Grand Theft Auto III (GTA3)
Insanity
Colin Fahey
1. Introduction
The following images are from the video game Grand Theft Auto III (GTA3) for the personal computer (PC).
Grand Theft Auto III (GTA3) is a wonderfully insane video game.
The game is especially exciting and crazy after the player commits a significant amount of violent crime.
As a player commits more violent crimes, such as driving over crowds of pedestrians or shooting automatic weapons at traffic, the amount of law enforcement action increases to a true frenzy.
The progression of levels of law enforcement is intense and hilarious.
Initially, the police chase the player and fire pistols at the player, and they will pull the player out of a vehicle to arrest the player.
If the player commits more violent crime, a police helicopter with a search light and megaphone appears, and a passenger of the helicopter shoots bullets at the player.
If the player commits more violent crime, the police are replaced by FBI agents with automatic weapons in black cars.
The FBI agents pursue the player with manic intensity, driving over pedestrians and flying off the road in total recklessness.
The FBI agents are not interested in arresting the player!
If the player finds a safe hiding spot, the FBI agents will continue smashing their vehicles, shooting wildly, and killing themselves and other citizens at a ridiculous rate, eventually committing more violent crime, in the pursuit of justice, than the player himself or herself.
However, if the player commits more violent crime, such as shooting rocket-propelled grenades at cars and crowds of people, the US Army will become involved.
The US Army pursues the player in armored battle tanks and troop carriers, and the soldiers are armed with M-16 assault rifles.
The experience of playing at this level is awesome.
The vehicle explosion dynamics and sounds are very satisfying to experience.
Also, there is a wonderful tendency for chain reactions, with one explosion setting other vehicles on fire, which eventually explode.
The citizens scream in terror and start driving recklessly (smashing everything and driving over other people) in their panic and urge to flee the danger.
All aspects of the game seem to be slightly out of control, with crazy energy leaking a little beyond the already extreme limits.
The A.I. of the citizens, the A.I. of the police, the physics calculations, and visual details, are all a little bit rough and distinctly intensified to a surreal level.
All of the elements in the game reinforce the idea that this city is on the brink of going completely psychotic and exploding.
The game offers the option of giving all citizens all possible weapons (including flamethrowers, rocket launchers, grenades, M-16 assault rifles, and Molotov Cocktails).
The game offers the logically associated option of making the citizens violently insane, such that they kill anyone they can see, with whatever weapons they have.
When that is combined with wild law enforcement pursuits, the city is transformed in to a storm of violence and destruction.
If the game had the ability to simulate damage to buildings, and if the game did not make corpses and body parts eventually disappear, then the world would eventually be reduced to scorched bloody dust!
Grand Theft Auto III (GTA) derives most of its greatness from its reckless energy.
I think it will be difficult for any game developer to achieve the same level of intensity and insanity, because there is too much pressure to keep game play under control.
Rockstar Games, the developers of the Grand Theft Auto III (GTA) series of games is unlikely to develop another game with the same level of intensity and insanity as GTA3.
Once a franchise becomes extremely popular, there is more pressure to reduce the extremes, lessen the intensity, and "fix" the exploits and hilarious bugs.
Yielding to those pressures might help a successful game development company increase their sales, but subsequent games will be somewhat boring, limiting, and forgettable.
The opportunity for a new, independent game developer to fill the void left by Rockstar Games is significant.
Like EA Games, Rockstar Games will continue to produce massive, spectacular games, but those games are likely to have a boring quality to them.
GTA4 cost $100000000 US to develop, and the pressure to recover that investment is huge.
Big-budget video games, major Hollywood films, professional sports, and politicians, are largely unexciting because of the lack of risk.
Obviously there will be some achievements that require huge investment, and, therefore, some of the big-budget video games and films will offer awesome and spectacular experiences that low-budget efforts cannot offer.
However, the overall experience is still somewhat boring and monotonous, because the main novelty is the large size.
I like some of the products of big-budget efforts, but I also think such efforts are doomed to remain within a conservative margin of a calculated average of the perceived interests of the largest conceivable market for those products.
This will always leave room for smaller developers who are willing to take greater risks.
