The Grand Theft Auto legacy began in October of 1996, when two
companies - Rockstar and DMA, created a small game called Grand
Theft Auto, or in short, GTA. The graphics were retro (it was 1996 -
how more retro can you go?), but and the overall idea and aim of the
game was great, and hadn't been done before - This game was a
classic, and it still is. The cars, the guns, the donut shop around
the corner and the chicks - all that made the game a huge success
world-wide. Unfortunately, the lack of support for hi-end graphics
cards and poor resolution graphics meant the game had to leave the
game market competition at an early stage, but in terms of unique
gameplay, it never died.
In GTA, you received jobs through anonymous men through pay phones
or through your pager. When you receive a job, an arrow would appear
on-screen, and in most cases your pager would turn into a timer, and
if you didn't complete the job within the set time (when the timer
reaches zero) your mission is lost. If you completed the mission
before the timer reached zero, you would have received a lot of
money. If you finished enough jobs (and run over enough people) you
received a lot of money to continue to the next city.
Ahh, the cities - huge, vivid, colorful cities, the place crime
rules. The first city - Liberty City, looks a lot like New York
City. This city is actually three isles connected by bridges, and
this city is actually the same city that will be featured in
GrandTheftAuto3 (how nice of DMA), this single city is rather easy
to complete, but nothing is easy when it comes to crime. After
you've earned $1,000,000 in Liberty City, you can continue to the
second city - San Andreas, which is similar to San Francisco,
including a Golden Gate Bridge alike, followed by Vice City, which
by it's name you can tell the how high the crime rate actually is.
Grand Theft Auto Features:
• Over 6000 miles of Roads, Freeways, Alleyways, and Dead Ends in 3
huge cities
• 20 different car types in each city - each modelled to reflect
real handling and speed
• Intelligently controlled Police, Fire, and Ambulance services
• 1 - 4 player games over Network, Modem, and Serial link
• Blood
• Working Public Transport
• Police forces ranging in aggression from complacent to homicidal
lunatics with guns
• Hospitals, Banks, Strip Clubs, Military Bases, and Harbours
• Over 60 minutes of NEW music featuring from some of today's
hottest new acts. Featuring Techno, Dance, Funk, Hip-Hop,
Industrial, Heavy Metal, and Country & Western
• Over 200 different missions featuring: Grand Theft Auto, Drug
Smuggling, Kidnapping, Slaughter, Double Parking, Under-age smoking,
Murder, Hijacking, and Setting fire to Hari Krishnas
• Full 24-Bit color running in real-time
• 3Dfx Compatibility
The Weapons:
• Pistol - This high calibre semi-automatic pistol can put a hole is
someone's head and you won't even care.
• Machine Gun - This machine gun fires out deadly bullets, shoot
anyone in sight!
• Rocket Launcher - The rocket launcher can be your best friend, or
your worst enemy. Use it wisely!
• FlameThrower - The flamethrower can BBQ anyone at sight. Again,
use it wisely!
The Power-Ups:
• Get out of jail free card - If you have this power-up and get
arrested you will get out of jail without losing life.
• Multiply - When you pick up this power-up your multiply will go up
one point, which means that if you have 5 your score will be 5 times
bigger.
• Speed - When on speed your walking speed, car speed and firing
speed will raise.
• Armour - When you pick up armour you'll be able to take several
hits before dying.
• Life - After you pick up this armour you'll get an extra life to
your disposal.
• Cop Bribe - If the cops are on your tail this power-up will make
them disappear.
• Kill Frenzy - Who doesn't know this destructive mini-game?
• Info - When you pick this thing up it will give you valuable
information.