Grand Theft Auto (episode)

Grand Theft Auto is the fifth episode of Did You Know Gaming? and the only episode covering the Grand Theft Auto series.

Transcript
Did you know that Grand Theft Auto owes its existence to a glitch in an earlier game called Race'n'Chase? Back when Rockstar North were known as DMA Design, they started work on an arcade-style top-down racing game, Race'n'Chase. The player would perform robberies and races in four different modes: Cannonball Run, Demolition Derby, and Bank Robbery as either the robber or the cop. It was designed with no on-foot missions but you could leave your car to steal another vehicle. It was planned to be set in New York, Venice, and Miami. New York and Miami later played a key role in the franchise, being the inspiration for Liberty City and Vice City. The glitch in question made the police cars attempt to run the player's vehicle off the road rather than pulling them over. It was so popular with play testers that the focus of the game was reworked with the glitch in mind. This is probably what led to Grand Theft Auto's wanted system. It's also thought that Race'n'Chase was based on an old arcade game named APB, where you took control of a police officer and track down criminals in a top-down environment. The original design document for Race'n'Chase mentions popup style graphics to inform players of in-game events. You can see a similar system in APB.

There was a fan demake of GTA3 that started back in 2002. It was made from the ground up as an NES game and it was appropriately named Grand Theftendo. It had a fully reconstructed version of Portland City in NES restrictions. The missions were changed to fit the game's 2-D style but all the GTA staples were there: combat, weapons, vehicle, even stores like Ammunition. The last update for the project was in 2005 and seemed to have been shelved. Some of you may recognize the game's art style. That's because the game reemerged in December 2008 as Retro Theftendo, then was officially renamed to Retro City Rampage in 2010, a fully original game slated for release on digital platforms. Sometime while working on Grand Theftendo, the game's developer, Brian Provinciano, started to add characters and locations from other games he had enjoyed in his childhood. This ultimately inspired him to work on the project fulltime, but instead of using characters and scenarios from GTA3, he decided to create an entirely new game with original content.

And no Grand Theft Auto game would be complete without some secrets and Easter eggs, so in no particular order, here are some of our favorites. In GTA3, if you travel to the TW@ Café in Torrington, you can find two computer monitors inside that show Grand Theft Auto I and II. The images aren't animated or interactive, but it's still a nice nod to the series' roots. In GTA3, if you acquire the Dodo and travel behind the hills of Shoreside Vale, you'll eventually come to the Ghost Town, an area that was never intended to be accessed during normal gameplay. It was used in the game's opening cutscene where Claude is helping Catalina rob a bank. There are no solid areas to land and you can't collide with the buildings, hence the name Ghost Town. If you go south of a Pay 'n Spray in Ocean Beach in Vice City, there's a building with a pink roof. If you enter the stairway on the southside, it'll lead you to an apartment called Apartment 3c. The bathroom is referencing the movie Scarface. A scene in the movie where Tony Montana's friend, Angel Fernandez, is killed with a chainsaw in a bathtub. In GTA3 in Vice City, there are newspapers littered around with headline ZOMBIE ELVIS FOUND. The headline can also be seen on the banner of a plane that flies around Vice City. This is a joke by the developers that mocks the hysteria revolving around the alleged sightings of Elvis during the '70s and '80s after his death. In Staunton Island in GTA3, go inside the car park located in Bedford Point. By jumping on top of a car and then a trash collector, you can gain access to a sealed off alleyway. Inside there's a sign that says "You weren't supposed to be able to get here you know." Going into the same location in Liberty City Stories will show a different sign in the same place that says "Hello again!" In Downtown Vice City, near the Vice City news building, there's a window. It isn't solid and you can simply jump through it, leading you to a room containing a chocolate Easter Egg on top of a pedestal, literally a Easter egg.

Well that's all for today, but we'll be back with more Did You Know Gaming? soon. So make sure you subscribe, like us on Facebook, follow us on twitter, and check out more gaming trivia at DidYouKnowGaming.com. And if you like this video, be sure to check out our other videos. We've already covered Star Fox, Final Fantasy, The Legend of Zelda, and Pokémon. And if you haven't checked it out, go watch Game Grumps. It's pretty funny.

Games covered

 * APB (Arcade)
 * Grand Theft Auto (PC/PS/GBC)
 * Grand Theft Auto 3 (PC/PS2/Xbox)
 * Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories (PSP/PS2)
 * ''Retro City Rampage (PS3/PSP/PC/360/Wii/3DS)