Grand Theft Auto


⤏ Go to series page
Grand Theft Auto	1997
Grand Theft Auto 2	1999
Grand Theft Auto III	2002
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City	2003
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas	2005
Grand Theft Auto IV	2008
Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City	2010
Grand Theft Auto: iFruit	2013
Grand Theft Auto V	2015
Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars	2021
Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition (series)

General information

Steam Community Discussions

GTAForums - Grand Theft Auto Discussion

GTA Network - A huge network of fansites all dedicated to the Grand Theft Auto series

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail		1997 and 2004 releases. No DRM in GTA trilogy from Cenega sold in Poland, as it includes "Rockstar Classics" version.
Official website (unavailable)		Was available for free via Rockstars' "Rockstar Classics" series to mailing-list subscribers.^[2]
Steam (unavailable)

This game is no longer officially available digitally.

DLC and expansion packs

Name	Notes
London 1969
London 1961	Free. Requires London 1969

Game data

In-game options menu.

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
DOS
Windows	HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\DMA Design\Grand Theft Auto\^{[Note 1]}
Steam Play (Linux)	<Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/12170/pfx/^{[Note 2]}

Save game data location

System	Location
DOS	<path-to-game>\GTADATA\PLAYER_A.DAT
Windows	<path-to-game>\GTADATA\PLAYER_A.DAT^{[Note 3]}
Steam Play (Linux)	<Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/12170/pfx/^{[Note 2]}

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
Steam Cloud

Video

In-game resolution settings.

Graphics feature	WSGF	Notes
Widescreen resolution		Use ThirteenAG's fix.
Multi-monitor		Use ThirteenAG's fix.
Ultra-widescreen		Use ThirteenAG's fix.
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)
Windowed	Use ThirteenAG's fix.
Borderless fullscreen windowed	Use ThirteenAG's fix.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
Anti-aliasing (AA)
Vertical sync (Vsync)	For DOSBox use an unofficial build (see the glossary page for other workarounds).
60 FPS and 120+ FPS	Capped to 24fps

Input

External options screen.

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping		Change via external options screen (located in the installation folder).
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity		For DOSBox set in the DOSBox configuration file.
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support
Full controller support
Controller remapping
Controller sensitivity
Controller Y-axis inversion

Controller types

XInput-compatible controllers

DualShock 4 controllers

Generic/other controllers
Button prompts		SideWinder Game Pad

Additional information
Controller hotplugging
Haptic feedback
Simultaneous controller+KB/M

Audio

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls		CD Music, SFX
Surround sound		Stereo output only.^[3]
Subtitles		Most speech is text-based.
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
Royalty free audio
Red Book CD audio		On Windows, CD music might not play correctly; see the troubleshooting guide for solutions.

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
French
German
Hungarian				Fan translation, download.
Italian
Japanese				Fan translation, download.
Polish				Retail only. Fan translation here, 1961.
Russian				Fan translation for GTA 1 by Ural Ishmukhametov (VicemanUral), Fan translation for GTA London 1969 & 1961 by Mysterion.
Spanish

Network

Multiplayer types

Type	Native	Notes
LAN play
Online play		For DOSBox use DOSBox IPX/modem emulation.

Connection types

Type	Native	Notes
Matchmaking
Peer-to-peer
Dedicated
Self-hosting
Direct IP

Ports

Protocol	Port(s) and/or port range(s)
TCP	2300-2400, 47624
UDP	2300-2400, 47624

Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) support status is unknown.

Issues fixed

Low FPS on Windows 8 and later

If you are using ThirteenAG's WS fix then first rename the ddraw.dll from ThirteenAG's WS fix to dinput.dll and remove wndmode.ini to make them work together^[4]

Use dgVoodoo2 wrapper^{[citation needed]}

Download newest dgVoodoo 2.
Extract dgVoodooCpl.exe alongside MS\x86\D3DImm.dll and MS\x86\DDraw.dll to <path-to-game>\WINO.
Start dgVoodooSetup.exe and configure it.
Go to DirectX tab and make sure that Disable a passthru to real DirectX is not checked.
Select Virtual 3D Accelerated Card under Videocard and set its RAM to 65536 kB.
Check Fast video memory access under Miscellanneous and set VRAM to 128 MB or higher for playing in 32-bit video mode.
Click Apply and OK.

(Software mode) Change color depth
Press `F11` ingame and switch to a resolution with 32-bit colors.

Settings.exe configuration will not save

Set `Settings.exe` to run in Windows XP SP3 compatibility mode^{[citation needed]}

MGL Fatal Error on startup

Error message: "Error 296.473: Cannot find the default display mode"

Set the game to run in Windows XP SP3 compatibility mode^{[citation needed]}

Crash when using ThirteenAG's WS fix on high resolution monitors

ThirteenAG's widescreen fix will default to using desktop resolution, but higher resolutions will crash the game.

Set a lower resolution
Edit `<path-to-game>\WINO\scripts\GTA1.WidescreenFix.ini` and set ResX and ResY to your desired resolution. Resolutions up to 2880x1620 work, but UI doesn't scale so going lower is recommended.

