GTA 1's Vehicle Physics Are Now Playable In Your Browser
Former Grand Theft Auto programmer Patrick Kerr has shared his system and explained how it works.
In case you missed it
GTA 6 FAQ
With Grand Theft Auto 6 on the horizon and everyone getting into the spirit, why not take an even bigger trip down memory lane? This project by Patrick Kerr is a great reminder of just how far the series has come.
Kerr was a programmer at DMA Design, the studio that would eventually become Rockstar North, and was involved with both the first and second GTA games. In 1996, he developed a 2D physics simulation that became the foundation of the vehicle system in the hugely popular original Grand Theft Auto game. As he shared, the project started as a simple wireframe demo written in GFA BASIC on his Atari ST at home, then later ported to C for use in the game. Now, for the game's 30th anniversary, Kerr has recreated the original simulation in JavaScript, giving it a slightly more polished look for anyone who wants to see it for themselves.
You can play Motion Lab on PC or mobile. The default mode is Car (1), but you can also switch to the simpler Ship (2) or Brick (3) modes. Toggle the side collision barriers by pressing B. Press G to turn vertical gravity on or off, which is mainly useful in Ship and Brick modes. The camera has two extra controls: press Z to toggle the camera's dead zone, which controls how far the vehicle can move before the camera starts following it, and press X to toggle the speed-based zoom, which pulls the camera back a little when you're moving faster, like in GTA.
Motion Lab
If you're interested in how it all works, Kerr also wrote an article explaining the technology behind this system and why it was so novel for its time. Read it here and try out Motion Lab.
GTA fans who want to learn more old-school tricks should also check out this video from Game Maker's Toolkit, which looks at how Rockstar North managed to fit an entire 4-kilometer-wide city into the PlayStation 2's tiny 32 MB of memory for Grand Theft Auto 3. And while you're at it, don't miss David Reinig's article on the rendering technology used in Tomb Raider 3.
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