Interview with IJs - the founder of MTA

[jhxp]

Hello everyone!

We have prepared a special gift for you to celebrate Multi Theft Auto's 20th Anniversary!

Here is an exclusive interview with IJs (also known as IJsVogel), the founder and first developer of the Multi Theft Auto project. Read on to see his thoughts on the project in retrospective.

Note: more details about Multi Theft Auto's history and timeline can be found on our Wiki article.

 

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What had prompted you to create the very first multiplayer mod for GTA3 - a game that did not offer such a feature out of the box?

Wow, it has already been 20 years.. I remember the reasoning behind it very vividly! As I grew up in the 90s I was lucky enough to be surrounded by PCs, early internet and PC games from the very beginning (of myself). I was a very fanatical player of Grand Theft Auto 1 and 2, especially so because these games had a multiplayer mode that I could play at home with my brothers.

Then, finally in 2002 when GTA3 came out for PC, I was 13 at the time and completely astounded at the possibilities of this 3D open world version of my favourite game for the first couple of months. After a while, it sinked in that this game was missing any ability at all to play with others, which put a huge dent into my appreciation for the game... At the time, I never really played the storylines of games because it didn't quite fit my youthly attention span (my older brother always left the savegames for me to play) and was usually more into the multiplayer and modding aspects anyway.

Two completely coincidental things then sparked the start of an attempt at multiplayer.

First, a fake French screenshot was being sent around forums, showing a multiplayer mod for GTA3. This raised my hopes tremendously and I was looking forward to testing this so much. When it turned out to be another hoax, my hopes were in shambles and I began thinking about hacking something together to do it anyway.

A screenshot of a fake multiplayer mod in GTA3. Surfaced in July, 2002.

 

Secondly, some coders had just released a trainer/cheat tool for GTA3 including its source code in Visual Basic 5 or 6, which was the only language I knew at that time as I was only 14 by then.

I started hacking around with the tool to make a synchronized trainer tool, and figured I might as well synchronize car positions, and a very crude attempt at multiplayer was born and it was dubbed GTA3: Alternative Multiplayer (GTA3AM). It was amazing to see it work, it seemed such a stupidly simple hack! This was the first effective prototype of Multi Theft Auto.

A not-so-fake GTA3AM 0.1 Client window, win9x style! February, 2003.

 

Were there other people who shared your idea and wanted to contribute? Was it easy to find them?

The initial GTA3AM was posted on a well-known Dutch tech forum, and this raised some attention from people over there.

It wasn't so much a conscious decision to find people, people really wanted to contribute and we gathered on IRC, with some people helping out with the website, server donations and coding. This grew organically as the users grew.

The first months or so was mostly Dutch techies helping out, including a well-known provider sponsoring our hosting, and after the first year or so the team became very diverse, international and well skilled.

I am still very grateful for each and every contributor to this project from the very start and later, also because I was still very young at the time, and the project would not have been able to thrive on my contributions alone. I have had the fortune to meet and work together with some of the most skilled people I've met in my entire life, as well as people who simply loved playing around with our creations.

 

Work on ambitious projects like this typically involves solving tough and unusual problems. What was the most significant one that you and the team had to deal with during your time in MTA? And perhaps, maybe there was a really peculiar problem that you also would like to share?

MTA has been an amazing learning curve for me, and I believe many other contributors in its 20 year lifetime, to acquire a very special mix of skills. We have had tremendous fun and also frustration engineering the hell out of all sorts of things, and trying to tie worlds together over a network. There are countless things that were tackled and pioneered (even if only personally) in this project, so it is hard to pinpoint out a single thing.

I think one of the most groundbreaking efforts of this project however was to restructure the entire project and release it as open-source to the world. As part of that we spent much effort to restructure everything using git (this upset quite a few developers at the time) and published it in 2009 or so on GitHub when it was still in its infant stage (GitHub even mentioned us on their blog at the time).

A bit messy in MTA:SA Racemod internal tests. Some time in the second half of 2005.

 

If you had a chance to start this project again, would it be closed-source as it initially was, or would you prefer it to be open-source like it is now?

It would certainly be open-sourced again, probably as early as possible. The facilities for open source projects are much, much better now than 20 years ago as well.

 

The move to GTA:SA kind of left the multiplayer mods for GTA3 and GTA:VC in the dark. While there were some alternative mods developed for these games, they did not really leave a lasting impact in the long run. Have you or the rest of the team ever considered bringing back the support for GTA3 or VC after MTA:SA DM 1.0 was released?

I do not think there was ever a strong will to revive the GTA3 or GTA:VC versions, because GTA:SA by all means had a better and more capable engine. Perhaps in today's open source world, where contributors are easy to find, it could have had a better chance. My personal opinion (or fantasy) at the time was to "just" build our own game behind it instead, but that obviously never took off.

Development build of MTA:VC Blue. Some time in the second half of 2004.

 

What in your opinion are the strongest points of Multi Theft Auto (be it the original 0.x series or MTA:SA)? What do you think the project especially succeeded in?

