Retrospective: Grand Theft Auto

By John Walker Published 21 August, 2010

Real good time world.

My poor immortal soul. The erosion began in 1997, when I was only 19 years old. Which seems... weird actually. The GTA games are only 13 years old? Surely the original came out in about '93?

But no, it wasn't until the late 90s that Dave Jones began his corruption of the masses via this hardcore murder simulator.

It's coincidence, but perhaps poignant coincidence, that I'm writing about the first Grand Theft Auto at the end of a week that's seen tumultuous times at Dave Jones' post-DMA company, Realtime Worlds. His creation spawned an empire, double-underlining the man's impact on the games industry after the radically different Lemmings made him a known name.

To play GTA now, which is easily done since it's available free from Rockstar's site, the contained controversy seems in keeping with a series that even if you've never played, you've heard of. But to imagine it in isolation, to remember playing it when it first came out, is extraordinary.

It's not like gaming had been an innocent pursuit until 1997. Obviously not. But it was the year that things got noticeably controversial. (The same year also offered us another chance to mow down innocents with Carmageddon.) And when a mainstream game from DMA - who had entertained us with suicidal green and purple rodents - contains lines like, "My brother knows I'm bangin' his wife. Waste the sonofabitch before he finds me," it comes as quite a surprise. To go from Christmas Lemmings to people shouting about "getting pussy"... it's like your gran revealing she used to be a porn star.

'Retrospective: Grand Theft Auto' Screenshot 1

It's fun to blow stuff up. But it's more fun to set people on fire.

Viewed from the top down, your little sprite of a character can steal any car he fancies, and then speeds off around the city to commit various crimes. The goal is not to progress your way through a narrative, but rather to score enough points to open up the next section of the game. Significant points are accrued by successfully completing chains of missions, or smaller bits and pieces can be picked up when stealing cars, performing side quests, or of course running over the innocent.

The thought that the game came out earlier than '97 is compounded by its having some truly dodgy graphics. Despite being in 3D, the top-down view looks like something that could have appeared on the Amiga, and its presentation is peculiarly primitive. Without a mini-map, and the only map available the one printed on paper that came with the game, the navigation is shocking. It will only occasionally tell you where you are, and then you have to translate the tiny square of visible roads onto the flapping paper map, and attempt to reason a method for getting yourself to the next location, without disappearing into one of its thousands of dead ends.

It's a big world to navigate too. The original GTA in fact contains all three cities that have gone on to be more fully realised since. You begin in Liberty City, make your way to San Andreas, and then explore Vice City. Each is made up of 10 to 20 districts, throughout which are scattered bomb shops, respraying mechanics, police stations, train stations, and so on.

'Retrospective: Grand Theft Auto' Screenshot 2

I wouldn't say that I necessarily failed at creating frenzy. I just died too.

I had imagined the cutesy cartoon graphics, and comparatively primitive game, would mean the shock factor would be amusingly diluted. We could look back on it and "awwww" at how innocent we used to be. But really, the game remains impressively unsavoury still.

While you're not watching the ragdoll physics of a realistic-looking human crumpling on the bonnet of your shiny car, there's something remarkably brutal about seeing those happy-go-lucky pedestrians smooshed into a growing puddle of blood. In the meantime someone's shouting (well, the text seems cross) "This s--t's bent Tony Dio's. He wants it back."

There's also an excellent degree of life to the city. More so, you could argue, than some sandbox games today successfully offer. They're small details, but they make a big difference, like seeing an ambulance turn up to scrape your victims from the tarmac. Often times you'll stumble upon a road incident that happened off screen, implying that you're not the only person having an impact on this world. And there are of course those escalating police chases.

If you get caught or reported for a crime, you start off with just the one policeman chasing you. But this soon climbs, eventually leading to roadblocks and heavy responses. At this point your goal is to try to fathom whereabouts in the city you are, and get yourself to a mechanics for a respray. The police, they can't cope with new plates, and even if they're waiting for you right outside will immediately abandon the chase. "Oh, sorry, exactly the same man we were just chasing. Your car has a different licence plate and therefore you're unrecognisable."

