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Grand Theftendo Homebrew port of GTA III to NES

Posted by Zonk on from the 8-big-thugs dept.

Derek Rose writes "Grand Theftendo is a port of Grand Theft Auto III for the original Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). It is Grand Theft Auto III running on an 8 bit, 256×240 resolution, 2 bit colour x 2 bit palette, 1.79 Mhz system, written entirely in 6502 Assembly Language! It includes the entire Portland city! More info here: Forever Geek on Grand Theftendo"

80 comments

  1. Uh-oh by FriedTurkey · · Score: 4, Funny

    I don't think beating up hookers is going to get a "Nintendo Seal of Approval".

    1. Re:Uh-oh by Tumbleweed · · Score: 4, Funny

      But what if they had it comin'?

      It's edutainment; bitches gotta learn respect.

    2. Re:Uh-oh by mgblst · · Score: 1

      What do you tell a hooker with two black eyes?

      Nothing, you have already told her twice.

      oh, I am gonna burn for that one...

  2. Google cache by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    i know it's probably not gonna be ./ed but here it is anyway

    Here

  3. San Andreas by Nickolay+Stelmashenk · · Score: 2, Funny

    I wonder how long it will take to port that...

  4. Wow by My+name+isn't+Tim · · Score: 3, Interesting

    one word: wow

    just wow

    I'm sure I'm not the only one who's written even just minor bits of code in Assembly, this guy has serious talent!

    1. Re:Wow by stoborrobots · · Score: 5, Interesting

      definitely... he's not only writing the whole thing, game engine, compiler etc, he's even built the hardware for it - the Devtendo!

      Hats off to you, Brian!

      --
      "Go to CNN [for a] spell-checked, fact-checked summary" -- CmdrTaco
    2. Re:Wow by sevinkey · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I think this guy hit a sweet spot with his assembler! Looks to me like it's almost C!

      I could see his tools leading to growth in the homegrown retro games arena

    3. Re:Wow by SynapseLapse · · Score: 1

      Impressive yes.
      But then again, "back in the day," all NES games were written in assembly. Heck, even the N64 had to be coded in a form of assembly, hence the reason it was so hated by programmers. Codeing entire 3d games in assembly=yuck.

    4. Re:Wow by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's no accident C is described as "portable assembly". C is basically a cross-platform generalisation of features good macro assemblers had at the time C was conceived anyway. x86 assembly is a particularly poor assembly language due largely to the idiocy of the x86 architecture. traditional m68k macro assembly, for example, is much prettier - e.g. here's an amiga m68k assembly .i (equivalent of a c .h) file: here

      Just as the MS-DOS command prompt gave command prompts a bad name (in reality, command prompts in general don't suck, just MS-DOS), so x86 assembly gave assembly a bad name, mostly unjustified (though concerns about portability are valid...).

  5. Re:unreal by kesoil · · Score: 0

    Did you read the article? Oh wait, this is slashot so ofcourse you didn't. It's one man who is doing all the work and he is making everything from scratch.

  6. antifun by jfisherwa · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This is one man's project for fun--something that I'm sure is much more personally satisfying (for him) than hunting down bugs in ethernet driver code.

    If I have to read one more comment proclaiming that a true geek/hacker has just wasted his time when they could have be working on Project gSnore, I think I am going to vomit all over my pants.

    It's called a hobby, and I would like to think that the /. audience could relate to that concept.

  7. Hmm... by KenwoodTrueX · · Score: 1, Interesting
    Its going to be hard avoiding all the sprite flicker and slowdown that plagues the NES in a game like GTA 3 which has so many moving sprites......=/ It can be done though (as is demonstrated in Smash TV on the NES).

    Free Flat Screen HERE!

    1. Re:Hmm... by gl4ss · · Score: 4, Interesting

      read the guys webpages through..

      a fucking maniac / genius !! hell, just check out stuff like this: NES videocard..

      looks like he'll pull it off for me.

      the funny thing? his nes version looks like it's going to be a better game than the gbc gta or the advance gta(advance gta looks too cramped, like you won't be seeing where you're driving to at all..)...

