Episode 405: Grand Theft Auto III

It does not surprise me to learn these games were created by rich kids.

Diamond Feit

The making of Rockstar/DMA and even Take Two Interactive is more interesting than the games they've made. David Kushner, the author of Masters of Doom, also wrote Jacked, the story of GTA. Ryan Brant, the founder of Take Two, is the son of a billionaire. Supermodel Stephanie Seymour is his step-mom. The Housers' mom is Geraldine Moffat, a British actress who played Glenda in Get Carter (1971). The Housers went to St. Paul's (elite secondary school). With a lot of money and connections, they created these publishing houses because they wanted to be cool and stylish. They weren't developers but at this time, we're entering an era in gaming where being Jobs is more important than being Wozniak. GTA III, as produced by these over privileged kids, was the product that perfectly married their affinity for showbiz (see who their parents are) and their eagerness to be on the street fringe (even though they live in penthouses).

Cajun Baz

I always felt like the main plot setup for this game was super similar to the Mel Gibson movie "Payback"

Michael Castleberry

I was so surprised to hear Diamond opening this podcast! Had to make sure it wasn’t a “this week in retro” 😂 loved this podcast group, great work!!!

Alexander Pero

Yes, Stuart will be hosting Retronauts episodes!

Diamond Feit

I think this episode is a great summary of the GTAIII phenomenon. Diamond did a terrific job in hosting. As much as I love Bob and Jeremy, it's refreshing to have another person take the helm. Does this mean other retronauts such as fan favorite (to me at least) Stuart Gipp might host a future episode? Either way, I would love to hear Diamond host more episodes.

Christopher McDougall

You tell the difference because I always say “Dateline” to start a This Week In Retro, as opposed to “This Week on Retronauts…” in hindsight I suppose that is backwards

Diamond Feit

I thought I clicked on the GameCube minisode by accident when I heard Diamonds voice first. Great job hosting and a well put together podcast!

Taylor Garofalo

A very enjoyable episode- Diamond did a great job in hosting, and it was nice that all three "Retronauts" had real experience with the game so could all fully contribute. I've actually never played the original GTA3 (I started with Vice City), but your point about it being an British perception of what American culture is like rings true. Back in 2001, UK culture, although obsessed with US media, still hadn't absorbed it so wholeheartedly into our day-to-day lives, so it still seemed somewhat of a an alien country - and just as some weebs exoticise Japan based on the anime they've watched rather than any real experience, many Brits had a very...Hollywood-skewed impression of the States. Now we've embraced craft beer, multiple flavours of ice-cream and the culture wars, I feel that gap has significantly narrowed and I wonder if a British developer would still be able to capture that "outsider-looking-in" perspective those early games did so well.

Adam Elmahdi

Rockstar North/DMA Designs are based in Edinburgh, Scotland which in turn is part of Great Britain (for the time being), so technically the terms are interchangeable. Just like someone can be Texan and American.

Adam Elmahdi

Great episode! I remember being incredibly excited for GTA3. I was big into open world driving games like GTA, Midtown Madness 1 & 2 and Driver, so I was following this game during it's development. I was a Junior in college and spent literal weeks with my friends passing the gamepad around and causing as much mayhem of possible. One thing you didn't touch on were members of the gaming press that refused to give this series any respect. In the early days of Podcasting (late 06) there were several well known hosts from major outlets like IGN and 1Up that refused to play GTA or anything GTA esque because that genre of game was too crass. Naturally that didn't stop them from discussing and writing about said games. The phrase "I don't need to play it to know it's a bad game." was thrown around many times. It was infuriating.

Virtual Balboa

Nice work hosting, Diamond! I love Jeremy and Bob hosting and would love more Diamond in the mix.

Back when games had to have a FMV intro GTA2’s was pretty neat https://youtu.be/9Z5O29rLRnw - Regarding giving a place a real look and feel, y’all are right about GTA3 being a kind of Anytown instead of NYC, no real unique buildings and landmarks, none of the density. GTA 4 had my NY/NJ area friends going “Woah”. It’s a bit of a shame I can’t stand to play the race missions of any rockstar games, and can’t get very far without trying a dozen times

John Simon

Good episode. One thing that confused me was when you were discussing the developers of the game and would mention some as being Scottish and others being "British". Did you mean English?

Played GTA2 on PS1 and 3 seemed like a 3D evolution of 2, tanks and rival gangs and randomly placed flamethrowers all carried over. GTA:SA’s open world is a small miracle on the PS2. You could hear the CD drive constantly churning in response to your movements. Once I had CJ get launched into the air and he flew for a few hundred feet into an empty part of the landscape, only to bounce off an invisible wall. Five seconds later the wall loaded in along with the rest of the city surrounding it. Just another thing we’ll miss in these days of flash memory 😁

John Simon

Great job hosting, Diamond!

Same. I've never played any of the GTA games either but still really enjoyed the podcast!

littleterr0r

I never played GTA, and probably never will, but damn did I enjoy listening to you guys talk about it! Having Diamond take lead freshened it up, too. Great show all-around!

VanDiagram

I enjoyed the missions tied to vehicles like the taxi, cop car, fire truck, but especially the ambulance. Getting patients to the hospital would get really challenging. Luckily you could abuse the tank code to repeatedly spawn tanks and park them on the sidewalks. It would eat away at the memory, tank after tank, causing the spawning of normal traffic to reduce drastically. Not sure why the tanks in particular persisted in memory like that, but it made delivering patients much safer and easier.

Andrew O.

Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy! I just realised that I've subconciously been awaiting a Retronauts run-through of the GTA franchise. Please do more on the subject!

Isn't this 405? 😅

The Retronauts A team on the sleeper hit of 2001.

shea dewar