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The purpose of this article is to provide an in-depth look at the evolution and development of GTA stunting, detail the people and videos that influenced its growth and also analyze how and where stunting took off, the phases it's gone through, what it has come to be considered today, and possibly what might even lie ahead for it in the future. Before proceeding with that, it should be noted that for anyone looking for other overviews of GTA stunting's history, GTAStunting.com also has a great article on the subject here that's definitely worth looking into, written in part by TGA's own Samurai_Ohk.

Stunting has a relatively long and rocky history. Contemporary stunting made its breakout when GTA: Vice City was released for the PC (March 2003), although some may argue that it had already started with GTA3. However, since almost all stunting performed in GTA3 probably received very little attention from the GTA community, it would be more logical to attribute the stunting revolution to Vice City. People started making videos of their ingame acrobatic endeavor soon after the game was released and stunting slowly came into the public eye.

In terms of group stunting, the forerunners were the Vice City Stunt Crew (founded in early August 2003) and the Stunt Masters crew (also formed around the same time). Both VCSC and SM were some of the first to really show off what could be done in Vice City. The Stunting scene really didn't start to take off until fall of 2003 with the introduction of several very promising stunters, such as Andyroososoft, Bloodymess13, Samurai_Ohk, Jeve, DJ GTA, and Prosthetic Willy.

The most influential stunters at this stage were:

Thargore

Chaoswolf

SM Crew

VCSC

First Andyroo came to the scene looking for a place to show off his videos and for someone to host them for him, which triggered him to start hosting videos himself from his house as there was no good alternative at that time. Even with Andyroo's valiant efforts, hosting was still a problem. Since Andy's site ran from his home, you could only download at about 20K, which was considerably slow for files getting closer and closer to 50 Megs at that time.

As chance would have it, this is when TGA showed up on the scene of GTA Stunting. Recognizing the need for hosting, not liking slow downloads, and loving to watch stunt videos Bloodymess13 decided to provide his web space to the community. The original size limit was 18.5 Megs although it was raised to 78.5 Megs only an hour after it was announced due to great criticism for the rather small size limit.

Now that TGA was on the scene, newcomers could easily begin their stunting carriers. With free, fast, convenient hosting, the roadway was provided for stunting to move along its evolutionary path, straight to where it is today.

Some of the most influential videos at that time were:

- Nemesis by Old_Nick
- Stunt Mania v1 by LBtrw - "All I have to say is "WOW". This is one of the best stunt videos I've seen" ~ DJ GTA
- Stunt Mania v2 by LBtrw - "Slick production, some nice stunts, and one original line I haven't personally seen used before" ~ Xerox
- Voodoo People by Old_Nick - "Very nice work, as always. Impressive!" ~ Bloodymess13
- Stunt Mania v3 by LBtrw - "That was a kick ass vid. Every stunt was awesome and of course the editing as always was excellent." ~ Samurai_Ohk
- SORRY by Andyroososoft
- Vice City Tribute by Jordan Liles a.k.a. d8cam
- Vice City Stunt Reel by Jordan Liles a.k.a. d8cam

This is when :aMpT: got its start and when Andy created his first version of what has now become GTAStunting.com. Andy's new forum would have a rough start, but with Andy's diligence and persistence it would eventually become the dominant stunting forum.

On Wednesday Oct 29, 2003 TGA announced the GTA Vice City World Record Challenge. It gained popularity quickly and gave everyone even more incentive to stunt. The World Record Challenge had its peaks and valleys of its own, at times records would be broken daily, while other times it would be weeks. It became a friendly competition between some of the best stunters out there. The World Record Challenge flourished until late 2004 when the records were at such extremes, they could seldom be broken.

In early November 2003 Samurai_Ohk and Bloodymess13 decided to work together on a stunt video, that unknowingly to them, would have a great impact on the stunting community. "Metus" was released Friday Nov 21, 2003. It was met immediately with praise and aw by many. Metus showed what really could be done in Vice City, and stepped away from the conventional stunting beliefs. Several types of stunts were shown for the first time with Metus or shown in a new light. The community had never seen car bumping, roof climbs, grinds of such precision, and high altitude and rotation stunts at a whole new level.

