Grand Theft Auto 3 for the 8-Bit NES

[Brian_Provinciano]

Grand Theftendo, a port of Grand Theft Auto III for the original Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) has just been announced. It is Grand Theft Auto III running on an 8 bit, 256x240 resolution, 2 bit colour x 2 bit palette, 1.79 Mhz system, written entirely in 6502 Assembly Language! It includes the entire Portland city!

Purely a project of my spare time, it has progressed very nicely. I had kept the development of it quiet until now, in which GTA: San Andreas, and more importantly, GTA: Advance was released. After the release of GTA: Advance, a top down take on Liberty City, I decided there was no better time to show the world my efforts. It will still be a little while before it's finished, but enough is done that it has something to show for itself.

http://www.grandtheftendo.com

[om3ga]

Right on man.

That is super duper cool.

[delafro]

Looks good, keep us updated.

[soniko_karuto]

looks better than the gbc version. :D

[Nesmaster]

wow thats awsome. keep us updated :D:D:D

[DigitalSpace]

Nice work!

[Jasoco]

:eek 2:

Kick ass!

When it's done, will there be a downloadable ROM? Or better yet, an actual cartridge complete with standard-sized box, sleeve and styrofoam and a cool label. I think that would rock, be cool to have and make a great conversation piece.

[TRM]

:eek 2:

Kick ass!

When it's done, will there be a downloadable ROM? Or better yet, an actual cartridge complete with standard-sized box, sleeve and styrofoam and a cool label. I think that would rock, be cool to have and make a great conversation piece.

Haha, I would love to see that too though I doubt that it would happen.

The game looks really nice...keep up the great work, I am impressed so far.

[EricRyan34]

Wow that is awesome! Great job!

[tholly]

:eek 2:

Kick ass!

When it's done, will there be a downloadable ROM? Or better yet, an actual cartridge complete with standard-sized box, sleeve and styrofoam and a cool label. I think that would rock, be cool to have and make a great conversation piece.


looks nice, and if it ever got a cart release i would be all over that

keep up the good work

[Jibbajaba]

If there is any way that this could find it's way onto a cartidge once it's completed, I'm sure that you will have a lot of buyers from this site, myself included.

Chris

[charitycasegreg]

Dang thats sweet looking. Nice job! Make it into a cartridge!

PS: YOu should make a seuqual (hack) of Super mario world but with new maps and levels but make it look like the first super mario world. I would buy it. :)

[koolkid13]

:eek 2:

Kick ass!

When it's done, will there be a downloadable ROM? Or better yet, an actual cartridge complete with standard-sized box, sleeve and styrofoam and a cool label. I think that would rock, be cool to have and make a great conversation piece.


looks nice, and if it ever got a cart release i would be all over that

keep up the good work
Wont happen. Rockstar would sue like there is no tommorow

[soniko_karuto]

:eek 2:

Kick ass!

When it's done, will there be a downloadable ROM? Or better yet, an actual cartridge complete with standard-sized box, sleeve and styrofoam and a cool label. I think that would rock, be cool to have and make a great conversation piece.


looks nice, and if it ever got a cart release i would be all over that

keep up the good work
Wont happen. Rockstar would sue like there is no tommorow

well, imagine that there are hong kong pirates.
nuff said.

[morphx]

If he's recoded and is using a different name I don't know how likely a suit is. It has to be pretty damn close to be conisdered misrepresentation aka Mythic entertainment sued Microsoft to prevent the release of Mythica.

Grandtheftendo is on the edge of if it would qualify for that particular form of suit.

[kainemaxwell]

Nice work man, I'd buy it!!

[Pantechnicon]

Nice work man, I'd buy it!!

+1. I'd buy this in a cocaine heartbeat. This looks great. Keep us all posted on your progress.

[Cow Bell Man]

Sweet. I can't wait to play it when it's done. Keep it up. ^_^

[Promophile]

Yep put it in a cart and slap a glossy label on there and I'd be all over it.

[ianoid]

My goodness that's amazing!

I guess that takes some of the excitement out of my announcement of Grand Theft Buggy 2600. Natch.

[jerkov]

Holy shit! This looks incredible. I love seeing stuff like this on the NES. I'm currently obsessed with GTA: SA (and I'm going to pick up GTA for the GBA soon) and you couldn't have picked a better time to reveal this. I wish more people were creating games like this for the NES......

PLEASE make a cartridge! You have another sure customer right here. Shouldn't be too hard to burn an EPROM and print up some labels, right?

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

If he's recoded and is using a different name I don't know how likely a suit is.
Erm...pretty darn likely, actually.

I hate to be a wet blanket, but if it were me, I would've held off on the announcement until there was a ROM ready to release. I'd be a bit surprised if the site for this game is still around come Thanksgiving, especially with a new GTA game having just hit the market. :/

Nifty idea, and it looks like some mighty fine execution, but easy pickings for the copyright attorneys. I mean, if Atari system homebrews are being shot down for a vague similarity in name...this project's a big bulls-eye in neon.

