Grand Theft Auto: Vice City

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
Developers: Rockstar North, Rockstar Vienna (Xbox), War Drum Studios (Mobile) Publishers: Rockstar Games (US/EU/AU), Capcom (JP) Platforms: Windows, PlayStation 2, Xbox, iOS, Android Released in JP: September 2003 (Windows), May 20, 2004 (PlayStation 2) Released in US: October 27, 2002 (PlayStation 2), May 2003 (Windows), October 2003 (Xbox) Released in EU: November 8, 2002 (PlayStation 2), May 2003 (Windows), January 2003 (Xbox) Released in AU: November 8, 2002 (PlayStation 2), May 2003 (Windows), January 2003 (Xbox) This game has a hidden developer message. This game has unused graphics. This game has unused models. This game has unused items. This game has unused sounds. This game has unused text. This game has regional differences. This game has revisional differences. This game has anti-piracy features. This game has a development article This game has a bugs page

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City is a prequel to Grand Theft Auto III, taking place in the 1980s. The formula was vastly improved with new weapons, further customization, and even more big-name voice actors.

Oh dear, I do believe I have the vapors. This page contains content that is not safe for work or other locations with the potential for personal embarrassment. Such as: G-Spotlight images.

To do: Clean up time. Rearrange the entire page and retake the images. Prerelease stuff. This is a good place to start. Document the Malibu club game freeze in the PC version Content from this video Moved-around location of Ken's office. Scrapped Betting track interior with leftover graphics that would reappear in San Andreas. Unused palm tree road separator model. Unused models of drug packets. BJ Smith's Used Autos/Sunshine Autos naming oddity Hidden cutscene detail animations. Patrol Investment Group ped model oddity. Content from part 2 of the video Unused broken bridge model assigned to Vice Point. Unused trash can prop which would later appear in Vice City Stories. Scrapped balcony for Ocean View hotel. Unfinished Front Page Cafe interior Unfinished car dealer shop oddity in Downtown Vice City Scrapped Well-Stacked Pizza Place in Washington Beach Leftover GTA III saving system Scrapped garage saving door Unused smaller garbage bin model Unused traffic light models

Sub-Pages

Development Info

Bugs

Unused Mission-Related Text and Audio This is where it starts to get interesting.

Unused Sounds Sounds and non-mission dialogue that never got a chance to be heard.

Version and Platform Differences So many minor details changed...

Unused Weapons

Grenade Launcher

Speaks for itself. Removed because it would look out of place. Its model (grenlanc.dff) and textures (grenlanc.txd) are still in the PS2 version of the game.

Steyr Aug

Its model (steyr.dff) and textures (steyr.txd) can be found as well in the PS2 version.

AK-47

A returning weapon from Grand Theft Auto III. Model and textures are present. Its low quality texture implies that it may have been discarded earlier in development.

Land Mine

Model and textures were preserved too in both releases. This weapon would be fully coded, but STILL end up unused in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories.

Silenced Colt

Model (coltsil.dff) and texture (coltsil.txd) are also in the PS2 version.

Tazer

Staplegun

Only present in the files of the Japanese PlayStation 2 version.

Short MP5

Unused HUD icon.

Uzi

Another planned returning weapon from Grand Theft Auto III, except that the textures are corrupted.

M16

Yet another weapon planned to return, with corrupted textures.

Early Shotgun

An earlier version of the shotgun, with the model taken straight from Grand Theft Auto III.

(Source: Grand Theft Wiki)

Unused Vehicles

To do: Get individual texture sheets for each asset.

To do: Upload that early game shot with the GTA III helicopter. Manhunt has a few beta versions of GTA Vice City cars. The Blista GPX from beta screenshots are props in Manhunt, as well as other cars. Textures can be interchanged between some Manhunt cars and Vice City cars.

Cougar

Though not unused, it's actually an earlier version of the Virgo with the taillights from the real-life Lincoln Continental Mark V counterpart.