      --
      world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
    2. Re:Hmm... by cgenman · · Score: 1

      Considering other things he's done with the GBA, I'm sure he'd do a great job with GTA-SP.

      --
      The ______ Agenda
    3. Re:Hmm... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      Quit modding up flatscreen link spammers! If I see any of these mods in meta-mod, they will be modded Unfair.

    4. Re:Hmm... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Put your damned pyramid scheme in your signature so slashdot edits it out properly.

    5. Re:Hmm... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Fun things to do with them:
      Feed their email accounts to places that will get spam, like guest books(they spam us, why not return the favor?).
      Fill out the stuff to a throwaway account just to get their hopes up, and don't follow through on the referral(most of these referral schemes require those brought in by the referrals to actually buy something before they will give you credit towards "Free" stuff).
      Same as last, but fill out the stuff with an non-existent email account that lets them know how you feel(not_going_to_complete_the_offer@death2spammer s.com).

  8. Brian Provinciano - Saint? by glowimperial · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Someone get this man a beer. The greatest system (NES) + the most addictive non-puzzle game of all time = Motherfucking genuis.

    1. Re:Brian Provinciano - Saint? by mrseigen · · Score: 1

      He is now my own personal saviour. I mean, just look at the Devtendo he built.

  9. Re:unreal by glowimperial · · Score: 1

    Dude, this isn't Commmunist Russia where all work must be put to the benefit of the state.

    This guy basically developed his own hard and soft platform for developing NES games from scratch. he deserves mad props for that. Respect what Brian has chosen to do with his spare time. Which is frankly more than most of us do in our spare time.

  10. A++ hacking by spludge · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Someone give this man a job (how could he possibly have a full time job and time enough to do this?). The amount of work and spectacular hacking that has gone into this effort is amazing.

    He built his own interface to the console, he built his own assembler, in fact he built every single tool used to create the game.

    1. Re:A++ hacking by superpulpsicle · · Score: 1

      ROFLMAO, this guy is good for sure. If he was doing this in the 80s, he would have started his own video game company and dominated NES with his home-brewing programming skills all by himself.

    2. Re:A++ hacking by themoodykid · · Score: 1

      My thoughts exactly. Very nice work. My SFII engine (see link above :-) pales in comparison.

  11. Re:unreal by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    He coded it from scratch over 2 years from assembler. What source code would he mess with anyway? It's not like you can hack the 3d engine from the orignal into the NES.

    Anyway, how long have you been Lord of Open Source Project Assignments anyway? Exactly why does he have to do something for you instead of for himself? What are you doing to benefit the good of mankind? I see you haven't taken that long walk off the short pier yet.

  12. Re:I call hoax by Otter · · Score: 2, Insightful
    As I understand it, it's not really a port -- more of a clone.

    It looks like a tremendous piece of work, especially since the guy seems to have developed almost the entire toolchain by himself. I suspect he's deluding himself about not violating any of Rockstar's copyright, though.

    --
    What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
  13. Re:Impressive, but still a waste of time. by arose · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I'd say you playing GTA is more a waste of time than him programing the NES.

    --
    Analogies don't equal equalities, they are merely somewhat analogous.
  14. Re:I call hoax by arose · · Score: 1

    If Rockstar have any marketing sense at all they would take it as the free marketing it is and leave him allone.

    --
    Analogies don't equal equalities, they are merely somewhat analogous.
  15. Grand Theft Endo by bluesnowmonkey · · Score: 3, Funny

    I was really hoping it was a mod involving motorcycles. Maybe I'm the only geek who rides.

    1. Re:Grand Theft Endo by bobbozzo · · Score: 1

      FWIW, GTA Vice City has a few bikes.