I realise that I keep making reference to getting lost. And I also know there will be some people who scream, "What are you talking about, you over-inflated buffoon! You just learn your way around!" Which means I want to speak up for those of us for whom such a goal isn't possible. You can tell who we are: we're the ones, when playing a GTA IV or Saints Row 2, will be looking almost exclusively at the mini-map everywhere we go, almost oblivious to the rest of the screen.

Look, I can get lost going up a flight of stairs. Getting back from someone's bathroom to their lounge requires intervening aid from a St. Bernard and eventually a MEDEVAC team. I spent a year driving back and forth through Bristol twice a week, along two different shortcuts a friend had taught me. A year. A full year before I realised it was the same shortcut on the same roads. I want you to understand why there are mini-maps. They're for people like me, with the geographical awareness of a wheelbarrow.

But a difficulty that perhaps affects a larger proportion of players of GTA, and possibly the most surprising aspect of the game looking back, is the finality of failing a mission.

'Retrospective: Grand Theft Auto' Screenshot 3

Damn cops.

You've got to get to 1,000,000 points to clear Liberty City. There's only about a dozen missions to get there with. So you pick up a mission to steal truck, bomb a building, then answer a phone to get the next stage. But take too long getting to that phone and you'll miss the call. This doesn't prompt a message saying, "Mission Failed" and then put you back at the start, forcing you to repeat the whole truck bombing section again. It just says "Mission Failed". And leaves you where you are.

Should you run out of available tasks without the full amount, you'll have to resort to scraping together the scraps of points available for various street crimes. Or more likely, start over. You've also got a limited number of lives, and die too often and you'll find your attempt over. No helpful checkpoint, unless you've cleared a full city area. It makes for a much more imposing challenge than those of the modern Rockstar games. Not a more difficult challenge, certainly, but the stakes are so much higher here.

The game remains extraordinary. Playing it with anything other than a keyboard still isn't really an option. While it will support controllers, including a 360 pad, they're so berserk that you'll have little fun. And it really does take some getting used to before you'll be able to control the cars at any speed. But you do get there. And then you're having quite so much fun.

'Retrospective: Grand Theft Auto' Screenshot 4

Anyone who played this originally will instantly know which car to steal from this shot.

There's a few things to know, though. For an awful lot of people, me included, the version created to run on modern systems has a bug that corrupts a key file every time you close it. To get it to load again you'll need GTAFixer.exe. This will also fix a silly mistake where audio files were misnamed, meaning you'd listen to police chatter on foot. And at the same link you'll find scans of the maps, and the instruction booklet. What you won't find even in there is that hitting F7 will replay your last pager message. And don't forget that F11 will let you upgrade the graphics to 1024x768.

Play in commiseration with Realtime Worlds, whose attempt to update the franchise to an online world sadly didn't work well enough. Or play because you get to squish innocent people, and thus be brainwashed as a crazed sociopath, so the tabloids have something fun to write about.

Picture of John.

About John Walker

Read more articles from John by visiting the John Walker archive page.

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Comments (70) Latest comment 1 year ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • martynmac #1 1 year ago

    Gouranga!!!

  • Der_tolle_Emil #2 1 year ago

    The first GTA was great. Enjoyed it a lot more than GTA 2 (though I can't really say why) and GTA 3 never clicked with me either. I did really like GTA 4 though.

  • dominalien #3 1 year ago

    I never played this, but the comparison to Amiga gfx is surprisingly appropriate, looking at the screenshots. It's very 16-bit. Which is always a good thing. :-)

    Edit: Crap, getting my bits mixed up again. Of course Amiga's 16 bits :-)
    Edited by 1 at 22/08/10 @ 12:23

  • OnlyMe #4 1 year ago

    Fantastic game, even today. Also,GTA, GTA London and GTA 2 all work insanely well on a PSP, and I found them much better than Chinatown Wars. It's a bit of a puzzle that these games aren't on the Playstation Store yet. They're perfect for the PSP.

