Grand Theft Auto (USA)
Grand Theft Auto (abbreviated as GTA) is a 1997 action-adventure open world video game created by games developer DMA Design (now Rockstar North) and published by BMG Interactive. The game allows the player to take on the role of a criminal who can roam freely around a big city. Various missions are set for completion, such as bank robberies, assassinations, and other crimes. It is the first in the Grand Theft Auto series, one of the most critically acclaimed video game franchises of all time, spawning many more games afterward. The game was originally intended to be named Race'n'Chase and was nearly cancelled due to production issues.
GTA was succeeded by Grand Theft Auto 2 and both games were made available as a free download by Rockstar Games on their website in 2004. The game was made available on Steam on 4 January 2008, but it can only be purchased as part of a collection.
Grand Theft Auto is made up of a series of levels, each set in one of the three main cities. In each level, the player's ultimate objective is to reach a target number of points, which is typically achieved by performing tasks for the city's local crime syndicate. Each level has its own unique set of tasks. Successful completion of a mission rewards the player with points and opens the opportunity to attempt harder missions for higher rewards, while failure awards few points and may permanently seal off opportunities for more tasks. Completing missions also increases the player's "multiplier", which increases the points the player gets for doing other tasks.
If the player is arrested then their multiplier is halved. Unlike in later games in the series, the player can be wasted in one hit without body armor. If the player is wasted then they lose a life. In both cases the player loses their current equipment. If the player is wasted too many times they lose and must restart the level from scratch.
The player is free to do whatever he or she wants. The player can gain points by causing death and destruction amid the traffic in the city, or steal and sell cars for profit. To get to the large target money required to complete a level, players will usually opt to complete at least some missions to build up their multiplier. Some criminal acts have an inherent multiplier; for example, using a police car for running over people doubles the number of points received.
Even during missions there is still some freedom as most of the time the player is free to choose the route to take, but the destination is usually fixed. It is this level of freedom which set Grand Theft Auto apart from other action based computer games at the time. Some places in the game have to be unlocked by completing missions.
Grand Theft Auto takes place in three primary settings, all of which are modeled on real locales: Liberty City which is based on New York City, and later becomes the setting for Grand Theft Auto III, Liberty City Stories, and IV, Vice City based on Miami, and later becomes the setting for Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, and Vice City Stories and San Andreas based on San Francisco (a later title, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, would re-model San Andreas into multiple sectors of its own inspired by regions of California and Nevada). All three suffer from rampant crime and corruption, with constant feuding between the local crime syndicates, random acts of violence from street gangs, organised thievery and murder, and corrupt city officials and police officers.
These three cities would later become the settings used in the Grand Theft Auto III and IV games to follow, but not in the Grand Theft Auto: London mission packs nor in Grand Theft Auto 2.
GTA was succeeded by Grand Theft Auto 2 and both games were made available as a free download by Rockstar Games on their website in 2004. The game was made available on Steam on 4 January 2008, but it can only be purchased as part of a collection.
Grand Theft Auto is made up of a series of levels, each set in one of the three main cities. In each level, the player's ultimate objective is to reach a target number of points, which is typically achieved by performing tasks for the city's local crime syndicate. Each level has its own unique set of tasks. Successful completion of a mission rewards the player with points and opens the opportunity to attempt harder missions for higher rewards, while failure awards few points and may permanently seal off opportunities for more tasks. Completing missions also increases the player's "multiplier", which increases the points the player gets for doing other tasks.
If the player is arrested then their multiplier is halved. Unlike in later games in the series, the player can be wasted in one hit without body armor. If the player is wasted then they lose a life. In both cases the player loses their current equipment. If the player is wasted too many times they lose and must restart the level from scratch.
Freedom
The player is free to do whatever he or she wants. The player can gain points by causing death and destruction amid the traffic in the city, or steal and sell cars for profit. To get to the large target money required to complete a level, players will usually opt to complete at least some missions to build up their multiplier. Some criminal acts have an inherent multiplier; for example, using a police car for running over people doubles the number of points received.
