Grand Theft Auto (1997)

Updated 28 October 2026 · Fan site. Not affiliated with Rockstar Games or Take-Two Interactive.

Grand Theft Auto is the first game in the series. DMA Design in Dundee, Scotland, made it, and it came out in Europe on 28 November 1997 for MS-DOS and Windows. It is a top-down crime game set across three cities, Liberty City, San Andreas and Vice City, where the player takes jobs from crime bosses to earn points.

What is the original Grand Theft Auto?

The first Grand Theft Auto is a top-down action game about working your way up in organised crime. It is often called GTA 1 to tell it apart from the series. DMA Design built it in Dundee, with Keith R. Hamilton as director and lead programmer. The game came out first on PC in Europe, then on PlayStation, and later on Game Boy Color. Its success led directly to two expansion packs and to Grand Theft Auto 2.

How do you play GTA 1?

The camera looks straight down on the city. You steal cars, run over or shoot rivals, and answer ringing phone boxes to get jobs. Each job pays points, and finishing jobs raises a score multiplier. To clear a level you must reach a points target. The first target is $1,000,000 and later levels ask for more.

You have a limited number of lives. Getting killed or arrested costs you equipment and resets your multiplier, so careless play slows you down. Police chase you when you break the law in front of them. You can pick from several characters at the start, but the choice only changes how you look. On PC there was also a multiplayer mode over a local network.

The game has six levels spread over three cities, played in a fixed order. In-car radio stations play music while you drive, a feature critics liked at the time and one the series kept.

Which cities are in GTA 1?

All three cities are fictional versions of real American places. Rockstar later rebuilt each one in 3D, starting with GTA III.

Other employers include El Burro and, near the end, Brother Marcus and his Rastafarian crew. The story is thin and mostly delivered through job briefings.

How was Grand Theft Auto made?

Work began at DMA Design on 4 April 1995. The project started as Race'n'Chase, and the player was originally a police officer. The team found that playing the criminal side was more fun, so the game was turned around. Developers have named Pac-Man and Elite as influences. Sega Saturn and Nintendo 64 versions were planned but never released.

In 2011 former DMA developer Mike Dailly posted the original design document online. It is dated 22 March 1995.

Before launch, politicians and newspapers attacked the game's violence. Publicist Max Clifford ran the marketing and used that outrage as free publicity.

Release, reception and sales

Reviews were mixed. On GameRankings the PC version averaged about 79%, the PlayStation version about 68% and the Game Boy Color version about 57%. Critics praised the freedom, sound and radio, and criticised the graphics and controls. Brazil's Justice Ministry banned the game.

It sold well in spite of the reviews. Wikipedia reports about 3.5 million units sold by October 1999 and about 6 million by March 2001. It stayed in the UK top 20 for at least 76 weeks.

Is GTA 1 free to download?

Rockstar once gave the game away for free through its Rockstar Classics site, along with Grand Theft Auto 2 and Wild Metal. That download service is no longer available, according to Wikipedia.

Legacy

Two expansion packs set in 1960s England followed in 1999: London 1969 and London 1961. A full sequel, GTA 2, arrived in October 1999. The series went on to become one of the best-selling game franchises ever, and it is now heading toward Grand Theft Auto VI.