    EDIT: I think the game actually started out as an Amiga game. Not a big surprise, considering how much of a success DMA had on the Amiga, plus they were mainly Amiga developers.
    Edited by 1 at 22/08/10 @ 09:33

  • riceNpea #5 1 year ago

    best thing in the game was the music.

    it was also responsible for my lifelong interest in prostitutes

  • trousers #6 1 year ago

    "Which means I want to speak up for those of us for whom such a goal isn't possible. You can tell who we are: we're the ones, when playing a GTA IV or Saints Row 2, will be looking almost exclusively at the mini-map everywhere we go, almost oblivious to the rest of the screen."

    You are not alone. I didn't get on with Burnout Paradise because of the very same issue.

  • dagas #7 1 year ago

    I played the demo on PS for a very long time. Never got the game though.

  • TeaFiend #8 1 year ago

    I remember going to a friends house when I was about 12 to play this as his mum did not care about age ratings.

  • jefranklin18 #9 1 year ago

    I enjoyed the original GTA for the wanton mayhem, the best bit was finding the Hare Krishna troupe for the first time :)

    GTA needs Hare Krishnas!

  • Sharzam #10 1 year ago

    Never really played the first but still have GTA 2 knocking about. Is it basically the same but with gang wars ?

  • [STARS]TyranT #11 1 year ago

    I actually think the first game has a fantastic atmosphere...

    Anyone know if the Steam version of the original (often packaged with other GTA games) is optimised for modern computers? I've got an old CD version and it's nigh on getting it to run well, even with DOSBOX.

  • Der_tolle_Emil #12 1 year ago

    @[STARS]TyranT: The first two GTA titles are available for download for free on the Rockstar Page: http://www.roc kstargames.com/classics/. Both are (more or less) optimized to run on modern PCs. I had a few issues once with GTA2 on a friend's computer but for the most part they run just fine.
    Edited by 2 at 22/08/10 @ 10:29

  • OnlyMe #13 1 year ago

    GTA 2 is a bit more futuristic, but not much. The cars are more... unique and less recognizable to real cars. The driving physics are also a bit different, with more "auto-correction" applied. GTA 2 is also unique in the series the way that doing missions for one gang affects your relationship with another game, for the better or worse. The system is also somewhat exploitable... if you want to do missions for a gang, just go on a killing spree on a rival gang to build up your reputation. I say exploitable, but it could very well be that you're actually intended to do this.

  • metalangel #14 1 year ago

    The second city (San Andreas) was the best, easy to navigate with the beltway road. Liberty City had too many bridges out and Vice City was just a freaking maze.

    Funny you should mention 'running out of jobs'. The much-vaunted (because it was set in London, as opposed to actually being good: I finished it the day I got it) add-on had its own addon, 1961. This was so bastard hard and based on luck the only real way to beat it without running out of missions was to do as many as you could (three or four if you were lucky) and then chain-reaction blow up cars until you hit the required score.

    Anyway, now it's time for you to find out why they call me the Donkey!

  • hiddenranbir #15 1 year ago

    GTA2 was the best.

    I find it really difficult to go on mad killing sprees in the newer games, it's like they don't want you to anymore.

  • lucky_jim #16 1 year ago

    @OnlyMe- I'm pretty sure it started off as an Amiga game too, there's definitely an Amiga-ish look to the graphics.

    Great game. I remember it didn't review nearly as well as it should have, because of the way it looked. Ironic that its look has stood the test of time far better than the early polygon 3d games that everyone was wetting themselves over back then!

    The only GTA I haven't played is GTA2, I wonder how much the Dreamcast version goes for these days
    /trots off to ebay

    These retrospectives often lead to nostalgic spending!

  • TaniumZX #17 1 year ago

    @ dominalien The Amiga was 16-bit, and beleive me, that was a big deal back in 1989.

  • OnlyMe #18 1 year ago

    @lucky_jim; just download the game for free from Rockstar's website. ;)

    @TanimiumZX; I think you mean in 1985 (!), which was when the first Amiga came out.
    Edited by 1 at 22/08/10 @ 11:03

  • FWB #19 1 year ago

    GTA: London is still my favourite.

