on the market. In “Race and Chase”, David Jones saw the possibility of creating the most realistic
City in the game. He was fascinated by how alive and dynamic it could be. Jones asked his team to come up with ideas to make it happen. One of the developers built a city that was visible
From above in 2D space, and another took the same map and made cars race through the streets. All combined with the movement of the cars and the camera created a sense of real speed and height. And it was this decision that became the gun that would fire at the most necessary moment.
For the first few months of development, the game was called “Race and Chase”, but not for long. According to the story, the player was supposed to be a policeman trying to restore order in the city. However, after the game prototype was completed, it became
Clear that if the player, being a police officer, drives through the park, knocking down objects, people, picnics, then the player should be punished, not the one he is chasing. Therefore, DMA decided to radically change the gameplay. The developers offered the player to become the
One who breaks the law, commits accidents, robs people, shoots and runs away from the cops. It was at this moment that the developers decided to change the name of the game. Then Grand Theft Auto appeared for the first time. So we got to the name, but not yet to the game
Itself, because DMA still had a lot of problems. First of all, none of the team that was supposed to develop GTA had any previous experience in creating games. It was a brand new team, under David Jones’s surervision, of course, but still. Why take such risks This was the same
Problem as the development of previous DMA games – staff turnover, due to the expectation that new people would do better. The company took a risk because few on the team, except for David, believed that the GTA idea would succeed, due to the amount of violence.
So, the criminal played by the user could get paid for hitting a pedestrian. Missions in the development process changed and began to involve the main character in stealing cars on the streets and completing tasks for criminals. The change was radical, because until that time
In the history of electronic games, the player played most of the time as a hero. The change was well received and approved by BMG, especially the responsible executive Sam Houser, who considered the product to be something cartoony and absurd. The development team started adding more details
To the city, such as trees and sound effects. Sam Houser saw the game as a fictional world and wanted to place a strong emphasis on player’s freedom. To fulfill this desire, the development team created three separate cities in which the events of the game were
To take place. All of them were based on real cities. David Jones chose the ones he thought would have the biggest impact on players Miami was transformed into Vice City in the game, San Francisco became San Andreas, and finally, New York became Liberty City in the game.
As a result, the desired freedom given to the player created a problem when GTA entered the test groups. A lot of people weren’t interested in doing the missions, thinking it was more fun to just kill people and steal cars around town. Until then,
Missions in GTA were issued to players through certain phone booths, but after some discussion, the developers made all public phones issue missions. In this way, they eliminated the need for players to go to a certain location just to start a mission. Despite this, Jones was skeptical
Of an open and free world – players always needed some kind of goal. To solve the problem, he made it so that the player needed to accumulate as many points as possible to pass the level. Throughout the development process, Jones and the DMA team prioritized gameplay over
Graphics…which was the opposite of the market trend. They focused on using the limited computing power of computers at the time to improve the game’s physics, city events, and the artificial intelligence of pedestrians and enemies. Inset quote The initial management model
Did not work. And then a guy named Pat Kerr [pæt kɜr] came along and said, look, here’s a working option. Pat Kerr was also the lead programmer for Wild Metal Country. In the beginning it was a rectangle. And Pat was just messing with the physics of the controls, and he
Got a crazy little car that drove, turned, entered snowdrifts, like in Hollywood action movies. I saw this drift and said that it was beautiful. It had to be implemented in the game.” (David Jones) In addition to the cool controls in the game, there were other cool things. The developers
Made the police chase the main character aggressively! Police cars, like crazy, tried to knock down the player. Actually, it’s a bug. The police should not have done what they did. It’s just that the routes of their cars were built crookedly – because of this,
There is a feeling that a police car is attacking the player and trying to run him over. It seems that the entire development of GTA is a collection of coincidences and unexpected ideas. Take at least the music in the game, which has become one of the decisive things in the
Entire GTA series. And by the way, it was also done spontaneously by people who appeared out of nowhere on time. MUSIC and Radio At the beginning of development, in the GTA design document, it was said that only 1 MB of RAM would
Be allocated for sound, due to the fact that the game was planned to be released not on CDs, but on floppy disks. There was no way DMAs could use CD audio. However, one fine day, Dave Jones came to the DMA office and said that the cartridge version was canceled – there would
Only be a CD. Nintendo scrapped the Nintendo 64 version of GTA because of the brutality, but this is the best thing that could have happened to the project. Now it was possible not to puzzle over how to fit the entire game on a cartridge. Suddenly, DMA Design faced another problem. The
Game was 2D, although it had some sort of Top Down 3D, and the game design looked good while moving. But now the studio was planning to release a 2D game on CD, and no matter how high resolution
The textures were, there was no way the game would fill the entire CD. Did the developers think about how to fill the free disk space Back when people first bought games on CD, they expected their developers to use disc technology to fit as much content, gameplay,
And new game solutions as possible. While DMAs could accommodate approximately 8,125 thousand GTAs on a disk. It was decidedly unclear how to fill up the free space. Until suddenly the young composer Colin Anderson had a solution. Colin Anderson was just one of those random
