Holiday Treat #6: The Humans Who Made Grand Theft Auto

The following is part of our 25-day Holiday Countdown Calendar! Every day from December 1st through the 25th, we're posting a cool game history treat, and $5 and up Patrons get access one day early! This is technically our December 1st post, but since today is Giving Tuesday, we're giving you this one a little earlier than usual.

This is all part of our annual Winter Fundraiser donation drive, where we ask those who are able to generously give what they can so that we can continue thriving. If you're able to make an additional one-time charitable contribution, this really is the best time to do so, as your donations will be DOUBLED thanks to a generous group of sponsors! Head on over to gamehistory.org/donate to learn more and give today.

Alright, the dust has settled. The GTA VI trailer has been out for 24 hours now. We’re sure everyone is still going through it frame-by-frame, just like they did for GTA V and GTA IV.

But before Niko or CJ or Tommy, before there were Roman numerals or city names appended to the ends of game titles, there was, simply, Grand Theft Auto. The game was made at DMA Design by a small team in Edinburgh. For them, it was just another game among many of their experiments. No one knew it would become a phenomenon.

This photo from our archives is the only picture we know of showing the faces of the innovators who created Grand Theft Auto. It was taken from a press kit sent to magazines before the game came out, and as far as we know, no magazine ever published it. Like the development team, no one in the media knew what a hit it would be either!

This is why we spend so much time and money on securing and archiving press material. It's unlikely that the world will forget about Grand Theft Auto the game anytime soon, but without awkward, stilted, low resolution photos like this, we might forget about the people who made it.

We supplied this photo, along with some other behind-the-scenes items from GTA1, to the game documentary channel Noclip for their video on the history of the company that would become Rockstar. You should go watch it if you haven't!

Community Spotlight

We're really excited to see that historian Kate Willaert is starting to publish her groundbreaking original research on the origins of Mario and Donkey Kong! There's a great video up now on YouTube, go check it out on her Patreon (and consider supporting her while you're there!).