  • drxym #20 1 year ago

    Syndicate pioneered much of the wanton carnage that is often attributed to GTA. For example you could happily murder bystanders, setting them on fire and suchlike.

  • cw- #21 1 year ago

    @OnlyMe ... @lucky_jim

    According to the wiki page, GTA was never released on the Amiga

  • Pastici #22 1 year ago

    "The Shit" will be a password I'll never forget. Played this under age too,we were such rebels, although all we'd do is equip the rocket launcher and blow up every Taxi we saw!

  • DrStrangelove #23 1 year ago

    Oh yes. I wasted half my life back then playing this (the other half was dedicated to Carmageddon). Most time I was just driving around at high speed like Clarkson wreaking havoc on the streets. Remember the superbike? That was really insane, but so much fun. Actually I liked that you had no satnav, but only that arrow pointing at your destination, which made the driving even more intense.

    Oh, and you forgot to mention how corpses decayed on the street, slowly turning from a pool of flesh and blood into a skeleton. That was ace.

    GTA 2 had a fatal flaw for me, the cars were far too slow. I loved the high-speed mayhem of part 1 too much.

    GTA 3 was great, like a dream coming true, me and all my friends hoped for the day when GTA was becoming true 3D, and it didn't disappoint.

    My absolute favourite remains San Andreas, CJ was just the coolest hero of the series, just so much funnier than Niko Bellic. Even today, I ain't get tired of the stereotypical ebonic s*** he talkin'. And I really miss the crazy rednecks on their ancient farm vehicles, with their idiot hillbilly radio. Pulling a fat redneck granny off an old tractor, only to have her pull you off again and knocking you out with her bare fists, can it get any better?

    The only problem I had with those was the appalling framerate on the PS2.

    I am a bit disappointed with GTA 4, because the Bellics are a bit boring, the rednecks are gone, and I can't see any improvement in the gameplay section. I hoped the PS3 would finally give GTA a smooth framerate, but I hoped in vain. I have it on PC now, but still San Andreas is just more fun.

  • frostcircus #24 1 year ago

    The best parts of this game were the random occasions where, after being knocked to the ground, your character would rotate slowly. My brother and I tried hard to find out what caused this, but never did.

  • TaniumZX #25 1 year ago

    @ OnlyMe - what 13/14 year old could afford an Amiga in 1985? Im talking about to the average UK gamer who was probably still using a C64 or Spectrum. The Amiga/ST was still an exotic machine in the late 80's.

  • lucky_jim #26 1 year ago

    @cw

    I didn't say it was released for the Amiga, I wish it was. I'm pretty sure it started as an Amiga project though before eventually ending up on the PS1.

  • Genji #27 1 year ago

    Driving a car up to a train platform, then scaring the departing passengers, forcing them onto the rail tracks. The *electrified* rail tracks.

    ZZZZT ZZZZT ZZZZZT \o/

  • Ryze #28 1 year ago

    Excellent game - I'd advise anyone who's interested, to play this game over a network with 3 friends.

    GTA Races were as excellent then as they are now, and the reason I was so impatient waiting for online modes to find their way back into the GTA series.

    Remember Micro Machines on the Mega Drive? Well here's a newer equivalent. I remember having the first city memorised.

    Works fine with a control pad - I remember configuring my PC Mega Drive-a-like controller to work great with it.

  • El-Dev #29 1 year ago

    If you enter BSTARD as your name does it still work as a cheat?

    Good article on a good game. Going to download these today.

  • MrsPacMan #30 1 year ago

    "The menfolk found their women scary, because they were so big and hairy"

    Classic

  • thesonglessbird #31 1 year ago

    Used to play this loads when it came out (I was about 14). Me and my mates would take it in turns to get a massive police chase going and see who could survive the longest. Good tiiiiimes.

  • squeakyg #32 1 year ago

    I never really got on with this game. As John Walker points out, the city is a maze of dead ends, and you only have an arrow pointing in the direction of where you need to go. I would end up crossing a bridge that took me to different cut-off districts in the opposite direction of where I needed to be. Also, the top-down view means you can never see far enough ahead to really drive at speed.