I think the worthy "sequel" to GTA3 will not be made by Rockstar Games, but will instead be made by a scrappy, crazy group of developers who are not yet trapped by their own successes.
Some Communist thinkers and leaders have tried to promote the idea of "continuous revolution", and although mandating continuous overthrow of the government seems as self-defeating as anarchists forming a political party, maybe trying to maintain a status of perpetual innovation, while ignoring the scared and small-minded opinions of the critics, is possible.
"GTA: Vice City" was developed after GTA3.
Despite some of the innovations (motorcycles, helicopters, being able to jump out of moving vehicles, etc), the game play was greatly subdued and controlled compared to GTA3.
One annoying "innovation" was the ability of police to quickly roll out a strip of spikes to puncture the tires of the player's vehicle.
The police would attempt to do this with absurd frequency, seemingly every quarter-mile.
Punctured tires immediately brings the level of excitement down tremendously.
The experience that ultimately made me lose all interest in the game was when I fled police, at midnight, and drove on the vast empty sands of a beach, driving partly in the water, and then, out of the dark emptiness ahead of my vehicle appeared a police van and barricade, with the animation of a police officer rolling out a spiked strip!
This happened in the middle of the vast empty beach, at midnight.
If rolling out a spiked strip was a rare event, then seeing a spiked strip being rolled out at the surf of a beach at midnight would be hilarious, but because the game rolls out a spiked strip every quarter-mile when the player is really wanted by the police, the appearances of the spiked strip seem contrived and as if the game was intentionally trying to reduce a player's enjoyment of the game.
"GTA: San Andreas" was developed after "GTA: Vice City".
"GTA: San Andreas" had awesome innovations, and represented a partial return to the intensity of GTA3.
The game was vast, both in spatial area and in depth of game play.
I liked exploring the world and doing the many casual activities. The models of casinos, oil refineries, rural towns, trains, radio telescopes, etc, were awesome.
The various casual activities, such as gambling, dressing in nice clothes, styling hair, playing virtual video games, exercising, riding bicycles and tricycles, flying airplanes, driving trains, etc, were amusing for a while.
However, despite the beauty of the game, and despite the many diverse recreational activities, the game was fundamentally boring.
The game lacked the wild abandonment and insanity of GTA3.
"GTA4" seems promising.
I might write about it when it is released for the personal computer (PC).
2. Playing without cheat codes
All of the following images involve scenarios that do not require cheat codes or modifications to the game.
Some of the following images might have aspects resulting from the use of cheat codes, but such aspects are secondary, such as changing the player model, or getting lots of cash.
You can recreate the scenarios without any cheat codes or game modifications.
2.1 Vehicles
While playing the game, a player can acquire several exotic vehicles, such as: a Humvee, an FBI car, an Army battle tank, and a sports car.
2.2 Police
When a player has committed a large amount of crime, many police will pursue the player's character.
In this image, the police are crowded near a wall, shooting toward the player.
The police hope to "eliminate the criminal threat"!
My character is carrying a rocket launcher.
The police helicopter followed me to my garage, and I'm being shot.
( Those red disks are blobs of blood flying out of my body. )
2.3 "Flying" the Army battle tank
Driving backwards in the Army battle tank and shooting the turret rapidly will cause the Army battle tank to increase speed and begin to fly through the air.
I flew upward from the Callahan Bridge.
2.4 Humorous game errors
Usually, software errors are undesirable.
However, in video games, software errors can be amusing and fascinating.
Vehicles often get trapped inside the angular buildings of the city.
This taxi is actually inside an invisible physics barrier of this building.
I can shoot at the taxi with no effect, because the taxi is on the opposite side of an invisible physics barrier of the building.
This situation happens only often enough to be hilarious.
The cars appear in weird places, then get trapped, and then struggle in an insane manner to attempt to get out, using maximum engine power (with a high-pitched noise) and changing directions in a seemingly desperate manner.
Seeing the crazy, futile struggle is both pathetic (for all meanings of that word) and funny!
I love this video game!
Sometimes objects get merged due to the limited accuracy of the physics calculations.
In this image two Army battle tanks are merged and are floating in midair!
( There is a third Army battle tank parked on the sidewalk, against the streetlight pole. )
2.5 Riding on top of cars
A player can drive cars, but a player can also jump on to any of the vehicles being driven by the other characters in the game.