Crash with multiple monitors

Two error messages appear if you have more than one active monitor:

CreateSurface failed (DDERR_OUTOFVIDEOMEMORY)!
Error 303.502 Display Error: Selected Video mode not supported

Disable secondary monitors^[5]

Crash after playing once

Use Grand Theft Auto I Launcher^[6]
Download Grand Theft Auto I Launcher. Extract `GTA I Launcher.exe` from `GTA I Launcher.zip` and copy it to `<path-to-game>`. Run `GTA I Launcher.exe` to start the game.

Audio tracks in wrong order

The audio tracks of the Steam version are named wrong which leads to hearing police radio chatter when not in a car.

Use GTAFixer^[7]
Download GTAFixer. Extract `GTAFixer.rar` and copy to `<path-to-game>`. Run `GTAFixer.exe`.

Radio goes silent after a while (Steam/Rockstar Classics version)

Use updated mss32.dll^[8]
Go to this post on GTAForums and download the updated `mss32.dll` provided by user Alienx999. Paste it to `<path-to-game>\WINO` and overwrite the existing file.

London 69 cutscenes are corrupt

For some reason, the cutscenes don't play properly within London '69 in normal mode.

Try to bypass them or use either the Glide mode or 8bit mode (from the setup) to play them correctly.

Crashes on ingame resolution change

Delete `PLAYER_A/E.DAT` files from folders `GTADATA` and `\GTADATA\UK`. It can also be done from the Options panel in the launcher.

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
DirectDraw
Glide	2.42
DOS video modes	SVGA

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Audio	Miles Sound System
Cutscenes	Smacker

System requirements

DOS
	Minimum
Operating system (OS)	6.0
Processor (CPU)
System memory (RAM)
Hard disk drive (HDD)

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	95, 98	NT
Processor (CPU)	Intel Pentium 75 MHz	Intel Pentium 166 MHz
System memory (RAM)	16 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	80 MB	380 MB
Video card (GPU)	VESA-compatible SVGA 1 MB of VRAM	VESA-compatible SVGA 2 MB of VRAM

Notes

↑ Applications writing to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE will be redirected to other locations based on various criterias, see the glossary page for more details.
↑ ^2.0 ^2.1 File/folder structure within this directory reflects the path(s) listed for Windows and/or Steam game data (use Wine regedit to access Windows registry paths). Games with Steam Cloud support may store data in ~/.steam/steam/userdata/<user-id>/12170/ in addition to or instead of this directory. The app ID (12170) may differ in some cases. Treat backslashes as forward slashes. See the glossary page for details.
↑ When running this game without elevated privileges (Run as administrator option), write operations against a location below %PROGRAMFILES%, %PROGRAMDATA%, or %WINDIR% might be redirected to %LOCALAPPDATA%\VirtualStore on Windows Vista and later (more details).

References

↑ Careers at Rockstar Toronto | Rockstar Games (retrieved)
↑ Rockstar Classics - Free Downloads - last accessed on 2022-09-22
↑ PC Gaming Surround Sound Round-up - last accessed on May 2023
↑ GTA 1 A way to use ThirteenAG fix and dgVoodoo wrapper simultaneously? - last accessed on May 2023
↑ GTA 1 exits when I want to play - Steam Users' Forums (retrieved)
↑ Grand Theft Auto I Launcher (retrieved)
↑ GTAFixer (retrieved)
↑ Is there any way to fix the radio/music bug in GTA 1? - GTAForums - last accessed on May 2023

[HKLM-3] Applications writing to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE will be redirected to other locations based on various criterias, see the glossary page for more details.

[Proton_path_note-4] 2.0 ^2.1 File/folder structure within this directory reflects the path(s) listed for Windows and/or Steam game data (use Wine regedit to access Windows registry paths). Games with Steam Cloud support may store data in ~/.steam/steam/userdata/<user-id>/12170/ in addition to or instead of this directory. The app ID (12170) may differ in some cases. Treat backslashes as forward slashes. See the glossary page for details.

[gamedir-5] When running this game without elevated privileges (Run as administrator option), write operations against a location below %PROGRAMFILES%, %PROGRAMDATA%, or %WINDIR% might be redirected to %LOCALAPPDATA%\VirtualStore on Windows Vista and later (more details).

[1] Careers at Rockstar Toronto | Rockstar Games (retrieved)

[2] Rockstar Classics - Free Downloads - last accessed on 2022-09-22

[6] PC Gaming Surround Sound Round-up - last accessed on May 2023

[7] GTA 1 A way to use ThirteenAG fix and dgVoodoo wrapper simultaneously? - last accessed on May 2023

[8] GTA 1 exits when I want to play - Steam Users' Forums (retrieved)

[9] Grand Theft Auto I Launcher (retrieved)

[10] GTAFixer (retrieved)

[11] Is there any way to fix the radio/music bug in GTA 1? - GTAForums - last accessed on May 2023

[1]

[2]

[Note 1]

[Note 2]

[Note 3]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

Developers

	DMA Design
London 1969/1961	Rockstar Canada^[1]
Publishers
North America	ASC Games
Europe	Take-Two Interactive
United Kingdom	BMG Interactive
	Rockstar Games
Release dates
DOS	October 21, 1997
Windows	October 21, 1997
Taxonomy
Monetization	Freeware, Expansion pack
Perspectives	Top-down view
Themes	North America, Europe
Series	Grand Theft Auto