The original Grand Theft Auto is finally playable on an Amiga

Developer angree has released v0.0.1 of AmiGTA, a native AmigaOS 68k engine port of the original 1997 Grand Theft Auto.

DMA Design built its reputation on the Commodore Amiga. The Scottish studio released massive hits like Lemmings, Menace, and Blood Money for the platform in the early 1990s. By the time the developer finished its top-down crime simulator in late 1997, Commodore was bankrupt and the PC market had taken over. Grand Theft Auto launched on MS-DOS and Windows, leaving the Amiga behind. This new engine project finally brings the franchise back to the hardware where its creators started.

Bring your own crime

The AmiGTA GitHub repository outlines a clean-room reimplementation of the game engine. It isn't an emulator, and it doesn't use a wrapper to translate PC instructions. The archive contains zero copyrighted game data. Just like OpenXcom or OpenTTD, players have to supply their own legally acquired files. The port requires the data from the 1997 DOS release or the 2002 Windows re-release, along with a provided converter tool to prep the PC assets for Amiga hardware.

Getting a Pentium-era DOS game to run on classic Motorola architecture requires heavy optimization. The engine uses custom fixed-point math and lookup tables instead of relying on a floating-point unit. You need a Motorola 68020 processor or better, about 8MB of Fast RAM, and either the stock AGA chipset or an RTG graphics card.

A recent gameplay video from Estrayk shows the results on high-end classic hardware. Running on an Amiga 1200 equipped with a 68060 processor and an RTG card, the game holds a steady 30 to 40 frames per second during heavy driving segments.

A very peaceful Liberty City

Because this is an early 0.0.1 build, the feature list is brief. The 2.5D rendering pipeline works, drawing the Liberty City map with correct geometry and projection. Players can walk around, pull drivers out of their vehicles, and drive through the streets. The developer notes that the original physics are intact. Cars have proper mass, inertia, and cornering behavior. AI traffic also follows real routes, yields at intersections, and takes corners correctly.

The rest of the game is missing. There aren't any missions, weapons, or police to chase you. Sound isn't wired up yet. Visual details like tire marks, oil spills, and blood are absent. It is currently a very peaceful driving simulator, provided you ignore the carjacking.

The developer built three different executables for the initial release to accommodate different hardware setups. The standard AGA build runs at 320x200. RTG users can choose between a native 320x240 mode or a doubled 640x480 mode. A standard 68020 cannot rasterize a full 640x480 image at a playable frame rate, so the doubled mode keeps the pixel art sharp without tanking the performance.

Grand Theft Auto V Enhanced is available on Humble Bundle for $14.99 (50% off).

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