Toyz

A leftover vehicle from Grand Theft Auto III, which would be replaced with the Top Fun van. Model and texture files are present within the PS2 files, likely as a placeholder, since it is vaguely reminiscent of a 90's van.

Other Vehicles

• Coastguard Maverick: Helicopter. Only text and handling entry remain.

COASTMAV 3500.0 2.0 5.0 2.5 0.0 0.0 -0.1 75 0.65 0.9 0.5 1 200.0 16.0 4 P 5.0 0.45 0 30.0 5.0 0.1 0.30 0.65 50000 0.50 -0.05 0.5 0.0 8028000 0

(Source: Grand Theft Wiki)

• Police Helicopter: Leftover helicopter from GTA III that appeared on an early screenshot. Replaced with VCPD equivalent of Maverick. Handling entry is present.

HELI 25500.0 2.5 7.7 2.9 0.0 0.0 0.0 85 0.58 0.7 0.46 5 140.0 24.0 4 D 10.00 0.45 0 27.0 1.2 0.05 0.2 1.00 10000 0.47 -0.17 0.5 0.0 20000 0 1

• Train: Leftover transportation system from GTA III. Handling entry is present.

TRAIN 25500.0 2.5 7.7 2.9 0.0 0.0 0.0 85 0.58 0.7 0.46 5 140.0 24.0 4 D 10.00 0.45 0 27.0 1.2 0.05 0.2 1.00 10000 0.47 -0.17 0.5 0.0 0 0 1

• Dodo: Leftover Cessna-style plane from GTA III. Replaced with its seaplane brother. Handling entry is present.

DODO 2500.0 1.0 10.0 1.2 0.0 1.0 0.0 75 0.65 0.9 0.5 1 200.0 16.0 4 P 5.0 0.45 0 30.0 5.0 0.1 0.30 0.50 25000 1.25 -0.17 0.5 0.0 48000 0 1

• Kuruma: Leftover vehicle from GTA III. Handling entry is present. Definitely a leftover since it is based on a early 90's sedan in GTA III.

KURUMA 1500.0 1.9 4.9 1.4 0.0 0.0 0.15 75 0.87 0.85 0.48 5 180.0 17.0 F P 7.17 0.55 0 30.0 1.6 0.1 0.24 0.60 18000 0.27 -0.13 0.5 0.0 8002 1 1

• Civillian Patriot: Yet another leftover vehicle from GTA III. The "Civillian"(sic) marking was put there to distinguish the leftover Patriot from the in-game Patriot that is reserved for military use.

These vehicles are referred in the handling.cfg under these names. These suggest late name changes.

Earlier Names

Early	Final
Bike	PCJ-600
Cupboat	Jetmax
Desperado	Mesa Grande
Dirtbike	Sanchez
FBI Car	FBI Washington
Golf Cart	Caddy
Mafia Cruiser	Sentinel XS
Moped	Faggio
Pheonix	Phoenix
Seaplane	Skimmer

These vehicles have either model, textures or handling present within the files. They are very similar to existing vehicles, which might be their early names.

Early	Final
Blista GPX	Blista Compact
Cougar	Virgo
Harley	Freeway
Inferno	Infernus
Mafia Cruiser	Sentinel XS
Pheonix	Phoenix

Unused Models

Props

To do: Replace with model renders.

It can be seen in an early screenshot.

Labeled as bustopm.dff. These were meant to be part of the game world. They were most likely cut in mid-development, as they cannot get damaged and have somewhat compressed textures.

They were later retextured and reused in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

The sun-lounger chair used in Asuka Kasen's apartment in Grand Theft Auto III exists in the files and was intended to be used before being replaced with different designs.

A small pink house presumably intended for the beach considering its filename is just one letter away from the normal beach hut model.

A volleyball net also likely for the beach

Some sandcastles intended as props for the beach. These seem unfinished as only the larger one is destructible.

An unused lounger variant that features a towel.

Character Models

A rather badly-textured model of Kent Paul as kentpaul.dff. A different model is used.

