Grand Theft Auto (video Game)
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''Grand Theft Auto'' is a 1997
action-adventure game An action-adventure game is a video game hybrid genre that combines core elements from both the action game and adventure game genres. Definition An action adventure game can be defined as a game with a mix of elements from an action ...
developed by DMA Design and published by BMG Interactive. It is the first game in the ''
Grand Theft Auto ''Grand Theft Auto'' (''GTA'') is an action-adventure video game series created by David Jones and Mike Dailly. Later titles were developed under the oversight of brothers Dan and Sam Houser, Leslie Benzies and Aaron Garbut. It is prima ...
'' series and was released in November 1997 for
MS-DOS MS-DOS ( ; acronym for Microsoft Disk Operating System, also known as Microsoft DOS) is an operating system for x86-based personal computers mostly developed by Microsoft. Collectively, MS-DOS, its rebranding as IBM PC DOS, and a few op ...
and
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, in December 1997 for the
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and in October 1999 for the
Game Boy Color The (GBC or CGB) is an 8-bit handheld game console developed by Nintendo. It was released in Japan on October 21, 1998, and to international markets that November. Compared to the original Game Boy, the Game Boy Color features a color TFT scre ...
. The game's narrative follows a criminal who climbs in status within the criminal underworld across three fictional cities, inspired by real-life locations. The gameplay is presented from a top-down perspective. It takes place within an open-world environment where the player must gather several points ranging in the millions to progress through the game's chapters. Points are gathered by completing various missions throughout each city, although the player can also gather points through other means. ''Grand Theft Auto'' began development as ''Race 'n' Chase'', in which the player controlled a police officer pursuing criminals. However, the game was considered dull, and the concept of playing as a criminal was adopted. The development team worked to ensure that the player would have the freedom to play however they intend. ''Grand Theft Auto'' created much controversy even before its launch due to its violent content, with discussions about banning its sale. The marketing campaign, organised by publicist
Max Clifford Maxwell Frank Clifford (6 April 1943 – 10 December 2017) was an English publicist and convicted sex offender who was particularly associated with promoting " kiss and tell" stories in tabloid newspapers. In December 2012, as part of Operat ...
, exploited this stirring of controversy as free promotion. ''Grand Theft Auto'' received mixed reviews but was a commercial success. While the graphics and controls were criticised, the entertainment value, sound design, and freedom of the gameplay were praised, and it has since been recognised as one of the greatest games of all time. Two expansions taking place in 1960s England, '' Grand Theft Auto: London 1969'' and '' Grand Theft Auto: London 1961'', were launched in 1999. The success of ''Grand Theft Auto'' spawned a series of games built upon the original's gameplay and themes; the ''Grand Theft Auto'' series has since become one of the most popular and best-selling video game franchises of all time. '' Grand Theft Auto 2'' was released in October 1999.


Gameplay

''Grand Theft Auto'' is made up of six levels split between three main cities; each locale is based on a real-life city in the United States, with an alternative name: Liberty City (
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
), San Andreas (
San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...
), and Vice City (
Miami Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...
). The progression is linear, as each level completed automatically unlocks the next one in the chain. Players begin a game choosing a character from among eight—four in the PlayStation version—and naming them, though the choice is purely aesthetic, and does not affect the overall gameplay. In each level, the player's ultimate objective is to reach a target number of
points A point is a small dot or the sharp tip of something. Point or points may refer to: Mathematics * Point (geometry), an entity that has a location in space or on a plane, but has no extent; more generally, an element of some abstract topologica ...
, which starts at $1,000,000 but becomes higher in the later levels, and then reach the level's "goal" to complete the stage. The player is free to do whatever they want, but have limited lives upon doing so. Points can be gained from anything, such as causing death and destruction amid the traffic in the city, completing special challenges, or stealing and selling cars for profit. However, the more typical means to achieve their target is to perform tasks for the level's local crime syndicate. Jobs can be initiated by visiting and touching a ringing telephone box, with each level's set of jobs on offer being unique. Jobs can be completed in any order, and each has some level of freedom, though each location is fixed. Successful completion of a job awards the player points, unlocks harder missions with greater rewards, and provides a "multiplier"—a bonus that increases the value of points earned from completing jobs and actions. Failing a job by not completing objectives, being arrested, or dying secures no points and can seal off other tasks. Players can find equipment across the level's map to help them with jobs and making points, including weapons and body armour, increasing the player's survival against attacks from enemies. If the player is killed (referred to in the game as "Wasted"), they lose a life, all their current equipment, and have their multiplier bonus reset; losing all their lives will result in players having to restart a level. Law enforcement is present at each level, and committing criminal actions will cause the player to raise their notoriety with the police; the higher the level, the tougher the response. If the player is arrested, they forfeit all equipment and have their multiplier bonus halved. PC versions of the game were released with networked multiplayer gameplay using the IPX protocol.