Thus, a player can take a tour of the city without doing the driving.
[ I used a cheat code to change my character appearance to that of an FBI agent, but it is not necessary to be an FBI agent to jump on top of vehicles! ]
2.6 "You werent supposed to be able to get here you know" [sic]
This is a humorous note from the level designers, found in Liberty City, within a few blocks of a small pedestrian bridge and Donald Love's building: "You werent supposed to be able to get here you know" [sic]
This is a wider view of the previous image, to show its context.
2.7 Going to all three islands of GTA3 without completing any missions
How to get to all three islands in less than 20 minutes of starting a new game, without completing any missions and without getting a single dollar from any incidental damages.
[ 1] Start a new game, get in the car with 8-ball, and do a U-turn, and head to the gap in the bridge.
[ 2] Get out of the car at the gap in the bridge, on the right side of the bridge. Run to the right edge, and run on to the bent girder.
[ 3] Run and jump off the girder, and land on the girder on the opposite side (which is slightly to the right of your running direction).
This might require several tries to get right!
Thus, we get to Newport only 42 seconds after the starting scripted scene and our first opportunity to control our character.
Wow!
[ 4] Looking back to the other side of the bridge at the car with 8-ball in it.
[ 5] Looking back from a further vantage.
[ 6] In just under 4 minutes of the start of our control of the game, we reach our garage in Liberty City, without any incidental damage (still $0). Note: You cannot save the game here.
[ 7] Running to the drawbridge, we find that it is raised. D'Oh!
[ 8] We run to the underground tunnel leading to Shoreside Vale and Francis National Airport.
[ 9] In the tunnel we go to the airport tunnel.
[10] We need to make another turn in the tunnel to continue to the airport.
[11] We are about to emerge from the tunnel to Francis National Airport.
[12] We arrive at the third island, emerging from the tunnel at Francis National Airport.
Thus, in less than 20 minutes of walking, we arrive at all three islands, maintaining our accrued damage bonus of $0 (i.e., no damage credited to the player).
Eventually you must go back and take 8-Ball to your first hideout if you want to progress further in the game plot.
2.8 Flying the airplane
Flying the Dodo at the airport.
Use NUMPAD6 to direct the Dodo downward.
Use NUMPAD9 to direct the Dodo upward.
The important trick to flying the Dodo is gathering speed on a road or runway, and holding NUMPAD6 down until you see sparks under the airplane from your scraping the nose on the ground.
Try to maintain the sparks as long as possible without getting the nose eventually getting snagged on the ground and causing a sudden decrease of speed.
You must practice to judge just how long you can get away with holding the nose down.
After seeing the sparks for a while, continue holding the forward button (example: "W"), but release the Dodo down button (NUMPAD6).
The Dodo will ascend off the ground quickly.
Eventually you should start using the Dodo down/up controls to alternately descend to gather speed, and climb to maintain altitude.
You can practice flying repeatedly on the runways at the airport.
Just be sure to not crash in to the ocean.
There are some people who say they mastered flying, and can fly to all three islands.
I'm starting to believe these stories, because my own flying ability is improving and I can see how more skill might actually lead to indefinite flight time.
I have successfully flown from the airport runway to the second island.
I discovered that it's helpful to level off quickly once you reach maximum altitude.
After attaining that altitude, you do not need to climb or descend.
It's weird.
I'm pretty sure that it is much easier to fly with a faster computer.
On my old 800 MHz computer, flying was very difficult.
On a 1.2 GHz computer, flying was much easier.
A controller might make it easier to control the flying.
Flying the Dodo off of the drawbridge.
I discovered that driving the Dodo on the drawbridge road on the downward incline can be a fun takeoff place.
It's tricky to avoid traffic, but if you get airborne, you get a lot of time in the air fairly easily.
Flying the Dodo off of the drawbridge, heading to the airport.
I drove the airplane all the way from the airport to the top of this parking structure in Liberty City.
I drove the airplane off the rooftop, but it fell like a rock.
The airplane can be parked and stored in the player's garage.
I drove the airplane downtown, but I crashed in to a store front.
Citizens gather to look at the wreck and the bodies.
