25 Things You DIDN'T Know About GTA Vice City

25 Things You Didn’t Know About GTA Vice City

Welcome to MojoPlays and today we’re getting nostalgic. In this video, we’re not only taking you back to 2002 but also 1986 and digging up the most tubular, bodacious and radical facts we didn’t know about “GTA: Vice City”.

Hanging Up

Even as far back as 2002, Rockstar was annoying players by forcing them to slowly walk while listening to phone calls or conversations, but at least for Vice City there’s a way to skip this inconvenience. Just before a phone call comes in, equip an assault rifle in your hands, answer the call, and then immediately aim with the gun. Once you zoom out from the scope, the phone call will continue while you’re free to run free to your heart's content. Just don’t try to get into any cars while the call is ongoing or else it will cancel the call and you’ll be forced to listen to it again. It would seem the feedback about this irritation reached Rockstar as in San Andreas you can simply skip the phone calls.

Pop Culture Craze

The “GTA” series is renowned for parodying and roasting pop culture and “Vice City” is full of references to iconic shows, locations and more if players know where to look. Players can find a billboard for “Fun World” which is a clear reference to “Disney World”, especially notable for copying the House of Mouse’s famous font. A hardware store’s window advertisement asks “Tooled Up? It’s Hammer Time” in reference to MC Hammer’s classic track “You Can’t Touch This”, a parody of FedEx called “Spand Express”, or more simply “SpandEx”, and finally in almost every garage, you can find a random yellow car door in reference to “The Dukes of Hazard” in which there was always an unexplained yellow car door in Cooter’s garage.

Ghost Tower

The map for Vice City experienced quite a few changes during development and while much of the updates were minimal, one was significant enough that remnants of the original version still remain. When approaching the Escobar International Airport via plane or helicopter, a lone ghostly tower can be seen before the rest of the map loads in. This is the only remaining asset from the original version of the airport and somehow Rockstar forgot to remove this lone control tower when they updated the location, leaving its low poly or far distance render intact while the rest of the airport pops in the closer you get.

AK-Not

The “Grand Theft Auto” series has always had an arsenal of weapons that would make any gun enthusiast green with envy, but there’s one specific weapon that is strangely missing from “GTA: Vice City”. Despite being present in every other 3D “GTA” game, the AK-47 is not available for purchase or use anywhere in the game, despite even being available in the spin-off title “Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories”. It’s unknown why this iconic weapon of the series was excluded in this entry as the weapon is even referenced in the game files, alluding to its inclusion at some point during development.

Always Sonny

Throughout the events of “GTA: Vice City”, Tommy’s boss Sonny Forelli remains a constant thorn in Tommy’s side in his rise to power in Vice City. However, for those who always felt like Sonny was constantly looking over their shoulder, they weren’t far off in their assumption. It turns out that Sonny’s backroom office is quite a bit closer than you think. With the limited capabilities of the PS2 at the time, Rockstar had to get creative, so in order to save on memory and be able to cut between scenes of Sonny and Tommy quickly, Sonny’s office is right next door to Tommy’s room in the Ocean View Hotel, just in an out of bounds area.

Easy Money

Earning money in Vice City is a major component of the gameplay as you need to be truly flush with cash to purchase the many properties available in the game. However, there is an easy way to rake in hundreds of thousands of dollars if you have the patience to do so. In the original version anyways. By requisitioning a taxi and picking up more than a hundred fares in a row, which can take upwards of a couple hours, you’ll earn bonuses which can bring your total payout to well over one hundred thousand dollars. However, in the remastered version, this exploit is capped at around 40-50 and pedestrians will even stop populating the streets, forcing you to abandon your latest money-making scheme.

Real Estate Tycoon

“GTA: Vice City” introduced several new game mechanics to the series, the most notable of which was real estate. Throughout Vice City, Tommy can purchase up to seven safehouses and ten assets. While these purchases aren’t necessary to complete the game, for those wanting one hundred percent completion, acquiring every single purchasable property is going to cost you quite a large sum of pocket change. To acquire every single property, Tommy will need to spend $441,000. Strangely, the total for just the safe houses comes to $41,000, meaning all the assets cost upwards of $400,000. Better start building your portfolio and running some taxi fares.

Medical Scam

American health care isn’t cheap and even in the virtual world you’re not going to get some much-needed medical services without forking over a bit of green. Normally if you pick up a health icon anywhere in the world, you’ll simply regain your health and move on with your day. However, if you choose to use the health icon in front of the hospital, you’ll be charged $20 for the service. What’s more is if you don’t have $20 to your name, you won’t even be able to pick up the health icon in front of the hospital and they’ll even remind you that you’re too broke to afford health care.

North Wheel

“GTA: Vice City” added several new vehicles for players to use while exploring the coastal region of Vice City, and by far the fan favorite inclusion is the motorbikes. Zipping around the streets of Vice City offered a new sense of freedom and speed in the series. However, one of the coolest additions is the ability to pull off wheelies while maxing out the speedometer. Strangely however, whenever driving north, the motorbike is unable to pull off this maneuver. Any other direction players drive and there’s no issue, but for whatever reason, if you’re driving due north on your motorbike, you’re locked to the road and unable to pull off your usual sick tricks.

