Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (2004 Video Game)
Trivia
Jump to:
Spoilers (6)
The word "fuck" and its derivatives are used three hundred sixty-five times, not counting the soundtrack or random NPC interactions.
The mission "Saint Mark's Bistro" has CJ travel to Liberty City to deal with the Forellis at the restaurant of the same name. The restaurant exterior is faithfully remodelled from Grand Theft Auto III (2001).
In the graveyard in San Andreas, there is a crypt the player can enter. Inside, there's a chair, a television set, and some old pizza boxes. This is possibly a reference to Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997).
The character Lance "Ryder" Wilson is modelled after late rapper Eazy-E, the founding member of N.W.A. Music from N.W.A. and Eazy-E is included in the soundtrack.
While DJ Pooh was meeting with the game's creators to discuss the music, he received a call from Young Maylay, an artist with whom he was working. Pooh put the call on speakerphone and the creators felt that Maylay had the right voice for the character. They hired Maylay even though he had no previous acting experience.
In July 2005, a sex-minigame called "Hot Coffee" was discovered in the game's assets (the title is a reference to CJ's first girlfriend inviting him inside for "some coffee"). Because the developers merely deactivated the minigame, it could be accessed on both the PC and the console version by using a patch or a hacking tool. Because of that, the game's rating in the USA was changed from "Mature" to "Adults Only", and as a result, many stores couldn't sell this game anymore due to strict regulations in regards to ratings. In Australia, the game was revoked its MA15+ rating and consequently pulled from stores.
Young Maylay, who voiced CJ in this game, is real-life cousins with Shawn Fonteno, who voiced the fat Grove Street Family Homie here and Franklin Clinton in Grand Theft Auto V (2013).
Jeffrey "OG Loc" Cross was modeled to mock rapper Ja Rule. They even share the same first name of "Jeffrey".
Originally, the Grove Street Families were going to be called Grove Street Alliance (GSA) or the Orange Grove Families (OGF), and the originally gang color was going to be orange instead of green. Proof in the game pertaining to both of these assumptions are easily findable because Rockstar did not delete the references to the GSA or OGF at all. For example, you can get tattoos saying Orange Grove. Furthermore, some graffiti in the game will read Orange Grove Families, rather than Grove Street Families.
Thousands of gamers are looking for a "Bigfoot", and attempting to take pictures of it from the in-game camera. No one has yet confirmed its existence, but many photos that gamers have taken resemble a rather big creature in the woods. Trees uprooted, and weird noises can be heard in the section of the map called "Back O' Beyond". Also many alien and ghost sightings have been reported. Many gamers have since looked through the entire code and have found no reference to Bigfoot or aliens. However, there is some speculation on the internet that the ghost of Carl Johnson's mom can be seen at Carl's house at night although it has not been officially proven and what can be seen if anything is a glitch that somehow resembles Beverly or possibly just power of suggestion.
Rockstar Games denied claims made by Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson about him being asked to voice CJ, but turned it down because if he was ever to voice a character in a video game, it would be as himself.
Grand Theft Auto (1997) included three cities: Liberty City, Vice City, and San Andreas. Since the first two cities were remade for the PS2 (Grand Theft Auto III (2001), Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (2002)), it made sense that the third city, San Andreas, would be the third game in the PS2 series. This, of course, held a huge role in the on-going debate on whether the game would be titled "San Andreas" or "Sin City".
Various billboards around Los Santos are advertising "True Grime: Street Cleanup". This is a mockery of the makers of True Crime: Streets of LA (2003), who made fun of Rockstar games with signs advertising a company known as "jockstrap".
Samuel L. Jackson based his character Officer Frank Tenpenny on real-life disgraced C.R.A.S.H. Officer Rafael Perez, who was also the inspiration for Denzel Washington's character in Training Day (2001).
Some of the pilot ratings within the game are: Maverick, Iceman, Jester, and Viper, all call-signs of pilots in Top Gun (1986).
This game features numerous characters from Grand Theft Auto III (2001) and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (2002), including (but not limited to): Claude (the mute GTA III protagonist), Don Salvatore Leone, Maria La Torra Leone, Ken Rosenberg, Kent Paul, Catalina, Jethro, Dwaine, and more.