3. Playing with cheat codes
3.1 Introduction
The following images show scenarios involving some use of cheat codes.
For some of the scenarios, I used software that I wrote to send keyboard messages to the GTA3 software.
I scripted some complex actions that involved conventional keyboard controls, and cheat codes.
All of this can be reproduced with a simple programmable keyboard.
If I had a programmable keyboard, or software to emulate a programmable keyboard, I could avoid the need for my own software.
3.2 Summary of cheat codes
Type on the keyboard the phrases listed below to activate game features.
Do this while playing the game.
The player's character might do various movements and actions due to the button pressing, but this can be ignored.
However, if desired, the movement and actions can be assigned to new keyboard buttons to avoid being triggered by entry of the phrases listed below.
[1] "turtoise" [sic] : Bring armor to 100 percent.
[2] "gesundheit" : Bring health to 100 percent.
[3] "bangbangbang" : Destroy all currently existing vehicles.
[4] "gunsgunsguns" : Get all weapon types, and some ammo for each.
[5] "ifiwerearichman" : Add $250000 to cash.
[6] "anicesetofwheels" : Car body is invisible. Only see wheels and lights.
[7] "itsallgoingmaaad" : All citizens fight each other at random.
[8] "weaponsforall" : All citizens are given random weapons.
[9] "ilikedressingup" : Change player to random character model.
[10] "giveusatank" : Summon an Army battle tank ("Rhino")
Also, the F1 keyboard button was used to replay a scene, such that images of the action could be acquired from various perspectives, without the usual information on the display.
The mouse can be used to override the camera direction.
Typing "bangbangbang" repeatedly and quickly will repeatedly destroy all vehicles in the world, such that they explode higher in to the air.
Eventually the vehicles will fly high in the sky!
Some of the scenarios shown in the images below were caused by repeatedly exploding all vehicles.
If the player's character is near or inside a vehicle, the character will be killed.
However, the game shows several seconds after the character is killed.
Therefore, it is possible to use the F1 keyboard button to replay the recent action and view the action from different angles.
3.3 Making all vehicles explode
Whoa! Get me outta here!
[ Type on the keyboard "bangbangbang" to destroy all vehicles. ]
3.4 Disrupting scripted scenes
One of the fantastic aspects of GTA3 is the fact that its cheat codes can affect the scripted scenes.
Generally, I believe that video game developers should not try to prevent a player from doing wacky things with the game.
I think Rockstar Games probably did not consider the possibility that a cheat code might affect scripted scenes, and I think Rockstar Games, and any other major video game development company, would be inclined to prevent players from interfering with scripted scenes.
However, I believe that letting the player disrupt any aspect of the game is a wonderful and entertaining freedom, and I think video game developers should try to expand freedoms and let the player create hilarious chaos.
If the chaos makes the game unplayable, then there should be methods of recovery, which could be as simple as reloading a previously stored game status, or might involve a console that enables the player to repair aspects of the game status.
( For example, if a critical item or character has been destroyed by accident, the console could be used to restore the item or character. )
GTA3 is made more hilarious and enjoyable by the fact that cheat codes affect the scripted scenes.
You can blow up vehicles in the introductory scripted scene.
Notice that the police vehicles are missing doors and wheels.
[ Type on the keyboard "bangbangbang" while watching the scripted scene. ]
You can blow up vehicles in the introductory scripted scene.
All of the vehicles in this image are destroyed, but they continue to drive!
[ Type on the keyboard "bangbangbang" while watching the scripted scene. ]
The cars in the scripted scenes can be made invisible.
[ Type on the keyboard "anicesetofwheels". ]
3.5 Effortlessly completing "vigilante" missions
This section describes a method of getting about six police vigilante killings per minute!
(1) Load the game (with police car already stored in your garage);
(2) Enter garage;
(3) Enter police car;
(4) Start vigilante mode;
(5) Exit car;
(6) Walk "far"(*) away from the garage, and it will close;
(7) Do the "bangbangbang" cheat to destroy all vehicles (including the current criminal's vehicle, wherever he or she might be in the level);
(8) Enter the garage and repeat steps (3)..(8) as many times as you want.