    I never even knew that the point of the game was to get a million points and move to the next city. I kept playing the first bunch of Liberty City missions and never knew when the hell the game was supposed to save my progress. So the next time I switched the game on, I just did the same bunch of starter missions again and again. I never saw any further into the game.

  • gelf #33 1 year ago

    "Which means I want to speak up for those of us for whom such a goal isn't possible. You can tell who we are: we're the ones, when playing a GTA IV or Saints Row 2, will be looking almost exclusively at the mini-map everywhere we go, almost oblivious to the rest of the screen. "

    Sadly this is me and the reason why I usually stick to games that are mostly on the rails, I get lost way too easily and a game just isn't as fun if your constantly staring at a map.

  • BigJonno #34 1 year ago

    I always thought the point of the game (which is sadly lost in the more recent incarnations) was that you didn't have to do the missions. In any of the 3D GTAs, if you want to go on an insane crime spree, you tend to save your game, go nuts for a bit and then reload your game because it's easier than replacing your lost vehicles and weapons. With the original, zipping around causing mayhem was a good thing because it put you closer to your goal.

  • androidave #35 1 year ago

    You could always grab a ps1 copy and play it on the ps3, never found a problem with the pad and it would avoid the bugs mentioned in the pc version :)

  • [STARS]TyranT #36 1 year ago

    Jah - the PS1 version lacked fire engines and trains.

  • Miths #37 1 year ago

    Two questions about GTA2 (which I can see is also available for free):

    1. Does it have a mini-map, or at least a regular in-game map? I'm also among the geographically challenged.
    2. Does it run in a window? 1024x768 in full screen on a 1920x1200 monitor doesn't exactly make a 1999 look any prettier.

  • rogueJT #38 1 year ago

    This was brutally difficult.

    What was the comment above? "It makes for a much more imposing challenge than those of the modern Rockstar games. Not a more difficult challenge, certainly, but the stakes are so much higher here. "

    er, what?

    This was ridiculous. You could complete a bunch of missions then realise your multiplier isn't high enough to finish the city and you have to go all the way back to start.

    It's a great game but way too hard.
    I got to San Andreas I remember and just gave up. You build up a nice multiplier then die in an accident.
    Tough.

  • ChadSexington #39 1 year ago

    All of the top-down GTAs are shit.

    Discussion over.

  • CyCaboose #40 1 year ago

    god I love grand theft auto... I remember playing it when it came out and feeling pretty rebellious because it had a big "18" stamped on the box and I heard things of the game being banned and lots of fuss about it. The game was epic... and hard, I hated and loved at the same time that you can't replay missions after you failed them - ok I hated it, but shit, games are way too easy now.

    modding the game was great fun too, new skins for cars... used to make new skins for cars and download them off some website (gouranga.com i think!, or gtacars)... and you could make new levels/maps, it was very fun too do and quite easy to make...

    i'd love it if they re-published it as a PSN/XBLA game updated for HD and maybe gave the graphics a bit more of an update..

    the direction GTA is going in now is sad :( no more silly things like kill frenzies and hari krishnas (GOURANGA!), or elvis impersonators... even the fun silly missions from the likes of GTA3/ViceCity/GTA San Andreas were missing from GTA IV :( gone way too serious! Go back to your roots Rockstar!!!

    also release GTA London as a free download - I never got to play London!

  • CyCaboose #41 1 year ago

    I miss the little things from GTA 1, like just jacking cars and taking them to the docks and making money... why they got rid of that in sequels I dont know. Or the electrified rails on the train-tracks and watching pedestrians run in terror on to the rails and get zapped... ahh it was great. I forget some of the other things

    I do remember having to drive an oil tanker in one mission and driving it at a certain speed or it would blow up... I think I failed that one a few times :p

  • SilentTristero #42 1 year ago

    I slipped this into my PS2 a while ago, but I found it gave me a headache and sore eyes - the camera is all over the place, overshooting if you grind to a halt and lagging behind if you accelerate away. Also felt like it wasn't zoomed out far enough.

