Showing posts with label grand theft auto 1 2 3 4 5 6 liberty city stories vice city stories san andreas taxi beta secret glitch mattj155 beta. Show all posts
Showing posts with label grand theft auto 1 2 3 4 5 6 liberty city stories vice city stories san andreas taxi beta secret glitch mattj155 beta. Show all posts
On my daily excursions through the many pages of the internet, I came across two early builds of Smuggler's Run. The first is an early alpha build, seen here on YouTube:
I'd seen this video a couple of years ago, though for some reason I always thought it was a gameplay trailer release by Rockstar during the development of Smuggler's Run. Only lately have I realised that it's actually an early alpha build of the game which actually exists on a disc; rather than being a snapshot of a work in progress.
The second is a slightly later beta build. No footage of this one but here's an image of the disc. Thanks to Ptoponline (Past to present online).
I believe the owner of this image sold this disc a few years ago by the way. Anyway, so this got me thinking about GTA III again. (I bet I sound like a broken record...) I'd always thought that the best shot of owning a beta build of GTA III was to hunt down the disc that was playable at E3 in 2001; though now I'm wondering if there's an even earlier disc out there. Possibly an alpha build like the earliest Smuggler's Run footage that I posted above. Obviously I'm just speculating, but it's nice to think that there may be an even earlier build out there; containing the game around this stage of development:
Since my last post on this subject, there have been a few updates to report. Firstly, the Rockstar E3 Press Kit I bought from Ebay arrived and it's a nice thing to own. It obviously contains no demo, only screenshots, some videos, a trailer and a press release statement. However, it came with a name (probably the press officer at the time); Jeff Castaneda. I managed to contact Jeff and ask him about the demo that was playable at E3. Nice guy, however he couldn't really help me and instead, directed me to Rockstar support.
The trail went dead for a while, when I was contacted by a user on YouTube; with some snippets of information about a German journalist that had owned the demo, and sold it on Ebay. I am currently investigating this lead, though I have no idea how far I'll get with it. It would be great to talk to a previous owner though, as that would be a big step forward in tracking down the disc.
Look at this picture; do you recognise it at all? Well if
you don’t, it’s a school bus in Grand Theft Auto III. It’s not a mod either; it’s
one of many things that was either cut or changed during the development. You
can still see school buses near 8-Ball’s bomb shop in Portland, though they’re not
driveable; they don’t even have any wheels! Speaking of 8-Ball, he was
originally white rather than black, and was named Mullin. Last year, Rockstar
did an online Q and A with fans about GTA III; where beta features such as
these were explained. I’m going to do my best to detail what is now known about
the early stages of GTA III’s development, and what is still a mystery.
At any point during
the development of GTA III, did Claude ever speak?
Many people have seen this trailer where Claude appears to
say; “Get out of the car!”
Here is Rockstar’s explanation:
“This is fake. This is
an old bit of gameplay footage, for sure, but we think the voices were added at
a later date by someone online as at no point did we plan for Claude to have a
voice or even design how a speaking protagonist would be implemented until Vice
City.”
Seems probable, right? Well I can shed at least a little bit
more light than Rockstar can on this matter. I recently bought the press disc
that was given out by Rockstar to the press at E3 in 2001. The trailer in
question features on this disc, with voices and all. So it seems as if this
trailer is not a fake after all, though I would assume that the voices and
sound effects within the trailer were added by a Rockstar employee; and therefore
a talking Claude would have never been implemented in the game. It is possible
that the trailer in its finished state wasn’t seen by the powers that be at
Rockstar; and so could have been added by a single designer gone haywire. This
one remains a bit of a mystery.
Darkel
Darkel was a character that was cut during the development
of GTA III. He was to be a revolutionary street urchin who would have given out
rampage-like missions. However Rockstar decided to go back to the traditional
rampage style missions and Darkel’s part in the game was cut. The only mission
of his that is known to still exist in the game is ‘I scream, you scream’,
which was given out to Claude by El Burro. Here are Rockstar’s comments on the
matter:
“Darkel was just a
crazy bum who gave you some crazy missions. They were removed a few months
before the game was done and long before 9/11 because they just weren’t as good
as the rest of the game, and tonally they were a little odd. He started with 5
missions and they were slowly all cut. When only one or 2 were left, they were
all removed as the character just didn’t work alongside the other characters. None
of these missions involved blowing up buses of school children although that is
a funny rumour!”
