Beta · Amiga & Windows
GRAND THEFT AMIGA
A whole city — Portland, Oregon, street by street and building by building — and one small-time millionaire with a pistol. Walk it, drive it, rob it, run from the law, catch a train, take a plane. Everything you can see, you can walk into; everything parked, you can drive.
Driving through downtown, the radar upThe game
Grand Theft Amiga is a city game in the old style: seen through the engine's raycaster from just behind you, sharp on Windows and true to the Amiga's own screen. You start with a pistol, sixteen rounds and a million dollars. The traffic keeps to its lanes and stops at the red lights — the real ones, where Portland has them — and so should you.
It plays one of two worlds. Portland is the real city, made from OpenStreetMap: every street at its own width with its sidewalks, lanes and one-ways, every building on its own outline, the real banks, groceries and convenience stores where they are, and the names of the neighbourhoods — about 47 by 29 kilometres, read a piece at a time. The made-up city is small and complete, with a railway looping round its south, factories at the docks, a library, a museum and a casino.
How the city works
- Walk the streets, or take what is parked — or out from under its driver. Cars grip and corner; press V behind the wheel for the dashboard, the speedometer and the fuel gauge.
- Rob what has a till — banks, groceries, stores, cafes, the casino's cash desk — by standing at the counter with a gun out. The money is yours; the alarm brings the police.
- One to five stars: the police come harder the more they want you. Caught: BUSTED, back at the police station without the guns. Killed: WASTED, back at the hospital.
- The phone boxes ring: answer one and a job begins — the city's own script, with pickups, guns, health, armour and hidden diamonds about.
- M brings up the big map of the whole world: zoom it, pan it, click a place to go there or drop a pointer the radar follows.
The real city
Portland from OpenStreetMap: the West Hills out through Gresham to Sandy and the Columbia, with the river, the bridges and the airport. A world 74 MB long the game reads as you drive through it.
Every door opens
Every building in Portland can be entered, and its inside is made from what it is: a house's rooms, a bank's hall and vault, a grocery's aisles, a casino's card tables. Walk out through the lit EXIT.
Take any car
Sixteen kinds, from a compact to a bus, a pickup to a police cruiser. Cars burn petrol: pull up at the orange forecourts and stop to fill the tank for free.
Trains and planes
The railways carry an engine and the carriages it pulls. Get into the engine and its controls are yours; or ride, and pull the emergency brake. At the airport the aeroplanes wait.
The police
They see what you do, and they remember. One star is a patrol; five is everybody. Fast cars run roadblocks down; slow ones end at the station.
Missions
A phone rings, a job begins: get away, deliver, collect, break in. The city's script runs the whole town, and the big map points you where the job is.
Made from scratch
The city's map, every texture, every sprite and every sound is generated by the game's own tools from open data — nothing borrowed.
A city you can walk into
In Portland every building is whole and every one opens. Walk up to a door, face it, press Enter: the inside is made as you step in, from what the building is.
- Houses and flats. Living rooms, kitchens and bedrooms — beds, televisions, sofas; flats along a corridor.
- Money. A bank's hall with its counter, tellers and vault; a grocery's aisles, freezers and checkouts; a convenience store's shelves and coolers; the casino's cash desk, worth the risk.
- Out on the town. Restaurants, bars and cafes; offices, schools and churches; hospitals and warehouses; a station's concourse; the library's stacks; the museum's roped-off exhibits.
- Robbing. Where there is a till, stand in front of the counter with a gun out for a few seconds. A till you have emptied stays empty for two minutes.
- Getting caught inside. Wasted or busted indoors puts you back on the street at the nearest hospital or police station, in front of its door.
Dusk over the city
Night, and rain
The train takes the crossing
The same city on an AmigaPictures
Straight from the game: the Windows version's sharp picture, and the Amiga's own screen. Click one to see it large.