Even during missions there is still some freedom as most of the time the player is free to choose the route to take, but the destination is usually fixed. It is this level of freedom which set Grand Theft Auto apart from other action based computer games at the time. Some places in the game have to be unlocked by completing missions.
Setting
Grand Theft Auto takes place in three primary settings, all of which are modeled on real locales: Liberty City which is based on New York City, and later becomes the setting for Grand Theft Auto III, Liberty City Stories, and IV, Vice City based on Miami, and later becomes the setting for Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, and Vice City Stories and San Andreas based on San Francisco (a later title, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, would re-model San Andreas into multiple sectors of its own inspired by regions of California and Nevada). All three suffer from rampant crime and corruption, with constant feuding between the local crime syndicates, random acts of violence from street gangs, organised thievery and murder, and corrupt city officials and police officers.
These three cities would later become the settings used in the Grand Theft Auto III and IV games to follow, but not in the Grand Theft Auto: London mission packs nor in Grand Theft Auto 2.
Grand Theft Auto (USA)
Technical
CPU
- maincpu LR35902 (@ 4 Mhz)
Chipset
- LR35902
Display
- Orientation Yoko
- Resolution 160 x 144
- Frequency 59.732155 Hz
Controlers
- Number of players 1
- Number of buttons 2
- Kind of controler joy (8 ways)
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Grand Theft Auto (USA) Screenshots
Clones of Grand Theft Auto (USA)
Characters
Players are able to choose to play as eight characters in the game, four male and four female: Travis, Troy, Bubba, Kivlov, Urieka, Katie, and Mikki(the PlayStation version only lets players choose the four male characters, however). In actual gameplay, there is no real difference, since the characters all wear exactly the same yellow sweater, although they do wear different coloured trousers and hair colours to each other and have the correct skin colours. You may also name your character, which, with the correct name, acts like a cheat code and alters gameplay.
Development
Grand Theft Auto was originally titled Race'n'Chase until Dan and Sam Houser renamed it. It was originally planned to release on PC DOS, PC Windows 95, PlayStation, Saturn and “Ultra 64”. However, it was never released for the Ultra 64 (ultimately renamed the Nintendo 64) or the Saturn. There were specific milestones planned for Grand Theft Auto:
According to the original design document, the introduction to Grand Theft Auto is a pre-drawn/rendered animation. The Windows 95 version was developed using Visual C++ v2.0. The DOS version was developed using Watcom C/C++ v10, Microsoft MASM 6.1 and Rational Systems DOS extender (DOS4GW) v 1.97. The program used to make Grand Theft Auto was said to produce “a 3D array which can [be] used by both the perspective and the isometric engines”. It was said to consist of “a grid editor which is used to place blocks on a grid, with a [separate] grid for each level”, and “allow any block to be placed at any level”. It was said that the world may have had to be 256x256x6 blocks.
The original concept of Grand Theft Auto was “to produce a fun, addictive and fast multi-player car racing and crashing game which uses a novel graphics method”.
- Development begins: 4 April 1995
- Complete game design: 31 May 1995
- Engine: 3 July 1995
- "Look and feel": 2 October 1995
- First play: 3 January 1996
- Alpha: 1 April 1996
- End of production: 1 July 1996
According to the original design document, the introduction to Grand Theft Auto is a pre-drawn/rendered animation. The Windows 95 version was developed using Visual C++ v2.0. The DOS version was developed using Watcom C/C++ v10, Microsoft MASM 6.1 and Rational Systems DOS extender (DOS4GW) v 1.97. The program used to make Grand Theft Auto was said to produce “a 3D array which can [be] used by both the perspective and the isometric engines”. It was said to consist of “a grid editor which is used to place blocks on a grid, with a [separate] grid for each level”, and “allow any block to be placed at any level”. It was said that the world may have had to be 256x256x6 blocks.
The original concept of Grand Theft Auto was “to produce a fun, addictive and fast multi-player car racing and crashing game which uses a novel graphics method”.
Soundtrack
Main article: Grand Theft Auto: The Soundtrack
Grand Theft Auto has seven "radio stations", plus a police band track, which can be heard once the player enters a car; however, each vehicle can only receive a limited number of these radio stations. In the PlayStation port each car only had two stations.PC players can remove the CD once the game is loaded and replace it with an audio CD. The next time the character enters a vehicle, a song from the CD will randomly play. This can also be done in the PlayStation port.
