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Grand Theft Auto 1 being remade in 3D by original GTA creator

The creator of the first ever Grand Theft Auto is remaking the legendary game in 3D.

When GTA 1 was released in 1997 its boxy graphics were a world away from the advanced visuals of Los Santos in Grand Theft Auto 5. It had just a top-down view of Liberty City.

Michael Dailly who developed the programme now works at YoYo games and is using its GameMaker Studio package to transform it.

Luckily for him the original software’s seemingly 2D map actually has three dimensional programming.

Parallax effects that let players drive through tunnels and over bridges mean the game was built to travel around in 3D, even if it was 2D in appearance.

In addition to using GamerMaker, Michael’s built a map loader and primitive builder systems to produce an updated GTA game that runs in both HTML5 and WebGL at 60 frames per second.

His new version isn’t yet finished, but Michael’s hinted on Twitter that it’s unlikely to be released as a ready-made product when it is.

“I can’t really give it out I’m afraid….I don’t own the assets, and the extraction tool isn’t complete. I had to do bits by hand :(,” tweeted Michael to Twitter user @gnysek.

I do plan to do a tool which will do all the work, then you can just run the code, but it’s not there yet.”

Check out our round up of GTA 5 cheats, easter eggs and secrets

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