      --
      Nothing to see here; Move along.
  16. Watermark? It's funny, laugh. by Kris_J · · Score: 1

    I can't believe that someone put a watermark over low-colour images that use tiled graphics and then released them in a lossless file format. Anyone want a clean copy of the screenshots?

  17. Sierra games! by Kris_J · · Score: 4, Interesting

    This is the guy who built an intepreter for the earlier Sierra games that would allow the company to release them for the GBA, absolutely no effort and they still said no. I'm surprised he still has the heart to develop anything. He rocks.

    1. Re:Sierra games! by Acidic_Diarrhea · · Score: 2, Insightful

      No effort? What about the money up front that would be required to produce those GBA carts and packaging? Could it be that an evaluation was made and the ROI was found to be not worth the investment? There's more the video game industry than just the coding of the games, tough guy.

      --
      I hate liberals. If you are a liberal, do not reply.
    2. Re:Sierra games! by Kris_J · · Score: 1
      There's more the video game industry than just the coding of the games
      This is unfortunately correct. However having several fully functional potential products land in your lap does take the sting out of designing a box.
    3. Re:Sierra games! by Acidic_Diarrhea · · Score: 2, Insightful

      It's being intellectually dishonest to act as though the reason the old Sierra games weren't rereleased is because no one wanted to design the box art. It's a business. Tasks don't fail to be performed because they're tedious or boring - tasks fail to be performed because the company makes a determination based on what will bring in the cash.

      --
      I hate liberals. If you are a liberal, do not reply.
    4. Re:Sierra games! by Kris_J · · Score: 4, Interesting
      Oh, I absolute believe that the company used some sort of reasoned process to come to the conclusion that re-releasing classic Sierra adventure games for the GBA was not worth doing, despite the fact that someone was offering to do most of the work. I just happen to think that they came to the wrong conclusion.

      I mean, near nil development costs. No worries that the product might no be delivered on time. What did they have to lose? I'm sure they'd be popular with a huge number of GBA owners and they're a bunch of decent cheap games that open up a whole world of marketing and distribution possibilities. I mean, what GBA-owning, old-school, adventure game-playing, nerd wouldn't lay down a heap of money on a collectors edition box set of Space Quest for the GBA? It's like printing money.

    5. Re:Sierra games! by Acidic_Diarrhea · · Score: 1

      What did they have to lose? Money. They order up a run of, for instance, Space Quest carts and they don't sell. So the company has spent money on all this production and does not recoup it with sales. Sure, the person you describe would probably love to own Space Quest for the GBA but who do you think knows better about how many people are out there who fit that description - you or the people that actually have some demographic information about the GBA user base?

      --
      I hate liberals. If you are a liberal, do not reply.
    6. Re:Sierra games! by cgenman · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Don't forget, they also would need to buy shelf space and promote the things if anyone were to see it, and even basic inventory takes people.

      Of course, with CD's and DVD's being around for so long, people forget that Carts are expensive and risky (Capcom lost all of the money it made from Street Fighter 2 on the Genesis carts for SF2:CE).

      If each cart sold for 20 dollars, Sierra probably gets about 14 of that, 7 of which might go to manufacturing and Nintendo tax. If they spend 500k on promotion (a small budget), and another 100k on boxes / programming / submitting for approval / etc, that's 600k sunk costs. Assuming no returns, they'll need to sell though a bit under 100k to break even. Of course, if they sell through only half of what they sell-in, they'll be eating all of their potential revenue in returns. If, on the other hand, they sell really well, they stand to make a few hundred k.

      Over all, that's not a very good bet for a niche port. And remember, publishers aren't deciding whether or not to make a game based upon whether it will make money, but whether or not it will make more money than all of the other offers they have on the table. Better opportunities were out there. If Sierra thought it was worth it, they would have just paid somebody to make the emulator. 80k is worth it to avoid the legal minefield.