The game's main theme is "Gangster Friday" by Craig Conner (who played all instruments on this track), credited to the fictitious band Slumpussy, and is played on Head Radio. With the exception of Head Radio FM, the names of songs or the radio station names are never mentioned in-game. However, the soundtrack is listed in the booklet which comes with the game.
The Collector's Edition of the PC version included the soundtrack on a separate CD. The track-listing gives the names of the fictional radio stations, bands and their tracks, and for some of them the fictional album that they are from.
Ports
The original Grand Theft Auto was developed in DOS, and then later ported to Microsoft Windows (using SciTech MGL), Sony PlayStation (developed by Visual Sciences using their "ViSOS" framework), and Game Boy Color. The Game Boy Color version was technologically unabridged, which was quite a technical achievement due to the sheer size of the cities, converted tile-for-tile from the PC original, making them many times larger than most Game Boy Color game worlds were because of the handheld's limited hardware. To cater for the target younger generation, however, the game was heavily censored, with gore and swearing removed.
The PC version comes in several different executables for DOS and MS-Windows, which use single set of data files (except for the 8-bit colour DOS version which uses different but similar graphics). It is currently available for free as one of the games in the Rockstar Classics series.
Grand Theft Auto was to be released on the Sega Saturn, but due to the console's rapid decline in popularity before development was finished, the project was halted and the game was never released. After the PlayStation's successful release, development began on a port for the Nintendo 64, Grand Theft Auto 64, rumoured to have graphical enhancements and new missions, but cancelled without ever having a public appearance.
The PC version comes in several different executables for DOS and MS-Windows, which use single set of data files (except for the 8-bit colour DOS version which uses different but similar graphics). It is currently available for free as one of the games in the Rockstar Classics series.
Grand Theft Auto was to be released on the Sega Saturn, but due to the console's rapid decline in popularity before development was finished, the project was halted and the game was never released. After the PlayStation's successful release, development began on a port for the Nintendo 64, Grand Theft Auto 64, rumoured to have graphical enhancements and new missions, but cancelled without ever having a public appearance.
Cover art
The cover art for Grand Theft Auto is a photograph of a New York Police Department 1980s Plymouth Gran Fury rushing through the intersection of Fifth Avenue and 56th Street, with Trump Tower in the background of the picture. The same cover art was also an alternative cover for Grand Theft Auto 2 in selected markets.
Reception
The game was a bestseller in the UK. The game created quite a stir, and was a commercial success, though it received mixed reviews upon release.
GameSpot's review for Grand Theft Auto said that, although the graphics may look "a little plain", the music and sound effects are the opposite, praising the radio stations and the sound effects used to open and close vehicles. They also praised the freedom of the game, favouring it over other games that make you follow a specific rule set and complete specific missions in a specific order.
Video Games Blogger highly praised the game's "fun factor", audio, ingenuity and "replay value", however had more negative feelings for the graphics.
A fan-made content port of the game's map to Grand Theft Auto IV's Rockstar Advanced Game Engine was created by users from the GTAForums community, along with conversions using files from later games. The port was met with positive reception from Rockstar themselves, commending on the efforts done by modders to the games.
GameSpot's review for Grand Theft Auto said that, although the graphics may look "a little plain", the music and sound effects are the opposite, praising the radio stations and the sound effects used to open and close vehicles. They also praised the freedom of the game, favouring it over other games that make you follow a specific rule set and complete specific missions in a specific order.
Video Games Blogger highly praised the game's "fun factor", audio, ingenuity and "replay value", however had more negative feelings for the graphics.
A fan-made content port of the game's map to Grand Theft Auto IV's Rockstar Advanced Game Engine was created by users from the GTAForums community, along with conversions using files from later games. The port was met with positive reception from Rockstar themselves, commending on the efforts done by modders to the games.
See also
- Grand Theft Auto: Mission packs
- Grand Theft Auto soundtrack
- Grand Theft Auto 1
