Homebrew Hotly Anticipated GTA III Dreamcast Homebrew Port Gets First Public Alpha

It’s Thinking…​

It seems like we’re heading into 2025 with an unexpected but welcome start, in news no one saw coming, tremendous progress is finally made for the Grand Theft Auto III Dreamcast Project, making for a surprise Christmas gift, and a great way to start off the year too!

This port has been in the works for a long time but now it finally gets its first official public alpha, showing off a lot of amazing, Dreamcast-exclusive little things, including puddle reflections! Showcasing many of the quirks unique to the console itself!

A Classic Game on a Classic Console​

Not only are you getting a new way to enjoy a timeless classic, but the unsung hero of the sixth generation, the Dreamcast, gets a port that was only thought to be simply a mere dream!

Both Grand Theft Auto III and the Dreamcast are classics worth remembering in their own right. Combining them creates unimaginable wonder! Except you no longer need to imagine!

Time to Cast Away Your Fears, as Dreams Do Come True!​

This one small step for Grand Theft Auto III, an already legendary classic, but one giant leap for the Dreamcast homebrew community. What was once thought of being a mere fantasy is now playable on real hardware. You can find a link to it on the repo.

It’s hard to believe a 24-year old dream has manifested itself in playable form, and this is only the beginning because as previously mentioned, this is but an alpha!

We can only imagine what the rest of the project has in store. Not only is this a historic cornerstone, but it opens up the doors for possibilities we could not even humor to contemplate! We wish the best for the development team, and hope for a great 2025!

Got any homebrew recommendations in mind? Cast away your dreams in the comment section below!

 

[Sackboy]

just watched modern vintage gamer's video on this it's pretty impressive how the devs overcame the 16 megabyte ram limit, and they say they can probably get it to an almost consistent 30 too which is pretty impressive

 

[Azuris]

Somehow it doesn't start on my Dreamcast via GDEMU, Screen stays black, but i can use the Soft Reset to get back to Open Menu.

 

[-drez01-]

Somehow it doesn't start on my Dreamcast via GDEMU, Screen stays black, but i can use the Soft Reset to get back to Open Menu.

If you're using an authentic GDEMU with either gdMenu or openMenu and the new GTA3 port crashes on boot, you must change these two settings in GDEMU.ini.

Default settings are...

open_time = 500
detect_time = 250

But they must be changed to...

open_time = 500
detect_time = 150

These are the safest settings that still allow disc-swap to function reliably.

 

[MemeAlert]

"Yawn, plays GTA 3 on the Vita" Call me when someone ports Kingdom Hearts 1 to the Dreamcast, that would of saved the system!

 

[Sackboy]

"Yawn, plays GTA 3 on the Vita" Call me when someone ports Kingdom Hearts 1 to the Dreamcast, that would of saved the system!

if i ever see tetsuya nomura in the streets it's wraps kingdom hearts so ass

 

[antii]

Crazy I just saw the Muta video about this really crazy stuff it’s not perfect but it’s very cool to see that people even got this to open

 

[Yousef]

Crazy I just saw the Muta video about this really crazy stuff it’s not perfect but it’s very cool to see that people even got this to open

Unexpected timing is my one speciality

"Yawn, plays GTA 3 on the Vita" Call me when someone ports Kingdom Hearts 1 to the Dreamcast, that would have saved the system!

Why leave a comment then lol

if i ever see tetsuya nomura in the streets it's wraps kingdom hearts so ass

This made my day

 

[antii]

Unexpected timing is my one speciality

Why leave a comment then lol

This made my day

Based Kingdom Hearts Hate but to be fair Sora has drip

 

[Sackboy]

Unexpected timing is my one speciality

Why leave a comment then lol

This made my day

finna switch down tetsuya nomura like he a healthcare ceo

Post automatically merged: Jan 2, 2025

Based Kingdom Hearts Hate but to be fair Sora has drip

if nomura has 1000 i'm haters one of them
if he has 100 haters I'm one of them
if he has 10 haters im the leader
if he has 1 hater im him
if he has 0 haters i'm already dragging him into hell with me

 

[Yousef]

finna switch down tetsuya nomura like he a healthcare ceo

Post automatically merged: Jan 2, 2025

if nomura has 1000 i'm haters one of them
if he has 100 haters I'm one of them
if he has 10 haters im the leader
if he has 1 hater im him
if he has 0 haters i'm already dragging him into hell with me

You are the most dedicated hater

 

[DunkeyKong]

The dedication of some homebrewers are insane, they keep porting something impossible to any system

Huge respect to them!