Downtown at noon: the streets, the trafficDriving: the HUD, the radar and the fuel gauge
Behind the wheel: the dashboard and the speedometer
Two stars: the police have taken an interest
The bank: a counter, the tellers, the vault behind
A phone box rings, and a job beginsDusk over the West HillsNight, and rainThe train takes the crossing
Inside the bank: its hall and its vault
Inside a bar: the counter and the stools
Inside a cafe
A grocery: aisles, freezers, a checkout
The library: its stacks and reading tables
The museum: exhibits roped off
A restaurant, set for dinner
A school classroom
A warehouse at the docksThe Amiga's own screenThe map
Portland: the whole city, 47 by 29 kilometresPress M in the game and there is the whole world. Zoom with the wheel or + and -, pan with the arrows, or hold a mouse button and drag it. A click (double-click, or the right button) opens a menu: go here jumps you to that spot; pointer drops a marker the radar then points you to.
- The river
- The Willamette through the middle, and the Columbia along the north; the bridges are the quick way over — when they are not the busy way.
- Downtown
- The big streets, the banks and the towers, in the middle of it all.
- The West Hills
- Winding roads and views, to the west of downtown.
- The airport
- East of the river, by the Columbia: long runways, and aeroplanes waiting.
- East
- Out through Gresham to Sandy: quieter streets, but the same law.
What you can drive
slow, everywhere
the family kind
fast, and it shows
anywhere to anywhere
siren, and company
roomy, unhurried
the scheduled way
at the airport, very fast
Play it
On an Amiga
Kickstart 2.0 or later and a megabyte. A floppy that boots straight into the made-up city, or the GTAmiga drawer copied to a hard disk — with Portland beside it, which wants a hard disk and fast memory and is happiest on an accelerated machine (a 68020, a PiStorm). To log in the first time you need a TCP/IP stack (Roadshow, AmiTCP, Miami...); tested with Roadshow 1.15.
A 68000 with chip memory only runs the made-up city in slow motion; the made-up city is what the floppy holds.
On Windows
Any 64-bit Windows PC. A window you can stretch (F11 for full screen), mouse steering, a gamepad if you have one, and the game's own 320×200 view shown as sharp as your screen.
Controls
WASD walk and drive · mouse steers · left button fires · right button aims · E car or building door · V cockpit · Space handbrake · Shift run · Tab/Q weapon · H horn · M the big map · Esc pause
Your licence
The first time it starts, the game asks you to log in with your account, or to enter a serial number and make an account for it. After that it remembers you, and checks your licence each time it starts — or plays on for two weeks without the internet. F9 at the title logs you out.
Getting in
The beta
The beta is open to anyone with an Amiga or a Windows PC. Make an account and ask to join; as soon as an organiser lets you in, your account page offers the downloads, and the game lets you log in. 3 players already in.
A serial number
Been given a serial number? It is a licence on its own: enter it in the game, or here, and make your account with it — no waiting.
What we ask of testers
- Play: the made-up city on whatever you have; Portland if your machine is up to it.
- Tell us what breaks, what is slow on your Amiga, and what is no fun.
- Say what you would want next in the city.
What we keep
Your account name, e-mail address and what you tell us when you sign up — for running the beta and nothing else. Passwords are kept only as a salted hash. Ask and we delete it all.
Questions
- Does it cost anything?
- No. The beta is free.
- Which Amiga do I need?
- Any with Kickstart 2.0 and a megabyte runs the made-up city. Portland wants a hard disk and fast memory; an accelerated Amiga — a 68020 or better, a PiStorm — is happiest with it.
- Is Portland really Portland?
- Yes: its streets, buildings and places are OpenStreetMap's, under the Open Database Licence. The game says so on its title screen whenever the world is played.
- Can I play without the internet?
- Once you have logged in, yes: the city plays on for two weeks between checks (for ever on an Amiga with no clock). Logging in the first time needs a TCP/IP stack on the Amiga.
- Can I go inside?
- Every building in Portland, and the made-up city's too: through its door, into rooms made from what the building is. The bank has a vault; the casino has slot machines.
- How do I get around?
- Walk; take a parked car (or one stopped in traffic); catch a train from its station; or take an aeroplane from the airport. The big map (M) shows it all.
- What happens when I am caught?
- BUSTED: back at the police station, without the guns. Killed — even inside a building — WASTED: back at the hospital. The million dollars is for the bail.
- How long until I am let in?
- We let testers in in batches. Your account page shows where you are in the queue.