      --
      The ______ Agenda
    7. Re:Sierra games! by Pleione · · Score: 1

      Demographic information is not difficult to obtain. Other companies like Namco and Nintendo have produced classic/collector edition games that did well. I think you are completely wrong about the reasons that Sierra turned this down.

    8. Re:Sierra games! by Kris_J · · Score: 1
      They order up a run of, for instance, Space Quest carts and they don't sell.
      Yeah, but Leisure Suit Larry for the N-Gage is a sure bet.
    9. Re:Sierra games! by ildon · · Score: 1

      Sadly, I don't think Sierra adventure games for GBA could sell well enough to overcome the costs of manufacturing, packaging, shipping, and shelf space, let alone make any money. Those NES Classics aren't exactly flying off the shelves, and they have a much broader appeal.

    10. Re:Sierra games! by Acidic_Diarrhea · · Score: 1
      Namco and Nintendo have produced remakes of games that were originally released on home consoles. We're talking about remakes of PC games.

      And if demographic information is to easy to obtain, point me to an available study that shows the percentage of GBA owners who listed the Space Quest series in their top ten favorites games of all time.

      Thanks for believing that I am completely wrong without citing any reason to think that way! You just made my foes list!

      --
      I hate liberals. If you are a liberal, do not reply.
    11. Re:Sierra games! by milkman_matt · · Score: 1

      I mean, what GBA-owning, old-school, adventure game-playing, nerd wouldn't lay down a heap of money on a collectors edition box set of Space Quest for the GBA? It's like printing money.

      Shit, I don't even OWN a GBA, but you can bet that if they released the QFG series, Space Quest, LSL games for it? You can bet I'd buy the games AND a GBA. Those games were worth it.

      -matt

    12. Re:Sierra games! by Destoo · · Score: 1

      Shit, I don't even OWN a GBA, but you can bet that if they released the QFG series, Space Quest, LSL games for it? You can bet I'd buy the games AND a GBA. Those games were worth it.

      But that's what GBAGI is for. And it works pretty well, too!
      On that page, you can also read why it wasn't officially released and what you need to be able to play them.

      --
      Nouvelles de jeux et technologies en français. TC
    13. Re:Sierra games! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Since it's an AC post, nobody will read it, but nobody here seems to have mentioned testing. They couldn't just take the guy's code and ship it out (with all the associated production/manufacturing and marketing costs), with only his word that wouldn't ever freeze, or randomly pop up porn or something.

      - [Andrew Nagy]

    14. Re:Sierra games! by ps_inkling · · Score: 1
      Those NES Classics aren't exactly flying off the shelves, and they have a much broader appeal.
      If Nintendo would get off their profit high horse and sell the games at $10/each, or bundle three or four games at $20/each, they'd probably sell more of them. Maybe the breakeven point of manufacturing + profit margin for a cart is $20/unit.

      They'd move more volume of the games if they sold, for example, a multi-Zelda GBA cart (NES Zelda, NES Zelda II, GB Zelda, GBC Zelda) for up to $30. I'd buy all the previous Zelda games on one GBA cart.

      Or how about all the previous Mario games on one GBA cart? NES Mario Bros, SMB1-3, Lost Levels (like the SNES version), GBC Mario games, etc., all for $30. An excellent price point, and plenty of profit for the company and value for the gamer.

      But why leave any potential profit on the table? That's ok, they can have my money when the deliver the product I want.

  18. Looks more like the original GTA... by Lisandro · · Score: 1

    ... but that's nitpicking. I'm fucking impressed. The guy not only ported the game, he also coded his own assembler, library routines AND the hardware to develop it!

    Brian, you're the man. I hope you're reading this; congratulations.

  19. Re:Impressive, but still a waste of time. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Cheers to you for sitting on your fuckin' ass and playing a video game. Looks like you sure out-did a guy whose experience and abilities in programming are only increasing and attracting precious attention.