    Did occupy a significant portion of my time back then, though - possibly my most-used demo disc ever? Maybe MGS came close.

  • Skurmedel #43 1 year ago

    My mum bought this for me in a book store (back then book stores usually had some games in stock.) I still have the paper map that shipped with it. I don't recall much from the game though, well Gouranga of course, and the constant shortage of guns; which probably was because I was shit at the game.

  • Dave #44 1 year ago

    I still remember going to my favorite gamestore asking them if they had something new. The guy looks at me and somewhere from behind the counter he pulls out a box with the words Grand Theft Auto. What's it like, I asked. It's fun, he replied. He was right. It was that simple.

  • Farzlepot #45 1 year ago

    Oh, oh oh oh oh.

    Oh.

    Yes.

    Was it flawed? Beyond a doubt.

    Was it the most fun you could possibly have with your fingers? Even knowing the euphemisms I just opened myself up to with that question, I have to say yes.

    The quirky graphics, the daft combat, the frequently insane radio music (which, to this day, I have on my iPod), and the carefree gameplay should give even modern sandbox games pause for thought. Rockstar need to look at what made their games truly FUN back in the day.

    And is it just my imagination or have they used a screenshot of GTA2 on the main page thumbnail?
    Edited by 1 at 22/08/10 @ 23:15

  • rogueJT #46 1 year ago

    "I miss the little things from GTA 1, like just jacking cars and taking them to the docks and making money"

    You can do that in GTAIII.

    In fact to get 100% completion you had to deliver a "list" to the docks, which included the little unflyable plane! the Dodo I think it was called.

  • Farzlepot #47 1 year ago

    Aye, the Dodo. I know one person who claimed to get that thing flying, but I've never seen him do it nor does he gave photographic evidence. Therefore, it didn't happen!

  • monkie_king #48 1 year ago

    You could fly the dodo - there's a knack to it, but it can be done. Have a search on YouTube.

  • waggy79 #49 1 year ago

    Lol that plane was weird, i flew it after reading how in a mag. You had to wait for sparks and couldnt press down on the pad or it would spin uncontrollably. Strange how they'd put that in but make it so hard to fly. Probably so they could add flying vehicles and the ability to survive water in sequels...

  • rogueJT #50 1 year ago

    GTAIII was released in October 2001 - right after 9/11.

    Correct me if I'm wrong but I think they made the dodo like that very late, and also removed some mission where you have to fly it into a skyscraper or something.

  • Marshall2008 #51 1 year ago

    Best bit in GTA

    GOOOORANGA!!!

    When you successfully run over a whole group of krishnas. Lmao

  • Skandalle #52 1 year ago

    Many an argument myself and friends had over "whats the fastest vehichle".
    And i stand by my initial statement, that on a long stretch....its the bus!

  • Zerobob #53 1 year ago

    I think the next GTA game should re-adopt the points system, rather than systematic boring mission progression + side missions.

    "Get 1,000,000 points to get out of the first area" would be genius, and then it's entirely up to you how you get the points...a bit like Just Cause I guess.

  • Mkwone #54 1 year ago

    I don't think i ever played GTA properly. All i can remember is loading it up putting in THESHIT password and driving around killing people.

  • carlitoswagon #55 1 year ago

    Visting the disco with my trusty samurai sword always made me chuckle. (San Andreas)

  • covfan #56 1 year ago

    I remember the mission "inspired" by the Speed film involving a bus.

  • Skurmedel #57 1 year ago

    I think the most disturbing and hilarious mission is the one in GTA 2 where you steal a bus and well, drive people to the sausage factory.

  • Rack #58 1 year ago

    The very first mission in GTA 1 was miles harder than the very last mission in GTA IV. And if you failed even 1 you were pretty much done for and had to start the entire thing again. Even with the cheats it was way, WAY harder than the modern GTAs. Just the way games were made back then, if 1% of the player base could finish it the devs somehow thought it was "too easy". That's why GTA2 was 10x harder.

  • thane_jaw #59 1 year ago

    The music from the original is still on my playlist, gutted I still can't find the music from the 2nd one (Taxi Drivers Must Die seems to be the only one I can grab).

