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[IbizaPocholo]

an incredibly early build of the unreleased Game Boy Advance port of Grand Theft Auto III has been released online

(good thing there isn't anything else going on to overshadow this. 🤔) "but wait," you're probably asking. "wasn't there already a spin-off GTA game released on the Game Boy Advance?" there was, but before this Rockstar actually enlisted Crawfish Interactive (notable for their high technical...

famiboards.com

"but wait," you're probably asking. "wasn't there already a spin-off GTA game released on the Game Boy Advance?"

there was, but before this Rockstar actually enlisted Crawfish Interactive (notable for their high technical skill on Nintendo's handhelds, such as a nearly 1;1 port of Street Fighter Alpha on Game Boy Color. and an early GBA FPS based off the poorly received film "Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever") to do a more standard port of the third game.
per an investigative article written by Brian Provinciano (yes, the same one that would go on to make Retro City Rampage and Shakedown Hawaii) it was publicly leaked that Crawfish was working on the port a week before the studio shut down due to financial issues. with former developers posting various details and screenshots from it in the years since.

Rockstar would then enlist Digital Eclipse to finish where Crawfish started, with the project being finally self-published by them (it was originally being distributed by Destination Software, as this was before III even launched on PS2) in 2004.

 

[Kupfer]

Don't have the time to watch right now, but from my clicking through the video it looks like they used this basis for GTA Chinatown Wars.

 

[Syphon Filter]

Don't have the time to watch right now, but from my clicking through the video it looks like they used this basis for GTA Chinatown Wars.

More like the original first two gta games.

 

[CamHostage]

One minor correction: Rockstar had nothing to do with the GTA3 GBA project; the game rights were bought up way before by fluky publisher Destination Software (who also did Smuggler's Run GBA and Midnight Club GBA, both by Rebellion on moderately ambitious GBA engines for the time but both I believed sucked and had no chance under the Destination budget anyway.) The signing was announced at E3 2001, back before GTA blew up (and back when Rockstar was still introducing itself.)

At some point, things went wrong at Destination. They apparently at first did a regular 2D version like Midnight Club, but restarted to get some kind version of 3D in with a behind-the-character viewpoint when they realized they had something massive on their hands that might actually be worth not rushing; unfortunately for them and probably fortunately for us, they never got it done.) Destination got swallowed up into Zoo Digital, and Crawfish also went out of business (a great portable game studio in its day but money was tough and fast in the "handheld ghetto".) Rockstar got its brand back on the portable and had Digital Eclipse (who I'm pretty sure never had any connection to the Destination project, though they would have been apt to pitch a prototype for the deal back in those days so maybe?) make a brand new GTA for GBA.

 

[Big Baller]

Those top-down GTA's are the worst. Sure I had fun with the original and 2 had some cool light effects but the limited sight was a real pain.

 

[CamHostage]

BTW, "Grand Theft Auto Advance" had a project going where somebody mapped/ported into a GTA3 mod. They didn't flatten the map or simplify the buildings to really capture the GBA version of Liberty City (if somebody wanted an "authentic" version of the GBA world in 3D), but it looks like they did adjust areas to fit the spots under construction or with story changes in the GBA timeline, they changed the cars and signage to match what the GBA game would have looked like in full dimension (some of it comes from LCS, which I guess is a similar timeline of GBA Advance,) and they brought GBA story missions and text blocks over. The project only got so far and looks abandoned, but it's an interesting MOD to check out.

Grand Theft Auto Advance

Grand Theft Auto Advance is a PC remake of original GTA Advance (2004, GameboyAdvance). Its a sequel to LCS, while being a prequel to GTAIII. Its taking place in the year 2000, only 2 years after LCS (98) and 1 year before GTA3 (2001).For more info on the original game visit :http://www.rockstarg...

gtaforums.com

 

[Nightrunner]

Imagine what could've been if Rockstar had hired VD-Dev instead. I played Driver 3 on GBA and while it was pretty scuffed it still managed to impress, would've been cool seeing Rockstar trying to do something like that.

 

[Kerotan]

To me it's a no brainer to do a 3D remake of these games for GTA 1 and 2.

 

[CamHostage]

To me it's a no brainer to do a 3D remake of these games for GTA 1 and 2.

I would have agreed easil many years ago (and it still would be an attractive package if they did it,) but realistically, the GTA audience would not at all recognize the old GTAs (especially the wild, lightly futuristic GTA2 story) and the gameplay would completely change (and probably still not hold up) in 3D.

If it was an authentic conversion, I'm not sure who would play it, and if it was a "tribute" recreation to GTA1+2 (plus GTA London, another oddity and maybe the best reason to go back and redo 2D in 3D since it goes outside of the States,) then I'm not sure it would make old fans who actually want this happy. Could be cool, but I get why it hasn't been done.

BTW, there are various map-hack projects/MODs for all the 2D GTAs, (including 1,2,London,Advance, & a camera hack for Chinatown Wars PSP...although interestingly, the character is a sprite in the game even though everything else is rendered in top-down 3D.)

 

[Alexios]

Remake/demake or version, not a port at all. Obvious for everyone but rampant thread making AI bots. Anyway, for GBA spec top down was the better approach compared to the Driver series trying to cram something resembling the full 3D gameplay of the original games in it. DS could do more.