  20. Re:I call hoax by Corngood · · Score: 1

    Hell, they should buy the rights off him and include it playable in an in-game arcade cabinet in their next game.

  21. Wow by jakoz · · Score: 1

    Wow... nice work there... really, really impressive. :)

  22. In other news... by ConceptJunkie · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Quake is ported to a TI-83.

    I'd criticize this for being a pointless and ridiculous project, but I'm a huge believer in the motto, "Because I can."

    --
    You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
  23. Sound? by Mixmaster+Bri · · Score: 1

    Yeah, looks pretty good... But how does it sound?

    1. Re:Sound? by osrevad · · Score: 0

      Yeah, looks pretty good... But how does it sound? Like an NES game.

  24. Re:Impressive, but still a waste of time. by themoodykid · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Christ. Some people just don't get it.

    He's doing this because he wants to and he enjoys it. A lot of us have high esteem for this work. This is what hacking's all about.

  25. Re:Impressive, but still a waste of time. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's not.

  26. Double Cease and Desist Letter... by Zangief · · Score: 2, Insightful

    From Nintendo AND Take Two, in five, four, three, two...

    Why this kind of genius is wasted on these projects which look like a suit bait? The guy is amazing, but should be developing as an indie, trying to get positive attention from industry.

  27. Re:Impressive, but still a waste of time. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    of course he doesn't get it, most non-creative people can't get that you can "screw-around" and still learn and grow. in fact some would say that that's the true secret to life.

    in the binary 9-5 world you must either be working or playing, never both.

    that's fine he doesn't get it, i mean, somebody's gotta work at the quick mart.

  28. Re:I call hoax by wheany · · Score: 1

    I don't think they have to buy the rights from him, I'm pretty sure thay can just take the game from him and use it in any way they want.

    Not that I'm a lawyer, though...

  29. Wow by rico238x · · Score: 1

    I am at a loss of words.......... He is a truly gifted individual.....

  30. NES dev explosion? by hillens · · Score: 0

    just wait until he releases the development tools (NES high-level assembler) for free when Grand Theftendo is completed. i imagine people will be able to come up with some really cool stuff.

    congrats to brian for some great work there

  31. Brian by AnimeFreak · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Brian and I have been friends since we were both nine years old. He is an incredible person who is a thousand times smarter than me. Trust me, this game will be good.

    1. Re:Brian by patternjuggler · · Score: 2, Insightful

      We're all happy that you have a gifted friend. But I'm certainly not +1 interested: you've added exactly zero content to the discussion. Anybody could claim to be his friend say 'trust me', but it would only be worth modding up if by virtue of knowing the guy you have some insight into is development process, anecdotes from the creation of this game, some knowledge above and beyond what's in the pages linked to from the article.

  32. Re:I call hoax by johndoejersey · · Score: 1

    Id like to think Rockstar would be decent about it and at least credit Brian in some way, be it financial or otherwise.

    There doesnt appear to be any kind of benefit for the developer at all, he's doing it for the love of it.

    I think that deserves to be applauded, even by Rockstar!

  33. Re:I call hoax by AnimeFreak · · Score: 1

    Trust me, seeing that I have seen the guy work on it, it is not close to being a hoax.

  34. Re:I call hoax by wheany · · Score: 1

    I'm pretty sure that if they did decide to use the game in some way, they probably would give some kind of credit.

    At least my impression of Rockstar has been that the are not assholes.

  35. reality filters off by Optical+Voodoo+Man · · Score: 1
    It looked fishy to me too. People want to see something and they turn all of there filters off. "It must be true, I read it on SlashDot, I even saw pictures and everything." Then they go on parroting back what this guys article said. Believe when your playing it (and I'm apologizing).

    I mean, people would sing my praises for months if I wrote that I had ported the Halo to the NES and showed a few flashy screens I made and a toaster next to an old NES with some wires.

    You can't believe everything you see on TV or read on SlashDot. Given that, maybe I should would on that Halo port...

