Play GTA III (web port) in Your Browser

About GTA III

In 2001, DMA Design (soon renamed Rockstar North) and Rockstar Games took Grand Theft Auto out of its top-down view and into full 3D. Grand Theft Auto III follows Claude, a silent criminal who is betrayed and left for dead during a bank robbery, as he works his way through the gangs of Liberty City. Its free-roaming city, radio stations and mix of story missions and side jobs set the pattern for open-world crime games for years afterward.

How it runs in your browser

This browser version is built on re3, a community reimplementation of the game’s code, compiled to WebAssembly so it runs in a browser tab. Three sites host it, and they open in different ways:

• wasm.rip plays right here on this page.
• WASM Arcade opens on its own site in a new tab.
• quenq.com also opens in a new tab and adds save import and export, so you can download a save file and load it again later.

Nothing needs to be installed on any of them. Don’t rely on the game keeping your progress by itself between visits; if you plan a longer run through the story, quenq.com’s export option is the safer choice. There’s no online play.

Controls and devices

GTA III is listed as working on phones as well as computers, and it supports a controller, which suits a game first designed around the PlayStation 2 pad. On a computer you can use a keyboard and mouse or plug in a controller. None of the hosts publish a key list, so check the controls section of the in-game menu.

Tips

• If one site loads slowly or stalls, try another from the list under the player before giving up.
• Export your save on quenq.com before closing the tab if you want to pick up where you left off.
• Liberty City opens up in stages. The bridges to the other islands are closed at first and open as the story moves on, so don’t worry if part of the map is out of reach early.