back to article It's Grand Theft Auto 5 day: Any of you kids remember GTA the First?

Grand Theft Auto 5 – one of the most keenly anticipated video games ever – was officially released today, although a few people apparently got their packages a few days ago. The preview videos show it to be stunningly accomplished, and no doubt it will sell phenomenally well. Yet many of the young adults who make an excited …

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  1. Smallbrainfield

    HEAD RADIO

    The soundtrack to GTA was a thing of beauty. I used to have a copy I played in the car.

    1. diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

      Re: HEAD RADIO

      Absolutely. Techno and Dance were my favourite in GTA 1. All produced in-house; I had no idea they weren't 'real' tracks.

      Start here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=NupUW9-l61s :-)

      C.

      1. robert_raw

        Re: HEAD RADIO

        Not as good as Carmageddon at the time but still a brilliant waste of time.

        1. auburnman
          Joke

          Re: Not as good as Carmageddon

          BURN THE HERETIC

          1. DaneB
            Mushroom

            Re: Not as good as Carmageddon

            Yeah, cow squashing ain't funny.

      2. This post has been deleted by its author

      3. Levente Szileszky

        Re: HEAD RADIO

        I agree, they were awesome at the time. I only played GTA I and II, never really got into GTA III and then I lost interest, it just became another awful-looking, console-oriented junk based on super-dumb wannabe gangster crap...

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Same old same old

      GTA 5 updated graphics, large open spaces, side missions...

      Wait wasn't that GTA GTA2 GTA3 GTA4?

      Same old again just better graphics ish.

      1. Daniel B.
        Go

        Re: Same old same old

        Indeed. GTA was a blast when it came out. The newer ones added new features ... but sometime after GTA3 it just seems like they're rehashing the same stuff over and over and over again. Which is probably why I'm now bored by the latest games.

        And Rockstar seems to be wearing down the formula itself as well, with Red Dead Redemption (Grand Theft Horse!) and Bully (GTA with Bikes!). Still, the original game is still good... :)

      2. DaneB
        Mushroom

        Re: Same old same old

        Fair point. While graphics have improved no end in the past 15 year of gaming, the same can't really be said for gameplay, can it?

    3. DaneB
      Thumb Up

      Re: HEAD RADIO

      True, one of the first to put real music on the game map.

  2. Peter Gordon

    Apparently, it was originally developed on the Amiga, but as the Amiga market died, they moved to the PC.

    Later, an unofficial clone was released for the Amiga, which was called "Payback", and while it suffered a bit from being developed entirely by one person, it had a certain charm and was fun enough to play. It was later ported to the Gameboy advance.

    1. DialTone

      Port to GP2X

      There was also a version ported/remade on the (now defunct) open-source handheld.

      http://gp2x.co.uk/payback.html

    2. E Haines

      Payback was also ported to OS X, and is available on iOS.

    3. DaneB

      It does feel like an Amiga title in some ways. Would have liked to see it!

    4. DaneB
      Trollface

      I believe the Gameboy Advance version of GTA was toned down a bit for the younger audience. What a shame!

    5. sMMAshzilla

      It was out on the Amiga

      I had the game the day it came out on the Amiga 500. Somewhere I even have the box with the map in it. Fantastic game, but a bug developed towards the end and I couldn't complete it as the map would vanish :(

  3. LesC
    Happy

    That which brings the highest happiness...

    GOURANGA!

    That is all.

    1. andy mcandy

      Re: That which brings the highest happiness...

      Reward for killing all the harekrishna's in one swipe, IIRC. top job :-) :-) :-)

      1. Goldmember

        Re: That which brings the highest happiness...

        And the bloody tyre tracks left behind on the pavement afterwards was a particularly nice touch... the details made GTA :-)

        1. pepper

          Re: That which brings the highest happiness...

          The gang of Elvis's never really lived up to the Hara Krisna so beautifully splattered across the side walk in a agonizing slide, never knowing if you would have them all of if one of the buggers would leap to safety.

          Offcourse, hunting those that survived down was mandatory!

          1. James 36

            Re: That which brings the highest happiness...

            I once managed to get them all to jump on the train track next to where you started.

            but 9 times out of 10 one got away , then the mandatory hunting followed by having to lose the police

            excellent,

            played all of the GTAs so far IV has gotten a bit serious though, played saint row 3 recently which has more of the humour of the previous GTAs

            If V has more humour than IV then I will get the PC version, Keyboard and mouse FTW indeed (apart form the bloody helicopters !)

    2. DaneB
      Thumb Up

      Re: That which brings the highest happiness...

      http://www.theguardian.com/notesandqueries/query/0,5753,-21228,00.html

  4. Ben Rose

    No PC Version...