Plot


Characters

The player can choose between eight protagonists to control at the beginning of the game, though this choice does not affect the gameplay or story. The player character interacts with prominent criminals throughout the story: Robert "Bubby" Seragliano is the supposed head of the notorious Vercotti crime family and is driven to avenge his father's death; Uncle Fu is the ancient leader of a Chinese gang in conflict with a Latino gang led by El Burro; Samuel Deever is a corrupt Vice City police officer suspected of several crimes; and Brother Marcus is the leader of the Brotherhood of Jah Army of Love and the biggest drug dealer in Vice City.


Story

The protagonist begins their career in Liberty City working for Robert "Bubby" Seragliano's gang. After completing many jobs, they are warned by a rival gang that their actions are causing great harm to their boss, Sonetti. The protagonist continues working for Seragliano and kills Sonetti. After more work, Bubby praises the protagonist's efforts, but warns that the police surround the gang, and it would be a good idea for them to leave town. As soon as the protagonist arrives in San Andreas, they are contacted by Uncle Fu's gang and begin working for them. After doing some work for the gang, they meet in person with Fu, who expresses his gratitude for their services and states that their actions have brought honor to the family. The protagonist enters the service of El Burro. Again, after several jobs, the protagonist meets the grateful boss in person, who sends them to Vice City. The protagonist's actions catch the attention of corrupt police officer Samuel Deever, who claims to have evidence that could condemn them to life imprisonment and blackmails them into working for him. The cycle repeats itself, and the two meet in person, with Deever warning the protagonist to be careful with their actions. They then start working for the Rastafarians until they meet their leader, Brother Marcus, who believes the protagonist did an excellent job, but will not see each other again.


