Fun story: I was in my sophomore year in high school when San Andreas came out, so I was considered "under aged" at the time. I went with my mom to Gamestop to pre-order the game months in advance. When the game released, my best friend picked it up that day and couldn't stop talking about it. I had band practice that day after school so the store would be closed by the time I got home to pick it up, so I was forced to wait till the next day to grab my copy. All the while listening to my friend in such disbelief that I don't have mine yet so he can't REALLY tell me anything (he lived kinda far from my place), just some of the cool things you can do, and even still he didn't wanna spoil it too much. So the next day, I get through school, trying hard to stay focused, watching the clock in every damn class, dying to hear the final bell ring so I can race to the train and ride back to my neighborhood. I get off the train on a mission to walk to the Gamestop from there, not realizing just how agonizingly long that damn bridge is to get there from there on foot. Driving it is always so quick. (If you live in Chicago, I'm talking about the Roosevelt bridge to get you from State St. to Canal St.) I finally get there, I ask to receive my pre-ordered game and the guy at the counter asked to see my ID, says I'm too young to buy this game and he can't give it to me. WHAT?!?! I PAID FOR IT YOU MORON!!! I didn't say that but I did explain my case in confusion. The store manager came out and said "Oh yeah, give him the game, he came in here with his mom the other day to buy it, he's good to go!" Gave me the game, I protected that game at all cost back across the long ass bridge, to my street, took the bus home, got home, did a little homework, popped the game in... scratched that much needed itch, behold the glory of San Andreas! Played for like 2 hours and went ahead and finished my homework so I could binge on the game after that. Such a nostalgia trip.
that’s how i was with gta5 when it came out in 2013 while i was a junior, the horrible feeling of watching the clock in school and the long car ride to the store, good times
@@mobius7927 Oh man you know exactly what I'm talking about then! Crazy cause as a full grown adult, waiting for GTAV to release was a very different story. I did take the day off work ahead of time cause I knew it would be a long night for me and I did not want to wait till I got off work to get the game lol. My best friend and I (same friend) stayed up all night for the midnight release of GTAV at Gamestop. Went and caught a movie, played some games at home, bought a buncha Red Bull, but once I got the game the wait was over, the store was super close to my house, the adrenaline came down, I knew now I just had to wait for the install and the story to start, we played till the sun came up, 2 tv's set up in my living room, me on PlayStation him on Xbox, both of us wired up on Red Bull and snacks. Good times, good times indeed!
MAN_ON_WHEELZ sounds like a great time 😁 it was different for me because i only had an xbox at my dads house and it had to stay there, so i got to play for one weekend and then had to wait a dreadful 2 weeks just to go back and play again, however i begged to go back the following weekend instead haha. it was my life for more than a few weekends
P duuude first contact is a different story... i was 4 years old and witnessed a cousin playing Gta3 back in 01. then my mom, totally ignorant of the franchise, bought me gta vc at age 5 in 02
@P Oh man, if we're gonna talk FIRST contact. Mine was GTA3. I was already a Driver/Driver 2 kid, loved that game to pieces and then in 2 you can get out of the car?!?! whaaaat… lol but then I went to my cousins place one day, they had this huge tv in their living room and they were taking turns playing this 3D well-detailed sandbox game with guns and cars and funny phrases and the ability to see INSIDE THE CAR I was like... "Dude, what is this?!?!" They're like "You wanna play?" I'm like heck yeah!!! They teach me the controls, I steal a vehicle that looks like a Hummer H1, I had to ask again, what is this game called? They said Grand Theft Auto 3. After that I HAD to have this game! So I asked for a PS2 for my birthday with this game, my mom hooked me up but... she forgot to buy a memory card. So for my birthday my other 2 cousins and my best friend (same friend from the other 2 stories) stayed up all night from sun down to sun up taking turns playing missions because we knew if we cut the game off we would lose all of our progress. Eventually had to anyway because my mom didn't buy me a memory card for a few weeks lol. Ohhhhh simpler times!!!
I feel like some of these were made with humorous intent. I mean, nobody would have fallen for the Mafia 1 screenshot with weird futuristic text on it, right?
I remember back in GTA IV anticipation... people bought EVERYTHING if it had Grand Theft Auto in it somewhere. It was even worse with V but it happened before, so in SA I wouldn't be surprised. I was a kid back then with no internet so no idea what it was actually like.
