Retronomicon 11.04.09: Grand Theft Auto

Posted by Lee Price on 11.04.2009

This week the Retronomicon hops into a stolen car and enters a top down vehicular playground, custom built for devastation and destruction. So come ride shotgun as 411's Lee Price evades the cops to bring you Grand Theft Auto.

How do one and all and welcome to yet another Retronomicon with me, Lee Price. I am here to guide you through what's hot and what's not in the world of retro gaming. Or something. All I know is that I'm starting to get a little freaked out by all of these adverts telling me that I can get ripped in 2 weeks and all that crap. Nobody can get ripped in two weeks dammit. I am so sad that I can't help noticing that one of the guys in these ads has managed to get a massive load of tattoo work done in the "2 weeks" that he was getting ripped or whatever. They just freak me out. On the gaming front I'm still soldiering away with the new Pro Evo, while trying to convince myself that the series has advanced somewhere since 2005. It hasn't though and if anything it is getting worse. Who would have imagined that FIFA and Pro Evo would have switched places with the coming of this generation of consoles? But enough about all my strange inner workings and stuff, let's get to what you came to see. So buckle up for the...





Comments

Quite a few comments last week for Aladdin. Who knew there was that much love floating around for the game. The question about Target Terror will be answered in Ask 411 if I can get it off the ground (SEND ME QUESTIONS! SEE END OF COLUMN!), but as for how much Mark gets paid for pimping it all the time, if it is anything more than $0 it is far too much.

Anyways first comment is from Mr Ramon who simply had this too say;

Aladdin kicked major ass!

That it did my friend, that it did. Both movie and game in fact. The strange thing is that until relatively recently I didn't own a copy of the game, I just used to borrow it every couple of months from a friend and blast through it. I can't believe how much trouble my younger self had with Jafar.

Guest#4467 was reading a different column to everybody else...

I always was a big fan of Lion King on the SNES

Me too, but it wasn't a patch on Aladdin for the Genesis if you ask me. Still a damn fine game though. Disney had a thing for 16 Bit consoles for some reason.

Next up is IWC Member #23495867 (late joiner I see), who was quick to heap praise on the game:

Too true! Aladdin was/is a great Genesis game. Your article is spot on!

Hehe I love being complimented for my articles! And Aladdin still is a great game. Trust me give it a blast, its a great way to waste a couple of hours if you have nothing to do.

Next up we have Eric with some similar praise;

Nice for giving Aladdin some shine. I used to love playing this game back in the day. One of the best looking Genesis game

There were very few Genesis games that could compete with Aladdin when it came to visuals and especially animation. Some of the little touches still make me giggle.

Nick reminds us of a cheat code that I forgot to mention:

This was a great game, I still occasionally play this emulator on my xbox. If anyone still plays this there is a cheat code that I have remembered since the game was brand new. To skip levels pause the game and tap AABBAABBA

What is this Gamefaqs all of a sudden. Just kidding dude, but I'm almost certain that you only needed one A press at the start of the code if memory serves. I always used to remember it as ABBA ABBA. If memory serves the code also gave you 9 lives as well.

Armando Rodriguez is back this week to share some love;

This game was fantastic, amazing, spectacular! It was the only "kiddie" game I kept once I grew up and sold a bunch of my Genesis titles away. Although I regret having sold Lion King, but whatever

Props for the lack of commitment to Lion King dude. I remember doing the exact same thing, except I got rid of my Genesis, Saturn and N64 all at the same time for the princely sum of £120. God I regret doing that.

And finally we have Guest#5228;

I remember some deal when I got my Genesis where you can send away for a free game of your choice. We requested Toejam & Earl and they sent us Aladdin. It ended up being a good trade!

Removing the sword no the SNES version just sounds bizarre. Did they remove it from the enemies as well? Instead of fighting you do they all just try to give you hugs?

As good a trade off as that is, I still hate it when that happens. My PC was originally meant to have a superior graphics card to the one it has now, but the guys I bought it from traded it out and gave me an extra 600GB of memory instead. I still wasn't impressed. As for the sword issue, for me it always put a dent in the SNES version after having played the Genesis version. If I remember correctly the SNES guards weren't armed as well as the Genesis ones, though one did send throwing knives/swords your way. The strange thing is that Aladdin actually has a sword on the box art, so why not in the game? Ah well never mind.

That's the comments box emptied in a very long comments section this week. Let's hope that keeps up but for now strap on those rose tinted specs because this week the Retronomicon takes a look at Grand Theft Auto.



The Background

In 1997 DMA design were a relatively small British games developer, achieving its highest measure of fame with the brilliant Lemmings games, but outside of this mega seller they weren't considered major players in the gaming scene by any means.

However the quality of this, and their previous titles, should have given people and idea of the kind of talent that the little developer held. Lemmings sold over 20 million copies worldwide, but it wasn't long before DMA were to give birth to a gaming behemoth that would dwarf these sales and become one of the most renowned game series of all times.

