2D Era
Grand Theft Auto
November 1997DMA DesignLiberty City, San Andreas and Vice City
The original: a top-down, open-ended crime game across three cities, played from a fixed overhead camera. It established the map, the wanted level and the three city names the series has returned to ever since.
The record
- Publisher
- BMG Interactive
- Era
- 2D Era (1997–2000)
- Type
- Main title
Platforms
- MS-DOS
- Windows
- PlayStation
- Game Boy Color
Platforms it was released on. The date above is the first release; later versions arrived on their own dates, which are not listed here.
No one you work for in the first Grand Theft Auto has a face. Each boss is a voice on a payphone with a rap sheet attached, and the rap sheets do the characterisation. Bubby, in Liberty City, runs to murder, robbery and extortion, and eventually puts you on a flight out. Uncle Fu, in San Andreas, adds piracy and opium, and the sheet puts his age at a hundred and thirty.
Vice City's work comes from Samuel Deever, a police officer whose record lists theft, kidnapping and a suspicion of cannibalism. Even in its first game, the series knew which side of the badge to watch.
Enter the world
Liberty City, San Andreas and Vice City
The places, the people, the vehicles and the weapons of Grand Theft Auto. Follow any of them in.
Locations
The places
The series' stand-in for New York, and the setting of eight Grand Theft Auto titles. The 1997 original drew it from overhead as one of three cities; the 3D era built it as three islands, opened one bridge at a time; the HD era rebuilt it from scratch as four boroughs with the state of Alderney across the water.
GTA VI
Vice City
City
Characters
The cast
Supporting
Bubby
The mob boss the original game's Liberty City work comes from — a voice on a payphone with a rap sheet running to murder, robbery and extortion, and the man who eventually puts the player on a flight out to the next city.
Supporting
Samuel Deever
Supporting
Uncle Fu
Vehicles
The garage
4 X 4
Cars
Superbike
Motorcycles
29 Special
Cars
Weapons
The armoury
Heavy Weapons
Flamethrower
Unclassified
Machine Gun
Handguns
Pistol
Melee
Unarmed
Vice Profile
Track your GTA progress
Mark what you have done in GTA, section by section, and pick up where you left off on any device. Saving needs a free account; reading this page never does.
Vehicles
Garage by class
49 vehicles across 2 classes listed for Grand Theft Auto, in the game's own classes. Pick one to browse it.
Weapons
Armoury by category
5 weapons across 4 categories listed for Grand Theft Auto, in weapon-wheel order.
On the dial
Radio
6stations
Every station you can pick up in GTA — 6 music stations.
Brooklyn Underground FM
Drum and bass and techno
Drum and bass and techno, named in the booklet and nowhere on air.
It's Unleashed FM
Hard rock, alternative rock and trance
Hard and alternative rock alongside trance, on one station.
N-CT FM
Hip hop
Hip hop and gangsta rap, known by the name the game's booklet gives it; the station never says it on air.
Radio '76 FM
Funk
Funk, listed in the booklet as Radio '76 FM, whose unnamed DJ calls it Funk FM instead.
The Fergus Buckner Show FM
Country
Presented by
- Fergus Buckner
Country music presented by Fergus Buckner, and one of the two stations in the game that names itself on air.
The Fix FM
House and dance
House and dance music under a name only the booklet prints.
Across the series
Shared with other titles
The titles that share the most with Grand Theft Auto on this site. Each row counts the vehicles, weapons, characters and locations listed for both that title and Grand Theft Auto.
- 13vehicles
- 2weapons
- 7vehicles
- 4weapons
- 1location
- 7vehicles
- 4weapons
- 1location
Counts are of what this site lists for each title. Neither list is complete yet, so a gap in a pair is ours, not the games'.
In the series
Related Releases
How GTA sits beside the rest of the franchise.