Before They Were Big: Rockstar North - News
by VGChartz Staff , posted on 17 October 2011 / 6,767 Views
Despite most gamers' unfamiliarity with the Commodore's Amgia platform, there's a surprising number of now big time developers who worked on it. Will Wright launched an Amiga version of SimsCity alongside its original Macintosh release, Peter Molyneux and Bullfrog Production's launched Populous on the platform, and even Sid Meier's Civilization also found a home on the Amiga platform over time. While not initially a break out success on the platform, one of today's greatest developer's also has heavy roots in the Amiga platform, Rockstar North.
Originally called DMA Design, the developer was founded in 1987 by David Jones, Russel Kay, Steve Hammond and Mike Dailly in Dundee Scotland. Shortly after, they signed a deal with Psygnosis to be their publisher, whom they would released their first title under – Menace. The title was, for the most part, a run of the mill style side scrolling shooter, with a couple a twists. It was followed by another side scrolling shooter the next year called Blood Money. Both of these titles were well received at the time, but neither would come close to the success of DMA Design's next title.
After Blood Money's development, DMA was looking into creating yet another side scrolling shooter, but this time based off a ground-based mech created in Blood Money. In the title, DMA design was planning on the ability for the player to shoot small units, specifically people. Tests to prove that these units could be created in a mere 8 by 8 pixel box led to a humorous animation created by programmer Michael Dailly of the little men walking to their doom in various ways. The team got a good laugh out of the comical animations, but Russel Kay believed there was an actual way to make these little men into their own title. A short demo was born to present the idea to Psygnosis. From there, the Lemmings were born.
Lemmings had players controlling a small army of green haired men who are almost constantly in motion. Players have to safely guide these men to the goal, but the Lemmings themselves performed the tasks to alter their routes, such as digging tunnels and building bridges. The title became a hit with critics, praised for its level design as well as its its simple yet unique concept. More importantly, the title was financially successful, prompting it to be ported to ridiculous number of platforms.
The years following had DMA designs developing a variety of Lemmings expansion as well as creating two more full Lemmings entries. The original Walker title, which spawned the Lemmings idea, saw release in 1993, followed by a first person role playing game titled Hired Guns. In this time, Nintendo of America and DMA joined forces to create a racing title featuring unicycles. Known as Unirally in Europe, and Uniracers in North America, the title was developed exclusively for the Super Nintendo, a first for the Amiga based developer. While well received when it was released in 1994, Pixar felt the unicycles featured in the game were a bit too similar to their design from their Red's Dream short film, and filed a lawsuit. Nintendo was forced to stop production of the title, leaving only 300,000 units on the market. That same year, DMA released Christmas Lemmings 1994, which would be their last Lemmings, Amiga, and Psygnosis published title.
The separation from the Lemmings franchise and unfortunate fate of Unirally is far from where this story ends. For the next three years, DMA would start on a variety of projects. After Unirally, Nintendo recruited DMA Design to be a part of their Nintendo 64 “Dream Team,” a group of western developers including the likes of Rare and LucasArts who were each tasked to create Nintendo 64 exclusives. On DMA's part, the result was Body Havest, DMA's first fully 3D open world title. After many delays and disagreements between Nintendo and DMA, Nintendo dropped the title. Thankfully, Gremlin Interactive picked the title up for Europe and Midway for North America, releasing it in their respective territories in 1998. DMA also developed another Nintendo 64 exclusive under the awfully familiar publisher Take-Two Interactive. Space Station Silicon Valley, a title where the player takes control of animals fused with mechanical parts, was plagued with bugs, but was praised by critics and developed a cult following. The title was eventually ported to Gameboy Color and the original PlayStation exclusively in Europe a year later.
While dabbling in the Nintendo 64 arena, DMA was working on a PC title, at the time called Race N Chase. The title was pitched as a a top down vehicle based experience where the player raced through three different large open ended cities, performed bank robberies and competed in demolition derbies. The title would later in development become known as Grand Theft Auto. Development wasn't going smoothly though. As revealed to Gamasutra earlier this year by one of the title's developers, the release was nearly canceled. The title lacked direction and was originally going for a realistic style. When the cancellation seemed imminent, a simple bug saved the title. During development a glitch caused the cop AI became extremely aggressive, doing everything possible to absolutely destroy the player. The team found the aggressive AI so enjoyable that not only did they leave it in, but it pushed the team in a new direction for the title, reducing focus on missions and more on just having fun in the overworld.
Despite their new revelation, upon its release in 1997, the title was met with mixed reactions by critics, pointing at its repetitive gameplay, missions and inconvenient save system. Still, the title was a huge financial success thanks to the controversy behind the title. The PlayStation version alone amounts for over 2 million units, which wasn't even the lead platform. Two years later, the title was followed by two expansions set in 1960's London. Grand Theft Auto 2 was also released that year, receiving a similar reception by reviewers, but the PlayStation version moved just over 3.4 Million units, a significant improvement in sales.
After Grand Theft Auto 2's launch, Take-Two Interactive decided to purchase DMA Design. After nearly ten years, the developers got a new name – Rockstar Games. The transfer to Take-Two prompted the cancellation of quite a few Nintendo 64 games that consisted mostly ports, but also an original I.P. called Attack!, a pre-historic adventure involving cavemen. Instead, their efforts went to creating the next entry in their successful Grand Theft Auto franchise. Thanks to their 3D work outside of the franchise, they were able to bring Grand Theft Auto III to a whole new perspective.
Unlike previous Grand Theft Auto titles, Grand Theft Auto III was critically acclaimed amongst reviewers, mainly for its open world sandbox nature. Even more so than previous GTA releases, the title was a raging success, selling over 14 million units as of 2008. Rockstar Games was shortly after was, once again, renamed. They became Rockstar North, the title they hold today. Grand Theft Auto III paved the way for Rockstar North and the Grand Theft Auto series, as the company continued to develop titles in the franchise with success.
While Lemmings was Rockstar North's first claim to fame, GTA III solidified it. They're now one of the few developers out there who can get a massive number of gamers riled up on nearly name alone. For now, everyone is waiting for the first sign of GTA V, or Agent which we've been waiting over 2 years for any solid information or media on. The only thing we can get is a reconfirmation that it is indeed in development. While you wait around twiddling your thumbs for their next release, maybe it would be a good idea to track down some their classic titles that started it all.