[ *...You might have to walk at least five meters from the garage in step (6), otherwise you might return to the garage to discover that your police vehicle is still destroyed from step (7)! ]
3.6 "Flying" any vehicle by making it explode
The "anicesetofwheels" cheat code makes all vehicles in the world explode.
Quickly repeating that cheat code makes the vehicles ascend in to the sky.
If the player's character is inside a vehicle, then the player will ascend in to the sky, too -- but the player's character will be killed by the explosion.
( It is unfortunate that GTA3 does not have a true "invulnerability" cheat code!
) In the brief time before the player's character gets revived at a city hospital, the player will witness flying at spectacular heights!
A destroyed car flying near the Liberty City stadium.
[ Quickly repeat "bangbangbang". ]
A destroyed car flying high above Liberty City.
[ Quickly repeat "bangbangbang". ]
A destroyed car flying high above Liberty City.
[ Quickly repeat "bangbangbang". ]
The three islands, as seen from space!
[ Quickly repeat "bangbangbang". ]
Tumbling through the air near the "Shoreside Vale Airport".
[ Type on the keyboard "anicesetofwheels", and then quickly repeat "bangbangbang". ]
Looks like Southern California.
[ Quickly repeat "bangbangbang". ]
A destroyed Dodo flying high above the stadium.
[ Quickly repeat "bangbangbang". ]
A destroyed Dodo flying high above Liberty City.
[ Quickly repeat "bangbangbang". ]
A destroyed Dodo flying near the Liberty City stadium.
[ Quickly repeat "bangbangbang". ]
3.7 Creating a pile of Army battle tanks, and blasting them in to the sky!
Repeating "giveusatank" will create a pile of Army battle tanks.
Very quickly repeating "bangbangbang" will cause the Army battle tanks to explode and ascend in to the sky!
A pile of Army battle tanks at the steps of the stadium.
[ Type on the keyboard "giveusatank" many times. ]
A pile of Army battle tanks near a parking structure.
[ Type on the keyboard "giveusatank" many times. ]
Army battle tanks exploding in to the sky.
[ Type on the keyboard on the keyboard "giveusatank" many times, and then quickly type on the keyboard "bangbangbang" many times. ]
Army battle tanks really high in the sky. After twenty seconds, the city is rained upon by the falling Army battle tanks and other vehicles!
[ Type on the keyboard "giveusatank" many times, and then quickly type on the keyboard "bangbangbang" many times. ]
3.8 Citizens with all weapons, attacking each other!
For additional excitement and hilarity, the player can give all possible weapons to all of the citizens of the city, and then the player can make the citizens attack each other!
The city becomes a storm of violence!
Type on the keyboard "gunsforall" to give all citizens all possible weapons.
Type on the keyboard "itsallgoingmaaad" to make all citizens insane, such that they attack each other!
Be careful, though, because the citizens will attack the player's character, too.
Granny with a flamethrower!
[ Type on the keyboard "itsallgoingmaaad" and "gunsforall". ]
3.9 Using a "bot" to play GTA3
Computer software can be used to send keyboard and mouse input to GTA3.
Thus, a player's character can be controlled by automation.
By choosing a particular sequence of movements and cheat codes, the player's character can cause destruction and survive any attacks.
I wrote computer software to control the character, and I let the computer software play GTA3 for several hours.
My "bot" is using the Molotov Cocktail to cause mayhem from the parking structure rooftop.
When I played GTA3 in the normal way, I made an effort to not harm any pedestrians or drivers.
However, after finishing the game, my new goal was to cause as much destruction and casualties as possible.
My computer software helped me with this new goal.
The image above shows some relevant statistics.
I think the statistics recorded by GTA3 are hilarious: "people you've wasted", "people wasted by others", "cars exploded", "times busted", "hospital visits", etc.
Ha, ha!
Awesome!
This image shows two FBI vehicles on fire and tumbling, and bodies flying through the air, and a police helicopter, and my character falling to the ground after an explosion.
My computer software can control the character to survive intense situations, by throwing grenades and by using the cheat code to restore health and armor.
Simple automation is sufficient to survive indefinitely.
4. Software to automate playing GTA3
4.1 Introduction
Computer software can be used to send keyboard and mouse input to GTA3.
Thus, a player's character can be controlled by automation.
By choosing a particular sequence of movements and cheat codes, the player's character can cause destruction and survive any attacks.
