Dundee has a starring role in a ground-breaking new video games exhibition at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh.
The Game Masters exhibition, which is being shown in Europe for the first time, explores the development and design of video games from early arcade machines right through to current favourites like Minecraft and Angry Birds.
It boasts over 100 playable games, including original arcade versions of hits such as Donkey Kong and Outrun.
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But taking pride of place in the exhibit are games created in Dundee, including Lemmings and Grand Theft Auto, and the stories behind them.
Both hugely influential titles were developed by Dundee-based DMA Design.
Lemmings was one of the most popular puzzle games of the 1990s while Grant Theft Auto has grown into a world-conquering franchise.
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The latest version of the game made more money than the film Titanic in its first week of release.
Included in the exhibition are notes for the script of Grand Theft Auto lent to the museum by former DMA employee and founder of the Scottish Games Network Brian Baglow.
He said: “I’m delighted the museum is holding a dedicated games exhibition. It really shows that games have real cultural and historical value.
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“Dundee has played a key role in Scotland’s success in the games sector, so it’s nice to see it receiving the recognition it deserves.
“As for my scribbled notes, the games sector is really bad at capturing and archiving the process of designing a game. If it achieves anything I hope the exhibition shows everyone that game design is a craft and an art that they can engage with and try for themselves.
“If I could do it, it can’t be that hard.”
The exhibition concludes by looking at the work of small, independent developers such as Dundee-based Space Budgie.
Game Masters is being staged in Europe for the first time after being created by the Australian Centre for the Moving Image in Melbourne two years ago.
Sarah Rothwell, assistant design curator at the museum, said: “Game Masters will give gamers and non-gamers alike a fascinating insight into the industry’s big names, who people might not necessarily have heard of before, and what inspired them to create these amazing worlds.
“Gaming is definitely an art form now. If you look back at photography 100 years ago it wasn’t considered an art form, but now it’s very much of the fine art world.”
Entrance to the exhibition costs £10 for adults and £6.50 for children over five. Booking is advised.
Visit www.nms.ac.uk for more information.
Main video by David McCann