Multiplayer

The term multiplayer comes from the phrase "multiple players" and describes a game several people can play together. In some computer games, multiple players can play the same game together by connecting their computers together with a local network or by using the Internet.

GTA1 and GTA2 were released with multiplayer support both for the PC only but GTA3, GTAVC and GTASA were not. GTALCS and GTAVCS have multiplayer both for the PSP only. GTA4 is the only GTA that has multiplayer support on all its platforms.

Various projects have been released or are being developed by fans of the GTA series to add multiplayer gaming to GTA3, GTAVC and GTASA. Some fans have created other projects to improve the multiplayer systems for GTA1 and GTA2.

GTA1

Was released with a multiplayer system by DMA Design (now called "Rockstar North") but most players find it too difficult to use. It features two gameplay modes:-

• Deathmatch - players kill each other by any means. The first player to reach the required number of kills wins the game.
• Cannonball Run - players must drive through a series of checkpoints to the finish. The first player to reach the finish wins the game.

This edition allows 1-4 players in each multiplayer game.

There is a multiplayer project out that allows users with decent ping (<150ms) to play GTA1/London with one another, right now in its Beta Release 1.1 See GTADS

GTA2

Was released with an all-new multiplayer system by Rockstar Games which is an big improvement from GTA1, featuring specialised multiplayer levels with new game modes. However, it is still difficult for most users to set up games, especially when trying to play on computers behind routers and firewalls.

The three gameplay modes are described here:-

• Deathmatch - players kill each other by any means to gain "frags". If a player kills himself or herself, he or she gets one or more "frags" deducted. GTA2 does not allow negative numbers of frags. There are two ways a Deathmatch game can end:-
  • A player reaches the required number of kills and wins the game.
  • The time limit runs out, in which case the player with most kills wins the game. If both players have the same number of frags, the game is a draw.
• Tag - One player starts off "it", that player can't pickup weapons, can't see arrows and their car burns quickly. Whoever kills that player will then become "it". The player who has been "it" the longest when the time limit runs out is the winner.
• Points - each player tries to gain more points than the others. Points are given in the same way as the regular game, although killing another player gives a large points bonus. There are two ways a Points game can end:-
  • A player reaches the points limit and wins the game.
  • The time limit runs out, in which case the player with most points wins the game. If both players have the same number of points, the game is a draw.

There are various fan made levels that add racing or cannonball run style gameplay. Custom levels can have new game modes but it has yet to be fully taken advantage of.

There are three projects created by fans to improve the multiplayer system in GTA2. These projects concentrate on making it easier to find other GTA2 players, as well create games and join games:-

• gta2gamer
• GTA2 Game Hunter

One of the projects (Not yet complete) focuses on the same without opening multiple ports and possibly incorporating stats in the future:

• GTADS

The default GTA2 multiplayer maps support 2-6 players. Custom maps/scripts can support from 1 to 6 players.

GTA2 uses simple tick mechanism similar to one used in GTA1 to synchronize games. The engine was built with this in mind so that if you always use same controls, the game will always perform the same way (even random functions depend on this), so GTA2 only transfers player key input and a tick message to advance 1 frame. Sometimes it skips frames on high latency, which means the sync is near perfect, but needs very low latency (anything below 100 - 120 ms packet roundtrip is playable) for more players sum the pings to get the latency the game will run at. This means over cable or DSL GTA2 is playable with three or fewer people and on LAN it is easily playable with six because of low latency / ping.

GTA3

This was released without multiplayer support. It only featured single player gaming. There are hints within the game files that multiplayer was planned to be included but was unfortunately not included in the final build of the game. Projects which have been created by fans to bring multiplayer to GTA3 include:

• ggm
• Multi Theft Auto

GTAVC

This was released without multiplayer support. It only featured single player gaming. Projects which have been created by fans to bring multiplayer to GTAVC include:

• gtaTournament
• VC-MP on GTAForums
• Multi Theft Auto

GTASA

This was released without multiplayer support. It only featured single player gaming on the PC. The PS2 and Xbox releases support a basic two player mode on one console. Projects which have been created by fans to bring multiplayer to GTASA include:

Inactive or cancelled projects:

• [Multi Mayhem] - Cancelled
• [NET.GTA]
• [SA-2P] - Cancelled
• [SanAnarchy]
• GTA:RUMBLE?
• Online Andreas Reloaded?

Active projects:

• MTA:SA (Race/Deathmatch) - 1.1.1/1.0 Developer Preview
• SA-MP (Wiki: San Andreas Multiplayer)
• gtaTournament - 0.3c
• 2 player co-op on 1 PC - Requires two USB game controllers

GTALCS

This was released with multiplayer support for the PSP only but not for the PS2. It supports up to six players through WiFi ad-hoc mode.

GTAVCS

This was released with multiplayer support for the PSP only but not for the PS2. Similar to GTALCS, it supports up to six players through WiFi ad-hoc mode.

GTA4

This was released with multiplayer support on all its platforms. The PS3 and XBox 360 version supports up to 16 players online while the PC version supports up to 32 players online.