Development

The development of ''Grand Theft Auto'' began on 4 April 1995 at DMA Design in
Dundee Dundee (; ; or , ) is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, fourth-largest city in Scotland. The mid-year population estimate for the locality was . It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firt ...
. It originally had a protracted four-year development, which included a title change and numerous attempts to halt development. The game was originally titled ''Race'n'Chase''. It was originally planned to be released on MS-DOS, Windows 95, PlayStation,
Sega Saturn The is a home video game console developed by Sega and released on November 22, 1994, in Japan, May 11, 1995, in North America, and July 8, 1995, in Europe. Part of the fifth generation of video game consoles, it is the successor to the succes ...
and the
Nintendo 64 The (N64) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released in Japan on June 23, 1996, in North America on September 29, 1996, and in Europe and Australia on March 1, 1997. As the successor to the Super Nintendo E ...
. However, it was never released for the latter two consoles. During the development of ''Grand Theft Auto'', many people overseeing the game's progress attempted to halt the development, which led the crew at DMA Design to convince them to allow them to continue. There were specific milestones planned for ''Grand Theft Auto'', none of which were met: * 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 An original
design document A software design description (a.k.a. software design document or SDD; just design document; also Software Design Specification) is a representation of a software design that is to be used for recording design information, addressing various de ...
, dated 22 March 1995, was posted online by Mike Dailly on 22 March 2011. The credited author of the document is K.R. Hamilton, and the released version is 1.05. It contained information about game elements discussed in various meetings held from 23 January 1995 to the document's writing. 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 eused 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 eparategrid for each level", and "allow any block to be placed at any level". It was said that the world may have had to be 256×256×6 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". David Jones, the game's producer, cited ''
Pac-Man ''Pac-Man,'' originally called in Japan, is a 1980 maze video game developed and published by Namco for arcades. In North America, the game was released by Midway Manufacturing as part of its licensing agreement with Namco America. The pla ...
'' as an influence. He noted that the player runs over pedestrians and gets similarly chased by police to ''Pac-Man''. Gary Penn, creative director of DMA at the time, cited ''
Elite In political and sociological theory, the elite (, from , to select or to sort out) are a small group of powerful or wealthy people who hold a disproportionate amount of wealth, privilege, political power, or skill in a group. Defined by the ...
'' as a major influence, "But I'd been working on Frontier, which is very different and there were other people on the team who had things like Syndicate, Mercenary and Elite very much in their minds as well. That combination led to the more open plan structure that exists now. The game as it stands now is basically ''Elite'' in a city, but without quite the same sense of taking on the jobs. You take on the jobs in a slightly different way, but incredibly similar structurally. It's just a much more acceptable real-world setting. The game was cops and robbers, which evolved fairly quickly—nobody wants to be the cop, it's more fun to be bad. And then that evolved into ''Grand Theft Auto''". In an early 1997 interview, project leader Keith Hamilton commented, "''GTA'' was harder than we thought. We're rewriting the handling of the cars at the moment. We've got the time to change the graphics to 24-bit."


Release

The original ''Grand Theft Auto'' was developed for
MS-DOS MS-DOS ( ; acronym for Microsoft Disk Operating System, also known as Microsoft DOS) is an operating system for x86-based personal computers mostly developed by Microsoft. Collectively, MS-DOS, its rebranding as IBM PC DOS, and a few op ...
, but then later ported to
Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...
(using SciTech MGL),
PlayStation is a video gaming brand owned and produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), a division of Japanese conglomerate Sony. Its flagship products consists of a series of home video game consoles produced under the brand; it also consists ...
(developed by Visual Sciences using their "ViSOS" framework), and
Game Boy Color The (GBC or CGB) is an 8-bit handheld game console developed by Nintendo. It was released in Japan on October 21, 1998, and to international markets that November. Compared to the original Game Boy, the Game Boy Color features a color TFT scre ...
. The MS-DOS and Windows versions were published in Europe by BMG Interactive on 28 November 1997, followed by the PlayStation version on 12 December 1997. In North America, the game was published by ASC Games for MS-DOS and Windows on 24 March 1998, and by
Take-Two Interactive Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. is an American video game holding company based in New York City founded by Ryan Brant in September 1993. The company owns three major Imprint (trade name), publishing labels, Rockstar Games, Zynga and 2K ...
for the PlayStation on 30 June 1998. The Game Boy Color version, developed by Tarantula Studios, was published by
Rockstar Games Rockstar Games, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in New York City. The company was established in December 1998 as a subsidiary of Take-Two Interactive, using the assets Take-Two had previously acquired from BMG Interactive. Foun ...
in Europe on 22 October 1999, and in North America in November. 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. However, the game was heavily toned down to cater to the target younger demographic, with gore and swearing removed. The PC version comes in several different executables for DOS and MS-Windows, which use a single set of data files (except for the 8-bit colour DOS version, which uses different but similar graphics). It was previously available as a free download as part of the Rockstar Classics (alongside '' Wild Metal'' and '' Grand Theft Auto 2''); however, the free download service is currently unavailable. ''Grand Theft Auto'' was to be released on the
Sega Saturn The is a home video game console developed by Sega and released on November 22, 1994, in Japan, May 11, 1995, in North America, and July 8, 1995, in Europe. Part of the fifth generation of video game consoles, it is the successor to the succes ...
. However, 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 ''Grand Theft Auto 64'', a port of the game for the
Nintendo 64 The (N64) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released in Japan on June 23, 1996, in North America on September 29, 1996, and in Europe and Australia on March 1, 1997. As the successor to the Super Nintendo E ...
, rumoured to have graphical enhancements and new missions. However, development was cancelled without ever having a public appearance. In March 2001,
Take-Two Interactive Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. is an American video game holding company based in New York City founded by Ryan Brant in September 1993. The company owns three major Imprint (trade name), publishing labels, Rockstar Games, Zynga and 2K ...
announced Global Star Software would publish a version of the game for
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by the
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in Europe and North America; Global Star released a demo for
Palm OS Palm OS (also known as Garnet OS) is a discontinued mobile operating system initially developed by Palm, Inc., for personal digital assistants (PDAs) in 1996. Palm OS was designed for ease of use with a touchscreen-based graphical user interface. ...
on its website. According to
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''Gouranga!'', the project was cancelled by June 2002.


