2D Era
Grand Theft Auto
October 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
- Released
- October 1997
- Developer
- DMA Design
- Publisher
- BMG Interactive
- Setting
- Liberty City, San Andreas and Vice City
- Era
- 2D Era (1997–2000)
- Type
- Main title
Platforms
- MS-DOS
- Windows
- PlayStation
- Game Boy Color
Every platform the title has been released on. We record which, not when — a port’s own release date is a separate fact and we have not established one for each.
Enter the world
Liberty City, San Andreas and Vice City
The places, the people 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
Weapons
The armoury
Heavy Weapons
Flamethrower
Handguns
Pistol
Melee
Unarmed
Unclassified
Machine Gun
In the series
Related Releases
How GTA sits beside the rest of the franchise.
Expansions
Provenance
Verified against research.