    The humble PC beginnings yet there is no PC version of GTA V. Fail.

    1. Roger B
      Stop

      Re: No PC Version...

      Don't panic, apparently buried within the code the PC and PS4 versions are mentioned. Hopefully an Xbox One as well is coming as well.

      Anyone playing on the Xbox 360, do not install the "play" disc to the hard drive, if you can install it to a USB stick and you will avoid the graphical pop ups that are being reported.

    2. SeymourHolz

      Re: No PC Version...

      You are living in the past. The Great PC Gaming Era is over. Get a PS3.

      1. Piro Silver badge

        Re: No PC Version...

        Irony/trolling? Very poor effort.

        Yes, the future is clearly a 7 year old console. If my eyes could roll harder they would fall out.

        1. JDX Gold badge

          Re: No PC Version...

          The future is clearly whatever platform developers develop for; it doesn't matter a damn how fancy it is. Wii is proof enough of that.

      2. Captain Scarlet Silver badge
        Mushroom

        Re: No PC Version...

        Keyboard and Mouse ftw

      3. Daniel B.
        Facepalm

        Re: No PC Version...

        You are living in the past. The Great PC Gaming Era is over. Get a PS3.

        As much as I'd like to upvote you for promoting the PS3, I just can't because I still consider the PC a better gaming experience. Probably because of my golden gaming era being during the rise of the modding community with Quake1/2, I just can't consider the PC gaming era dead. Even less now that the new consoles are just going to be overpriced PCs (though I'm still probably going to get a PS4).

        1. DaneB
          Angel

          Re: No PC Version...

          Wasn't PC gaming just overpriced console gaming anyway? Never understood why someone would buy a PC just for game playing. The graphics may have been higher res but a console gamepad beats the PC experience for most games, surely?

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: No PC Version...

            Much as I would like to use a machine I use for work for playing games, I prefer to use the cheap and expendable thing that sits under my TV for recreation. First: It's where I can use it with friends, and Second: If it dies through thermal cycling, I'm not too fussed.

            Besides, PC gamers can play Multi Theft Auto should they choose: A multilayer derivative that has been been around for years.

            I didn't realise until reading this article that DMA became Rockstar. I used to see DMA and Psygnosis (Studio Liverpool?) whilst Lemmings was loading...

      4. Goat Jam
        Flame

        Re: No PC Version...

        "You are living in the past. The Great PC Gaming Era is over. Get a PS3."

        Nice troll, but I still would like to point out;

        I hate console controllers with a vengeance especially for shooters

        Just because you like craptastic controllers that require autoaim just to make a game playable does not mean everybody should bend to your preferences and follow suit.

        You have fun following the herd, the rest of us will make our own choices

        1. DaneB

          Re: No PC Version...

          So... you prefer game-playing with your hands clasped over a keyboard? Not quite sure how the PC version of game controlling is quite so superior? I'll give you Lemmings and god games were always better with a mouse, but apart from that?

  5. Jerky Jerk face

    Ahhh i remember that few months in 1997 when i grabbed a pre pre pre pre release trail version (i think about 15 minutes of game play) and i played it and played it and played over and over, unfortunately i was 14 and my money was my parents money - playing this demo so much convinced them at the cost of the full game, the 18 rating were not suitable and the fact they wouldn't see me for months smashing into little heads and shoulders constantly was a bad thing......

    bastards.

    well i still got to cane that demo AND LOVED IT.

    1. BigAndos

      Oh yeah I did the same, I played the death out of that demo until I was eventually able to go buy it myself when I turned 18! I still have the disk at home, might have to fire it up this evening. I still remember being almost overwhelmed with the amount of freedom.

      Even in the newer ones like san andreas, I still tend to spend most of my time exploring and playing around rather than doing the missions.

    2. DaneB

      One of these I'm guessing?

      http://www.rockstargames.com/gta/

  6. Cosmo
    Thumb Up

    Fantastic memories

    This game came out just as I was finishing my first year at Uni. In those days only the well off kiddies had PCs in their room, so there was literally only 1 on our floor in my halls of residence. Let's put it this way - he was a very popular guy!

    The comical over the topness and cartoon brutality was brilliant. I think I enjoyed the sub games more often. I think my favourite one was the "Speed" clone where you had to keep a school bus above a certain speed before it blew you and everyone around it to smithereens.

    I also liked the fact that you could pop out the CD when playing, and replace it with your own and you could listen to your own music when playing GTA - Nothing like escaping police to sound hard house or Drum'n'Bass!