    1. Re:reality filters off by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why don't you have a look at the shitload of retrogaming stuff the guy has produced and released in the past before you write his work off?

      Honestly, you're a grade A fuckwit.

  36. Re:I call hoax by filenabber · · Score: 1

    Have you looked at his NES hardware hacks he has done? Incredible. Seeing those, I can't beleive that this is a hoax.

    --
    Are you a Candy Addict?
  37. Re:unreal by JavaLord · · Score: 1

    He coded it from scratch over 2 years from assembler. What source code would he mess with anyway? It's not like you can hack the 3d engine from the orignal into the NES.

    Not only that, but he wrote his own assembler "NESHLA" for the NES when he decided the other ones sucked and then made the game with that assembler! That is pretty damn impressive. The grandparent troll probably couldn't code hello world in visual basic.

  38. Re:I call hoax by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    No, they couldn't just take it and use it without permission. They'd be violating copyright laws.

    That doesn't even compare to porting a game from scratch without permission. That's simply derived from it.

  39. Even better. by Joseph+Vigneau · · Score: 1

    They can use the rights they already have to GTA 1 and 2, and do the same...

  40. Amazing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0


    All I can say is, and I mean this in all sincerity, I wish I had the time and energy this guy obviously has.

  41. Grand Theft Endor by wickedj · · Score: 1

    For a minute, I thought that read, Grand Theft Endor. This is where your an Ewok and you beat up storm troopers and steal their speederbikes and AT-STs.

  42. Re:I call hoax by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Hold on, providing he doesn't SELL any copies of the game, he's perfectly clear to do as he pleases. Copyright law wasn't written to stifle creativity, as the various SCOTUS cases have shown. I.E. Betamax and Parody being fair-use.

  43. This is great! by Jagasian · · Score: 1

    The Atari 2600 scene has seen lots of activity in game development recently. They even go as far as to mint actual carts with labels, manuals, and boxes for their games. Even better, they tend to do the labels and packaging in the same style as the late 1970s Atari games. You can buy these games from sites like Atari Age.

    Another company, VG Wiz provides cart minting services, and even has a NES flash cart under development. Tototek recently made flash development carts for various old console systems: Sega Master System, Sega Genesis, Turbo Graphics 16, and even the SNES. These carts are great for playing ROMs on the actual console system.

    Hopefully Grand Theftendo sees a similar fate as the Atari 2600 homebrews, and gets minted to an actual cart with PCB, plastic enclosure, label, manual, and box. The NES scene has been needing some full fledged fan developed games for a long time now.

  44. Re:Impressive, but still a waste of time. by whodunnit · · Score: 1

    Accually Mr.Dick

    I work a full time job as a software engineer, I've also written several games and other various applications in my free time. All I was meaning to point out in my previous post is the fact that he's doing all this work for an obsolete system, that the only way you could play his work is if you use an emulator that is technically illegal. If he's that much of a genius I can think of much more productive uses of his time. Also Next time grow some balls and post non AC.

  45. Re:Impressive, but still a waste of time. by whodunnit · · Score: 1

    Which you have a right to say. Which was the whole point of the "I Think" part of my statement. Obvously alot of people on slashdot think it's a cool idea. I just think that rehashing someone else's idea for an obsolete system is a waste of time. If he's that smart and that "creative" how about he writes an original game for the NES, or even better yet for a system that is accually still made. Oh yea that's right because then he wouldn't be riding someone else's coat tails and no one would give a shit. As for you thinking that me playing gta is a waste of time, sure i'll give ya that.. but that's kind of a point of a video game.. to dick around waste time and accomplsh nothing real.. accually it's kinda like you bothering to make a commment about my post on slashdot. Accually i'd go as far to say that you wasteing the time to reply to my post is far larger of a waste of time than me playing games. (of course that leads to the line of thinking that the post i'm writing right now is a waste of time.. which it is.. but hey.. i'm at work and bored.)