The critical mass of players and contributors, that never seems to die out, and it keeps surprising me.
The incredibly challenging technical issues we have had to solve (and still do), sometimes from the ground up. This makes for a very exciting sandbox to work in as a developer or hacker.

 

And in contrast, do you feel there are any shortcomings in MTA?

I think one of the missed opportunities in MTA is that we could have developed a bigger framework or other products on top of all the codebase we had written.

A bit messy again, this time during MTA:SA DM internal tests. December, 2007.

 

Thinking back, are there any things in the project that you think you would have done differently nowadays?

I would have loved to have set up a much more professional collaboration with the entire team that were around at the time the project was open sourced around 2010, using all the knowledge we had all acquired in the process of making MTA:SA 1.0 when it was still very hot. With the knowledge on startups that I have now, I realize that had I been 5 or 10 years older, I might have had some better idea on how to take it to a level to possibly develop our own game(s) or framework on top of it. But alas, for MTA's sake it turned out good either way!

 

The MTA Community is very large these days and scattered across all continents, but that was not always the case. What was the community like back in your time?

As with most (modding) projects you usually start out with a very niche audience. For MTA, this was a direct result of me posting on a Dutch tech forum and as a result, the initial contributors in the first months were mostly (if not all) Dutch and Belgian. With the GTA series obviously being a hit in the Western world, more people wanted to contribute (and play). Nearly all of them came from the US, UK, Central and West Europe and the Nordic countries, with a few notable exceptions. I think this pretty much mirrored the demographics of the GTA series themselves.

Let's race! Beta tests of MTA:SA DM. December, 2007.

 

I have noticed that you have been involved with various tech projects after retiring from MTA. What are you up to currently? Was your experience from working on MTA useful in these projects?

Among some other startup adventures in the past years, I currently lead an audio software company called KoalaDSP that develops virtual audio plugins, instruments, effects and algorithms for a bunch of very big companies out there. We started this company around two years ago in Amsterdam after some previous endeavours, and with around 10+ people working on some crazy software being used in music and home studios around the world.

But Multi Theft Auto has given me a lifetime passion for video game development, and after many years or scribbles and notes, I have finally found the time and people around me to developing my second (..after MTA) game idea using 90s retro graphics and voxels.

I feel quite strongly that my experience with Multi Theft Auto has been a unique and once-in-a-lifetime gift of skill, much adventure and lasting connections with others. I can't quite pinpoint it, but it feels special. I hope that also still holds to this day for any contributors out there.

 

A long-running project like MTA also means a lot of memories. Do you have any fond or interesting memories from your time working on the project that you would wish to share?

I have so many memories of my time during MTA, it is hard to pick out something! Apart from the early memories of all the excitement, healthy stress and testing with all these people during the very, very early days, there is something I remember from a bit later:

There was a pretty far-fetched and secret clandestine plan from some of our developers to put a live editor into one of the first MTA:SA releases. Like often with our features, it was really a coding challenge, a show of skill. Are you skilled enough to build this crazy thing?

They figured that, in order for the community to enjoy using our mod, they needed an engaging way to create content. So they started building a complete editor inside the game. It required a tremendous amount of work, but they kept to it, others started contributing, and it ended up as one of the key features of the entire release!

Some say that editor served as an inspiration to other mods, possibly other games afterwards.

Internal tests of the cancelled MTA: Orange. April, 2010.

 

To wrap things up, is there anything that you would like to say to current MTA Team members and/or to MTA fans?

Thanks for putting your enthusiasm (and many wasted hours of gaming!!) into this amazing project. Props to all the contributors, past, present and future. MTA, the way it's meant to be played!

Interviewed by jhxp.

[Shady1]

olala  I love this man, thank you for your support so far MTA Team

Edited February 11, 2023 by Shady1

[Deihim007]

Wow, it really is an special gift <3

[eAi]

Takes me back! Good times!

[Takerd]

So cool  

 

Muy bueno

[kevuwk]

Crazy to see things still going after all these years. I remember fondly the days I was involved in development working alongside IJs amongst others. I enjoyed coding before MTA but this project really turned it into a passion and I can only thank IJs and the others for inviting me in to participate before it went open source.

[xMert]

thanks for everything

[efex]

Thank you for the thousands of hours you have offered us big boss. 

[Trust aka Tiffergan]

Amazing adventure 

[tinnetju]

Great story, thanks for sharing !

[Misha_Konsta]

Thanks for the great time spent in Multi Theft Auto 

[Ransom]

So much work from so many people. It is amazing MTA is still alive and well. Nearly all games don't make it this far, let alone mods.

"someone needs to ban ransom from making races" HAHA the boat races were so messy.

[Carl Rayanitch DZ]

if not IJs i would of been absolutely booooreed

[[EFO]Kesha_F1]

Special memory from WEB archive: https://web.archive.org/web/20031121153231/http://mtavc.com/history.php

 

Quote

9 February 2003

A teenager is looking for a trainer for his favourite game GTA3 on google. He comes across the GTA3 admin console. He also downloads the source code since this trainer was open-source. In here he finds the memory address for the previous car and learns how it's location is determent. He syncs the previous car with some net code to the car of someone else and the first GTA3 multiplayer game was created.