In the video poker games you can play in the casinos in Las Venturas, some of the face cards are characters from the previous two games: Grand Theft Auto III (2001) and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (2002).
The protagonist of Grand Theft Auto III (2001) formerly known as "Fido" (among various other aliases) is actually named Claude. This is discovered during one of the phone calls from Catalina, who becomes Claude's girlfriend when they leave San Andreas. It is assumed that Claude is Claude Speed, the main character from Grand Theft Auto 2 (1999).
In the repartee between Reflection's Driver series and Rockstar Game's Grand Theft Auto series, GTA once again pokes fun of Tanner. In the mission where you must steal Madd Dogg's rhyme book, one of the guards plays a video game and swears at the game company "Refractions", stating "Tanner, you suck."
In the horse racing mini-game, there is a horse with the name "Henrik's Jaw", in reference to the former Celtic F.C. striker Henrik Larsson, whose jaw breakage saw him sidelined from soccer for a while in 2003, during the time this game was in development. Considering Rockstar North is based in Scotland, it would seem likely that some of their employees working on the game could be Celtic fans. Also, there is another racehorse featured in the horse racing mini-game called "Scotland's Shite", a reference to the fact that the Scotland national soccer team never usually makes it past the qualifying stage for the FIFA World Cup, and on the rare occasions when it has managed to do so, it usually gets defeated in the first round.
In Zero's RC Shop, there are action figures for Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (2002) and Manhunt (2003) on the shelves, as well as other titles by Rockstar Games.
The music you hear when doing the "Car Bounce Challenge" with Caesar is from an episode of Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (1979). Season one, episode twenty-one, "Space Rockers" aired on February 21, 1980 and featured a futuristic band called Andromeda playing this song with outlandish instruments. The song is called "Odyssey" and was written by Johnny Harris. It appeared on the San Andreas soundtrack and can be heard on the in-game radio station Bounce FM.
During development, this game featured multiple protagonists but dropped the idea due to technical limitations. This idea wasn't used until Grand Theft Auto V.
Wil Wheaton got his role as Richard Burns after being interviewed by Lazlow, the writer of the radio station dialogue for the Grand Theft Auto video game series. Wheaton admitted his abundant admiration for Jones' work on the games, and Jones eventually worked out the Richard Burns character specifically for Wheaton. He recorded the voice work in a Rockstar Games studio in about two hours.
In the bars of San Andreas, there is a painting of a Cerberus guard from Manhunt (2003) on the wall.
After CJ obtains Barbara as a girlfriend he will not lose his weapons after being busted as she herself is a police officer and after CJ obtains Katie as a girlfriend he will not lose his weapons after being wasted as she is a paramedic and also, if Carl is wasted within San Fierro while he's dating Katie he will respawn in front of her place instead of at the hospital and if CJ gets busted in or near El Quebrados while dating Barbara, he will respawn behind the police station instead of in front of it.
During the game an ad for a clothing brand called "Zip" can be seen. This is supposed to be a parody of the real-life clothing company, "The Gap, Inc."
The "Cluckin' Bell" franchise in the game may be a reference to the popular British historical comedy Blackadder Goes Fourth (1989). During the episode "Goodbyeee", the title character "Blackadder" (Rowan Atkinson) attempts to call in a favor to avoid "The Big Push". After his idea falls through, he claims "I think the phrase rhymes with 'Clucking Bell'".
Ken Rosenberg, the coke-addled lawyer introduced in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (2002), and returned in this game, is based on David Kleinfeld, Sean Penn's character in Carlito's Way (1993). Penn's brother Chris Penn appeared in this game as a C.R.A.S.H. Officer Eddie Pulaski. Sean Penn played a C.R.A.S.H. Officer in Colors (1988).
Many of the songs found on the station called "Master Sounds 98.3" are featured as samples in songs on the many hip hop and rap stations featured in the game. Most notably would be Bobby Byrd funk track "I Know You Got Soul" and Eric B.'s rap song of the same name.
The in-game state is named after the fault line that runs through most of California. The fault line makes an appearance in the game and can be seen running underwater near San Fierro's bay area.
The game starts out with a five star wanted level. The coveted sixth star does not become available until later in the game.