I have written computer software to control the character in GTA3, but my software is not very good, and I suggest using programmable keyboards or other kinds of automation software.
However, I will share my code, only as an example of the ideas involved.
My software has two features:
(1) The keys on the numeric keypad allow quick access to cheats;
(2) The Caps Lock key enables a complex script that controls the player, leading to spectacular game play that can last for hours with great intensity.
Unfortunately, the "scripting" is just C/C++ code that must be compiled again to change behavior.
Also, all of the delay times (in milliseconds) were adjusted for an 800 MHz computer, which is really slow.
I think everything worked better in general on a faster machine.
However, do not press and hold numeric keypad keys too long, otherwise things might explode so much that you have to wait 60 seconds for the exploded vehicles to fall back on the ground!
4.2 Notes
The delays were adjusted for an 800 MHz PC.
You need to compile again if you change the code for "scripting".
The code might have some subtle, easily broken, aspects.
Look at the code for interesting comments on scripting and key associations.
The basic principle behind the code is simple:
(1) Find the Grand Theft Auto 3 (GTA3) software main window;
(2) Send Windows messages to the GTA3 main window as if keys were being pressed and released on the keyboard;
That's all!
In principle, you could emulate my software simply by typing really fast on the keyboard.
Maybe clever use of the various programmable keypads would be better.
I simply wrote code that was really easy and fun for myself.
My code is very crude.
I never planned to share it with anyone.
I feel bad letting people see this ugly example of code, but sometimes something is better than nothing.
4.3 Download software
The following is a ZIP archive containing a Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 project, and a compiled Windows executable (*.exe).
Look at the "Release" directory entry for the executable program.
There is only a single important C++ source file ("gta3_fakekey02.cpp"), and it should be easy to convert to any other Windows API or language, such as MFC, C#, or Visual Basic.
This project should easily, and automatically, convert to Visual C++ .NET.
My software is very simple.
Therefore, making a project for any Windows compiler should only require 60 seconds of manually clicking and typing.
Converting to C#, and the SendKeys() function, would also be easy.
4.4 Using the software
(1) I suggest going to the intersection near your garage on the second island (with the construction site on the far corner).
Stand in the middle of the intersection, and then equip grenades.
(2) Make sure GTA3 has the following key associations in particular:
( Go to the controls menu and change as necessary. )
Shoot : NUMPAD0 (Numeric Keypad 0)
Forwards : 1
Backwards : 2
Jump : SPACE
Turn Right : RIGHT
Note that the forwards and backwards keys are really unusual associations!
Shooting and jumping might also be really strange keyboard associations for you!
The purpose of these associations is to avoid collision with the keys used for cheat phrases (which obviously cannot be reassociated; they're cheats!).
Anyhow, these new keyboard associations are somewhat unusual.
If you want to make better choices, modify the source code and compile the software.
Simply remember that cheat code letters collide with many keys on the keyboard and will interfere with scripted game play unless you are very careful.
( When you play GTA3 and enter a cheat, weird and annoying changes in game state can occur, such as little character movements, camera changes, etc, unless you make key associations to avoid having coincident letters. )
(3) Alt-Tab to the desktop.
(4) Start my scripting software.
The software should indicate that the GTA3 software was found.
(5) Alt-Tab back to GTA3.
(6) Scripting Keys:
The following can now be used while playing the game:
NUMERIC KEYPAD 0: Health/Shield
NUMERIC KEYPAD 1: Little Explosion (hold key for more intensity)
NUMERIC KEYPAD 2: Crazy Explosion (just tap the key! BOOOOOM!)
NUMERIC KEYPAD 3: No police
NUMERIC KEYPAD 4: Load up on weapons
NUMERIC KEYPAD 5: Weapons for all, and all peds crazy!
NUMERIC KEYPAD 6: Army battle tank pile (spawn 60 Army battle tanks -- Do only once...)
NUMERIC KEYPAD 7: Summon an Army battle tank
NUMERIC KEYPAD 8: Crazy safe explosion (explode, health, shield, ...repeat)
NUMERIC KEYPAD 9: Change body
Caps Lock: Scripted Behavior (toggle)
Hit Caps Lock only when you are in position and have the correct weapon selected.