  7. Goldmember

    Content Advisory

    Ah, fond memories of this. I seem to remember this being released with a full-on BBFC 18 certificate in the UK, not simply a Content Advisory warning (the PSX version, anyway).

    I too had a pre release demo of this, which was on the demo disk attached to the front of the monthly official Playstaion magazine. Being 12 at the time and with the 18 rating and all the negative press, there was no way my parents were buying it for me, so I had to wait until I was a bit older and bought a later one. Luckily, they didn't know about the demo disk, which I absolutely played to death...

    Roll on the end of this working day, when I can finally go home and play 5!

  8. M7S

    Life imitates art

    Man hit with brick and stabbed after buying his copy

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-24127999

    http://www.standard.co.uk/news/techandgadgets/grand-theft-auto-v-fan-stabbed-and-hit-with-brick-as-gang-rob-him-of-computer-game-8821177.html

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Life imitates art

      Always upsetting when someone is attacked like this and it's good that he's going to be OK. But I can't help find it interesting that the title of the game he was carrying when he was robbed is seen as a factor here. How long before the Daily Wail starts to bleat about how GTA V (or GTA in general) MUST be to blame for all crimes like these. Of course, we all know there were no muggings prior to 1997...

      Kind of like Manhunt all over again.

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manhunt_(video_game)#The_murder_of_Stefan_Pakeerah

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Life imitates art

        CoD was blamed by that bastion of journalistic standards, the Mirror, for the Washington Naval Dockyard shootings. It looks like the largely discredited link between video games and violence is still going strong in the tabloids.

    2. D 13

      Re: Life imitates art

      When he fell down did his wallet appear next to him glowing green?

    3. Daniel B.

      Re: Life imitates art

      Wasn't there a stabbing incident as well during GTA4 release day? Seems that London has a knack on having real life imitating art...

    4. DaneB

      Re: Life imitates art

      Game imitates art imitates life. Inmates.

  9. 1Rafayal

    One of the best things about the first game was the cut-scenes.

    They were so over the top it was hilarious.

  10. Irongut

    GTA was a great game but not as original as the autor of this piece seems to think. It may have been the first to put all the elements mentioned together in one game but I'd seen them all years before in Spectrum games, from the open world to the snarky sense of humour and even the Deathrace 2000 elements.

    Personally I always got bored with the missions after I'd done a couple and spent all my time stealing the most ridiculous vehicles I could find and trying to kill as many cops as possible. One of my favourite tricks was to hole up at the end of a tight alleyway with a bazooka or other large gun and kill them all as they came at me.

    1. Dave 126

      > but I'd seen them all years before in Spectrum games,

      Are you thinking of 'Super Stuntman' by Codemasters?

  11. vonRat

    (Good shot kid, you got him)

    (Good shot kid, you got him)

    Hotel, downtown, speeding all around

    An AK-47 got the power in it's barrel

    To move any mother that gets in the way

    Just another power machine on the freeway

    Riding with me is my MC homeboy

    Knowing the rules ain't part of his program

    Finding the right way around this map

    Might be pretty hard 'cause he's ****ed on crack

    G- grand theft auto

    You gotta make a mark and move where you want to

    T - theft

    Determination to steal what you can and run from the nation

    A - hey, what do ya say?

    We automate the sequence and speed for my getaway

    Take it to the edge, there's nowhere to hide

    And call up the boys, let's go for a joyride

    Let's go for a joyride

    Stop the violence from the police

    Is what my dad used say but now he's deceased

    He got caught in a jam, threw in the can

    When the cops from Brooklyn said he'd killed another man

    Street knowledge was my main game

    To figure out the law, to figure out the frame

    Just when I thought I knew justice

    A cop behind me said, you just been busted

    NYPD (NYPD)

    LAPD (LAPD)

    SFPD (SFPD)

    Don't ***k with me

    1. This post has been deleted by its author

    2. Norphy

      It was back in 1849,

      At the Springfield Golden Nugget Mine,

      That my great-grandma Dolores saved the day,

      When she propped the shaft and saved the lives,

      Of the other forty other Springfield wives,

      When all ma grandpa's buddies ran away

      The menfolk found their women scary,

      Cos they were so big and hairy,

      They thought of dynamite to seal them in

      Gramps was known as 'Chapped Lips Calhoun',

      He was in the local saloon,

      In came Billy-Joe Walton through the door,

      He said "They're blown the Golden Nugget!"

      My grandaddy said "Oh f....darn it!"