 

[Azuris]

If you're using an authentic GDEMU with either gdMenu or openMenu and the new GTA3 port crashes on boot, you must change these two settings in GDEMU.ini.

Default settings are...

open_time = 500
detect_time = 250

But they must be changed to...

open_time = 500
detect_time = 150

These are the safest settings that still allow disc-swap to function reliably.

I have Clone from Dragonshop, netherless, it worked instantly with these Values, thank you

And it is pretty impressive to see the Game on the Dreamcast, pure Witchcraft!

Oh i recommend turning off that "ghosting" Effect, forgot how it was named in the Menue (V3, V1 and off is there to choose), at least for my Taste it is too much.
Edit: Trails, the Option is called Trails.

 

[retro2000]

It was canceled because it was only for the PS2, PC, and Original Xbox.

 

[Stookymalarkey]

just watched modern vintage gamer's video on this it's pretty impressive how the devs overcame the 16 megabyte ram limit, and they say they can probably get it to an almost consistent 30 too which is pretty impressive

How crap! I didn't realize the Dreamcast only had 16 MB of RAM to work with! PS2 had about 32 MB in comparison. Those guys must be wizards to work around that BIG limitation for an open world game of GTA 3's scope.

 

[MemeAlert]

Unexpected timing is my one speciality

Why leave a comment then lol

This made my day

Because I can? Also why should I get excited over an alpha build of said port when you can play it on better consoles like a PS2 or Vita?

 

[ZombieFish]

Because I can? Also why should I get excited over an alpha build of said port when you can play it on better consoles like a PS2 or Vita?

You could play Kingdom Hearts on PS2 as well.

Oh, also, I've heard people say saving doesn't work, but VMU saving works fine for me on Reicast, just no savestates. It really is bonkers how well this version runs vs the first preview they showed. Stellar work.

 

[Don Patch]

So stoked for this.
It feels silly... but yeah, it's so cool!

 

[Yousef]

So stoked for this.
It feels silly... but yeah, it's so cool!

Hi don! Not sure if I said this to you already but happy new year!!

 

[Azuris]

You could play Kingdom Hearts on PS2 as well.

Oh, also, I've heard people say saving doesn't work, but VMU saving works fine for me on Reicast, just no savestates. It really is bonkers how well this version runs vs the first preview they showed. Stellar work.

For me personally saving and loading did work.
But i haven't played much, i recently played through 3 in PC and i am on Liberty City Stories on the PS2, so i am a bit oversaturated

Because I can? Also why should I get excited over an alpha build of said port when you can play it on better consoles like a PS2 or Vita?

Just for the Joy, from what i have seen, the ability to make it visually closer to the PC Version than the PS2 has also its Advantages
I personally am not the biggest Fan of those "ghosting" Effects called Trails, so it is nice being able to deactivate them.

To the Port itself
It woul be nice if someone would look if the Console gets hotter than with other visually good looking Games as Dead or Alive 2 or a Game that also streams as Crazy Taxi.

 

[ZombieFish]

Also curious if playing off a disc would burn out the laser carriage motor in a matter of minutes.

 

[Azuris]

Also curious if playing off a disc would burn out the laser carriage motor in a matter of minutes.

It clearly has more to do, as having less Ram means it has to read more often from Disc as the Playstation 2 (that does technically the same).
As it seemingly has an Impact FPS wise when playing from Disc, it seems it also comes to its Limits.

Not sure if they did something to Textures and similiar, so that these take less Space in the Ram.

The official Webpage doesn't say much about that.

I would guess that doing a "lite" Version of GTA 3 with Textures and similiar from the PSP Version of Liberty City Stories would help getting the Game run from Disc.

But with that Witchcraft they did with it and how well it runs right now, i am not sure if their Optimisations will just make all the Worries obsolete

 

[retro8s]

glad to see GTA II ported to dreamcast. as i'll remember was deem impossible to do in the days of the console. butt alot of dev homebrew are better these days. made ports a dream come true for fans.. i'm sure it was possible since most games was a directed ported anyways

 

[Don Patch]

Hi don! Not sure if I said this to you already but happy new year!!

Heeeeey!!!!!
Happy New Year!!!!

 

[PaleFolklore]

I can see that I'll be starting the new year with waaaay too many things on the list that I should play, lol

Hope it ends up being a pretty cool port, when it's finished. Fingers crossed.