“DCA3” port: GTA3 (2001) can now also be played on Dreamcast (1999) 24 comments
Image: Evan-Amos | CC BY-SA 3.0
GTA3 is alive – even more than 23 years after its release. A group of developers managed to port the third installment of the series for the Sega Dreamcast console, which itself has been around for over 25 years.
Yes, he is still alive, not dying.
In October 1999, the Dreamcast console from the manufacturer Sega arrived on the European market. Two years later, in October 2001, Grand Theft Auto 3 was released by publisher Rockstar Games and finally made the series a worldwide success. Just in time for the new year 2025, a small group of developers breathe new life into the two veterans and release a port of GTA3 for Dreamcast: DCA3.
As the developers announced, the game can already be played in its entirety, but since the port is currently still in alpha state, occasional bugs should be expected. Therefore, the save state should be backed up regularly as a precaution.
Graphically, DCA3 sits somewhere between the PlayStation 2 version and the PC version, with the port being based on the PC version, but still needs to be optimized in order to provide a consistently smooth gaming experience on the Sega console.
Classification and comparison
To understand just how much optimization is necessary to make an older game run smoothly on an even older console, you need to take a look at the performance of the console generation of the time. A direct comparison is difficult because the (console) hardware used at the time and its capabilities – due to the manufacturer’s own optimization – differed significantly from each other. A hardware comparison is always interesting and makes you smile, especially considering the current hardware.
GTA3 was originally developed for Sony‘s PlayStation 2, which only had 32MB of RAM and 4MB of graphics memory. The processor achieves 6.2 GFLOPS (not TFLOPS) at a clock speed of around 295 MHz.
Sega’s Dreamcast, which was a year older, only had 16 MB of RAM and the processor only reached 1.4 GFLOPS at 200 MHz, but the console had 8 MB of graphics memory. According to Sega, the processor could be compared to a 1 GHz Pentium III (also released in 1999) in gaming scenarios – thanks to optimization.
When the game was released on PC 2 years later (the port is based on this version), the system requirements were a Pentium III with 450 MHz, 96 MB of RAM and 16 MB of graphics memory, although a processor of 700 MHz with 128 MB of RAM and 32 MB of graphics memory was recommended.
For comparison: According to the benchmark database, the Google Pixel 9’s Tensor G4 offers 1,792 GFLOPS.
Availability and requirements
The port is now available via the developers’ website. There you will also find step-by-step instructions on how to start porting to the Dreamcast.
The developers emphasize that you must own the PC version of GTA3 if you want to use the port. The reason: DCA3 is based on the open source reverse-engineered “RE3” variant of GTA 3 and therefore does not have any copyrighted material. These resources are loaded from the original CD.
To play DCA3 on your Dreamcast, you must own an original PC copy of GTA 3 that you purchased to create your CDI image. No copyrighted assets or executable files are distributed by the project team. The result is a game that looks, feels and plays like GTA 3, but is NOT GTA 3!
Additionally, only Dreamcast VA0 and VA1 models are supported. VA2 model is not supported.
Topics: Action Games GTA Games PlayStation Rockstar Games Sega Sony Game Consoles Source: DCA3
A lifelong video game enthusiast, Julien reviews the latest releases and explores the technologies transforming the gaming world.