People who changed the course of DMA history. But before Colin did that, he just played music and loved video games. And he wanted to somehow combine these two facts. The man sent resumes to all game companies, and received a response from DMA Design, who developed GTA. So Colin became the
Composer of the future game, but it was too early to rejoice, because this position was thankless. People of that time probably still thought that writing music for games was to combine the sound of keys sticking together to make a funny blip-blop. In those days, people
Did not take writing music for games seriously. Inset quote You talk to other musicians and they ask What do you do I am a musician. They ask “What exactly do you do “Ah… Music for video games!” And
They are like this “…But you said that you are a musician. Yes, I am a musician! No, it’s not music… It’s not music. (Colin Anderson) And so Colin Anderson, having become a sound engineer for DMA and a composer for GTA, came to David Jones and offered to simply fill the
Disc with CD-quality music. With the idea that if people don’t really like the game, then at least they will be able to listen to quality music. At that time, CDs with music were quite expensive (especially new ones). Examples of such a decision were before their eyes. Quake,
Already out in 1996, had a heavy but beautiful soundtrack by Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails. Besides being a cool musician, Trent was named one of Time magazine’s Most Influential People of the Year a year later. Moreover, the previously mentioned Wipeout
Also had a soundtrack that was a pleasure to play. Therefore, with such examples, Colin was still able to convince the management to fill the disc with quality music. All that remained was to find it somewhere… Of course, DMA Design had neither its own recording studio
Nor a large group of musicians. There was also no program for writing CD-quality music, Pro Tools System, which would have cost the studio a penny. All that was left for them was to simply take ready-made licensed music. But it was even more difficult than finding money for Pro Tools.
The music industry at the time did not take video games seriously and was not positive about them. Especially DMA Design, which had some weight only on the territory of England – for the rest of the big world, it was still nobody. Even the success of the Lemmings did not help. Therefore,
It was almost impossible for DMA to obtain licensed music. According to Colin Anderson Inset quote Back then, if you went to record companies and said, ‘Would you like to license us the music for our games’ – they laughed and said Why should we do this at all We make so
Much money selling CDs, thank you so much!” This was before the transition in the music industry. They were not interested. (Colin Anderson) There was another surprise. As you know, DMA Design was under the wing of BMG Entertainment, a huge multimedia conglomerate that owned,
Among others, Warner Music Group, EMI, Sony Music, Universal Music Group and PolyGram. Well, you see, almost the entire music industry was in the hands of BMG at that time. So why couldn’t BMG negotiate with the labels to give GTA the music Considering that Sam Houser was the head of development and
Had something to do with the game but couldn’t fix the situation – this really seems strange. And the fact is that negotiating for licensed music was really, really, really expensive. And Sam was not the director of the entire company. BMG were not at all interested in giving DMA
Their music tracks for GTA. So, quite quickly it became obvious to the developers that they would have to write the music themselves. But as you know, very often the problems that befall game developers make their projects even better… or, on the contrary,
They bury them. It was the same with the Prince of Persia series. And the same thing happened with the DMA team. After all, the issue of music in GTA marked the beginning of the greatest history of music in video games. The history of music in the GTA began with
The fact that there was no studio in the audio department of the DMA. They did not have the necessary software, there were no musicians, and half of the team, who had nothing to do with the
Audio department, did not understand why the game needed music the size of a CD! Luck was on Colin Anderson’s side, so he managed to convince the team that this game just needed a good soundtrack! a room that Anderson called the mop room, which was essentially a handout from the management
In the spirit of do what you want, just don’t disturb. Colin Anderson received this message with enthusiasm after hearing only the first part of the phrase. Everything was possible in the mop room. Then Colin started looking for a team for this thing and hired Craig Conner [kreɪɡ ˈkɑnər],
Who, before that, was just playing in various young Scottish bands, DJ-ing and producing music. Anderson tasked Conner with writing some music sketches that would serve as a reference for the rest of the music in the game, and left him for a few days. When Anderson returned, Conner played
Him a few tracks – it was an absolute musical mess. The newcomer turned on rock, pop and techno for Anderson. Each new track was in a new style. At that time, no one was writing multi-genre music for games, so it was very strange. However, Anderson liked the tracks he heard
So much that he was afraid that good musical material would simply be lost. Therefore, he began to try them on for other games. Unfortunately, the musical compositions did not fit anywhere. Therefore, at one dinner with Craig, Colin Anderson joked
It was a joke for the sake of a joke, which Colin immediately forgot about, but he couldn’t forget the look on Craig Conner’s face. After that phrase, his eyes lit up – he knew that this could work. Yes, one randomly thrown phrase would completely define the musical future of GTA. The
New plan was to make several dozen tracks that would be played in-game on the radio. Moreover, the developers wanted to convince the players that those were real tracks, which were recorded by real, just little-known musicians. But a small team had to do all this
In a short time before the game was released. Colin had to choose songs that would be cool to hear on the radio in the GTA world. Without thinking for a long time, the developers decide to include all existing genres in the game. From jazz fusion to opera. The tastes of the
Team differed and each team member wanted to hear something different, but time was pressing, and the number of musicians was still quite limited. Therefore, the developers took on the task. Colin loved funk, so he worked on a funk radio station himself. Craig had a guitar,
So he was doing pop rock. And the team had to come up with the rest on the fly. There was almost no time – everyone worked separately so as not to disturb each other and finish everything on time.