CJ, Sweet and Ryder go meet Bill Gates to buy some booze until Ballas hitmen show up and try to kill the three. The trio then take the booze and take it to the San Andreas equivalent of don Salieri.
"If you're playing in 2004 or if You're playing today in 2020, it is still an amazing game"... Golden quote man.. We really owe R* for making our childhood so great man...
@@cryinggreyguyholdingachick6010 omg that was so many good memeroies just waiting for the next one. Then after u watch the fake one without knowing it u beleved it and the real one came out and we were probably like what
Ah yes, the pre-release time of GTA San Andreas was fun and hyped me up pretty good.. Here in Germany they printed facts about supposed game mechanics in gaming magazines that made it sound better than it actually was with the real release. Like that ya could cook and sleep in the camper van.. that one really got stuck with me and sadly I cant remember the others anymore nor still own the magazines...
I recall a UK magazine saying you could ride the trams. It would have been a novelty to use once or twice but I was so disappointed to find out they'd lied.
Actually, I remember half of those fake screenshots were re-used for GTA 4 before it was even announced. Internet was so different back then, I mean who can actually believe those were real ?
A lot of it was both wishful hope and harmless fantasizing, mixed with some sarcastic imaginations and someone wanting to see their fake photo-shops be republished by gaming mags as clout.
Man, all of this was around the time that i never even heard of Grand Theft Auto. I was only 5 or 6 at the time. Yeah, i discovered GTA when i was 6 years old. San Andreas being my first game. Immediately fell in love with it. I never knew at the time that you can have so much freedom in a video game.
Just discovered this channel and man the content here is amazing as I'm obsessed with these unknown details of the og GTA games. Great to see there are still incredible RU-vidrs these days. Keep up the good work man.
Not GTA-related, but I remember hearing that Smash Melee's roster got leaked before release. That was, like, 2001 IIRC. This shit has gone on for a while.
Greg no I mean actual online not like 2 player split screen I heard it you’d start from a police station in like San Francisco which I’m assuming San ferrio
3:36 it looks more like an early to mid-2000s 3D render than a game to me because of the way the shadows and lighting looks, plus the resolution (or anti-aliasing) seems pretty high for most games at the time
@Zeus with a six star wanted level, you can survive for some time, but if the seven star wanted system was to be added, you would have no chance of survival once you hit the seven star wanted level. You'll have a problem called Hokuto Shinken right away and well, there goes every chance of survival you had before.
@@mehistaimsaar1323 Quoted from Wikipedia - Hokuto Shinken (北斗神拳, "Big Dipper Divine Fist") is an ancient martial art rooted in different fighting styles dating back 1,800 years ago from China
@@Saikocide just one. But that will be everyone's nightmare. If seeing him doesn't make you feel uncomfortable, then the following will scare you. After he has hit your character once, the character could freeze for about 2-3 seconds, during which the effects of a pressure point, which was struck would start. After that, your character starts do deform beyond recognition and after several more seconds, it can go two ways. Either you see the silhouette of the character explode on a neutral colored background, or have a slight censor of the character's death, as he once again, blows up from inside. Of course the GTA EMS logic would become even more crazier, than ever before.
I’ve replayed this game all the way through at least 7 times. I remember in 2004 my dad bringing it home after he got home from work. One of my all time favorites next to Saints Row 2 and Fallout New Vegas
Keep these kind of videos coming love seeing what it was like before I started playing these games, shit I’m 20 and gta4 was the first gta to come out that I remember barely insane seeing shit from 03
Best video yet. Very honest and easy going. Not like your trying to get through a script fast or pushing down on me. It doesnt seem like your lecturing or have 'pretentious' superior knowledge to things than many youtubers do. No filler text and bulking out either to extend the times which just distracts the point of videos. Nice ending and fits well. Just wish it was longer
I had a dream on my bedtime when I'm still a kid that I got secret 7th wanted star on SA. the desert is swarming with tank-like turret instead the human cops, And it blows my chopper from the air.
I wish R* shared some yet unreleased pre-release footage from GTA San Andreas, GTA IV etc....Would love to see how San Andreas looked like when it used VC/III assets and engine (before enhancements). Same with GTA IV, R* started wroking on it in November 2004, I can only imagine how did it look like before Rockstar developed RAGE.