Early	Final

An earlier model of Ken Rosenberg.

Alternate designs for the goons that occupy any asset owned by the player. Interestingly, the Japanese version does use these models.

Save File Screen

Used	Unused

There are three copies of the PlayStation 2 save icon on the disc. For some reason, one of the icons is slightly deformed.

Music Pickup

A pickup depicting a pair of headphones named in the files as "PICKUPMUSIC". Its purpose is unknown and there's no coding for it, though it can still be spawned in game.

Unused Graphics

HUD Icons

Various graphics located in hud.txd never appear in the game.

Radio Station Map Icons

Icons exist for each station (save for VCN, only depicted as a building) in the game. In Grand Theft Auto III and Liberty City Stories, the radio stations are located as buildings around Liberty City, so that may have been intended to be the case in this game.

• 

  Emotion 98.3

• 

  Radio Espantoso

• 

  Fever 105

• 

  Flash FM

• 

  K-chat

• 

  Vice City News

• 

  VCPR

• 

  V-Rock

• 

  Wave 103

• 

  Wildstyle

VCN

In the PlayStation 2 version's menu graphics (FRONTEN2.TXD), there is a logo for a deleted radio station, Vice City News, or VCN for short. It's stored among the logos for the other radio stations that you can tune in on the menu while adjusting audio options. Kenny Loggins was supposed to make a guest appearance on VCN as a host of one of the radio programs.

• 

  The logo

(Source: Grand Theft Wiki)

Miscellaneous Stuff

Graphic	Description
	A green house; unused property icon. This icon didn't totally go to waste, though, as it was reused in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.
	Letter B, standing for Bikers. Not used in favor of a poker spade icon.
	An unused loading screen from the PlayStation 2 version. Normally, the game does not load long enough to display this image, so it goes unseen.

Unused Lance Texture

An unused texture of an injured Lance Vance (buddy3.txd), certainly meant to appear in the mission Death Row.

Unused Features

• Additional clothing labeled as "MC Tommy" is listed in the american.gxt file at MAIN > OUTFT13. Neither models nor textures of this outfit exist.
• Within the same file, tires would have been able to be slashed and recorded into the statistics according to MAIN > TYRESLA.
• A cut cheat code that when enabled through hex editing gives the player's car broken helicopter physics.

(Source: Grand Theft Wiki (MC Tommy))

(Source: Grand Theft Wiki (Slashed Tires))

Developer Shout-Out

The SA Goon Rank.

There is a secret criminal rating for the stats page: "SA Goon". It is only displayed if the player's score is between 1000 and 1005, after which it ticks over to the "Goon" rating. Due to the very small window for it to be achieved, it's nearly impossible to see unless one is deliberately trying for it.

The rating is a reference to the Something Awful Forums, the inhabitants of which are dubbed Goons.

Oddities

To do: A LOT more. Radar at Escobar Airport in the opening cutscene. Ocean View Safehouse Balcony

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City was a rather slapped-together game, according to an interview with Rockstar Games and as a result, many different oddities appear in the most unusual or noticeable of places.

Earlier Map Leftovers

There are many odds and ends around Vice City which suggest many different map changes that were made throughout development.

Sunshine Autos Map

An early version of the map of Vice City can be seen at Sunshine Autos. Some of the differences are still present in the LOD's of the islands, most notably the "Ghost Tower", which can be seen before the second island loads while crossing a bridge.

Early	Final

Changes include:

• The Hyman Memorial Stadium and the patch of sand near it are missing
• A large chunk of Washington Beach is missing
• Fort Baxter Air Base was much larger
• The Lighthouse is missing
• The bridge between Little Haiti and the Leaf Links Golf Club is curved
• Viceport has a little inlet of water going into it
• The long road that goes all the way from Viceport to Downtown is cut off early.

Draw Distance Models

LOD	Normal

Unfinished Interiors

A biker shop called Howling Pete's has an unfinished interior that can be seen by the same methods as the above image.