The main thing was to make the tracks sound real… …like songs that people could actually hear on the radio. They wanted to give players the music of Public Enemy, Twisted Sister and Enigma… And in general, everything that was popular at that time was heard on real radio stations in the
USA. In an interview, Colin Anderson recalls Inset quote “I remember us writing to a guy who worked at BMG Interactive, the publisher we were working with at the time. I remember asking them if they could send us some tapes of US radio songs so we could hear the jingles,
The DJs. So it was difficult to get access to such things. That meant all the references we had were movies and stuff like that.” (Colin Anderson) GTA was supposed to be the first game in the history of the gaming industry to have its own radio. And being a pioneer in any
Business is a very difficult job. As a result, the soundtrack was made from the world by string. The team recorded the song Four Letter Love, which imitated the style of AC-DC. The track “Just Do It” was a kind of cover of any Prodigy song. The team made extensive use of sampling,
Which in those days also set the format for writing songs. Some samples were requested from the performers themselves. They refused, and the audio department of DMA Design either manually re-recorded the sounds as close as possible to the original, or just pirated them.
The developers got as many as seven radio stations, which played 19 unique tracks written specifically for GTA! The most important station was N-CT FM, which played hip-hop and gangsta rap. It probably doesn’t make sense to remind you how important rap is to the setting of GTA,
Where players try on the gangster’s role. But this radio station was even more important because it played the main theme of the game. The story behind the main track is also one of those where the appearance of one person in the team actually changed the history of GTA. Expert
Academic and Industry Professional Jonathan Wilson [ˈwɪlsən] was invited by DMA Design to write the opening soundtrack of the game. Not exactly a good title for an authentic gangsta rapper. So in fact, Jonathan Wilson quickly became Robert De Negro at that moment.
He was the only black guy for miles around. Because the DMA office was still in Dundee. Even with contracts with Nintendo and BMG, it did not give the company the opportunity to move to a more convenient location. And you could count all the black people living in
Dundee on the fingers of one hand. Of course, with his respectable status, Jonathan Wilson did not want to participate in something dubious (he did not play computer games), so he took a pseudonym – Robert De Negro – and asked for a bottle of beer for his participation.
Craig Conner ended up coming up with beats and lyrics, and Wilson recorded vocals on nights when the DMA office was empty. This is how the very first track ever recorded for Grand Theft Auto was created. And it was this track, according to Colin Anderson, being written at an early stage of
The game’s development, that set the tone for how the entire GTA series would look in the future. Almost all stations had their own characteristics. Eurobeat was playing on “Brooklyn Underground FM”, and this was a special cultural provocation. The rave scene of the 90s was all concentrated
In Europe, while the game events unfolded in a fictional America, and the target audience of the game was also primarily in the USA. The radio station demonstrated the developers’ personal love for European music, thus their musical taste was exported abroad. But the rest of
The radio stations had to sound exactly American. So for Americans in high boots, DMA made a station called The Fergus Buckner [fɜrɡəs ˈbʌknər] Show FM that played country all the time… To be precise, country is one song performed by Sideways Hank O’Malley [hæŋk oʊˈmæli] (and The Alabama Bottle
Boys) that is all time ticks on the replay, and when it ends, the host of the show, Fergus Buckner, declares that he likes it so much that he’s going to play it again “The Fergus Buckner Show FM”, by the way, is the shortest station in GTA 1. And it appeared
Completely by accident. At one DMA meeting, one of the employees mumbled that you can put country music in old cars that will drive around town. After all, a radio station was offered for each type of car. And as a result, one respected manager from BMG Interactive learned about country
Radio, who just came to the developers the next day and said I heard there will be country Cool, Rainbow Music in about the same building as the DMA Design office. And for the small town of Dundee, this store acted as a kind of social network for musicians. For DMA developers,
It was a kind of hub in which the company’s audio department periodically found one artist or another to play. It was in Rainbow Music that they found someone who could play the banjo. He turned out to be the shopkeeper himself. So in this artisanal way, DMA was able to create most of the
Unique tracks for the radio stations in the game. Funk was playing on Radio 76 FM. On Head Radio techno and modern rock. It’s Unleashed FM featured trance, hard rock and alternative rock from Swedish rock vocalist Paul Mackie [ˈmæki], who would later
Appear in the GTA series as the vocalist of Love Fist. But we will talk about this later. Well, house and dance music was playing on Fix FM. Fix FM was directly managed by Craig Conner and Colin Anderson, with literally no outside help. The music was finished and combined with the rest
Of the development work, so now we can see what the final version of the game turned out to be. It’s time to immerse ourselves in the atmosphere and gameplay of the almost ready-to-release GTA. Gameplay The initial menu of Grand Theft Auto offered players eight character options for the main character Bubba,
Divine, Katie, Kivlov, Mikki, Travis, Troy and Ulrika. However, this did not affect the gameplay or the game story in any way. In addition to the main character, other important characters are the big BOSSES with whom the player interacts throughout the game. Robert Bubby
Seragliano is the gangster boss of the Vercotti family and a man obsessed with revenge for his father’s death. Uncle Fu is the leader of an Asian gang, who according to legend is 130 years old. El
Burro is the leader of a Latin American gang that is in conflict with the Fu gang. Samuel Deever [ˈdivər] is a corrupt Vice City police officer who is suspected of several crimes. And the last
One is brother Marcus – the leader of the Rastas gang and the biggest drug dealer in Vice City. The main character begins his career in Liberty City, working for the gang of Robert Bubby Seragliano. After performing a series of favors, he receives a warning from a rival gang that his
Actions are causing great harm to their boss, Sonetti. The main character continues to work for Seragliano and kills Sonetti. After some extra work, Bubby calls to congratulate him, but warns him that the police are surrounding the gang and it would be nice if they left town.