Hit Caps Lock to make the keyboard Caps Lock light turn on, and the scripted action should begin.
Be sure to tap the Caps Lock key a second time to disable the scripting before you go to any menu.
The good news is that my software only sends key events to GTA3, so it will not interfere with other software, but it's just confusing to see menu actions happening by themselves if you leave scripting on and then you go to a GTA3 menu!
5. Interesting tricks (some are not verified)
[1] In the mission involving chasing someone after he enters a taxi -- you can drive a taxi to the pick-up location, nudge the "real" taxi out of the way, and the person will enter your taxi.
[2] Parking on top of (or was it "inside"?) the "Flashback" radio station building will make your radio play only music from the film "Scarface".
(I haven't verified this claim.)
[3] Prostitute "encounters" can raise your health to 125 percent.
However, any future health cheat ("gesundheit") will still set your health to exactly 100 percent.
On some Internet forum someone claimed that if you had a prostitute enter your "Camero" ( Infernus?, Cheetah?, Or a Camero model you can download? ) the prostitute will have even less clothing on.
[4] The directions are rather complicated, but I encountered a rumor that a player can drive a destroyed vehicle.
The rumor involved the PS2, where the cheat code for destroying all vehicles involves the button for entering/exiting vehicles -- hence you enter a vehicle just as it is in the process of exploding.
Perhaps with key remapping (say, making "b" of "bangbangbang" do the vehicle enter/exit) you can achieve the same result on a PC.
[5] Shooting the moon with the sniper rifle will toggle the moon's size between large and small.
I verified this behavior.
[6] While playing, press Esc to pause (enter menu).
Type on the keyboard "bangbangbang" many times for a while.
Then press Esc to resume playing the game, and everything will explode with an intensity that is much greater than a single "bangbangbang" typed during game play.
[7] While in the middle of a police vigilante mission, and you can see the floating blue arrow above the criminal's vehicle, press the Esc key to pause the game (enter menu).
Wait for a few seconds.
Press the Esc key again to resume playing.
The criminal will leave his or her vehicle!
[8] If you take the Adrenalin pill, you will damage cars if you run in to them, and you can punch people in to the air.
[9] Form a parade of prostitutes: Use a sporty car, with two doors, and drive up to a prostitute so that she walks up to the driver-side window.
As soon as the prostitute starts walking to the passenger side, get out of the car, and the prostitute will now follow you around on foot.
Repeat the process many times, and you will have a parade.
One of the people who discovered this said that he likes to use the "ilikedressingup" cheat to switch to the pimp clothes when he has the "Ho Train".
[10] Indestructible car:
Drive a Barracks OL to the starting location of the Turismo race.
Start the Turismo race mission (pay phone).
Flip one of the Cheetah cars and stand by it, never letting your gaze turn away from it, and wait for the mission to run out of time.
The driver will get out and flee.
However, the doors on the Cheetah are locked.
Get in to the Barracks OL, and push the Cheetah all the way back to your hideout, making sure that the Cheetah remains flipped because it is easier to push than if it is upright.
Push the Cheetah in to your garage and save the game.
Load the game and you will have a car that is bulletproof.
One of the people to discover this suggests that you "drive to Saint Mark's and kick some Mafia ass."
6. Images created by other players
6.1 Greg Moulton
My friend Greg Moulton is the person who encouraged me to play GTA3.
Greg has done amazing things in GTA3: killed 70 "criminal threats" in a single vigilante mission; found 80+ "hidden packages" without any assistance; killed more than 12000 people overall; and became skillful at flying an Army battle tank!
The following images were acquired by my friend Greg.
Greg took the Army battle tank to some strange places, such as the stadium and other far-out locations.
Greg landed the Army battle tank on top of Kenji's Casino...
Greg landed the Army battle tank on top of Kenji's Casino...
The top of Kenji's Casino is mostly visual (and not physically solid).
So, a player can fall through.
Here is the view from underneath the pool area.
Greg landed at the lighthouse.
Greg landed at the lighthouse.
Greg claimed that he was flying around, and landed in a strange place...
But...I think he landed in Photoshop!
6.2 Peter Salaj
Peter Salaj (nickname "Proof") provided the following GTA3 images.
