Grand Theft Amiga

The 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.

Pictures

Straight from the game: the Windows version's sharp picture, and the Amiga's own screen. Click one to see it large.

The map

Press 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

A compact car — Compact
slow, everywhere

A sports car — Sports
fast, and it shows

A police car — Police cruiser
siren, and company

An aeroplane — Aeroplane
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. 2 players already in.

Make an account

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.

Enter a serial number

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.

GRAND THEFT AMIGA