So in 1997 DMA abandoned the cutesy world of idiotic animals to enter a life of crime from which they have yet to emerge. Twelve years and a name change later DMA are still going and are stronger than ever, and its all down to a little top down driving game called Grand Theft Auto.



The Game

I'd like to say that GTA was an absolute revelation of a game, with some of the greatest 2D gameplay off all time being the precursor for what was to come in the future. But I would be lying. Anybody who says that they could see what the GTA series would become based off this first game is either a dirty stinking liar or has more foresight than Nostradamus.

The story, for what little there is, follows the player as they inhabit the various areas of Liberty City, Vice City and San Andreas, completing jobs for the various criminal bigwigs of the town, with all of these jobs being accessed by phone booth. There is little in the way of a cohesive story though. Hell even the character selection is pretty much pointless because it really makes almost no difference whatsoever which of the characters you choose, they all look and control exactly the same, you just get a different name tag to go alongside your weapons stats.

What little story you do gleam doesn't follow the mold of the latter day GTA games, which are generally a story of your character gaining in power until they eventually become one of the most feared gangsters in their little area of the GTA universe. GTA however has you working under other crime lords the entire way through, with only your mission pay-off and a cutscene when the area is completed as a reward for all your hard work.

So the original GTA loses one of the stronger weapons in the newer GTA games arsenal as it has a sub standard story. The graphics follow the same tack. Even for 2D graphics, the visuals on display in GTA are really nothing special. Everything has a rough edge to it, and the characters look like players out of Sensible World of Soccer. Hell even the bullets fired out of the guns are visible as little yellow balls that are incredibly slow moving.

Having said that, the graphics aren't an abomination, and the actual city itself has a lot more character than the people, and perhaps even the cars, that populate it. There is an impressive sense of scale with all of the high rise buildings, especially when you hit a good speed and the camera pans up to show that there is still not top to some of these skyscrapers. The great thing is that some of these buildings are actually scalable if they have a set of stairs that lead to the ground, and are often the location for little bonuses and Easter Eggs when you hit the roof.

The cars themselves look like Micro Machines, which isn't necessarily a bad thing but it certainly did nothing to stretch any of the 32 Bit consoles or the PCs of the time. They are at least easily identifiable, even with the fake names that are a trademark of the series, plus they are plentiful which makes the actual stealing in the game that much easier.

The sound is pretty hit and miss. The soundtrack itself is superb, with the regular assortment of radio stations that we have gotten used to in later years in the series. Granted none of the music is particularly well known and the most played tune on Head Radio is the game's main theme, but it still offered a little bit of realism to the game when you would settle down in a car and the radio would start blaring. Even better, in both the PC and PS1 versions it was possible to replace the game disc with a regular CD once the game was up and running. This gave the added bonus of randomly playing a track from the CD whenever you got in a car, rather than having the radio running which was quite a neat little touch.

Outside of the music though, the sound effects aren't great. The inhabitants of the various cities begin to grate after a while as their little voice clips can get a little repetitive. None of the weapons really sound like they should and even the cars sound a little tinny and fake. So despite some sweet little touches with the music, the game could really have done with some more effort being placed on the sound effects. Though it must be said that the little squeaking of the guys that give you missions over the phone is quite funny.



So by now you're probably wondering why on Earth I have added GTA to the Retronomicon. Hell it probably seems that I don't like it that much but that is not necessarily the case. See DMA did with the GTA the same thing that they did with Lemmings. Focus less on the flash and more on the substance and as a game GTA is a great laugh.

Firstly it is important to note the amount of freedom the player is given. Between missions you can do pretty much anything you want. Exploring, mass murder, stealing and selling cars, it is all up to you. Hell some of the bets fun to be had with the game is driving around searching for groups of Hari Krishna to run down. What prompted the Lemming loving guys at DMA to give license to the player to cause mass slaughter to one of the biggest groups of pacifists going is anybody's guess, but I'd like to believe that the game was showing the juxtaposition between the peace loving Krishna and the rest of the GTA world and that your murdering entire groups of them showed that they didn't belong in this world.

Talking about mass murder, the most fun with GTA was likely to be had not with the missions, but with the killing spree icons, which were little skulls that when touched gave the player a set time to cause a certain amount of damage. It was an excuse for wanton carnage if ever there was one, and each of these sprees would result in masses of burnt out cars and broken bodies left lying on the road.

The missions themselves have always been a high point of the GTA series and luckily the first game wasn't an exception, but rather than game that started the rule. Later mission were multi-tiered and a hell of a lot of fun, ranging from blowing up buildings with a petrol tanker rigged with a car bomb right down to chasing people down or running packages to various areas of the city. While not as varied as later installments of the series, they were still a lot of fun to complete.

And complete them you must because whereas the newer games require mission completing to advance the story, GTA forces the player to work towards a set target of points to reach the end of a level, and missions are far and away the best way to do this as they offer the highest reward. It is possible to complete a level by just killing everything in sight if you are good enough to avoid the cops, thought he likelihood is that you won't be unless you make sure you're near a pay and spray beforehand.