There are screenshots from the early development stage of San Andreas, where game uses assets from Vice City (weapons and cars). Everything available on the web. There is a well known one, with the drive-by scene, it features beta versions of characters as well, and if you look closely, the whole Street wasnt made Yet, it cuts at some point. As for GTA IV, I doubt they started working on the game immediately. Even if november 2004 is a real date Rockstar started to work on the game, keep in mind that they most probably Just had some ideas about the game, and planned the storyline, because there were other games they developed in mid time like two other GTA games, Manhunt, Bully, Red Dead Revolver - last one being actually based off early version of RAGE engine.
2:42 Before the game, it must have been funny to assume that it would have throwing stars. But in retrospect I think a throwing star would have made at least some sense because of the alliance with Woozie and his gang, an important plot line and aspect of the game. It would have been so cool to receive/unlock throwing stars as a choice of weapon, for example as some kind of reward from him, like after completing all his missions in SF, or something like that. The only pickup point for it could have been at Woozie's place or maybe at the Four Dragons Casino too. I think it wouldn't have been out-of-place, especially since we can get a katana in the game, another quite exotic weapon. But yeah, a throwing star is far from being a typical GTA weapon. Great video!
I still remember getting the special edition when it came out i was so damn happy hearing everyone talk about it i was always behind during those years (like when i first played gta 3 everyone had been playing vice city then by the time i got vice city everyone was playing San Andreas lol) but I’ll never forget being excited that there was no loading screen when going to different cities and finding out about the many different planes and vehicles it is something i never will forget i always feel like I’m back in middle school every time i play it
In a spanish magazine called "Hobby Consolas" they had an early look into SA and showed a orange version of Grove Street amongst many other things that didn't made it to the final cut.
I remember more vividly the screenshots (real or fake) after we had gotten a trailer for SA. I don't recall hunting for it beforehand, probably because I was too busy playing Vice City at the time. I was subbed to Game Informer magazine at the time too so I relied mostly on what I saw there, not things I spotted on the internet, which I rarely used at the time anyway. Amazing how much things have changed in such a short period of time.
I am so happy this video exists. I'm playing san andreas on android with no controller and it works alright. Lots of pop ins and bad view distance and shooting sucks but it's so fun to have that wonderful map in my pocket. I already did LS and SF vehicle Arenas
The 7 star concept sounds pretty cool actually and it should work like real life when someone is in a police chase and some people pull in front of you to try and wreck your car to stop the chase
Hey Badger, sorry for bumping into this video and dropping a comment So late, but tbh I believe that the original San Andreas concept was going to include a single City as well, but it was going to be Los Santos (named San Andreas). Of course it was pretty quick, when Rockstar decided to make the San Andreas a whole state, but still the main story core takes place in the Los Santos, where the game starts and ends, and even in last missions you do things like taking out gang territories, even though a Little bit Earlier CJ was doing crazy shit like infiltrating the military base, jumping from one plane to Another mid air, blowing up a drug factory, power plant, and having connections to the powerful mafia. When I look at the missions we were doing for Toreno, even the final mission EotL is not on the same level of epicness. All early screenshots are from LS only, and focused on the Street gangs. Taking consideration that even earliest known screenshots do have GSF using Green colours instead of Orange, this concept would still be quite Alive when the actual development was in process. Overall Im glad that Rockstar decided to make 3 cities with a huge countryside. I love the game as it is. Im Just thinking that the plot of the game could be much better if focused on LS only. Peace!
Fake screenshots back then still beats the clickbait videos today. Before gta5 released, people but up "trailers" for gta5 contain footage from Driver San Francisco.
Hey Badger, I'd love if you showcase fake screenshots of GTA 6 next. It's one of the most anticipated games of all time and I have no doubt there have been a lot of fake "leaks" over the last 7 years, it'd be nice to have a summary of those.
I still remember that fake "San Andreas Stories" boxes For PSP, which reuse The original San Andreas art. A San Andreas For PSP Was something I waited a lot. I still Waiting For, jaja. Nice video!
I still have my game informer magazine of when san andreas was months away from releasing. They have some screenshots on there that we're not used too.