Another rumour is that Darkel gave out a mission where the
player had to fly a plane into the Love Media Building. Rockstar have never
commented on this, however they have revealed that the Dodo was never meant to
be flown; meaning that this mission is probably just a rumour.
“Because we were
making a driving and shooting game - even that, as a combination of core
gameplay elements, was very, very radical at the time. The Dodo was never meant
to be flown very much at all, and it certainly wasn’t grounded as a result of
9/11 – it was just a fun thing that people then went crazy with when they
figured out various bugs that let them fly it!”
There were other cut characters too: Curtly, Butler
(presumed to have been Salvatore’s butler) and Novy. Tom Novy’s song ‘Back to
the Streets’ was used in a trailer and it is rumoured that it was to feature on
Head Radio. Both Novy and his song were cut for unknown reasons; however the
textures for him and Butler remain in the game. Other characters simply changed names before the final
release of the game. Salvatore Leone’s name was originally Frankie Sorvino; therefore
making Joey’s surname Sorvino too.
Other Stuff
A lot of the other stuff that was changed between the first
look at GTA III and the final release was mostly cosmetic. A beta map design
shows that Francis International Airport was located in Staunton Island, before
it was moved to Shoreside Vale. Shoreside Vale looked slightly larger than it
ended up being, having more roads near where the airport would eventually be
placed.
The graphics were a lot more ‘cartoonish’ in the earliest
stages of GTA III’s development, and Portland went through a few design tweaks.
The police station and hospital were changed and there was originally no
subway. The Police cars were originally blue rather than black, which is
potentially one of the few changes Rockstar made in light of 9/11.
“(GTA III after 9/11
was) about 1% different. We removed only one mission that referenced terrorists
and changed a few other cosmetic details – car details, a couple of ped
comments, lines of radio dialogue etc – the game came out a very short time
later. The biggest change was the US packaging which remixed the previous
packaging into what became our signature style – because the previous packaging
[which was released as the cover of the game in Europe] was, we felt, too raw
after 9/11. All of the more extreme rumours are amusing but impossible to have
been achieved in such a short period of time.”
So that’s about it. There’s just one thing left to cover
really.
Most people would consider Nintendo World Championships (Gold) as the holy grail of gaming. For good reason too, as it is probably the most expensive piece of gaming memorabilia out there; often selling for over £20,000 in those rare instances where it comes on the market. The only item that springs to mind which could fetch more, is if any of the Atari Swordquest treasures ever appeared for sale.
Just like Indiana Jones' father in The Last Crusade, who devoted his life to the search for the holy grail. Well, that's like me with the Grand Theft Auto III Beta. Well, in reality; I've only being looking around for a couple of months now! But still, I'm here to note down those small pieces of information which I've gotten so far.
For people that don't know; Rockstar never released an early beta for public viewing. There are very early screenshots, where the graphics were more cartoonish, there were school buses populating the road; along with many more things that would go on to be changed in the final release. The first trailers and video clips came along after the game had been worked on a little more. Then finally, a demo of the game was playable at E3 in 2001. However, this wasn't a case like Gran Turismo 2000; which was given out at the Playstation Festival 2000 in limited quantities. The beta GTA III was never given out, not even to the press.
In fact, Grand Theft Auto III had a fairly dismal time at E3 2001; as people were more impressed with the look of State of Emergency. Hard to believe that this GTA III is the same game that still generates a big amount of interest today; leading Rockstar to release a 10th Anniversary edition of the game last year. After E3 2001, Rockstar decided to pursue different routes to showcasing their impending releases; never bringing a playable demo to E3 or any other convention again. This is still the case today, as Rockstar decided not to showcase GTA V at E3 this year, much to many fans' surprise.
I briefly spoke to Jeff Gerstmann, former editorial director of GameSpot; who played this GTA III demo at E3 in 2001. Here are his thoughts at the time:
When I asked him for any other information regarding the beta demo at the time, he said:
"People played it at E3, it was never sent out to the media, as far as I know."
Unfortunately, no one really knows what happened to it after the convention. Many fans believe that any beta material is still in the hands of Rockstar. But it's important to note that most beta screenshots and video clips come from a work in progress; a code that's constantly being worked on. To my knowledge, the only instance where a beta version of the game was put onto a disc was for E3 in 2001.
Anyway, my search goes on... Though it should be noted that I have recently purchased a rare Rockstar press kit from E3 in 2001. It's not the demo itself, but it will contain information and possibly some screenshots and video clips from the game as a work in progress.
