One of the most anticipated releases by the Nintendo Switch community is the landing of one of the installments of Grand Theft Auto , Rockstar’s most rogue saga that unfortunately still does not have an official version in stores. So is this the release you wanted? Possibly not.
A hack not suitable for everyone
As expected, this GTA III for Nintendo Switch is a homemade port that makes use of the PC version to run seemingly without problems on a Switch. This could be great news for many since it is not a version running on a Switch emulator, however, in order to complete the process, a modified firmware is needed that allows third-party code to be executed. And of course, that is not entirely legal.
The result is an incredible job of reverse engineering, as all parts of the game have been replaced one by one to get a fully functional game that runs natively on Switch. The creator of the port has shared the files of the necessary tool for GTA III to run on Switch, but for this you will need to complete several somewhat complex (or entertaining) steps, which he has shared in detail:
- On the one hand, you will have to install the re3.nro file inside a specific folder (/ switch / re3 /) as indicated in the instructions.
- You need the original files from the PC version of GTA III to include them in the folder from before.
- You also have to create the userfiles folder inside / re3 /
- And finally, extract the files from a zip (gamefiles) that is included in the project.
On the YouTube channel eradicatinglove they have posted a tutorial that explains this entire process in full, and even shares certain files that could greatly facilitate the whole process, although of course, you will always need a Nintendo Switch with the modified firmware, so no expect miracles.
Not perfect, but almost
The videos that are being published on the networks demonstrating the operation of the port show that the game runs like a charm, however, there are still some problems when loading the compressed WAV files that some versions of the game include. The solution they recommend is to convert those WAV files to a lighter format or find a version of the game without compressed WAVs.
Putting that aside, everything else works great. Video runs at 1280 x 720 pixels when playing in handheld mode, reaching FullHD with 1920 x 1080 pixels when playing with the console plugged into the dock. The image will always run at 30 images per second, and although there is the option of not limiting the frame rate, it is recommended to activate vertical synchronization to avoid the appearance of glitches and other graphic errors.
If it works that well, will we see something original?
So far, the only thing we’ve seen officially coming to Nintendo Switch from Rockstar is LA Noire , which works like a charm, so a GTA edition should work the same. The example that proves it is this port, so we no longer know what the people of Rockstar are waiting for to do something like that.