How things have changed…

The original designer of the first GTA is recreating the game in full 3D, although it doesn’t look quite as impressive as GTA V’s version of Los Santos…

When it was released back in 1997 the original Grant Theft Auto was not an impressive looking game. Although technically it was in 3D it used a fixed top-down view that made everyone look like ants; and it was so difficult most people just messed around trying to run pedestrians over and barely ever got started on the story missions.

In fact it was something of a surprise that the franchise continued with Grand Theft Auto III, which as the first 3D game could easily have been rebranded as something else.



Rockstar themselves now rarely refer to the first game, or its very similar sequel, but original creator Michael Dailly has taken it upon himself to recreate the original Vice City map in 3D. He’s using similar textures to the first game, so as you can see its no photorealistic masterpiece, but it’s strangely fascinating nevertheless.


Dailly is also the co-creator of Lemmings, with both it and GTA hailing from the time when Rockstar North were still called DMA Design and Scotsman Dave Jones was calling the shots instead of Dan Houser.

Nowadays Dailly works at developer YoYo Games , creators of GameMaker: Studio – a game creation tool he’s used as the basis for his 3D remake.

He won’t be able to release the remake publically though because the game still belongs to Rockstar. However, when it’s finished he says he’ll make ‘something’ available, but it’ll probably be without any maps or textures so that he doesn’t get sued.

For more details Dailly is busy on Twitter with updates and new screenshots. He also seems happy to answer questions, if you have any.

The original Vice City

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