"Success" for "Rockstar Games" – the concept of permanent. And indeed, almost every game, which is published by their forces, became successful. But each product developed by the main studio Rockstar Games, Rockstar North, certainly received crowds of fans and a wave of popularity. And so it was with them constantly … with them, but not with DMA Design. This studio had to go through a lot, and only the era of the end of the nineties, when the second part of the young epic came out Grand Theft Auto, became the most productive for them, but the last – later they crossed under the wing of the new publisher and reorganized into the same Rockstar North, and after all they started production GTA III.
In this small series of blogs, I would like to consider "Special»Games – they cannot be called not at all unpopular or failures, but even if so – all the failures or unknown games of the series I also will not consider. In general, I wanted to make a gta retrospective: Chinatown Wars, and then I thought, and I realized that this game without Advance would not have been and decided to make a retrospective for this game. And then I thought and realized that Advance would not be without the schedule of the first parts and decided to make a retrospective on them. And then I thought and realized that without the first parts there would have been nothing at all, and Advance, in fact, is the heiress of GTA games for the Gameboy Color console, while Advance itself went out but the corresponding consoles of the same series.
In the “Retrospect of the camera”, which is named after the above games that in turn used the view from above, we will consider four games:
* GTA And GTA 2 on GBC (in this blog)
* GTA Advance (in the following)
* GTA: Chinatown Wars (in the last)
Well, it’s time to start.
Grand Theft Auto, which only then sounded so pathetic, and now –GTA 1, first saw in Europe November 8, 1997 years. It was clear that there were not so many full -fledged analogues in the market, and publishers could not miss the opportunity in the form of a potential hit. Among them, by the way, Take Two was later listed, which at the moment owns Rockstar Games. The next two years, the game spread in other regions – the USA and Japan, as well as consoles: besides the original MS-DOS And Windows (which, however, also appeared a little later) the young and impudent Grand Theft Auto came out PlayStation And Gameboy Color. If everything is clear from the first, then the second for obvious reasons had to change.
The version of the portable console was developed by the studio Rockstar Lincoln. At least that is what it is called today and is engaged in the localization of the games of the company-owner. Initially, it was "Tarantula Studios", On the account of which of the successful there were two games about Austin Powers. But this is not all: even earlier this studio was known as Spidersoft. Here, however, there is one strange thing: one source indicates that they produced GTA ports as Rockstar Lincoln in the late 90s-early 00s, but another source says that they turned into Rockstar already in 2002. We will take the second version as the basis.
At the entrance, another menu is immediately noticeable, in which, unlike the original version, there are even faces of unknown people. But now everything goes the same, as in the original – the choice of a character who does not affect anything, t.To. The hero’s spell will remain the same, the cities and the regime: the passage of the missions where you can fulfill the missions, and the regime special for each location. But as clear, only Liberty City is immediately available. Only 8 standard characters: Latin American (perhaps – Spaniards!1!) Babba and Katie, dark -skinned Troy and Divine, Europeans of Kivlov and Ulrika, Asian Mickey and Punk Travis. At least in this version it looks like this.
By the way, in the Gameboy Color, the versions are not just present all the original protagonists, but also 16 additional ones, but only Kelly is available from the very beginning – a strange middle -aged man. If you rename it into Sumner, then more than a dozen more heroes will open – rather non -standard. One of them, for example, is an orc. Most likely, these are the developers of Tarantula Studios, who decided to perpetuate themselves in the game.
One of the new characters
Nevertheless, at that time the portable GTA was something out of the ordinary. I do not presume to say, but it is possible on the plain with the announcement of a major game (but not a witcher) on the same Switch: Saints Row, Skyrim and t.D. Just imagine: this game DMA Design many players excited the minds, who tried to somehow play a computer or console in it, and then bam-and she gets to the portable, and now you can play almost anywhere in your favorite game. It is worth noting that it was not so easy to transfer such a big game to Gameboy Color, since it was not the first in the family, but remained limited. Whether it turned out from the young studio to transfer such a legendary product to the portable?
The game immediately begins in the same place where other versions, but without a machine standing nearby. And of course the graphics also asked – without it nowhere. And here … here … Then I bombed a little. True, this is not connected with the port itself, but with the original version. I still do not understand how the game entered the masses and Who was responsible for management. Perhaps many will condemn me, they say I am a casual and I do not rummage anything in old games. In general, you will be right, but not to the end. I played GTA 2 a long time ago – I liked the atmosphere and setting, but I could not sit in it for a long time for an already clear reason, but Retro City Rampage passed with great pleasure. For those who are not in the subject: management in the first two games is carried out due to the turns of the protagonist. To go, you need to deploy it in the right direction and clamp the walking key. And that Incredible idiotic decision, which still scares away many players. In the last blog, I, by the way, just talked about management and layouts. I am interested in old and retro games, so I’m trying to reason more or less objectively. So, Tarantulas We also decided to use a standard scheme in order not to move away from the canons, and therefore on the old GBC (or not a very old emulator) we have to walk on the button A. It is clear that they could not get away from this scheme, but it would be much better if they assigned to go to arrows. Plus, the button forward is not involved, but the back button performs a clear function. The character is a little clumsy. In the meantime, we have what we have.