  • Acrid #60 1 year ago

    Brill game, I remember spending my time driving around just running over as many people as I possibly could before the cops got me.

    I fear this was the game that got so many chavs playing though, I remember the idiots at school saying "ah just gan on ta get a chase of da bizzies like"

  • thane_jaw #61 1 year ago

    @ rack - I found GTA2 much easier than the first - ability to save, buy weapons, upgrade cars meant that I blew through it pretty quickly. The original was punishingly hard, especially when you started doing 3 missions from one paybooth in Vice City.

    In comparison GTA2 felt like it had waterwings on the whole time.

  • deanimate #62 1 year ago

    Ahh such a fantastic game :)
    I remember sellotaping multiple pieces of A4 paper together and actually drawing my own map of the first city. I think I got most of it on there although the scale in some places was horrific.

    A friend stayed over recently and downloaded GTA2 and was happily playing away. I thought about doing the same and setting up a multiplayer game but held off for a while because I thought a 1V1 would be a bit rubbish as would be too few players. How wrong could I be! We were having a right old merry time blowing the crap into each other and trying to learn the damn maps to be able to get at least one decent weapon in a timely manner upon respawning. The best bit though was ripping into each other...mercilessly. Your emotions while playing this game are diametrically opposed to say the least. When you're getting frag after frag and taunting your opponent with anything that pops into your head (nice socks. YOU TWAT!) it's blinding fun. But when the those tables turn and the excuses start coming out followed by another death and more taunts from your soon to be disabled "friend".....GRRRRRRRRRR

    Brilliant stuff :D

  • Harmonica #63 1 year ago

    Anyone else remember playing the coverdisc demo of this over and over due to the pesky 500 second time limit? Ah, my mispent youth.

  • Tufo #64 1 year ago

    GTA1 - still the best for me! I found it to be quite deadpan in a way, just made me crease up laughing! Running around with my finger permanently on the ALT button, belching at passers by. Also the school bus was indestructable and hilariously fast once you built up momentum, no police block could stop it!
    Also you could punch the Hare Krishna leader and they would start following you instead. I never knew whether this meant you were their new leader or whether they just wanted to bash the hell out of you?

    Just a fantastic game. And what's wrong with looking like an Amiga game?
    Edited by 1 at 24/08/10 @ 14:09

  • Caer #65 1 year ago

    And i stand by my initial statement, that on a long stretch....its the bus!
    Nononoooo, it's the oil tanker. Took ages to get up to speed but christ did it go. And smashing into the lesser vehicles in it was such a great feeling. The big long straight road at the south end of Liberty City was a good place to build up a head of steam. Before smashing into the building at the end at 100mph.

    Also, the easiest way to win was to get a load of cars in a line, like this:
    [][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]
    Then just pop the first one in the row. When that explodes, it'll set the next one off, and more importantly when the 2nd one explodes it will do so for twice the points. That then sets off the 3rd one for four times the points, and so on. That way you only need about 16 or so cars to clock up 1,000,000 points; less if you've done a few missions and got your multiplier up.
    Edited by 2 at 23/08/10 @ 18:59

  • MrsPacMan #66 1 year ago

    @Rack

    'Just the way games were made back then'

    ha ha hah, how old are you, you think that was tough?

  • Skandalle #67 1 year ago

    @Caer

    I think the oil tanker could be the same as the bus but with a different skin? but yes, hitting the wall at the end and being transformed into instant mash, was epic fun!

  • superdelphinus #68 1 year ago

    "Often times"

    is that something we say in the UK?

    no

  • deanimate #69 1 year ago

    Evidently you are wrong.

  • EMarkM #70 1 year ago

    Regarding whether this ever appeared on the Amiga or not, I'm almost 100% sure that I played GTA (the first one), or at least a fully-playable demo of it, on my A1200, years before I got my PlayStation.

    I never really liked it, and only returned to the series for GTA IV on my 360, which I got about halfway through, enjoying the experience quite a bit, before realising that I had "done" everything I wanted to do with the game. I quit at that point and have not yet gone back.