      "You've buried my Dolores, my sweet little golden 'ore"

      Swing it, son

      Now my grandaddy jumped up from his table,

      Finished his jug,

      And he got up to that mine just as lickety-darn-split as he could,

      Stopped off to fetch a shovel,

      Feed the dogs,

      Brush his teeth,

      Clean the John and give his hoss one final rubdown

      Cos a cowboy's life ain't easy and a cowboy's life is hard,

      You can take him from the saddle,

      But he'll be forever scarred

      Cos my grandpa was a man in love,

      Called Dolores his 'prairie dove',

      And he told her that he loved her with every sigh

      Cos she never once forgave him,

      Even underneath the cave-in,

      But he knew she would forgive him,

      In that goldmine in the sky

      Goldmine in the sky

      :)

      1. DaneB
        Mushroom

        Drivin' in a 5 point O with my rag-top down so my hair can blow?

  12. Tom_

    Parameters

    I remember looking through the data files and finding that it was dead easy to adjust all the driving and handling characteristics of the cars.

    Out came the indestructible 900mph taxi of doom.

    1. DaneB

      Re: Parameters

      Ha! Gaming as it should be!

      1. Dave 126

        Re: Parameters

        Yep! As recommended by PC Zone, I bought Nascar Racing, set my car to 'indestructible' and went the wrong way round the track. Apparently, the true purpose of the game was to sit there for fifty laps without making a mistake, but I couldn't see the fun in that...

        A 'null modem cable' only made things more fun between mates.

  13. Chad H.

    Where did those nice boys who made lemmings go wrong?

    I kid, I kid...

  14. Shrimpling

    London 1969

    I haven't liked any of them since London 1969...

    I'm sick of games where I have to drive on the wrong side of the road.

    1. phuzz Silver badge

      Re: London 1969

      If you pinch a tank you can drive on whichever side of the road you bloody well choose :)

    2. GrantB

      Re: London 1969

      Back in PS2 days, I really liked 'The Getaway' / Black Monday games which were Sony attempts at a European GTA.

      Quite liked having realistic central London as a setting, Range Rovers, round-a-bouts and British gangsters for a change.

      Never popular and the PS3 version which I was looking forward to never happened.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: London 1969

      My favourite moment in gaming history - blowing up the Rangers bus with a rocket launcher, pure joy :)

  15. MalPearce

    MOLOTOV COCKTAIL!

    Best bit about this game was legging it down to the docks, nicking the tank and then spending the next hour or two just destroying every police car, SWAT van etc in sight. With good timing you could drive a whole stretch of road flattening one car after the next but just about leaving them intact; one shot from the tank would then create a daisy chain of destruction. Happy days!

  16. noboard

    Ahh fun times

    I remember getting as many cars as I could on screen (go to far and they dissapear), then blowing them up and see how high the score would go. Played a linked game with a friend and I clocked the score. 10 minutes later my friend did his and broke the score, it just kept going round and round for the rest of the game.

    Never really liked doing the missions.

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    Early LAN gaming

    I remember late 90s I had a friend who had 2 PCs - a gaming PC with a Voodoo 2 (GTA looked great in 3DFX mode) and a 'workstation' PC but could run GTA on software graphics.

    He hooked them to a LAN (domestic LANs in the 90s weren't that common) and we had a network game of GTA. Was my first experience of LAN gaming (never tried Doom multiplayer) and it was great fun.

    Quake was the next big LAN / multiplayer game, but I was never really good at the keyboard - mouse gaming combo, kept up with GTA and bought GTA: London (was chuffed as this was one of the few games released at the time that could actually run on my lowly 233mhz Cyrix machine).

    Tried GTA2 but never really got that far into it. Went to university.

    I remember the guy in the room next door, his parents bought him a new Dell PC for his studies. It came with GTA3. I was blown away. GTA - in 3D! Yes I'd played Driver before that, but it seemed a little more on-rails / linear compared to GTA3.

    His PC was the best specced on the corridor and frequently got used as the gaming PC. The football fans mostly played Championship Manager ('Champy') which to me was as fun as looking at a spreadsheet.

    After graduation, finally got a PS2 and caught up on the GTA series - 3, VC, LCS, VCS then San Andreas.

    GTA4 a couple of years later prompted me to take the plunge on an Xbox360.

    An xmas gift of a PS3 and I've got GTA5 for it today (the comparisons said that the textures are marginally better than the 360).

    Here's to Rockstar!

    1. Dave 126

      Re: Early LAN gaming

      In the mid nineties, network cards in PCs weren't too common - and certainly not built into the motherboard as they are today. A null modem cable was a cheaper way of playing two-player Doom.

