Grand Theftendo Homebrew port of GTA III to NES

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"

Comments

Uh-oh

[FriedTurkey]

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

Re:Uh-oh

[Tumbleweed]

But what if they had it comin'?

It's edutainment; bitches gotta learn respect.

San Andreas

[Nickolay Stelmashenk]

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

Wow

[My name isn't Tim]

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!

Re:Wow

[stoborrobots]

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!

Re:Wow

[sevinkey]

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

antifun

[jfisherwa]

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.

Brian Provinciano - Saint?

[glowimperial]

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

A++ hacking

[spludge]

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.

Re:I call hoax

[Otter]

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.

Re:Impressive, but still a waste of time.

[arose]

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

Re:Hmm...

[gl4ss]

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..)...

Grand Theft Endo

[bluesnowmonkey]

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

Sierra games!

[Kris_J]

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.

Re:Sierra games!

[Acidic_Diarrhea]

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.

Re:Sierra games!

[Acidic_Diarrhea]

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.

Re:Sierra games!

[Kris_J]

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.

Re:Sierra games!

[cgenman]

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.

Re:Impressive, but still a waste of time.

[themoodykid]

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.

Double Cease and Desist Letter...

[Zangief]

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.

Brian

[AnimeFreak]

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.

Re:Brian

[patternjuggler]

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.