The Chip Shop Beginning
In 1988, a 22-year-old David Jones was made redundant from the Timex factory in Dundee. Rather than seek another manufacturing job, he used his £3,000 severance pay to buy an Amiga 1000 and founded DMA Design. On 1 August 1989, the company opened its first offices above a former fish and chip shop at 134B Nethergate. The core team, Jones, Mike Dailly, Steve Hammond, and Russell Kay, had all met at the Kingsway Amateur Computer Club in Dundee. The name DMA officially stood for "direct memory access," though Jones later joked it meant "Doesn't Mean Anything."
Lemmings: A Lunch Break Idea That Changed Everything
On 14 February 1991, DMA Design released Lemmings for the Amiga. The game had been inspired by an animated 8×8 pixel character demo that Mike Dailly created during a lunch break. Russell Kay coined the title. It sold 55,000 copies on its first day and went on to achieve lifetime sales of 20 million copies across 21 platforms. At age 25, David Jones had become a millionaire, and Dundee had placed itself firmly on the global gaming map.
From Race'n'Chase to Grand Theft Auto
DMA Design's next major project began under the working title "Race'n'Chase." In March 1995, the studio signed a £3.4 million contract with BMG Interactive to develop four games, including the title that would become Grand Theft Auto. Sam Houser, who later co-founded Rockstar Games, was part of BMG's production team. When Grand Theft Auto was released in 1997, its commercial success prompted Take-Two Interactive to buy the intellectual property and form Rockstar Games in 1998. Jones sold the rights to Grand Theft Auto to BMG Interactive in order to keep DMA Design afloat.
Studio Evolution and Departure from Dundee
In April 1997, DMA Design was sold to Gremlin Interactive for £4.2 million. After Gremlin was taken over by Infogrames, the Dundee studio was sold again to Take-Two Interactive in September 1999. It was integrated into Rockstar Games as Rockstar Studios Limited in March 2002, then renamed Rockstar North in May 2002. At that point the Dundee offices closed and the studio relocated to Edinburgh. The legacy, however, had already been established; Grand Theft Auto III, released in 2001, sold six million units in its first year, and Grand Theft Auto V remains the second-best-selling game and most profitable entertainment product of all time.
A Pipeline of Talent: Abertay University and the Next Generation
While Rockstar North moved east, Dundee continued to nurture the industry. Abertay University launched the world's first computer games degree in 1997 and is now recognised as the UK's first Centre for Excellence in Computer Games Education. The university currently offers five of the 25 accredited interactive and games degree courses in the United Kingdom, ensuring that Dundee remains a training ground for developers long after its original studios moved on.
Other Studios and the Continuing Legacy
David Jones returned to Dundee in February 2000 to found Realtime Worlds, which developed Crackdown in 2007 and APB in 2010 before entering administration on 17 August 2010. In January 2000, four former DMA Design employees, Colin Anderson, Stewart Graham, Aaron Puzey, and David Jones, founded Denki, another Dundee-based studio. By November 1992, DMA Design itself had already grown to 22 staff and moved to Dundee Technology Park; by 1994 it occupied 2,500 square feet of space equipped with £250,000 in high-end equipment.
UNESCO City of Design
In 2014, Dundee was named a UNESCO City of Design, the first UK city to receive the designation. The honour cited the city's contributions to medical research, comics, and video games. Today, the city promotes itself under the motto "One City, Many Discoveries," acknowledging a history of scientific achievement in which video games occupy a central place. A plaque now stands at 134B Nethergate, marking the spot where Lemmings was conceived, unveiled on 14 February 2011 to coincide with the game's twentieth anniversary.
What Is Confirmed
The dates of DMA Design's founding, the release of Lemmings, the contract for Grand Theft Auto's development, and the various studio sales are documented in multiple sources. The Abertay University games degree programme and Dundee's UNESCO City of Design status are independently verified.
What Is Unclear
The exact number of current game development studios operating in Dundee today is not confirmed in the available sources; Denki is described as having fewer than five employees, and Realtime Worlds ceased operations in 2010.