News spreads fast and to prove to the world this was not another hoax he releases his game called GTA3:AM (GTA3: Alternative Multiplayer). This was later renamed to GTA3:MTA 0.1.

News starts to spread and IJsVogel is searching for people who want to help him. Some web space here, some programmers there and the initial team was formed. Debugging started, a website was being build and more and more people got interested. So much interested that the initial forum the mod was located on had to reject the project due to the high traffic.

11 February 2003

A site is launched. People know have a place to get to know MTA. More and more people are coming and want to test this. Still many do not believe it is possible.

28 February 2003

GTA3:MTA 0.2 is released. Nothing new to game play but a lot of bug fixes and a new lay-out. It was no longer an extension to the Admin Console but a program on it self.

The team keeps on growing and this is needed since new features need to be build in. People want to walk around, shoot each other and hold big races. 0.3 is announced but progress goes slow. The release date could not be made.

07 March 2003

A second design for the site has been released. It was grey, it was good at that time, very functional and more organized than before.

Development on 0.3b continues. Ideas get reworked but the problems stay. Two more release dates have passed and the software was still not finished. The community was getting mad and were giving up hope. And then out of nothing came 0.3b, no date was given in advance. It had a big potential and a big problem : lag like hell.

Despite these problems, the team did not give up and continued work. 0.3.5 was announced with an improved net code.

In this period Rockstar North released GTA:VC and people started to ask for a mod for Vice. The problem is that however GTA3 and VC look similar, there were big differences which made it difficult to build a mod for VC.

18 June 2003

The YAMM team has decided to join the MTA team. Together they had the ability to do more work, and to do it faster. A decision was made to switch to Vice City and to leave Visual Basic behind and go to C++.

After the rewrite of the code, putting in a lot of new things and changing to Vice City, MTA:VC 0.1 was announced. While the team wanted to keep it a secret, the community was asking more and more for it. When GTA3t switched to Vice there was no way we could hide it anymore.

Just like with 0.3b there were a lot of problems and the community had to wait for a stable release. GTAt may have been the first to release for VC, it had a whole lot of problems and limitations.

A problem occurred with the site. The site was hacked and the webmaster was asked to make a more secure system. After repeated requests nothing happened and someone else on the team provided a new and more secure news system. The webmaster (not happy) requested to put his system back up and he would improve it. Since he had a chance before and he did not do it, the team decided not to go with his request.

After this a struggle began over the rights of the site whish was lost by our previous webmaster, but a new design was being build and after a couple of weeks completed.

01 August 2003

MTA:VC is released. And the community is happy. The game was stable and the net code problems from 0.3b were solved. The options for the game was limited and no player animations were available. But the mod became a success.

With the ever growing success of MTA more and more people came with request for all kinds of things. Not wanting to rush the team decided to keep the course they had been going so far. New members were still joining the team, and more and more features became available.

20 September 2003

MTA:VC 0.2 is released, with a whole bunch of new features. More and more people are joining the online experience and the press is starting to notice as well.

Work continues on future versions and the team decides to make a new version for GTA3. There is still a huge demand and the GTA3 community has not received a decent client so far.

10 October 2003

MTA is on TV. G4TV is the first show in the world to air footage of MTA and to do a telephone interview at the same time (it was pre-recorded). This shows MTA is getting mature and it is entering the big league.

26 October 2003

MTA introduces the first "gamemode". For the first time servers can be set up for a specific type of gameplay. It is not the long awaited "Capture The Whoopie" but just some decent stunts

What mat we expect for the future? Only time will tell. But we can say this: The mod is going to be available for GTA3 and VC, much requested GameSpy support will finally be added, game modes are still being worked on and there will be so much more. The day we hit the 1000 gamers marker will be a day of big celebration. And that day will come!

 

[roaddog]

MTA

[Mr.Karim]

Thanks for the great time Spent in Multi Theft Auto 

My Channel YT : Karim P4G 

[Axel2e]

Very nice

[Zatley]

What a gift this is! Such an interesting read. Thank you IjsVogel & the MTA team. I really think we have something special here as a community, I hope people will contribute for many years to come.

[[EFO]Kesha_F1]

Hey guys. Well i translated your interview with owner: https://efo-team.ru/modules.php?name=News&file=view&news_id=1621 . I see here very rare screenshots from early stages. Maybe MTA Team can upload on their sites all devs and beta-tests screenshots and videos? Rare artifacts in the from of the first videos are partially lost. I think you should look at keeping the story alive. 

[FernandoMTA]

Time flies

Thank you for the interview! Definitely an important mark in internet history and culture.

[Mr.Hankey]

[LuaR]

thanks for everything 

[Hydra]

Would be cool to see gta 4 project come back :))

[AbuMaher]

Great job, I hope MTA stays on top, best and nicer in the next years!

[Lauren]

I read them all one by one. Wonderful

 

 

 

 

 

 

I read them all one by one. Wodnerful