One of the things CJ says if he gets into a vehicle collision is "How are you allowed to drive if you're blind?" In San Fierro, one of the allies he makes, the gangster Wu Zi Ma ("Woozie"), is able to competently drive despite being blind.
The rail bridge from San Fierro is modelled on the Forth Rail Bridge, which runs north from Edinburgh, Scotland, where Rockstar Games is based. The road bridge next to it, presumably modelled on the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, also bears more than a passing resemblance to the Forth Road Bridge, which lies right next to the Forth Rail Bridge.
The ads inside the Ammu-Nation store have the Marine Corps Hymn playing in the background, as well as a radio advert featured in the previous game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (2002)
Many of the vehicles in this game were also featured in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (2002), and a few in Grand Theft Auto III (2001). Because this game takes place in 1992 (between the events of Vice City, which took place in 1986, and GTA III, which took place in 2001), many of these vehicles were rendered to look as if they were combined models. For example, the Landstalker (an SUV) is modelled to have the body of the Landstalkers from 1986, but it has the headlights and front grill of a Landstalker from 2001. The Banshee (a sports car) is modelled to look exactly like its 2001 counterpart. The Comet (another sports car) looks exactly like it did in the beta versions of Vice City. That version of the Comet had been redesigned, yet its original version was brought back in this game.
The mission "Drive Thru" involves CJ taking the guys to "Cluckin Bell" to get food. But in the mobile version, when they open their food, the boxes say "Burger Shot" when opened.
The three cities of Los Santos, San Fierro, and Las Venturas, and the state, San Andreas, were all take-offs from the three real-life west coast major cities in California and Nevada: Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Las Vegas.
In the game, there is a military base called "KACC Military Fuels". This is a reference to the computer club where soon-to-be members of DMA Design used to go. It was called "KACC", which stood for "Kingsway Amateur Computer Club". At that time, Rockstar North was called "DMA Design".
After the player obtains 100% from Barbara CJ will obtain a cop uniform however this will not give him freedom from police attention as he will still recieve a wanted level if he commits a crime however if the player uses the disable wanted level cheat CJ can commit crimes without attracting police attention.
When CJ is in any of the game's police stations picking up a firearm will give him a two star wanted level but picking up a melee weapon will not however activating the disable wanted level cheat allows CJ to pick up a firearm inside the police station without attracting a wanted level at all.
Tommy Vercetti, the protagonist of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (2002) was meant to return in this entry. However, after Rockstar North's dispute with Ray Liotta, these plans were subsequently scrapped with Tommy only being mentioned briefly in the mission, "The Meat Business", during Ken Rosenberg's and Carl "C.J" Johnson's shootout at the Sindacco Abattoir.
The biggest influence on the development of this game was the movie Boyz n the Hood (1991). Grove Street bears a striking resemblance to the street, on which the main three characters in the film grew up, and there is a random NPC pedestrian who resembles Cuba Gooding, Jr.'s character, Tre Styles. Also, songs by Ice Cube (who played Darrin "Doughboy" Baker in the film) are featured on the in-game hip-hop radio station "Radio Los Santos". Sweet Johnson, the brother of protagonist Carl Johnson, bears a resemblance to Ice Cube. This game is set in 1992, one year after Boyz n the Hood (1991) was released.
During the mission "Home Invasion," when entering the bedroom of Colonel Fuhrberger there is a poster of Candy Suxx from Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (2002) on the wall near the door. It is the same poster that was hung up in Tommy Vercetti's mansion.
All NRG-500s bear racing number "46", which is the same racing number adopted by Valentino Rossi as a matter of preference throughout his career. Interestingly, Rossi had also ridden a Honda NSR500 during the 2001 500 cc World Championship.
It is speculated that Carl "CJ" Johnson's default appearance is based on Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson who interestingly enough has the same last name "Johnson" as he wore a white muscle shirt and jeans that were similar to CJ'S in the WWE a couple of months before this game came out and at around same time, The Rock left WWE to pursue a full time acting career and would even star in a movie called San Andreas in 2015 which also takes place in and around Los Angeles, San Francisco and Las Vegas.
The gangster's real names are as follows:
- Sweet is Sean Johnson.
- Big Smoke is Melvin Harris.
- Ryder is Lance Wilson.
- OG Loc is Jeffrey Cross.
