Fans of Rockstar’s range of open-world crime titles will know that Grand Theft Auto: Vice City is the most atmospheric of the hugely successful series that puts players into criminal shoes. If you’re looking to embody that whole ‘crime lord’ thing even more, you can now play the game at work. Via your web browser. While you’re supposed to be doing something — anything — else.
Technically, this allows you to perform two crimes at once. You get paid for playing Vice City while the boss isn’t paying attention, plus you get to indulge in a sort of piracy. All that’s required is the files for the DOS version of GTA’s Miami Vice knockoff.
Vice City calling
The folks over at DOS Zone have created a browser port of Rockstar’s game, initially with a functioning demo that would let players preview the experience through their web browser. It seems that’s proved too popular, as that’s had to be shut down. Why?
“Due to the unexpectedly high popularity of the project, resulting in significant traffic costs, and in order to avoid any risk of the project being shut down due to rights holder claims, we have disabled the demo version.”
Still, if you’re sitting on the DOS version of GTA: Vice City, you can upload the required files into the new HTML5 port and merrily plug away at pedestrians as Tommy Vercetti using mouse and keyboard controls, touch controls (if you’re on a mobile browser), or even a gamepad, if y0u’re coming from the original 2002 PlayStation 2 release. If you still have legal access to the game’s original PC files, you should probably make an appointment with your doctor for a full physical.
The game has been reworked to function on browsers, with the folks at DOS Zone explaining that “Low-level systems such as rendering, input handling, audio, and file access were redesigned to work efficiently with WebAssembly and modern browser APIs, delivering stable performance without native installation.”
As with any unofficial port, particularly when Rockstar is involved, this one is highly susceptible to takedown by lawyers. Presumably, Rockstar has someone more reliable (and less coked-up) on staff than Vice City‘s Ken Rosenberg, so it’ll be best to experience this one sooner rather than later. It’s not like you’re doing anything useful at the office this week, right?
