Dundee: Young People Crowdfund Plans for a Gaming Museum in the City That Made Lemmings and GTA

Young people at HELM, a youth charity in Dundee, are raising money to plan the city’s first gaming museum. Their crowdfunder opens at 10am on Friday, November 6, and closes at 4pm on Friday, December 18, according to the project’s press kit.

The target is £16,000. Creative Scotland will match every pledge up to £250 pound for pound, so £8,000 from the public would reach the goal. The match only unlocks if at least 25 people back the campaign. Pledges start at £10.

“So where’s the museum?”

HELM says the idea came from a conversation at the charity. One young person was surprised to hear that Dundee made Lemmings and Grand Theft Auto. Another asked where you could actually see that history. The charity’s answer, in its own words, is that “Dundee cake gets better PR.”

The gap is not new. When the Scottish Games Network promoted local photographer Stephen Finn’s walking tour of the city’s games history in March 2025, it noted that Dundee “may still be lacking a dedicated gaming museum.” The tour starts at the Lemmings statues on Perth Road.

From ZX Spectrums to GTA

HELM’s release traces the story back to the early 1980s, when the Timex factory in Dundee built the Sinclair ZX Spectrum. DMA Design, the studio behind Lemmings and the first Grand Theft Auto, started in the city in the late 1980s. DMA Design later became Rockstar North, the Edinburgh studio best known for the Grand Theft Auto series.

The release also says Abertay University launched the world’s first degree in computer games in 1997. HELM lists studios now based in the city, including Denki, Rockstar Dundee, Bit Loom, Tag Games and Hyper Luminal.

The timing gives the campaign an extra hook. The crowdfunder runs through the launch of GTA 6, the latest entry in a series whose roots HELM traces back to Dundee.

What the money pays for

This is a first stage, not a finished building. HELM’s Youth Collective, a group of young people aged 14 to 25, chose the idea and will lead it. From February 2027, the group plans to:

• build models of a gaming museum and cafe inside HELM’s home, The Sea Captain’s House
• record the memories of people who worked in Dundee’s games industry
• create artwork and start a collection of games, hardware and memorabilia

The group will then present its plans to Dundee City Council and partners. A one-day public exhibition is planned for June 2027, where the young people will ask residents what they want from a gaming museum.

Clare Taylor Brown, HELM’s chief executive, said many of the young people the charity works with play games “but have never pictured themselves making them.” She said they will work with artists and industry experts and will be paid for their time.

Pat Kerr, described in the release as a physics programmer for GTA, said a museum would “help to explore a valuable piece of local social history,” showing the city’s move from factory work into technology and culture.

An earlier attempt to tell the story

This is not the first youth project on the subject. In March 2017, the National Lottery Heritage Fund awarded £5,700 to Poorboy for SSB Game Play, a research and exhibition project on Dundee’s gaming heritage. HELM’s project is aimed at planning a museum itself.

How to help

Besides pledging, HELM is asking former Dundee games workers to be interviewed, and for people to lend or donate old hardware, games, photos or design documents. It also wants developers who can give a talk or host a studio visit. Anyone planning to give more than £250 is asked to contact HELM directly, since the match covers only the first £250 of each pledge. Details are on the Dundee Made Gaming website.