--- title: GTA 1's Vehicle Physics Are Now Playable In Your Browser description: Former DMA Design programmer Patrick Kerr, who built the original vehicle physics for 1996's Grand Theft Auto, has recreated that 2D physics simulation in... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/gta-1-s-vehicle-physics-are-now-playable-in-your-browser-idtor7r4o twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: GTA 1's Vehicle Physics Are Now Playable In Your Browser | daily.dev og:description: Former DMA Design programmer Patrick Kerr, who built the original vehicle physics for 1996's Grand Theft Auto, has recreated that 2D physics simulation in... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/gta-1-s-vehicle-physics-are-now-playable-in-your-browser-idtor7r4o og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/iDTOR7R4O.png og:image:alt: GTA 1's Vehicle Physics Are Now Playable In Your Browser og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # GTA 1's Vehicle Physics Are Now Playable In Your Browser **[80 LEVEL](https://daily.dev/sources/80lv)** · 3 min read · 29 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Former DMA Design programmer Patrick Kerr, who built the original vehicle physics for 1996's Grand Theft Auto, has recreated that 2D physics simulation in JavaScript for the game's 30th anniversary. The browser-playable demo, called Motion Lab, works on PC and mobile with Car, Ship, and Brick modes, toggleable collision barriers, gravity, and camera settings. Kerr also published a technical write-up explaining how the original system worked and why it was innovative for its time. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### How was the vehicle physics in the original 1996 Grand Theft Auto game built? The original Grand Theft Auto vehicle physics began as a 2D simulation Patrick Kerr wrote in GFA BASIC on an Atari ST, starting as a simple wireframe demo, before being ported to C for use in the shipped game at DMA Design (later Rockstar North). It became the foundation of the car-handling system in the 1996 game. _Developers curious about classic game physics implementations can dig into write-ups like this via daily.dev._ ### Is there a way to try the original GTA's vehicle physics in a browser? Yes, a project called Motion Lab recreates the original 1996 Grand Theft Auto 2D vehicle physics in JavaScript, playable on PC or mobile. It defaults to a Car mode but also offers Ship and Brick modes, with toggles for collision barriers, gravity, camera dead zone, and speed-based zoom, mirroring behavior from the original game. _daily.dev surfaces hands-on projects like this for developers tracking retro game engine recreations._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [2D Vehicles](https://daily.dev/posts/2d-vehicles-rfrc4pvxl) · Hacker News · 4 upvotes · 1 comments - [Gravity Defied · a DragonRuby port that runs in your browser](https://daily.dev/posts/gravity-defied-a-dragonruby-port-that-runs-in-your-browser-hcpg4pcg3) · Ruby Flow · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Grand Theft Auto: Vice City](https://daily.dev/posts/grand-theft-auto-vice-city-3l8himg5z) · Hacker News · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Simulating Life in the Browser: Creating a Living Particle System for the UntilLabs Website](https://daily.dev/posts/simulating-life-in-the-browser-creating-a-living-particle-system-for-the-untillabs-website-nmsokbiv8) · Codrops · 2 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#javascript](https://daily.dev/tags/javascript), [#game-development](https://daily.dev/tags/game-development), [#physics](https://daily.dev/tags/physics) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/gta-1-s-vehicle-physics-are-now-playable-in-your-browser-idtor7r4o) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"GTA 1's Vehicle Physics Are Now Playable In Your Browser","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/gta-1-s-vehicle-physics-are-now-playable-in-your-browser-idtor7r4o","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/gta-1-s-vehicle-physics-are-now-playable-in-your-browser-idtor7r4o"},"datePublished":"2026-10-07T18:32:44.120Z","dateModified":"2026-10-07T19:10:55.582Z","description":"Former DMA Design programmer Patrick Kerr, who built the original vehicle physics for 1996's Grand Theft Auto, has recreated that 2D physics simulation in...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/9ea5507f1553d9ad5f5ca7aa9c51cf67?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/9ea5507f1553d9ad5f5ca7aa9c51cf67?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"80 LEVEL","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"80 LEVEL","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/78eebcd76c154e6bbfd565fed7dc4093","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/80lv"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/gta-1-s-vehicle-physics-are-now-playable-in-your-browser-idtor7r4o","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":29},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"javascript,game-development,physics","timeRequired":"PT3M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"80 LEVEL","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/80lv"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"GTA 1's Vehicle Physics Are Now Playable In Your Browser"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/gta-1-s-vehicle-physics-are-now-playable-in-your-browser-idtor7r4o#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"How was the vehicle physics in the original 1996 Grand Theft Auto game built?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"The original Grand Theft Auto vehicle physics began as a 2D simulation Patrick Kerr wrote in GFA BASIC on an Atari ST, starting as a simple wireframe demo, before being ported to C for use in the shipped game at DMA Design (later Rockstar North). 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