Update Vices

The “Grand Theft Auto” series is no stranger to controversy and naturally some of the franchise’s content has been toned down or updated over the years through subsequent releases. But somehow, out of all the games in the series, “Vice City” is the one with the most updates to its “controversial” content. After claims of racism against the Haitian community for their portrayal in the game, Rockstar updated everything from dialogue to subtitles, phone calls, and even entire cutscenes to remove any references to Haitians or Cubans. While these updates were almost completely unnecessary to begin with, some of these changes made certain cutscenes almost incomprehensible due to the removed context with characters pantomiming scenes without any dialogue.

Prime Real Estate

“GTA: Vice City” makes it no secret it takes many of its inspirations from the hit tv series “Miami Vice”, but it’s also clear the devs were inspired by another classic crime movie of the 80s: Brian De Palma and Al Pacino’s 1983 crime drama “Scarface”. Not only is the game’s Malibu Club a near one-to-one replica of the same location in the film, but Tommy’s mansion at the end of the game is a perfect recreation of Tony Montana’s mansion from the end of the movie, complete with the grand staircase leading up to the main office, and naturally an epic shootout in its halls by the game’s end, once again mirroring the film.

Glitched

Rockstar has had a rocky history with PC ports of their titles over the years but even by their own standards, “GTA: Vice City” is by far their glitchiest port by far. Using certain exploits, more than 50% of the entire game can be completely skipped and some properties can even be acquired for free due to the game’s numerous and varied glitches. These glitches have led to major exploits within the speedrunning community as well with the current world record speedrun in the any percentage category coming in at just over eight minutes for a game that would typically take well over a dozen hours to complete.

Starfish Beach Ball

“Grand Theft Auto: Vice City” marked the beginning of Rockstar offering players a myriad of extracurricular activities to partake in their open world sandbox, but there’s one so hidden, most players didn’t even know it was a game. If you go to one of the pools on Starfish Island, you’ll find a beach ball nearby. If you’re able to get the ball airborne through various means, a counter will pop up on the screen. The aim of the game is to keep the ball in the air for as long as possible with the counter resetting once the ball hits the ground. Beach ball keepy uppy, if you will. There’s no point to it and there’s no indicator the game even exists but it’s a fun little challenge for those who manage to find it.

Periscope Down

Just because you can’t jump in the water for a quick swim, doesn’t mean Rockstar didn’t hide quite a few secrets beneath the waters surrounding Vice City. Near Northpoint Mall, players can find the wreckage of a submarine just below the water’s surface. While its purpose is unknown, it appears to be guarding a different shipwreck or might have been the reason for its destruction. Either way, no one is quite sure why it's there beyond a fun easter egg and it’s just as mysterious as the other submarine that can be found in the Vice City Junkyard. There are actually two other mysterious shipwrecks that can be found as well, one off the southern coast of the docks and another which appears to have run aground near Prawn Island.

One Small Step

In one of the longest running conspiracy theories of our time, Rockstar appears to have thrown more fuel on the fire with the discovery of this set in “GTA: Vice City”. While the moon landing and first spacewalk of Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong is the stuff of legend, many don’t believe we’ve ever made it to the moon, especially with the technology we had over half a century ago. To that end, many believe the moon landing was faked and directed by renowned filmmaker Stanley Kubrick on a sound stage after his groundbreaking work on “2001: A Space Odyssey”. While exploring Prawn Island, players can find a mock-up of the moon landing stage complete with replicas of the Apollo 11 moon lander and the infamous shot of the Earth in the background.

Throwing Shade

Developer Reflections didn’t take too kindly to Rockstar stealing their open world thunder with “Grand Theft Auto 3” overshadowing their “Driver” series, and they made their grievances known with continued jabs at the “GTA” series. While many of these are just spiteful, one of the more clever ones comes from “Driver 3”. Scattered around the city, players can find and hunt down Timmy Vermicelli, a random NPC, complete with Tommy Vercetti’s traditional Hawaiian shirt. However, Timmy has comically oversized hands and most noticeably wears a pair of water wings, poking fun at the fact that Tommy can’t swim in “GTA: Vice City”. Too bad the rest of “Driver 3” isn’t this clever.

Poster Parodies

Claude may have launched the “GTA” series into 3D only a year earlier, but he didn’t truly get his start in crime until “GTA: San Andreas” a couple years later. “GTA” timelines are weird. However, Rockstar didn’t forget to show a little love for our favorite silent hero in “Vice City”. In Tommy’s Ocean View hotel suite, players can find a few posters on the wall, but one stands out. He’s hard to make out because of the comic book style of the poster, but that’s “GTA 3’s” boy Claude recreating one of the early promo screenshots for the game prior to release. There are also a couple others which are clearly porn parodies of Steven Spielberg’s classics “Jaws” and “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”.

