GTA 1

Grand Theft Auto is a top-down action-adventure game developed by DMA Design in Dundee, Scotland, and the first entry in the series. It came out in 1997 for MS-DOS, Windows and PlayStation, and a Game Boy Color version followed in 1999.

Race'n'Chase: cops and robbers, with the sides swapped

Work began on 4 April 1995. The project started as Race'n'Chase, a cops and robbers idea. DMA's Mike Dailly put the March 1995 design document online in 2011, and it pitches the game as a fun, addictive and fast multiplayer car racing and crashing game built on a novel graphics method. Former creative director Gary Penn remembered it as basically cops and robbers, with the player free to take either side.

The team found playing the police dull, so the player moved over to the criminal's side. Penn named Elite as a major influence and called the result basically Elite in a city. Producer David Jones pointed to Pac-Man: the player runs over pedestrians and is chased by the police.

Six levels in three cities

The game is played from above across six levels, two in each of three cities: Liberty City (modelled on New York), San Andreas (San Francisco) and Vice City (Miami). Rockstar's own description is about driving dozens of varied vehicles around three of America's toughest cities.

Each level has a points target, starting at 1,000,000. Most of the points come from jobs the player takes by answering ringing payphones for the local crime syndicate. The player picks one of eight characters (four on PlayStation), but the choice is only cosmetic. The PC versions also support networked multiplayer over IPX.

From the Liberty City mob to Brother Marcus

The plot follows a criminal who first works for the Liberty City mob, then for Uncle Fu and El Burro in San Andreas, and finally for the corrupt cop Samuel Deever and Brother Marcus in Vice City.

Where the in-car radio began

This is where the series' in-car radio began: seven stations plus a police band, composed by DMA's Colin Anderson, Craig Conner and Grant Middleton. The main theme is by Conner and is credited to a fictional band, Da Shootaz. Only one station, Head Radio, is actually named in the game.

Europe first, North America months later

BMG Interactive published the MS-DOS and Windows versions in Europe on 28 November 1997 and the PlayStation version on 12 December 1997. In North America, ASC Games released the PC version on 24 March 1998, and Take-Two Interactive put out the PlayStation version on 30 June 1998. Sega Saturn and Nintendo 64 versions were planned but cancelled.

Tarantula Studios developed the Game Boy Color port, which Rockstar Games published in Europe on 22 October 1999 with most of the gore and swearing taken out.

Debated in the House of Lords, banned in Brazil

The violence was debated in the UK House of Lords on 20 May 1997, months before release. David Jones and Mike Dailly later said publicist Max Clifford's controversy-driven PR campaign was crucial to the game's success. The game was also banned in Brazil by the Justice Ministry.

Reviews were mixed. GameSpot praised the freedom, music and sound, while IGN called the graphics "really quite shoddy".

One million shipped by 1998, six million sold by 2001

Shipments passed 1 million units by November 1998. The game had sold 3.5 million units by October 1999 and 6 million by March 2001.

Two London expansions and a free download

Two expansion packs set in 1960s England arrived in 1999: Grand Theft Auto: London 1969 and Grand Theft Auto: London 1961. Rockstar later offered the PC game as a free download in its Rockstar Classics collection, alongside Grand Theft Auto 2 and Wild Metal.

The game started one of the best-selling franchises ever.