GTA London developer after 25 years received a cool BAFTA reward

The first parts of GTA have long been forgotten by most players, but they keep many secrets, stories and interesting facts. For example, the first part received two sets of missions at once: London 1961 and London 1969. Today the second set was in the spotlight, because recently his sound engineer received a well -deserved BAFTA reward, but it took for this as many as 25 years.

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Let’s start from afar. GTA London 1969 received an ambiguous reaction of the press. The pluses included all the strengths of the first Grand Theft Auto: crazy missions and funny humor. They also praised the map of London, which boasts real attractions. But there is an aspect for which the addition received a reward for the “best sound” at the BAFTA Interactive Entertainment Awards in 1999.

And the responsibility for the sound support of GTA London 1969 is carried by two people. Paul Bennun was engaged in voice acting and radio stations, some of which were based on the music recorded from scratch. Blair Renault, in turn, worked on the design of the map, but also created the sounds of cars, weapons and menu. Some of them were inherited from the original game, but among new sources for sounds, films appeared “French connected” And “Bullit“, As well as other records from old video tapes.

Blair was aimed at conveying the atmosphere of London the sixties. He recalls that the sounds of cars in the game are really similar to the sounds of cars of that era, and in the menu and when selecting bonuses he used the jazz sound of the pipe and not only. Even the choice in the main menu is accompanied by a cult blow of Big Ben watches.

Both Paul and Blair claim that Rockstar Games put up the game for the BAFTA Award, not reporting this to any of them. In 1999, Bennun attended the award ceremony: he was extremely angry due to the fact that the representative of Take-Two unknown to him to take the award.

“We came to the party, and I saw one dude from the marketing department rose and made this shitty speech about how amazing they were and what great work they did on this game. I thought something like: “I don’t know who you are, damn it”. Secondly, I have never heard of you. Thirdly, I already mentioned that I had never heard of you? Fourth, you have nothing to do with what you give out. Not at all “.

Paul Bennun

Faced by such a turn of events, Bennun sent an email to BAFTA, where they immediately tried to rectify the situation. Representatives of the ceremony contacted Rockstar Games: she agreed to pay the fee for the production of another mask. Also in BAFTA they changed the rules: now a team of developers should have received the award, not the publisher.

But Blara was less fortunate. He was in Canada and did not even know that his work received a prestigious award. This was announced by the head of the Canadian office Rockstar post -fact. In 2003, Renault left Rockstar Canada and tried several times to contact BAFTA to receive a well -deserved mask, but to no avail. Blair could not make an official request.

“At that time, I think, I didn’t even know what BAFTA is. It is quite unpleasant to realize that you had to get a reward, and someone else received it. I remember later I asked the details, and they told me that the reward was awarded Rockstar, not me, so she is probably in the head office ”.

Blair Renault

The situation began to change in 2022. Then the game portal Time Extension has released a detailed material about the development of GTA London. The editors learned about the injustice that Renault encountered, and sent a request to BAFTA. The process was painfully slow. In total, the site took 17 months to achieve a clear response from representatives of the prize.

Initially, BAFTA’s answer was negative: Renault did not want to issue a reward after 25 years. However, the developer intervened in the process. Parts about this are unknown, but Time Extension states that Blair passionately defended his point of view and got to the fact that the question of his award was raised to vote in BAFTA.

And 21 months after sending the letter, Blair finally received his own BAFTA mask as a sign of gratitude to work on the GTA London 1969. The developer thanked the portal Time Extension, as well as the Internet and modern technologies. He doubts that he would receive a well -deserved reward without help.

“In 1999, when the Internet was only born, and I was a simple boy-punch who creating games, I could not imagine how important it is to be awarded BAFTA Awards. Over time, both the Internet and I have matured and filled with knowledge “.

Blair Renault

As Renault says, he could not expect a more satisfactory result. He felt a sense of recognition of his labors and the taste of victory, and also acquired several wonderful friends and memories for life – all this in an attempt to get a well -deserved reward.

Here is such an interesting story, friends. You would have to seek BAFTA masks for 25 years, or would you leave everything as it is? In fact, this is only one of the many stories that can be remembered from the early GTA period. Subscribe to Vicemallow social networks to learn about the GTA series and other games more. Thank you for reading!