[Brian_Provinciano]

Hi! Thanks for your positive comments!

Since Rockstar owns GTA, I can't sell it, but the ROM will be available for download when it's done.

Worst case scenario, I would need to change all of the dialogue and character names. Other than that, releasing the game for free shouldn't be a problem. I'm a huge fan of Rockstar Games, and their games make up almost my entire PS2 collection. I can't see them sueing or such, as all of the code, graphics, and everything else was done from scratch by me. I didn't reverse engineer any code, trace any graphics, convert any audio, etc.

I will try and get blank flash carts made for it, so people can play the game on their NES rather than just emulators. However, I definitely won't attempt to sell the game.

I guess it's not so much a port as much of a "remake", heh, remake on an older system.

Edit: The reason the companies were going after those Atari 2600 "homebrews" is because they weren't "homebrews", they were pirate hacks of existing games. GTN isn't a hack or pirate of anything, it's a game done from scratch.

[Daria]

My god that's really amazing. O.o

Good work and I wish you luck on completeing the game. I'd definately play it.

[slip81]

That is very impressive man. I hope RS keeps their nose out of this and realizes that it's just a fan making something for fun and not profit. Can't wait to see and play the finished game. Keep up the excellent work :)

[max 330 mega]

finally, a GTA id want to play. that looks fun as shit. awesome job.

[Dr. Morbis]

finally, a GTA id want to play. that looks fun as shit. awesome job.
Ditto. :-P

[Kepone]

Put it on a cartridge, and I WILL buy it!

Wow. This is so fucking cool! :D

[Pedro Lambrini]

:rocker: Too cool :rocker:

[Cauterize]

im impressed!!!!!

[NESaholic]

Dude that looks awesome , if you manage to put some on carts i will want one!!! keep us informed!!

[Barbarianoutkast85]

That looks awesome

[aaron7]

Put me down for a copy! That looks amazing! I can't wait to see more!

[sniperCCJVQ]

Awesome, NES programmer are so rare compare to the 2600 and Colecovision homebrew scene.

Great work !

[Flack]

I guess that takes some of the excitement out of my announcement of Grand Theft Buggy 2600.

You think that's bad? There's really no reason for me to continue Grand Theft Pong now at this point either.

Two comments ... one, that's freakin' AMAZING.

Two, not only code is copyrighted ... the characters, the city, the names and the entire "Grand Theft Auto" franchise is copyrighted. Rockstar COULD stop you from distributing it. The problem is, they have to defend their copyright against even the cool projects (like this one) so that people don't start making GTA T-shirts and selling them at flea markets.

Not only the "rom hacks" have been under scrutiny from Atari -- I know that "Adventure II", which was a completely fan-written (and quite impressive) sequal to the original Adventure has been renamed due to threats from Atari. That's 100% original code -- but by using the name "Adventure II" they caught hell.

I hope you can avoid any legal issues ... at least until I get a chance to play it! :evil:

[Neil Koch]

Awesome man, simply awesome... keep up the good work!

Amazing what some people can do with the NES...

[kainemaxwell]

As the game develops you could release roms of it to us to beta test for you as well, if you wanted.

[9c1lt1]

This is a really lame question, but how did you figure out all the coding. It really is mind blowing. :embarrassed:

[DJ_DEEM]

that does look incredible i cant wait, but yah if you do end up finishing it and your site does get shut down, make sure you let us know.

i wouild die for a cart of this,

(just make em up and sell a few on here : P )

(i didn't say that)

[stuffedmonkey]

Yeah. You HAVE to make some copies of that. Nice work.

[Gzilla23]

you are unbelievably talented man....very good looking work.

[Gregory DG]

Lemme just echo the chorus:

Cool! Great work!

[Proclus]

This is pure genius.

[Emily]

Keep us posted about thet flash cart!!! I would die to play this on my NES!!!

[Dr. Morbis]

Are you using a custom mapper or a standard mapper? If you use a custom mapper, I'd imagine it would be much more difficult to have the ROM repro'ed for those of us that will be wanting this in cart form.

[jwl]

Did anybody notice the buttons on the NES controller at the top left corner of the page. And it works too. :)

[Brian_Provinciano]

Indeed!

As for flash carts, as long as Rockstar doesn't have a problem with them, I'll try to get blank ones made so the game can be played by everyone on actual hardware. It uses MMC5, but I will likely be switching it over to a custom mapper later for better animation and better graphics bankswitching. In any case though, if it's a custom mapper, I'll whip up some emulator plugins so they can run it.

[Sibs]

Wow, that's incredible. I'd definately would like a copy of this when it's done!

[Fuyukaze]

I hate GTA and want no part of it.


That said, I actualy would like to play this on my NES. Perhaps its because I have never played a GTA game, or perhaps its because I would have some damned good braging rights about owning a copy. It would be nice if there was a cart released for it but somehow I highly doubt it ever will see the light of day.