So our character will move from city to city, working for various gangsters and earning money. Four types of weapons are available to the player a pistol, a machine gun, a flamethrower and a grenade launcher. Whenever the player performs his typical thug activities
Like killing or stealing, the main character earns points which are displayed in the upper right corner of the screen. However, successful banditry increases your wanted level – the same legendary stars. The more stars, the more aggressively the police will pursue the player.
Another way to get local currency is to complete main missions. And although the game does not force the player to complete missions, they are necessary to open new cities. In general, GTA is one of the first real gaming sandboxes, in the sense that there are a lot of possibilities,
But none of them are imposed on the player. You could waste time walking, swinging your fists, taking cars from people, driving around the city, ramming other cars, jumping from an unfinished bridge, riding subway trains, shooting various weapons, punching people,
Fighting with the police… In a word, having fun on the streets, creating chaos and disorder. You could also explore the city peacefully if you really wanted to. And it was even possible to meet a column of monks, when knocking them down, the player received a kind of
Achievement – GOURANGA! Basically, this is a peculiar joke of the developers. For the Scots, ramming the crowd of Krishnaites in those days was an impossible dream, which turned out to be possible to realize in the virtual world. After all, it was a real sect that hung posters
With the word GOURANGA around the city. Now about the main thing. Cars! The car park in the cities was diverse – each had its own taxis, police cars and other official and public transport. Depending on the car you were driving in, the radio played its own music. The drivers in
The cars on the street were carefree robots, given that they wanted to spit on everything around them, especially when the shooting and explosions started. However, the place of events in GTA was nothing more than scenery for the player’s entertainment. Dull and identical people
Walked along the sidewalks. Some of them were only capable of running away screaming in panic. By the way, does this attitude towards violence from DMA remind you of anything It’s hard to see, but it’s possible. The same DMA philosophy was used in Lemmings. For some,
This is an unexpected turn, but this is what the developers themselves say But for all his criminal actions, the player did not go unpunished. The police in GTA is one of the key gameplay components, limiting the player in his actions. To attract the police’s attention,
It is enough to commit several crimes killing a pedestrian, crashing other cars, shooting on the street, or stealing a vehicle. And for each such action, the player’s level wanted by the police increases. The search indicator is actually the well-known
Stars that appear in the right corner of the screen. In the first part of GTA, the highest wanted level was the fourth, at which the police could block roads and use machine guns against the player. If the player fails to escape from the chase and is arrested,
He ends up near the police station. And if the player did not take the Prison Key bonus before, then after the arrest he won’t have any weapons and armor, and his points will be halved. As of mid-1996, the game development was almost complete. Finally, was it release
Day Not at all. After all, in order for GTA to become the phenomenon in the world of computer games that it would later become, the developers had to do some more work. Game release Before finalizing the game,
BMG were still concerned about the poor quality of the graphics compared to other games released in the same year. But this was not the main problem. Many at the company predicted that users might not pick up on the subtle British humor that prevailed in the game.