Cutscene Oddities

A misplaced pedestrian can be seen in the intro cutscene for the mission Messing With the Man, where fixing the coordinates to make them appear will function correctly. There was actually supposed to be a female waitress in place of the cutscene judging from the internal model, but no such model exists.

Cutscene Model Differences

The Mr. Vercetti outfit for Tommy has different colors in-game and in cutscenes.

In-game	Cutscene

Vehicles

If you take a Pony or a Rumpo to a Pay & Spray, the front bumper is flipped backwards for some reason.

Parking your car in the spot shown in the picture (in Ocean Beach) causes it to despawn as soon as you get out of it.

Non-collision Areas

There is a miscolored patch of grass in Ocean Beach near the Pay & Spray. It has no collision, so the player will fall out of bounds if the spot is driven to on a motorcycle.

One of the walls around the Downtown Hospital has no collision and can be driven through.

The end of one of the fences of the mansions on Prawn Island also has no collision.

The side of the bridge leading from Prawn Island to Downtown has no collision as well, and can easily be jumped through. This one can be used to get to the second island earlier than intended.

Ronald Reagan Easter Egg

Hidden inside a wall in the Downtown Ammu-Nation is this image of former president Ronald Reagan shooting at Mikhail Gorbachev. Whether or not this was just misplaced, or intentionally hidden is unknown. The only way to see it is to aim a rocket launcher or sniper rifle while standing right next to the wall or using a trainer.

Filename Oddity

Cam Jones is referenced as "mike" in the files (igmike.txd, mike2.txd, etc.)

Grand Theft Auto III Leftovers

Sounds

The sound used for the pager device in the previous game can be located in the appropriately named "pager.wav". This sound, however, was remade for the intro on the Rockstar North logo.

The timer sound from the previous game was in Vice City's audio files.

News Headline

Leftover news headline from Grand Theft Auto III's intro with the filename of news.txd. Exists only on the Windows version.

Bonus Pickup

As the model suggest, this is a leftover from GTA III, though it was probably meant for the import-export garage in Sunshine Autos, since the garage itself doesn't allow to export the vehicles that were listed on the delivery list.

Regional Differences

Japanese Version changes

• When starting up the game, the player will be greeted to a screen which vary between three versions stating they must be 18 or over to play it, with the CERO rating displayed on it. This is the first time that the screen appears and would be included in the Japanese Xbox and PC versions of Grand Theft Auto III, and future releases.
• Some of the font has been changed to support the Japanese language.
• Two new skins have been added, which are called Tache and Wild, which would be released in the Mac OS port of the game. Oddly, those skins are found in the Android version's files despite not supporting them.
• The wheel rim texture for some of the vehicles like the Police was changed, likely because it resembled too much of the real-life Fiat Punto's equivalent. Strangely, this was only done on the PlayStation 2 version of the game, where the other Japanese versions use the original design due to the texture being placed into the wrong file called MISC.TXD instead of wheels.TXD.
• The text for the player needing to complete the biker gang missions now lasts for four seconds rather than one.
• Exclusive to the Windows version, the fire texture is yellow and bigger.
• This version uses the alternate, normally unused models for the Vercetti goons.
• Blood droplets don't appear on the screen when the player uses a chainsaw against a pedestrian.
• In "Martha's Mugshot" the chauffeur is now invulnerable and will not leave the limo under any circumstances.
• The Cubans in "Trojan Voodoo" will no longer leave their cars under any circumstances but are not invulnerable.
• The Top Fun van in "Bombs Away!" is no longer immobile.
• In "Love Juice" the player can no longer trigger the picking Mercedes up cutscene with a one-seated vehicle therefore softlocking the game. Instead the game will tell the player to get a two-seated one.
• In "Cannon Fodder" the player leaves the car slightly before the Cubans instead of right after. The mission marker has also been slightly moved.
• The "Pole Position" mission complete cutscene lasts slighty longer.
• In "All Hands on Deck" the Infernus no longer spawns inside the mall to prevent a bug.
• Certain English strings are different (e.g. Mission Passed reading Mission Completed)
• Instead of showing a letter representing a controller button, the Japanese version shows an image of the button.
• Only one language option (Japanese, that is)
• Uses reverse controls for buying weapons on both PS2 and PC.

