Relive those Grand Theft Auto early days

1997: Tony Blair wins the general election, Channel 5 launches, the first Harry Potter book is published and the Teletubbies first hit our TV's. It was a very active year but for gamers there was one thing that hit our shelves in that year that changed gaming forever, and that was the release of Grand Theft Auto.

Grand Theft Auto introduced gamers into the open sandbox world that so many games have tried to emulate but most have ultimately failed.  It is one of the most popular gaming series around having sold over 130 million copies of the GTA series of games.

Playing the first GTA does feel dated and now feels like a game you'd expect to find on a handheld as opposed to a console game but you can't beat the nostalgia that comes from loading up the game, getting in a pick-up truck, and cruising around the city listening to Sideway's Hank O'Malley (and The Alabama Bottle Boys).

If you want to relive those glory days of running people and driving over crates in the street to get your weapons then you can download the game for free from http://www.rockstargames.com/classics/. Not only can you download the original GTA but you can also download 'GTA2' and other Rockstar classic 'Wild Metal'.