GTA Vice City has arrived on GameCube with a new native port

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City was never released for the Nintendo GameCube. More than two decades later, developer EBellumat released this marvel of gaming. A new version of reVC is being adapted specifically for Nintendo’s little purple box, taking the reverse-engineered Vice City engine and making it work within the GameCube’s rather unforgiving hardware limits. It’s already capable of running through an SD-based setup on Wii hardware and in Dolphin, while work continues on getting the game to boot directly from a mini-DVD on an original GameCube. This isn’t the PC version being pushed through a compatibility layer, either. The GameCube version has its own graphics backend, memory handling and asset conversion work designed around Nintendo’s hardware. And 24 MB of main memory doesn’t leave much room for mistakes.

Vice City has to fit inside 24 MB

The GameCube has 24 MB of main system memory, known as MEM1, and this port has been built around that restriction from the start. There’s also a Wii development version, but it deliberately avoids leaning on the Wii’s additional MEM2 memory. That matters because using the extra RAM would make life considerably easier while also making the resulting build far less representative of something that could actually run within GameCube limits.

Instead, the project makes use of other parts of Nintendo’s hardware where possible. Audio data, for example, can be stored in the system’s separate 16 MB ARAM. The graphics side has needed similar attention.

reVC uses librw, an open-source implementation of the RenderWare technology used by the original game. For the GameCube version, that now includes a native backend for Nintendo’s GX graphics system.

Textures don’t simply get thrown at the console and scaled down until everything fits. They’re converted ahead of time into formats the GameCube handles efficiently, including CMPR and RGB5A3. Geometry gets packed into smaller vertex formats, static models can use GameCube display lists, and lighting is adapted to work with the console’s TEV hardware. It’s the sort of work you won’t necessarily notice while playing. That’s the point.

Vice City streams far more than you might remember

Getting the graphics running is only part of the problem. Vice City constantly pulls data from storage as you move around its map. Cars appear, streets load, music plays, dialogue starts and missions bring in their own assets. On its original platforms, the game was designed around very different storage and memory arrangements.

That behaviour has needed reworking for the GameCube port. The game uses sector-aligned reads and a streaming system tailored around its limited memory pool. Music, radio and speech can use Ogg Vorbis files decoded with the fixed-point Tremor decoder, with the work handled on a separate thread.

Audio mixing makes use of Nintendo’s AESND system, while mission dialogue can be cached in ARAM instead of occupying precious main memory. Video playback has also been accounted for, with Theora handling full-motion video.

There are smaller GameCube-specific touches too. The controls screen has been adapted to show a 3D GameCube controller with the correct button layout. You’ll still need the original Vice City game data. The project doesn’t ship Rockstar’s assets, so files from a legitimate copy have to be converted into the formats expected by the GameCube build.

It works, but the GameCube disc problem isn’t solved yet

There’s one fairly important caveat. The GameCube port remains a work in progress.

At the moment, Vice City can run from an SD-card setup through Wii homebrew, and the same code can be tested using Dolphin. Both GameCube and Wii development binaries can be produced, with the Wii version maintaining the GameCube-style memory restrictions. Booting from an actual GameCube disc is another matter.

An ISO9660 setup works in Dolphin, but creating a mini-DVD image that reliably boots on original GameCube hardware remains unfinished. So while this is very much a GameCube-targeted version of Vice City, it isn’t yet a case of burning a disc, putting it into an original console and driving straight into Ocean Beach. That’s the next major hurdle.

Vice City skipped Nintendo the first time around

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City originally launched on PlayStation 2 in 2002, followed by PC and Xbox versions. The GameCube never received one. Rockstar North’s follow-up to Grand Theft Auto III moved the series to a fictional 1980s Miami-inspired city and put Tommy Vercetti at the centre of the story. After leaving prison, Vercetti arrives in Vice City and quickly gets pulled into the city’s criminal businesses, gangs and property deals.

Vice City expanded GTA III’s formula with motorcycles, purchasable properties, businesses and a much stronger emphasis on its setting and soundtrack. It also pushed the streaming technology behind GTA’s open world further, constantly loading parts of the city as the player moved around.

That makes the GameCube port particularly interesting from a technical point of view. This is a large streaming open-world game being squeezed into hardware with 24 MB of main RAM and a graphics architecture it was never originally designed to support. It’s running already. Getting it from there to a disc spinning inside an original GameCube is the part that still needs solving.

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