Possible hate from the audience could have a bad effect on sales, the company’s reputation and generally destroy the future of DMA Design. Therefore, the BMG company, knowing what awaited them, decided to hire a PR man – Max Clifford [ˈklɪfərd] – to promote
The game. Clifford had experience manipulating the tabloids and creating scandals for publicity at the behest of clients, often clashing with conservative members of society. After all, it was very convenient. The beginning of 1997. People longed for something new and liberal, and nobody wanted to listen to the conservative grandfathers. But it
Was conservative grandfathers who always sat in power, or were great directors, or simply had weight in the audience. Gary Dale [deɪl], the president of BMG, set a major condition for Clifford to make sure that BMG could properly serve the type of content
Such as GTA to users. Nevertheless, violence there was an integral part of the game, and this fact was difficult to hide. Clifford’s strategy was to make a big scandal in the media and in the British government about the GTA release. Inset quote The plan was to create free
Advertising that would ultimately encourage young people to buy the product. We needed to get the right people to believe that it was their mission in life to denounce and express their outrageous stance against GTA (Max Clifford) The idea was well received by the Houser brothers,
But David Jones and DMA were very leery of promoting Grand Theft Auto solely on the basis of conflict. What if the game was banned However, no one could stop the black PR machine. Clifford had his contacts in the government, with the help of which he spreaded information
About the GTA. Some time later, on 20 May 1997, five months before Grand Theft Auto was released, Lord Gordon Campbell [ˈkæmbəl], Baron Campbell of Croy, visited the House of Lords of the United Kingdom to speak about the violence in the game and what he believed,
This computer game was a danger to the country’s children and youth. The debate gripped the House, with many Lords arguing that the game could not be sold in the UK. Just imagine how far it went… Well, it didn’t get to Elizabeth, although who knows… The main thing is that it was decided
That the British Board of Film Classification – the government body responsible for the classification of entertainment in the United Kingdom – would evaluate Grand Theft Auto and decide whether it could be sold. The debates in the House of Lords attracted the
Attention of the media. The Daily Mail called it a crime game that encourages you to be a thief and listed the illegal actions the player could perform. Other newspapers came out with similar headlines and articles highlighting the bad influence of Grand Theft Auto on youth. BMG were
Satisfied with the consequences and results, and gradually even DMA, who at the time were simultaneously refining the controls and graphics in the game, began to feel satisfaction. To add to the controversy, Clifford bought airtime on local radio and included excerpts from House of
Lords debates on GTA. Clifford distributed fake fines with the game’s logo in the city’s parking lots, glued posters with a list of criminal actions that the player could perform in GTA. The British Council hired a psychologist from the University of Nottingham [ˈnɑtɪŋˌhæm] to
Study the game. His final verdict came shortly before the game’s release date. The statement said The violence of Grand Theft Auto is ‘unprecedented’, but its sale is not prohibited and it is classified as a product recommended for people over the age of eighteen.
It was a victory for the developers. BMG were very pleased with the rating and results of the campaign. According to Clifford’s estimates, they reached about thirteen million people through the controversy alone. Even though GTA was age-restricted worldwide, the game still caused similar banning controversies in Germany and France, and Brazil banned the
Sale of GTA in the country altogether. The game debuted in the UK and Europe on November 28, 1997. BMG planned to launch Grand Theft Auto in Great Britain, then move to the United States, and there to enter all other possible markets. Fittingly,
The cover of Grand Theft Auto was a photo of a 1980s Plymouth Gran Fury police car speeding through the intersection of Fifth Avenue and 56th Street, with Trump Tower in the background. Apparently, this is how BMG and DMA were anticipating the conquest of America.
Despite all the machinations and resonance, Grand Theft Auto was not in great demand among buyers. Sales were modest, but remained steady at around 10,000 copies per week. To a large extent, what BMG had hoped for happened. A bad reputation is also a reputation. The main thing was that
They talked about the game! People might not have played GTA, but then everyone, regardless of age, knew the acronym of these three letters. And it was this that measured success, not the moderate evaluations of gaming publications and critics. In the UK, GTA grossed around £25 million in sales
In its first year, far exceeding the game’s total budget, which consisted mostly of the salaried development team. The game ended up selling over a million copies worldwide, bringing in millions in revenue for BMG. This money was enough to order a sequel.