The driving controls are pretty much spot on, with plentiful scope for handbrake turns and usually quite a few wide roads to try them out on. The cornering feels good and again brings to mind the Micro Machines games, which is no bad thing as they were amongst the most addictive driving games going in the 16 Bit era. The bikes however are pretty much a vehicular abortion and are completely pointless unless you are looking to injure your character. They take corners like Juggernaut from the X-Men, and any little clip on them from anything sends you little man sprawling across the tarmac with some nice new injuries. Hell the only way to ride them is to stay on the lines in the road unless you're looking for a quick way to dismount the blasted things.

The on foot sections are similarly cack-handed. Controlling your little guy is a little bit like playing a top down version of Resident Evil. Rotate to correct direction and move forward. Similarly the shooting mechanics aren't anything special, specifically with the lower level weapons, like pistols. Its difficult to aim and the whole system is massively dated. Luckily the bulk of the game takes place in the cars, which still drive like a dream, so its not too much of a problem.

The game also plays host to a lot of little bonus missions as well. Some phone boxes are unmarked on the radar which helps you find your way around the city, but when you step into them you may be asked to accept a mission anyway. The best ones come from getting into not at all conspicuous parked cars, which become the triggers for missions as varied as trying not to get yourself killed while escaping the owner up to get the vehicle rigged with a bomb for use against the owner's lover.

When it all comes down to it though, Grand Theft Auto isn't really that great a game. Sure the gameplay is pretty damned tight and very varied, but the graphics are nothing special, and the same could be said for the music and story. But it offered something that few games of the period offered. A sense of freedom. This coupled with wanton violence led to a successful game, which eventually exploded into the monstrous entity that it is today.



The Aftermath

Wow where do I start here eh? GTA itself scored decent sales figures, enough to put it on the Platinum line of games for the PS1 anyway, a line that was reserved for games that sold over 1 million copies. Reviews were pretty mixed and few declared the game to be anything more than a bit of fun. But there was something there, enough so for the top-down variant of the games to have both an expansion pack in GTA: London as well as a full blown sequel in GTA2. There were also ports to the GB and GBA.

Of course we all know that the GTA story doesn't end in 2D. With the advent of the PS2 a third in the series was announced. Gamers wondered what direction the game would go in at first. After all hadn't the first two GTA titles been made pretty much obsolete by the Driver games on PS1? Well that may have been the case but GTAIII on the PS2 was an absolute revelation and is still an absolute joy to play. The game was an instant classic but it kept just enough in common with the original as to be recognizable and instantly cemented not only itself but GTA1 as some of the most important games to have been released since the likes of the Mario and Sonic series. GTA was the launch of a behemoth and it is remarkable to track the series progress from these humble roots.

Of course there have been a multitude of GTA games releases since the series went 3D. Vice City, San Andreas and GTAIV are the main follow-ups and all are superb games, bringing new qualities to the series with each iteration, especially when it comes to in game narrative. There are also Liberty City Stories and Vice City Stories on the PSP, as well as Chinatown Wars on the DS. It isn't a stretch to say that there really isn't a terrible GTA game out there.

Of course DMA Design no longer exist. The success of the GTA series led the Lemmings developer in the the direction of a name change and they became Rockstar North in the progression from small indie level developer into the biggest games developers in Britain. The Rockstar franchise has been split several times, with branches in Canada and Leeds, but its amazing to think that the whole thing sprouted up from a little company called DMA. Surely they couldn't have seen where the creation of GTA would take them and I wonder if the same route would have been followed if the game had been given its original title of "Race n' Chase".

The Final Word

Grand Theft Auto is not one of the greatest games ever released. Hell there are a multitude of titles from the same era that are superior and have aged much better. However it is most certainly one of the most important titles ever released and for that it deserves a play. And how could you not play it? After all Rockstar have released the first two games in the series for free on PC right HERE

The Price is Right

GTA had a release on a number of formats and I'm tempted to just skip this section seeing as the vast majority of people who read this must surely own a PC and thus should be able to get the game for free. However I'm sure there are people who want the original CD's and the like so this is for them. As usual higher prices for better condition.

UK

PC - Free on the Rockstar website (see link in The Final Word). Alternatively about £5 for the original disc.
PS1 - £3 – 5.
GBC - £3 – 6.

US

PC - Free on the Rockstar website (see link in The Final Word). Alternatively approx $5.
PS1 - £2 – 5.
GBC - About $5.

The Guy Who Can do it Better Than You

This week we just have a bit of "Gangster Friday" by Craig Connor, the theme tune for GTA. Its actually a fun track, and god knows I had it stuck in my head for a while.

Ask 411

I'm still looking to get this column off the ground. Don't keep me hanging guys, you're making me think you guys must know everything or something.

Email your questions to [e-mail]

Enjoy and catch you next week.