The player again should go to https://space-wins.co.uk/ the phones and take any task. Many believe that in the first part of Grand Theft Auto there is no plot as such, but in practice it is not so – in every city its own storyline:
* IN Liberty City Two mafia clans are required to take part in the war: to work for Robert “Kid” Sergalino, the leader of the gang of Verkotti, and destroy the members of the Sonetti family, and later even the Bikers of the Angels club ”. In the end, the hero will be able to eliminate the leader of the clan and his trusted person, Cabot, undermining the building with them approximately at the end of the game.
* IN San Andres The player will be in the center of the confrontation of several gangs: Uncle Fu with his triad fights with mafia mob and El-Burro group. On the way, by the way, you can also work, and one of his tasks is to destroy some representatives of Yakuza with a unique limousine.
* IN Wais City You need to choose a typical side "bad cop"Samuel Divera or terrorists of the Army of the Army of Love JJ under the leadership of his brother Mark, who in turn also fight with Babylon – a government force structure. What is true, in the end, you still have to take the side of the latter, and it seems to me that this is such an option, because DMA, of course, does not praise extremists (although who knows), but did it purely for the PR, they say "See what kind of game we have!". T.e., This tears all the templates only to break the templates. By the way, one of the missions Divera is the murder of El-Burro, t.To. He is involved in drug trafficking with a group of brother Mark.
In general, the plot was, and in addition, freedom of choice, because of which the plot could vary among different players. At that time, this factor was, as for me, is quite important, because the player himself could choose who to play. This is nowhere else in the series. But Tarantulam It was also necessary to transfer this, taking into account the open world, many interesting systems and the power of GBC itself.
Let’s move on to the port itself – the cities have been postponed for sure, even containers with weapons on the spot. However, traffic can be described simply: either everything or nothing. Well, or already with a meme phrase: ""It’s hard to find, it’s easy to lose and impossible to forget". The bottom line is that the transport drives the streets quite rarely, but if the player manages to catch at least one, then in a minute there will be a huge traffic jam throughout the city. And no, they do not have a certain time of appearance – transport appears when he pleases. Yes, it is transport, because there are no drivers here – if you get into the car (and for this you need to approach the pixel in the pixel to the driver’s door), then the player will just sit down. It is clear that in those conditions and with such productivity it was quite difficult to implement a full -fledged transport system, so you need to be objective here and not put the emphasis on this problem, but it is worth noting – it is worth it.
But the management in my subjective opinion -. Again, the same because of the most enjoyable control system. Perhaps I will be wrong, but better the character would just go, but did not go aside, which still needs to be configured, respectively, shooting through this key and management would be more convenient. On the other hand, there are old players for whom this management has long become familiar and for which it is true in this case.
It is clear that the main charm of Grand Theft Auto for the then players consisted in the gameplay and atmosphere of freedom, while the failure of the missions was not something terrible. It is difficult, of course, to use such management and enjoy the city, but whether GBC has managed to convey everything that the original lured players? I will not finish and answer – yes. True, traveling around the cities, it may seem that you are traveling not along the Liberty City megalopolis, the pearl of the 90s San Andreas and the drug center of the whole country of Weiss City, and in the city, half of which disappeared through the click of Tanos, the night version of any resort and a more tropical version of the first settlement. And the fault of this is traffic and pedestrians. If the situation with the first is more or less clear, then people on the streets are not so easy. And thus exterminate the population of cities, than gamers were engaged so zealously before, and get the famous bonus "Gouranga»Simply impossible ..
Loss of losses
But there would be a point in doing it? Years earlier, c 93rd, Mortal Kombat, distinguished by its cruelty, reached the first console Gameboy, but its next parts did not stop going out on this family Nintendo. Apparently, it was economically beneficial. Now imagine what it was for the first time for the children that they launched her on their portable. Imagine the following picture:
A joyful boy runs into the courtyard and shouts to everyone that he has “that same bloody MK!". As a result, almost all the local children gathered from him, like at a local fire. The Male is stretched out a wonderful device – Gameboy, after which it adds: “Right here. ". They launch it and start the game, choose Scorpio, without even paying attention to the black and white palette. And now, barely obtaining the enemy, almost losing because of the INPUT LAS, everyone triumph, feeling the same as visitors to the Coliseum, and ask not to leave a trace from the enemy, knowing the possibilities of the game. The player is trying to use fatalities that he remembers, but instead of a bloody reprisal, the audience see only the beating of sub-ziro. Accordingly, the boy is called a maneuver, beaten to blue, take the console and Pass over consider the enemy of the people.