And while DMA employees are pouring glasses of champagne and celebrating the success of GTA, before we continue this story, we would like to remind you that you can thank us by liking this video and writing a comment. Which part of GTA do you like the most Your activity will
Help the development of the channel and speed up the release of new videos, so if you like what we are doing – let us know about it in the comments, thank us with a like, and we continue! Rockstar North Apparently, the DMA studio would
Have liked to celebrate the new game release for a long time, but they did not manage to do this. No, they did not rush to make the next parts of GTA. Just in 1997 began one of the most
Important processes in the history of DMA, the BMG company, the development team and GTA itself. Remember when Nintendo refused to release Body Harvest because of the violence So then, in 1997, Dave Jones sold the DMA Design studio to Gremlin Interactive for £4.2
Million. DMA was acquired by British publisher Gremlin Interactive, and David Jones became creative director of both companies. Gremlin Interactive released two DMA projects – Body Harvest and the PC version Wild Metal Country – a tank arcade with very realistic physics. However, later, in 1999, Gremlin Interactive bought the French video game holding Infogrames
(now Atari SA) paying 24 million pounds. However, focused on family games, Infogrames was worried about the negative reaction to Grand Theft Auto, so it quickly decided to get rid of the studio. The fate of DMA hung in the air. Simultaneously, in March 1998, Take-Two acquired
All the assets of BMG Interactive for 1.85 million shares (16% of Take-Two’s total shares), worth approximately US$14.2 million. At that time, DMA Design and BMG Entertainment had already released Grand Theft Auto a year earlier. And although it showed good financial results,
It did not have a critical success in Europe. Therefore, seeing an opportunity to attract attention to the game, the founder of Take-Two, Ryan Brant [brænt], initiated the acquisition of BMG in order to acquire the property of Grand Theft Auto and at the same time contacted Sam and
Dan Houser of BMG with an offer of cooperation. In six months, the Houser brothers and two British, Jamie King and Terry Donovan [ˈʤeɪmi kɪŋ ænd ˈtɛri ˈdɑnəvən], create a subsidiary company, Rockstar Games. Sam Houser became president of Rockstar, and his brother became vice president
Of the company. But to create the next GTA series, a development studio was needed, right And the corporation bought the DMA Design studio from Atari (formerly Infogrames). At first, the development company was called simply Rockstar Studios, and then it received the
Familiar name Rockstar North. After that, DMA really ceased to exist in the form it was in. After all, when the studio moved from its native Dundee to the capital of Scotland, Edinburgh [ˈɛdənbəroʊ], where it has been located to this day, many people from the company had a
Desire to leave it for one reason or another. Moreover, Take-Two Interactive began to buy a large number of game studios, and rename them after Rockstar, for example Rockstar Toronto, Rockstar San Diego and others… But about that another time. Our focus will now be
On Rockstar North. After all, it was them who developed all subsequent GTA games. That’s how, in such a complicated and intricate way, a legend of the world game industry was born. Grand Theft Auto London (1999) The development team, which was now much larger,
Began the development of the second part of GTA. But first, two full-fledged additions to the first part were released. Namely GTA London 1961 and GTA London 1969 from Rockstar Toronto. Actually, they were developed by new team members. But there’s not much to tell about these additions,
Because they were almost identical to the original first part of the game … and they were sold at the price of the original and launched only if it was available. The only interesting thing is that the map of the game was created on the basis of London. The real London.
Besides that, the expansion offered players 32 completely new missions, as well as a total of 30 new cars from the relevant time period, including authentic red buses. The gameplay was similar to the original Grand Theft Auto, because the developers used the
Same game engine. And missions, screensavers and game sessions were presented in the same form as in the first part of the game. If you look closer at the additions, you can see that the setting gave the developers the opportunity to add many
References to the culture of the 60s in the game. In particular, the appearance of the character, reminiscent of James Bond, the use of music by bands from the corresponding 60s, and slang with a characteristic accent of the characters. The fact that everything remained unchanged
From the original was both the main advantage and disadvantage in GTA London. Therefore, the additions were accepted by users completely calmly. The Rockstar studio also understood that and did not build high expectations from these projects, but instead they were actively working on a full-fledged continuation of the series – GTA 2.
Grand Theft Auto 2 (1999) A little later, in the same 1999 year, something really interesting happened. The studio released Grand Theft Auto 2, which was ahead of its time and even Cyberpunk 2077. Just look at this What is it Did the game have only one main
Character instead of 8 versions of the same pixelated one Just by downloading the game, the player saw this dynamic cinematic splash screen. In fact, for the promotion of the game in New York, a full-fledged 8-minute short video, from which they created the intro.
Well… It seems that there was no main character in the game. And who did people play for then Well, jokes aside. At the very beginning of the game, the player finds himself in almost the same world of the first GTA. Events develop in the near future,
Characterized by the phrase three weeks later. And here it is interesting to understand why, almost 2 years after the release of the original game, the developers are releasing the official continuation of the series, so to speak, without a fuss. At the same time, the new game looks like
The old one, with minimal visual differences. Let’s start with why the second part of the game came out two years later and was not as loud as the first one. For the middle and late 90s, such a time limit of game development was considered quite long. Especially since
Rockstar North did not make a completely new game, but continued their work on the basis of the first part. The team faced a big question what should the sequel be about Considering that before that there were two additions from RockStar Canada,
And they were received without much enthusiasm. Then what What could interest the player if the present is too cruel, and the past is not to their liking. Of course, the answer was obvious – the future. Somewhere, the idea was born to make a game on the theme 5 minutes in the future,
In the style of retro-futurism. True, this futurism is a little different from the introductory video we have seen at the beginning of GTA 2. But we’ll consider this further. The difficult part of the development, according to Colin Anderson,
Was to create a visual design for the idea of 5 minutes in the future – it was a real test Stephen Banks, William Mills and Billy Thomson [ˈstivən bæŋks, ˈwɪljəm mɪlz ænd ˈbɪli ˈtɑmsən]
Should be thanked for the design in the game – the concept art of the cars and weapons at the development stage alone looked impressive. We wish there was such a game with HD models now. Of course, the process of inventing the conditions for the existence of the GTA futuristic world took
A lot of time. But there was another problem – the fatigue and burnout of people who worked on the first part. After its release, marketers from Take-Two demanded from Rockstar North, the release of the next GTA in a year. That is, only a year to come up with what the continuation
Of the series will be, and to do everything. From Rockstar North’s side, this seemed crazy, but from the marketers’ side, everything was obvious. The first GTA was quite hyped, and hype is a matter of time. Therefore, in order to leave at the expense of the past advertising campaign, it was
Necessary to quickly release something new. Due to this conflict of opportunities and interests, the game release was delayed for obvious reasons. The last 6-9 months of development were a complete nightmare for the team. Nevertheless, on October 22, 1999,
The game was finally released. And surprisingly, there was not a single news report on television about the cruelty and immorality of GTA, which violated all possible laws of humanity. It’s easy to guess why. First, DMA and Take-Two refused the services of the famous Max Clifford.