      1. Pascal Monett Silver badge

        So true. I remember my first LAN experience was at uni in 1994. It was the first time in my life that I saw networked PCs. DOOM was the game of the day, and we booted the machines with specially-crafted floppies in the lab rooms after hours. It was all rather hush-hush, of course, but hey, that was part of the fun !

        1. Danny 14

          NE2000 with T piece monster. Ahh the days of dos network drivers.

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "free-reign gaming experiences"

    Free *rein*. No, there's no "post corrections" link.

  19. Grogan Silver badge

    Sadly, it is not yet GTA V day for me. I must await the PC version and I think it will be some months.

    However, I do play games with a friend on his XBox360, and he will have already pulled the $60 from his tight fisted arse and bought it :-)

    (I tend to go visit for coffee on Wednesday nights, so hopefully I'll get to see some of it. Been looking forward to seeing this game in action)

  20. DaneB

    Why no download?

    Anyone know why you can't get an official download of GTA 1 and 2 at the moment?

    Because of GTA5?

    http://www.rockstargames.com/classics/

  21. Oddb0d

    The Guardian apparently had the same idea: http://www.theguardian.com/technology/video/2013/sep/15/making-grand-theft-auto-video

    Extra train-spotter points for anybody who recognises a former Zzap! staffer (I certainly had no idea he was involved in GTA).

    "Apparently, it was originally developed on the Amiga, but as the Amiga market died, they moved to the PC."

    I doubt it, firstly, most game developers were already moving away from the Amiga before Commodore went bust those that could afford to had already jumped to the Playstation, N64 & Saturn, secondly, it isn't mentioned in the design brief (http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/92277/RaceNChase.pdf) which does include mention of the never finished (started?) N64 & Saturn versions.

  22. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Evolutionary, maybe... Groundbreaking Nah!!!

    A change of theatre to Italy or France ala the film Ronin / Italian Job etc would have been nice. Or even Space as someone else suggested, as the city still looks too much like every other IMHO. I'll still buy it. But I think the gameplay is going to be repetitive and boring again (see below) and after about half an hour I'll be tempted to just play it like the latest-guy-to-go-postal (on the Navy base).... From TheGuardian.com

    "Rockstar North has also developed a slightly irritating narrative trope that I'll call "the exposition expedition": there are a lot of long journeys that just seem to be there so that the lead characters can chat about back-story, or engage in meandering expletive-drenched conversations on pop culture and psychology – something we probably have Tarantino to thank for.

    Furthermore, the designers don't always make the rules of the system clear. Some missions will only end successfully if you carry out the correct action after a specific prompt, while others don't provide a prompt at all and then fail you if you miss the mandatory sweet spot. The game also has the habit of simultaneously providing mission instructions via in-game dialogue and an on-screen text prompt, which at the very least means you miss plot details, but at the worst means you can be left wondering what the hell you're supposed to do next because you paid attention to the wrong thing. Or at least that was my experience; others may be better at ludological multitasking."

  23. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Evolutionary, maybe... Groundbreaking Nah!!!

    A change of theatre to Italy or France ala the film Ronin / Italian Job etc would have been nice. Or even Space as someone else suggested, as the city still looks too much like every other IMHO. I'll still buy it. But I think the gameplay is going to be repetitive and boring again (see below) and after about half an hour I'll be tempted to just play it like the latest-guy-to-go-postal (on the Navy base).... From TheGuardian

    "Rockstar North has also developed a slightly irritating narrative trope that I'll call "the exposition expedition": there are a lot of long journeys that just seem to be there so that the lead characters can chat about back-story, or engage in meandering expletive-drenched conversations on pop culture and psychology – something we probably have Tarantino to thank for.

    Furthermore, the designers don't always make the rules of the system clear. Some missions will only end successfully if you carry out the correct action after a specific prompt, while others don't provide a prompt at all and then fail you if you miss the mandatory sweet spot. The game also has the habit of simultaneously providing mission instructions via in-game dialogue and an on-screen text prompt, which at the very least means you miss plot details, but at the worst means you can be left wondering what the hell you're supposed to do next because you paid attention to the wrong thing. Or at least that was my experience; others may be better at ludological multitasking."

  24. asdf

    because nobody will possibly say this

    At the time GTA first came out the game it reminded me most of was Ghost Busters on the old Atari home computers. It was kind of a sandbox top down driving game as well if I remember right.

  25. Electric Panda

    I always cracked up when I heard and saw "BUSTED!" accompanied by the "awww" sound from an invisible audience. It was properly hilarious in a weird way.

    My copy of GTA V sits in its cellophane waiting for me, as I bought it yesterday at lunchtime but didn't have any time to play last night.

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