Most scenarios here were arranged using software named "GTA Map Editor ver. 2.4".
That software allows a person to select objects in the map and make arbitrary transformations (move, rotate, scale, etc).
6.3 Jimbo
Jimbo provided the following GTA3 images.
"These images begin to show the flexibility and open-endedness of GTA3 and what makes it such a great game. it's my number two game of all time behind Deus Ex by Ion Storm. I had a lot of fun doing these images, and i encourage everyone to give all the stuff i did a try[...]"
Jimbo: "My recent low speed chase in an electric wheelchair[...]"
Jimbo: "don't take the dodo into the tunnels...it doesn't like it"
Jimbo: "i installed a DeLorean car mod, then a HoverCar car mod... little did i realize, they took up the same slot! they've merged to create a Flying DeLorean (firey exhaust mod adds to the effect)"
6.4 Saul Santos
Saul Santos provided the following GTA3 images.
Saul Santos: "It's a killed guy floating in the air... Hummm....(Sounds like a UFO job)"
Saul Santos: "[I]t's a Dodo floating in the tunnel. This happens because i fall into the water with the Dodo(Well, i'm not an expert)and i don't sink that time. I pass the water and then i was in the tunnel. I get off the Dodo and he stay in the air. Strange Thing..."
Saul Santos: "The same thing of the shot [above] but, when i get of the dodo, i was in the top of the tunnel."
Saul Santos: "I crash my favourite Stallion with a car and i blow up to the air and explode. But i don't die. After that i fall in the ground and survive, but not my car. Even Blowed, he fall upside down and explode again."
Saul Santos: "A lot of battle tanks empilled. A lot of Fun. Great image for Wallpaper."
7. Violence in video games
Violence by itself is not generally hilarious or enjoyable to see or create.
However, it is possible to establish a context in which violence can be hilarious, enjoyable to witness, and enjoyable to create or promote.
"The Three Stooges", "The Itchy and Scratchy Show", "Aqua Teen Hunger Force", "Evil Dead", "Duke Nukem", and "GTA3", all successfully created contexts in which one could witness violence with the reassuring feeling that the "violence" is actually harmless and is merely a type of artistic expression.
The scenarios presented would ordinarily cause physical or mental harm or suffering.
Therefore, the context must somehow convince a spectator to happily suspend their natural instinct to empathize with the "victims" of the violent actions.
Knowing that a character will not ultimately be harmed helps a spectator feel at ease.
If the characters actually cause violence to each other, then a certain sense of fairness or balance can be established.
In some scenarios, the idea that a character might sometimes deserve punishment can reduce a spectator's concern for a character's physical and mental wellness.
An artistic expression such as "GTA3" does not subvert or reduce a person's ability to empathize.
Instead, the artistic expression establishes a context in which it is obvious that any characters involved cannot possibly be victims.
For a person to empathize with an entity, a person must perceive that the entity and the person are fundamentally similar in their beliefs, desires, strengths, and vulnerabilities.
If a context makes it obvious that an entity has a superhuman ability to recover from injury, pain, and mental distress, then a person cannot possibly empathize with the entity, because a person is fundamentally different from the entity.
"GTA3" portrays a city populated by entities whose actions and reactions are primitive and violent.
The entities are shaped like humans, and the entities do things that humans do (examples: walking, driving, fighting, screaming, fleeing), but the entities have no evident emotional or mental existence.
No action in the game can provoke an entity to reveal any emotional or mental depth.
"GTA3" continuously and thoroughly convinces a player that the game world is essentially populated human-shaped robots.
Moreover, many of those entities are hostile and dangerous.
The pedestrians are merely human-shaped obstacles that react in humorous and spectacular ways when they are chased, hit, shot, exploded, ignited, and posthumously robbed of their cash and weapons.
Some video games feature characters with significant emotional and mental complexity.
In such video games the player can empathize with the characters.
Such games might affect a player's real-world perception of ethics, morality, justice, and violence.
However, "GTA3" portrays a world populated by primitive human-shaped machines, and those machines cannot be regarded as "victims" of violence any more than the hostile primitive opponents featured in video games such as "Space Invaders", "Galaga", "Phoenix", "Tempest", "Robotron", etc.
