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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"

8 of 80 comments (clear)

  1. 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. 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.
  3. 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 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.

    2. 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
  4. 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.