You Kill ‘Em, We Grill ‘Em

In Little Haiti, if you somehow manage to find yourself outside “Romero’s Funeral Home” and make your way around back, you’ll find multiple graves, including one that’s clearly been freshly dug up. While the initial thought might be simply graverobbers, taking a stroll down the street reveals an even darker secret. Just down the block is “Carnicero Romero’s Family Butchers” which seems innocent enough until you look at their window display case. Inside you can clearly see what are human remains alongside a couple pig carcasses, alluding to the fact that the butcher gets most of their “meat” from the funeral home which is run by the butcher’s brother. Family business, indeed.

Sleeping With the Fishes

Given “GTA: Vice City” released in the early days of internet forums, it was all too easy to spread rumors about games that many people unable to confirm would easily believe without question. However, one of these, a rumor about a man with cement shoes floating in the waters of Vice City, turned out to be true. In fact, there are two of them. In the rivers near Washington Beach and between Leaf Links and Downtown, two heavy set men in just their underwear can be seen floating just below the surface, held down by the weight of a pair of cement shoes. The myth of cement shoes as a tactic of Mafia assassination began at the height of the Mafia’s power back in the 1930s, although no real cases of its use have ever been discovered. Which is exactly what the Mafia would have wanted.

Vice City Reservoir

While “GTA: Vice City” takes clear inspiration from “Miami Vice” and “Scarface”, there is another classic crime drama that heavily inspired the game’s main character. Not only is Tommy’s character modeled after Michael Madsen’s character Mr. White in Quinten Tarantino’s "Reservoir Dogs”, but even his backstory is nearly identical with Mr. Blonde who has just been released from prison for refusing to flip on his mob family, with Tommy’s introduction at the start of the game mirroring the same setup. Tommy even performs missions for a character simply referred to as “Mr. Black” which is another clear nod to Tarantino’s classic.

Bathroom Graffiti

The nods to classic films keep coming and this one is nearly impossible to mistake for anything other than what it is. Near the Pay ‘n’ Spray in Ocean Beach, players can find one of the only enterable locations in the game. Specifically, apartment 3C. Inside, they’ll find a nearly identical setup to the same room in Al Pacino’s “Scarface” and upon further inspection, the influences become even more obvious. In the bathroom, the walls have been sprayed with blood and nearby is a chainsaw the player can pick up. This is clearly the aftermath of a re-enactment of the horrific scene in the film in which Tony’s partner Angel is dismembered by the Columbians with said chainsaw. Horrible stuff but undeniably memorable.

Eliminating the Competition

“Driver 3” isn’t the only one who can throw some shade at their competitors. In “GTA: Vice City”, Tommy can undertake a mission from Mr. Black that has him eliminating some European back robbers before their job gets under way. The targets are Dick Tanner from the “Driver” series, Mike Griffin, a reference to “Mace Griffin: Bounty Hunter”, Nick Kong, a stand-in for Nick Kang from “True Crime: Streets of LA”, and finally, Marcus Hammond, Franco Carter, and Charlie Dilson, all based on characters from “The Getaway” series. You really need to have played or at least been familiar with these games to get the references, but it's still a fun jab at the copy-cats, nonetheless.

Star Power

The “GTA” series is renowned for their celebrity actors voicing roles in their games and while “GTA3” had its fair share of big names such as Joe Pantoliano, Michael Madsen, and Michael Rapaport, Ray Liotta bringing Tommy Vercetti to life in “GTA: Vice City” was a huge get for Rockstar. Revered for his career in film, particularly “Good Fellas”, Liotta won multiple awards for his performance and Rockstar even included homages to some of Liotta’s films with missions such as “Cop Land” and “No Escape” being direct references to his filmography. Without Ray Liotta, we likely wouldn’t have gotten Samuel L. Jackson bringing one of the series’ best antagonists to life with Officer Tenpenny in “GTA: San Andreas”.

The Easter Egg

This one is pretty well known today, but it’s still a cool addition so we’re including it. Nearly every video game has some kind of hidden secret or Easter Egg in it, but very few can claim to have an ACTUAL Easter Egg in their game. By going into the Vice City News building, you’ll be transported to the roof, and after climbing the platform to the helicopter pad, jump to the building next door, particularly the window directly next to the landing light and you’ll clip through the wall to the room inside. Once inside, you’ll find a giant chocolate egg proudly displayed in the center of the room with the message “Happy Easter” written on the shell.

Happy Hour

Rockstar loves to push the boundaries of what can get past the censors, and this is a prime example of one that clearly got overlooked. When the in-game clock hits 23:00 hours, the lights of the hotel next to Club Malibu turn on. What makes this such a risqué inclusion is the lights very clearly form the shape of a particular part of the male anatomy. What’s more is at the same time the lights turn on, the fountain at the top of the building also erupts every fifteen seconds. The implication is very clear here, I don’t think I need to say anymore, but man you’ve gotta appreciate the stamina to go every fifteen seconds.

Which detail about “GTA: Vice City” did you not know that you do now? Share your favorites in the comments and let us know if we missed anything!