On this day in 1971

A four-inch gas main, laid in front of shops in Clarkston Toll, Renfrewshire, ruptured after six years underground, causing a massive explosion.

“Gas built up in a space beneath the shops which was unventilated and about which the Scottish Gas Board, who laid the pipe, had no knowledge,” reported the Glasgow Herald of 11 February 1972, at the end of a 19-day inquiry into the blast, which had occurred on 21 October the previous year. It continued, the jury “found that an explosion, said to be like detonating 300lb to 600lb of TNT, had been caused by gas building up in the space under the shops [and an embankment]. The embankment, it was claimed by one counsel at the inquiry, was the ‘cheap and skimpy’ replacement by Renfrew County Council of a retaining wall of concrete which had originally been planned but which the county council, the developers of the shops, and their architect had agreed to exclude.”

When the gas ignited, causing an explosion, 21 people (some sources say 22) were so badly injured that they later died of their injuries. A further 100 sustained injuries but didn’t die.

Dozens killed

One of the first papers to carry more than a brief report was the Coventry Evening Telegraph on the night of the blast. “About 15 shops and a 100yd stretch of Busby Road were involved and customers and assistants were buried under tons of masonry and rubble,” ran the front-page story. “The blast brought down the roofs of the shops, cars on a roof parking area falling with concrete and debris. Every window in a three-storey tenement on the other side of the road was blown in.”

At the time, only four were thought to have died, but the following day’s Aberdeen Press and Journal was already reporting that the number had risen to thirteen and, in the Belfast Telegraph, again on the 22nd, it was reported that a fifteenth body had been discovered. The day after the explosion, the Daily Mirror quoted Ronald Parker, head of the Scottish Gas Board, who said it was the “worst gas incident in Scotland”

No fault attributed

At the end of the public inquiry into the incident, the Birmingham Daily Post, of 11 February 1972, noted that “no fault could be attributed to anyone for the tragedy”, with the jury finding that “there was no evidence before us from which we were able to hold it proved what the cause of the ignition was. It has been proved to our satisfaction that the gas main fractured as a result of stress and corrosion…”

The inquiry had been expensive, and The Birmingham Daily Post revealed that “with legal costs estimated at around £10,000 a week, the inquiry is thought to have been the costliest of its kind in Scottish legal history – and the longest.”

 

...and on this day in 1997

The Grand Theft Auto series of video games were among the most influential and groundbreaking of their generation. Initially developed by Scottish programmers David Jones and Mike Dailly, they were published by Dundee-based DMA Design.

In the game, players assume the role of a criminal, who is tasked to perform missions by their superiors. Frequently, as the name suggests, these missions involve driving cars.

18 age rating

The game initially caused some concern. On 27 November 1997, shortly before the game hit British shelves, the Aberdeen Evening Express wrote that “a sick computer game that challenged players to mow down people in a stolen car has been slammed by North-east child care experts… the 18-certificate game awards points to players for shooting down members of the public as well as setting fire to monks… the purpose is to wreak havoc on unsuspecting citizens by seeing how much death and destruction can be caused before police arrive on the scene.”

The game had been given an ‘18’ age rating, meaning it could not legally be sold to children. Retailers who did so risked a significant fine.

Choose a car… and steal it

Three days earlier – on 24 August – the Sunday Mirror had also written about the game under the headline “Learn how to steal cars and kill cops”. Players were given a choice of 35 cars to steal, the paper said. “They then go joyriding through busy city streets – gaining bonus points for killing policemen who get in their way.”

The first Grand Theft Auto was originally released for PCs, with support for Game Boy Colour and PlayStation 1 added subsequently. It was swiftly followed – in 1991 and 2001 respectively – by Grand Theft Auto 2 and Grand Theft Auto III. Support for Game Boy Colour was dropped in 2001, but the game, in which players entered a 3D environment for the first time, was ported to Microsoft Xbox, Apple’s iOS for iPhone, Google’s mobile Android operating system, and Amazon’s FireOS.

Earlier success

DMA Design’s first big success was the game Lemmings, in which players guided the on-screen creatures through a series of obstacles to safety. Released in the early 1990s, it was available on all major platforms and sold in its millions.

DMA Design was the subject of a series of acquisitions over the years, which eventually saw its assets in American hands. However, development of Grand Theft Auto, by the subsidiary Rockstar North, continues to be based in Edinburgh.