Cover art

The UK cover art for ''Grand Theft Auto'' is a photograph of a
New York Police Department The City of New York Police Department, also referred to as New York City Police Department (NYPD), is the primary law enforcement agency within New York City. Established on May 23, 1845, the NYPD is the largest, and one of the oldest, munic ...
1980s
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rushing through the intersection of
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and 56th Street, with Trump Tower in the background of the picture. Several alternate box arts were released for different regions, including the artwork for the PC release in the US which features a yellow car, the European PC and PlayStation releases exhibiting the design used in later iterations of the series, and several Japanese covers including one featuring the
Statue of Liberty The Statue of Liberty (''Liberty Enlightening the World''; ) is a colossal neoclassical sculpture on Liberty Island in New York Harbor, within New York City. The copper-clad statue, a gift to the United States from the people of French Thir ...
. The UK cover art was also an alternative cover for '' Grand Theft Auto 2'' in selected markets.


Soundtrack

The freedom of the game's open world led the DMA team to believe that players would like to listen to different music while driving around the city. So they came up with the idea of several radio stations that would play music from various genres. Three DMA members – Colin Anderson, Craig Conner, and Grant Middleton – composed the radio tracks and recorded them at night in the company's offices. ''Grand Theft Auto'' features seven radio stations and a police band track. All can be heard when the player enters a vehicle; however, each vehicle only receives a limited number of stations. Players can remove the game's CD when it has finished loading and replace it with another one with their music. When the character enters a car, the game randomly plays music from the CD. The game's main theme was composed by Conner and credited to the fictional band Da Shootaz. Except Head Radio, the names of songs and radio stations are never mentioned within the game.


Reception

The game received mixed reviews. ''
GameSpot ''GameSpot'' is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady, and Jon Epstein. In addition ...
'' 1998 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 the player follow a specific rule set and complete specific missions in a specific order. ''
IGN ''IGN'' is an American video gaming and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa district and is headed by its former e ...
'' was critical of the graphics, which were said to be "really quite shoddy" and dated. They were also unimpressed by the "fast-food programming and careless design", including the controls. Overall, the game was considered fun but with problems that could have been fixed. '' Next Generation'' reviewed the PC version of the game, rating it 4/5, and stated that "It is quite easy to accuse ''Grand Theft Auto'' of being all style and no substance, but the charge doesn't stick. Of course, we don't condone the acts within, but there is no denying that the game is well-executed and quite enjoyable." ''Grand Theft Auto'' was banned by the Justice Ministry of Brazil; at the time, Brazil was confronting homicides and fatal auto accidents. ''Grand Theft Auto'' has been named one of the greatest video games by several publications.


Sales

Global shipments to retailers of ''Grand Theft Auto'' computer and PlayStation versions had surpassed 1 million units combined by November 1998. At the 1999 Milia festival in
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, it took home a "Gold" prize for revenues above €17 million in the European Union during 1998. The game maintained a top-20 position on the UK charts for at least 76 weeks, rising to the second-highest position in May 1999 after the release of ''London 1969''. It sold 3.5 million units by October 1999, and 6 million by March 2001.


References


Notes


Citations


Bibliography

* *


External links

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