Three of Grand Theft Auto’s most beloved 3D-era entries are getting an unofficial second life on hardware Rockstar never targeted. A new homebrew project called the reGTA Collection now lets GTA 3, Vice City, and Liberty City Stories run on the New Nintendo 3DS.
The project comes from modder EpicReds0817, who adapted all three titles using the re3, reVC, and reStories reverse-engineering projects. Each port includes a dedicated lower-screen interface, touch controls, Nintendo-style button prompts, and a touchscreen keyboard for entering cheats, along with a handful of game-specific fixes.
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GTA 3 gets a dark-blue lower-screen theme, faster loading, smoother streaming, and fixes for vehicle materials and several crashes. Vice City uses a pink interface, restores particle effects and vehicle highlights, and fixes character models, water seams, and flight-related crashes. Both also carry over their iconic final-mission music, “Push It to the Limit” for GTA 3 and “Self Control” for Vice City.
Unlike GTA 3 and Vice City, which had relatively mature reverse-engineering projects to build from, Liberty City Stories’ corresponding reStories project had been left unfinished for years. EpicReds0817 stepped in to complete that work, getting the full main story running on physical New 3DS hardware, though not every side mission has been fully verified yet. The port uses a red-themed interface, lightweight vehicle reflections, and fixes for missions, saves, world state, cutscenes, and vehicle bugs, along with custom text cheats and its own final-mission theme, “Chase.”
Support is limited to the New Nintendo 3DS, New 3DS XL, and New Nintendo 2DS XL, since the ports rely on the upgraded CPU and additional memory those revised models offer. The original 3DS, 3DS XL, and 2DS can’t run them. And this also isn’t plug-and-play. The GitHub repository doesn’t include Rockstar’s original game data, compiled executables, or the devkitARM toolchain needed to build the project. Anyone who wants to try it will need a homebrew-capable New 3DS-family system, their own legally obtained copies of the source games, and the willingness to build the ports themselves.
Frequently Asked Questions
Open a question for an answer from TweakTown’s coverage of this news, or ask your own below.
Question #1
Which New 3DS-family models can run the reGTA Collection?
The reGTA Collection can run on the New Nintendo 3DS, New Nintendo 3DS XL, and New Nintendo 2DS XL. The original 3DS, 3DS XL, and 2DS cannot run it.
Question #2
What fixes are included for GTA 3 in the reGTA Collection?Answer question
Question #3
What changes and bug fixes does Vice City get in this port?Answer question
Question #4
Why can’t the original 3DS, 3DS XL, and 2DS run these GTA ports?
They can’t run them because the ports rely on the upgraded CPU and extra memory found in the New Nintendo 3DS family. That support is limited to the New 3DS, New 3DS XL, and New 2DS XL for that reason.
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In recent weeks, modders have gotten GTA 3 running natively on the original Wii, Vice City running on GameCube, and GTA 5 running on a modded Switch Lite.