- B Dup is Mark Wayne.
- Big Bear is Barry Thorne.
In the game, "The Cluckin' Bell" fast-food chicken restaurant was a take-off of Taco Bell and KFC which usually share the same restaurant chains.
Every former member of the pop vocal group New Edition has a track on the station CSR 103.9: "Sensitivity" by Ralph Tresvant, "Don't Be Cruel" by Bobby Brown, "Poison" by BelBivDevoe (Ricky Bell, Michael Bivins, Ronnie Devoe), "Rub You the Right Way" by Johnny Gill.
Chronologically, this is the fifth Grand Theft Auto game. However nine years later, Rockstar released Grand Theft Auto V (2013), despite it actually being the 12th title in the series. Both games are set in Los Santos, in the fictional state of Southern San Andreas which is based on Los Angeles in Southern California.
One of the neighborhoods in Los Santos is Verona Beach, which is named after the fictional city in Romeo + Juliet (1996).
The song, "Today was a Good Day", as well as "Check Yo Self" both by Ice Cube (a remix of the message by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five) which was featured on the Vice City soundtrack both songs were recorded in 1992 but they wern't released until, 1993.
Actors Clifton Powell (Melvin 'Big Smoke' Harris), Clifton Collins Jr. (Cesar Vialpando), MC Eiht (Lance 'Ryder' Wilson) and Samuel L. Jackson (Officer Frank Tenpenny) all previously appeared in Menace II Society (1993). Jackson and Collins also appeared together four years later, 187 (1997), with Collins also playing a character named Cesar.
Most characters have their own unique license plates:
- The license plate on Sean 'Sweet' Johnson's car is "GROVE4L", meaning Grove for Live showing his love for the Grove Street family's gang.
- The license plate on Lance 'Ryder' Wilson's car reads: "SHERM". Throughout the game, CJ continually calls Ryder "sherm-head", a reference to his drug taking habits.
- The license plate on Cesar Vialpando's car is "LVA4L".
- The license plate on Denise Robinson's car is "HOMEGIRL", a reference to her affiliation with the Grove Street Families.
- The license plate on Jizzy B's car, a.k.a. "The Pimpmobile", is "Ho 2 Ho".
- The license plate on Mike Toreno's vehicle is "OMEGA".
- The license plate on Millie Perkins' vehicle is "spank". Spank is the fictional name of Crack Cocaine in the Grand Theft Auto universe.
All the games in the 3D universe refer to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) by their actual names, unlike in the HD era counterparts where they are parodied as the Federal Investigation Bureau (FIB) and International Affairs Agency (IAA).
This Grand Theft Auto game does not use a number after the title, as it is considered a "spin-off" from Grand Theft Auto III (2001), that is, a derivative game that is not part of the main saga but is still official.
In the game files the file name for the pedestrian sounds of Aldis Hodge is SPC_GA/BANK_026.
Spoilers
Big Smoke's license plate is "A2TMFK". This abbreviation is seen as a reference to several things, including the Cypress Hill songs which contains words "A to the motherfu-king K". It could also mean "A two-ton motherfu-ker", referencing Big Smoke's weight, or "a two-timing motherfu-ker", referencing Big Smoke's betrayal to CJ and the Grove Street families.
Melvin 'Big Smoke' Harris's famous extra large order at the drive-thru could very well be his stalling in order for the Ballas to arrive for their attack. Exposing him as a traitor early on.
At the beginning of the game, Officer Frank Tenpenny says "I'll see you around like a doughnut Carl" as he and Officer Eddie Pulaski throw him out of the police car, and at the end of the game, Carl says to Tenpenny "I'll see you around Officer" skywriting a doughnut to his now dead body.
Los Santos is the only area that can be explored in the beginning of the game. If the player enters Las Venturas or San Fierro an automatic 4 star wanted level is attained as those areas are not unlocked until later in the game unless the player disables the wanted level by way of a cheat code. Another reason for this might be because Officer Hernandez calls CJ early in the game and informs him on behalf of Officer Tenpenny and Pulaski not to leave town as that would be a big mistake because they're watching him.
When Carl "CJ" Johnson gets a four-star wanted level, the special forces of SWAT will attack him with Micro-SMG and will behave like gangsters.
