A group of fans are in the process of porting the PS2 classic GTA 3 to the Sega Dreamcast, the platform for which the open-world game was originally designed. The results are impressive even for the game's original developers.
“Real hardware capture showing some of the latest advancements in our 'impossible' GTA 3 port for the Sega Dreamcast,” says developer Falco Girgis on Twitter. “No more clipping issues, solid 30fps framerate, most effects present. Very playable at this early stage. Still a lot of work to do, but it's shaping up pretty well!”
You can watch the full video below. The port is still clearly in poor shape and features a number of major graphical glitches, but all the basic action seems to be in place. If you can already hop into a fire truck, cause a massive car crash and get into a police chase, that's all you need from the GTA 3 experience.
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“There's a huge effort being made to get GTA 3 running on the Sega Dreamcast,” says former Rockstar developer Obbe Vermeij In response “The first few months of development of GTA 3 (in 1999/00) were done on Dreamcast. For commercial reasons, we switched to PS2. At that time we thought it was technically possible to do it at DC and these guys are doing it. Very well.”
According to previous comments from Rockstar developers, it doesn't seem like the original Dreamcast version survived much beyond the prototype stage. Earlier this year, Vermeij estimated that the Dreamcast version was in development “for about four months before moving to the PS2.” But that decision was made when it became clear that the PS2 would replace Sega's then-failing console in the market, not because of any technical limitations. However, it is now, a quarter of a century later and thanks to fans, that we finally know for certain that the Dreamcast could have pulled it off.
Sega's latest console has just celebrated its 25th anniversary, so why not check it out? The best Dreamcast games of all time?