Instead, they built an advertising campaign based on a short film called “GTA 2 – The Movie”. British actor Scott Maslen [skɑt ˈmæsələn] played the lead role in it. By the way, the script for the film was written by Dan Houser himself. Maybe that’s why the short film was so far from
The game itself The Housers have generally had little involvement in the development, although in the future Sam would be the executive producer of the GTA series, and Dan would be a producer and one of the scriptwriters for almost all of Rockstar’s games.
Returning to the topic of why the film that advertised GTA differed from the game itself – this question has long since passed into the category of rhetoric. What is more interesting is that on the cover of GTA 2, the art that accompanied the game showed the city, people
And environment as completely ordinary. There was no hint of the game’s futurism, retro-futurism, or any deviation from the look of the first game on the packaging. And how should we react to it Whether the number of main characters in the game has changed is a controversial issue. After all,
The character that the players see in the game intro is called Claude Speed [klɔd spid]. He runs several crime syndicates in the city, but is soon killed. Events in GTA2 itself generally take place in the future. Therefore, the opening video is rather a kind of mood video,
Created with the aim of introducing players to the mood and atmosphere of the game. Anyway, now the player doesn’t have the opportunity to choose a character, as in the first part. But there is an opportunity to write your own name in the history of GTA, and play for the same character.
So what new have we got In general, the GTA concept has not changed until the second part. The player also finds himself in a huge open city, where he is offered either to entertain himself, or to do tasks and errands from local gangs, for which he can receive a reward. The most
Noticeable change was the GTA setting. It was generally the last time in the history of GTA when the developers created a game that did not correspond to the time in which it was located. The game events take place in one big city called “Anywhere City”. From the name to the design,
The city looks like some sort of Cyberpunk, only retro-futuristic. Anywhere City is divided into three areas – Downtown, Residential and Industrial, which players will switch between as they progress through the game… Pretty much the same as in the first part between the cities.
The city is inhabited by bandits similar to those in the original game. By the way, the Krishnaites, whom the players successfully distributed in the first part and received the GOURANGA achievement, have become a full-fledged element of the bandit ecosystem.
And the main innovation that came with gangs is the reputation system. By completing various missions and assignments for certain fractions, you improve your relationship with them and quarrel with their enemies. And you also open access to more complex tasks, which, of course,
Pay more. Because the main goal remains the same – just to earn as much money as possible. There were a total of seven criminal groups in the game. With characteristic weapons, a certain habitat, appearance, nature of tasks and unique cars. By the way, cars. Basically, it is worth thanking
RockStar – the game has become much more pleasant to look at and feel. Square chopped pixels gave way to smooth and pleasing eye sprites. The cars’ physics has become more sensitive, and the character’s movement is smoother. In general, while maintaining the general
Hardcore spirit, with the ability to die almost with one shot on the character, the game process has become much more fun. Other factors contributed to this, for example, the general revitalization of NPC artificial intelligence. People in Anywhere City,
Unlike their ancestors from GTA 1, know not only how to stupidly panic when someone opens fire. Someone is in a hurry somewhere, someone takes wallets, some can even steal cars. Simple robbers also appear here, and gang members are not shy to sometimes attack police officers. And this
Is nothing compared with what is to come. In fact, it looks like Rockstar have done extensive work on the psyche of all the inhabitants of “Anywhere City” We are getting acquainted with the futuristic world of Anywhere City for the first time,
So maybe this is its usual state, or maybe DMA decided to really have fun and thus create something unusual. The average temperature of absurdity in GTA 2 is quite high. For example, sometimes people on the streets without the player’s help start acting out some scenes,
Fight, shout, get in and out of cars. But that’s half the trouble. At the same time, all kinds of former regulars of the local mental hospital and mad scientists roam the city. And in addition, mafia bosses regularly give the player strange tasks such as blow up
A radio station that drives people crazy or, conversely, destroy the cure for insanity. In contrast to this mass psychosis and insanity, the DMA improved the law and order system. Two more were added to the maximum four levels of wanted. There were also special forces,
Armed better than ordinary policemen. And in the worst scenario, the National Guard with tanks and other equipment was sent after the riotous player. The player’s arsenal had also been replenished! Shooting someone was now possible with the help of new double pistols, grenades, molotov cocktails,
As well as a futuristic electric cannon. And all this in addition to already existing weapons. And the main thing was music. It was now possible to arrange Armageddon under new music. Considering the fact that the same people were responsible for the game music design as last time, that is,