In general, somewhere such disappointment was waiting for ordinary buyers. There was no blood and cruelty in the game due to the censorship of the publisher Nintendo. The same situation with GTA 1: we will discard the fact that there are not many pedestrians and that they are not like themselves, but if you try to kill them or cop (which, by the way, are also present), then neither a puddle of blood is visible. And here the question is from the typical player of the then player, for example, Igor: “And why the hell we need GTA on GBC, if not even GTA?". And at least I try to be objective, I agree with Igor – GTA challenged the then standards and frames, trying to be special, because let’s be honest: Igor could beat people before turning on River City Ransom. Well, to observe the falling sprites of pedestrians, he has not so much desire.
I may be wrong, but Nintendo, in my opinion, left the mission of the line of fraternity of love of the army of the army. Let me remind you: this is a line of hippies-terrorists, during which the character becomes a direct participant in terrorist acts, helps suicide bombers to take the goal of his life and kills the president of the United States. In general, double standards have always been the problem of society. Although to allow MK or GTA on GBC was already a result for fans of a similar style.
What I want to say at the end about the port of the first Grand Theft Auto on the Gameboy Color console? It is clear that Tarantulas They tried, trying to transfer all the best, despite the technical restrictions – even the sprites of the bosses look pretty good, albeit all, but fully, as if they were the original. But censorship ruined the impressions of the then players (but not to me), which is why many, without learning the experience of MK, remained somewhat disappointed.
GTA 2 came out a few weeks earlier than the port of the first part on the GBC – therefore it was clear that the portable version would not be released in the same year. And so, in the 2000th year, when DMA has already become Rockstar North, the continuation on the GBC was light.
The sequel became the fourth game of the series (GTA 1, London 1969, London 1961, GTA 2) and the first where the protagonist was “fixed” – they became a Claude AIDS. He also appeared in a shortage based on the game. It is worth noting that AIDS is not a very good person and anarchist in the most vulgar meaning of the word. However, in addition – it is not romanticized (quoting the recent statements of US President Donald Trump) and looks like a real gangster. What is true, only in the main versions – in return the players on the GBC received six characters, which, however, cannot be renamed: Caligars, Candy, Eddie, Gretchen, Paulo and Ruben. Also, sprites do not look very high quality, since their portraits are decorated in blue, which is why everything merges. By the way, in the game itself a small section appeared in the lower indicator, where a portrait of a certain hero is displayed. Who he is is incomprehensible, and in all cases, the icon of the protagonist is an unknown man on the site. Question: Why then make a choice of characters/this icon?
It is immediately evident that the authority system and gangs with its transport and system are ported. What is true, at the same time you can see the graphics of the game. And it would be better to hide. At first it seems that it has become more detailed, but the red gamma (from the main game) and the world looks like it was created under the old NES based on the film category "B". It seems that the world has degraded.
The retro -functionism of the second part created its own, unique atmosphere, but there is also a potential that has been nullified.
GTA 2 – Cyberpank. Events take place in the future-the 2013th year, the year of release-1999, the cities are controlled by companies-the player needs to go through three districts of the city of Enibeaa-City, and each will have three gangs, moreover, the third will always have a Dzeibatsu corporation, the corresponding weapon, and the cars are also in the appropriate style. In general, GTA 2 is included in the cyberpunk genre.
But not without good: now the hero can find a weapon at the very point of appearance. The protagonist himself, by the way, began to move much faster – and this is pretty good. Although sometimes it seems like it is on speed.
Continuing to praise the port, I note that the city has become alive (within GBC, of course) – there are pedestrians and adequate traffic. What is true, the NIPs can sometimes fall into a stupor and cut circles, but they still have, and even in a fairly large amount.
What about the appearance? As I understand it, the developers transferred sprites from the previous port to the new one, but they were given work on the city too late, so we have what we have, unfortunately.
T.To. The engine is taken the same, I can’t say much – many details remained the same as in the first port. But it is clear that the previous time Tarantulas They had fun and were stubborn by their product, this time economic factors and deadlines worked, as it seems to me. The merger with Rockstar Games and the reorganization in Rockstar Lincoln also influenced. Despite the fact that some things were twisted, the global problem – management, left. For obvious reasons. Shooting, in general, there and there is suitable for use, t.To. The pace is not quite fast and squall Unlike the heir to these ports. An unnecessary thing appeared in the second part, like the same icon of the protagonist, which used the sprite of an incomprehensible person. Why did he need it?
In the end "reviews", If they can be called that, I will finally say-the ports are not bad, although I repeat that in the second part of the schedule it was worse than in the first (although the size of the locations did not differ much in numbers), but if the graphics of the 97th year were also not fire, then the version of the 99th was pulled up in this regard.
Rockstar Lincoln, which has already survived the transformation a couple of times, is currently remaining a subsidiary of Rockstar in the city of the same name. They no longer returned to the GTA ports – now their work consists in localization and other similar things. However, there was a small scandal associated with them: the guys stated that during the work on RDR 2 were on overtime hours, which was due to which they were fraught and tired. As a result, Rockstar Games in 2019 introduced a more flexible schedule for them and generally improved their production. The next part will narrate about GTA Advance – a visual continuation of the first GTA, the actual heir to the ports on the GBC and the wrestling to GTA III.
English