Changed Graphics

Due to CERO regulations regarding sexuality in video games, some of the graphics had to be edited to remove all form of partial nudity and sexual themes.

• The posters and polaroids with Candy Suxxx were replaced by pictures of (rather creepy looking) kittens and flowers.

International	Japan

• Curiously, four of the kitten posters are taken from newer real-life stock photos from the internet as well as three of them having enlarged eyes, contradicting the game's 1986 setting.
  • The top left image is the Runaway Kitten photo, that was posted on the internet.
  • The top right image is from the now defunct Pixvirtual website. It was originally a gif where the kitten made a scary made while their eyes turned red.
  • The bottom right image of a cat, became infamous on the internet due to it resembling a Fizzgig from the movie The Dark Crystal.
• That also includes the image of Candy given by the player as a reward.

International	Japan

• The spotlight graphic for the mission G-Spotlight was changed.

International	Japan

Changed Cutscenes

All scenes involving characters doing cocaine and drugs were cut short in the Japanese version, in The Shootist and No Escape? missions. The opening cutscenes for G-Spotlight and Martha's Mug Shot were edited, too.

To do: Replace with videos, considering that the camera angle is changed.

In G-Spotlight, the first few seconds of Candy complaining about not being to swallow "it" were edited out.

International	Japan

In Martha's Mug Shot, Candy's moaning was cut out except for one little bit where she replies to Tommy.

International	Japan

German Version

All of the censorship that was carried onto the German version of Grand Theft Auto III remains here, except now the missions Messing with the Man and Dirty Lickin's were removed. Because of the two cut missions and the removal of the rampages, the stats were also edited to match the censored version. This does not apply to the 10th Anniversary Edition or later digital releases, as it now has a USK 18 rating.

Developer Messages

In the game's executable are some rather rude messages, with the first two referring to missing animation(s), and the last one rudely tells that there's nothing to find here.

Can't find the fucking animation

Haven't I told you I can't find the fucking animation

FUCKFUCKFUCK

nothing here fuckers

Anti-Piracy

An array of anti-crack protections are present in the PC version, although barely anyone noticed them due to a successful crack which avoided them coming out three days before release. If the game detects that the SecuROM copy protection has been tampered with, then a number of fascinating after-effects have a chance of triggering:

• Upon the "mission clean-up" op-code running (usually when a mission starts or finishes) there is a 25% chance of the weather being permanently changed to rain. This is saved into your savegame, so you can't avoid it by restarting the game. (The APLEASANTDAY cheat code and starting certain missions still work, though.)
• When a save game is loaded that has less than 72,000 frames (roughly 40 minutes) of play time logged, then all paths will be removed from the map, resulting in no pedestrians or vehicles spawning outside of scripts like missions. Again, this is saved into the save file, so it'll still be in effect even when loaded in a legit version of the game.
• Loading a save with more than that amount of frames logged crashes the game with an unhandled exception error on load.
• Sniper Rifles no longer do any damage, although they still affect the moon.
• After 35 minutes of play time, all garages are disabled. This renders the "Copland" and "Sir Yes Sir!" missions unwinnable. Pay & Sprays remain open, but won't recolour your vehicle.
• Whenever a police roadblock is spawned, all icons are removed from the map, map legend and minimap (including your position arrow!)
• The stats menu simply won't display anything. You can still press S to save your stats to a file.
• Finally, there's a 12.5% chance that a firetruck spawning will disable the ability to use non-mission, non-cash pickups, such as the save icon, hidden packages, rampages, weapons, properties (rendering the game unwinnable)...

(Source: Vadim M, FireHead)