In cart form that is, rom its posible, but I doubt cart.

[long_shawn_silver]

I'm good at making glossy labels for nes games, so get "leonk" (excelent at the cart thing, I buy from him) to make the cart and I will make the labels!! Off to make the label RIGHT NOW!! Anyone Want me to post it when I'm done\have any idea's for the style\art concept?

[rbudrick]

Wow, Brian! That's pretty incredible. I'm actually really, glad you posted because it gave me a chance to look at some of your other projects. I forgot who did all that work with the Game King, so you've got my book mark now!

I would LOVE to buy a stand alone GK-TV converter from you, should you decide to make them. If you do, please let me know...I will definitely buy one.

I was really impressed that you managed to connect an original GB to a TV....something I tried all the time to do as a kid, but gave up, realizing some extra circuitry would be required...then the Super GB came out and I stopped worrying about it. Think you'll try the GB Color? ;-) Actually, do you think you could use that same circuitry on the Game.com? That system sure would suck a lot less if you could see what's on the screen as you play...I've always wanted to see Game.com games as the were supposed to be seen...without blur.

I also have been meaning to ask you something else. Check out this site:

http://geocities.com/vjkemp/sega/ggtv.htm

Victor Kemp and I tried for a long time to get the Gamegear to output to a TV...this is how far we got. I'm curious to see if you might be able to improve upon this. I've wanted a GG to TV solution since the GG was released, as I'm sure many others have. Unfortunately, I believe this is as far as anyone got (the link above).

Great job on GTEndo...I can't wait to see what other projects you post on your site...and to play the game!

-Rob

[Brian_Provinciano]

Hi! Thanks so much!

I love hacking hardware, it so much fun--especially doing stuff so crazy no one else has even thought of. I have a few more console hardware mods/projects planned, some I've even designed schematics for already, but they are on hold until Grand Theftendo is done.

I actuall found the Game Gear site and modded a GG with that TV out. I didn't get around to making it colour though, just built it as it was. Perhaps when GTN is done. I was thinking of reverse engineering the GG's LCD to use it on things, and could always do a GG video capture device. I to plan on messing the the GBC's video indeed.

Thanks again for your comments!

[Sph1nx]

I have to say man... the game looks amazing.

The tools you've coded to help with assembly, look nice too.... I'd actually like to get a hand on those more so than the game! :D

I agree with everyone that if this was in cart form, I'd be ALL over it.
Hopefully, no problems arise from Rockstar.

My biggest hope though, is that this somehow pushes the NES homebrew scene. I want Homebrew cart releases like the 2600 and other systems get!

[Daria]

I took another look at the site today to show my boyfriend, and after looking closer at the Devtendo pic I have to ask... is that a PSone hooked up to it? o.O

[Ed Oscuro]

256 colors? 240 extra? How does that work again? O:

Awesome work, man, it's a shame NES games weren't made like this back in the day. Or that big games aren't made like this today, either ;P

[Ed Oscuro]

I took another look at the site today to show my boyfriend, and after looking closer at the Devtendo pic I have to ask... is that a PSone hooked up to it? o.O
It's a gutted PSOne shell. No PSOne inside anymore.

[Daria]

I took another look at the site today to show my boyfriend, and after looking closer at the Devtendo pic I have to ask... is that a PSone hooked up to it? o.O
It's a gutted PSOne shell. No PSOne inside anymore.

Well I figured. I was just seeing if that was the same case. But thanks.

[Brian_Provinciano]

Hi. Actually, it's a Polystation case I used. The Polystation is a Famicom (japenese Nintendo) clone from China. This one I had was completely non working and unrepairable. The case was about the perfect size for my Devtendo board, so I decided to use it.

http://bripro.com/low/obscure/polystation/img/poly.jpg

One of these days I'll get around to making a nice case for it, but there are more important things right now, such as finishing Grand Theftendo :)


I might do a Devtendo II later when I get around to making a new case, though we'll see. It does everything it needs to, but I could make it an internal PC card instead of using the parallel port. It would make the ROM transfer much faster! If I do a second version, I've also been planning on having extra SRAM to cache the data being transfered to cut down on handshaking. It's still the fastest NES dev system anyone's built so far though :) Kevin Horton's CopyNES is great too, and could likely be just as fast if his PC code was done in C or ASM.

[AMG]

That is one of the coolest things I've seen in a while. Very nice.

[chaoticjelly]

That is mad and I love it !

I'd love to make a Master System game..

[rarecube]

WOW !!

Think about it...
If you made that 15 years ago, you will be a millionare by now.
And thats for sure.

[jhd7]

If you ever put Grand Theft Auto 3 on an NES cart, I'll buy one. I know you don't want any legal trouble, and I certainly don't either, but if there's a way, let's do it. I've been buying all opcode's CV homebrews, and bought Chris Covell's Solar Wars for the NES several years ago.

Jeff D