Colin Anderson, Craig Conner and others, the radio in GTA 2 became a platform for all the ideas that were not implemented in the first part. The number of radio stations has increased to 11. Drum and Bass, Acid Techno and Christian Pop have appeared in the game. A certain DJ of increased
Inadequacy was constantly playing on the radio. By the way, it was in the second part of GTA, for the first time in the series, that advertising breaks and jingles appeared on the radio. And the radio stations themselves became not just a sound accompaniment in the background,
But received a full reflection in the game, like buildings on the map. As a result, thanks to a fairly accurate understanding of what prevented people from loving the first GTA, the sequel received an even warmer reception than the original! GTA 2
Received several ports on popular platforms, the versions of the game differed. The main one was the PC version, with a full set of features and high-quality graphics. The Playstation version has reduced graphics quality and lack of some gameplay features. For example, the console did not support
Night in “Anywhere City”, while in the PC version, the player could play in night game time and day time. GTA 2 was also ported to the Game Boy Color, which could only be distinguished from the GTA1 port upon very close inspection. The Playstation and Game Boy Color versions of the game are
Rated T (Teen) by the ESRB. That is, these two versions were available for teenagers aged 13 and over. Which makes these two GTA 2 ports the only ones with such a rating in GTA history. At the time of release, GTA 2 had a relatively modest circulation of about 250,000 copies, but
It soon earned the title of one of the best games on the PS1! Of course, no one will compare it with Resident Evil, about which you can find a separate video on our channel. The main thing is that
Almost no one tried to criticize the second part of GTA for cruelty and violence. Maybe because the game was not particularly cruel. The game graphics were generally notable for their softness. Already years later, among players and fans of the series, the second part of GTA acquired the status
Of one of the most controversial parts of GTA. But that was a completely different story, to which we’d return very soon. Summing up, at the end of the 20th century, GTA became a subject of discussion and a driving force of change in the world of computer games.
Thanks to Grand Theft Auto, game producers and developers began to pay much more attention to music in the game. GTA was the first game that featured its own full-fledged radio, which later even featured advertisements for fictional local brands. Writing an original soundtrack for
Computer games has not just become the norm. It started to gain popularity among famous music artists and nowadays making music for video games is considered as cool as it is for movies. Developers from DMA Design gave players complete freedom of action for the first time and showed
That the player can be anyone! It was in GTA that the player first came as a protagonist, a criminal who had to break the existing laws in real life. After all, the player had to fight with the thieves in order to lead them (The principle from zero
To hero will be fixed in the basis of the series forever). But the fact remains that a negative character was at the center of the story… And almost every child wanted to become him. GTA showed all modern game designers that games are just games, and that there is a gray morality.
Already in 1999, Grand Theft Auto was a full-fledged portal to the real world… Where real DJs and game developers played on an almost real radio, who sometimes broke the fourth wall between the player and the game, commenting on the events on the screen. Where
In an almost real city it was possible to break very real rules and laws. And most importantly, it was absolutely safe to spend some time in the shoes of a real criminal. After the GTA release, many game studios tried to make a game with similar freedom of action. Therefore, it is not
Surprising that Grand Theft Auto has become a real phenomenon. Millions of fans around the world are still dreaming about the new part of the game. The 2D era of GTA has come to an end, but in the history of the development of the Rockstar company and the series itself, it was only the
Beginning – the road to an unparalleled 3D future. We’ll talk about the ups and downs of the GTA series and the Rockstar studio in the next part of the video. And while we are preparing the sequel, you can watch our other video, which has now appeared on your screen. Thank you for watching
This video to the end. Do not forget to support us by subscribing to the channel and clicking the bell so as not to miss the release of new videos. We are already working on something very interesting for you, but that’s all for today. It was PressX. Till next time!
6 Comments
I forgot I was subbed to this channel. Been waiting on the part 2 to the mortal konbat video so long I forgot half the info in the first video
Cool & Interesting video..
Very informative..
A little pc of history…
But they Really went to Shit huh..
Love your channel! This video was great, like your others. Just a heads-up: Every single time you dubbed over guys speaking another language with your English translation, both your vocal volumes were the same (they actually may have been louder than you), so it sounded like headache-inducing gibberish. 😅 You may want to lower their volume or remove their audio altogether.
Minus the weird translation parts (audio-wise), this is another great video from you guys. I'd like to see second part of the MK history series and the third part of the RE series. Do you have a release schedule planned for those (and the follow-up to this video too)?
we measure distance in miles here too 😂
Nice documentary, i just find the audio mash up rather bad, it would be better for you to read it instead.