As with all advances in stunting, at first the community did not like the use of cars to help with stunts, LBtrw in his review of Metus said "I sort of find it cheap but also original and creative at the same time." Others thought it was a great innovation, but with LBtrw's established position in the stunting scene, his review influenced the community into being hesitant to accept such a change. With Metus' success, TGA was given a boost in traffic, which further advertised stunting to the GTA community.

The most influential videos at this time:

Metus by Bloodymess13 and Samurai_Ohk - "One word. *AMAZING… Truly a video way better then my "Stunt Manias!" I am not even sure about making a v4 FINAL anymore..." ~ LBtrw

Stunt Mania v4 by LBtrw

AMPT Stunt Reel by AMPT crew

Within a period of one month, between October 2003 and November 2003, Metus, AMPT Stunt Reel, and the Stunt Manias were leading to the first big wave of stunters and stunt videos. This would be the time most stunters would refer to as the "Good ol' days;" the days right before the wave came crashing down.

Right before Stunting's first plunge, a stunt crew that no one had heard of came out of no where with amazing videos and incredible skills. The team was GVT (Game Video Team); they stormed onto the scene with Extreme Deathmatch, and Motor Rush. These videos both contained stunts that no one had ever even imagined possible. The crew had hidden in the shadows for such a long time because of the fact they were purely Russian. Infernus, WEREWOLF, and Scooby quickly showed the world what they were capable of. The language barrier was quickly broken as they were immediately recognized as some of the top stunters in the community.

In the beginning of stunting, if a video was released that used mods; it would quickly be shot down by harsh criticism. The GVT and Old_Nick were one of the few stunters that were well known, who pushed for the acceptance of allowing modded vehicles. As with many things in GTA Stunting the view of using mods in stunting would change over time and eventually using mods and health cheats would become a well accepted practice, although still to this day, modifying the handling file is not accepted by the community.

The most influential stunters at this stage were:

Thargore - Although he wasn't making videos at this point, he was providing advice and feedback to new stunters.

LBtrw

Chaoswolf

Andyroososoft

Bloodymess13

Samurai_Ohk

Grim

Infernus

WEREWOLF

With the stunting community at the beginnings of its first downfall, :aMpT: was the last glimmer of hope that it may some day come back. Andyroo and his crew provided the last safe haven for stunters while the rest of the community slowly crumbled away. The next several months would be the dark days of Stunting.

The stream of good videos and good stunters slowly died out in the spring of 2004 as more new stunters discovered treasures such as Vice City Tribute, d8cam's Auto Stunt Reel, Metus, and the Stunt Mania Series. There was suddenly a flood of young inexperienced stunters, videos were being released left and right, horrible videos; kids would make a video in 10 minutes and release it for the world to watch. This was the beginning for the Great Depression of GTA Stunting.

Some may also attribute part of the drought in quality videos to the release of MTA 0.3, as some of the good stunters began to spend more time with online play instead of the long hours required to produce a good stunt video. With so many poor videos coming out, and so few being worth watching, a lot of the community left the MTA forums, and with Andy's forums still struggling through its first months, stunting slowly became more underground than it ever had been.

These times showed the end of SM and VCSC, the godfathers of stunting. They also made other big names loose interest, such as LBtrw and Old_Nick. While TGA continued to host videos, Bloodymess13 and Samurai_Ohk also temporarily lost interest in stunting.

Then Andyroo and his forum were finally able to grab the stronghold on the Stunting Community as he encouraged big name stunters to frequent it. Slowly it gained dominance over the MTA forums, which had truly given birth to the GTA Stunting Community.

If someone was going to point fingers at what caused Stunting to reach the level it is today, a level far beyond what it once was, without a shadow of a doubt, GTAStunting.com and The Gamers Alliance are to blame. GTAStunting.com providing the community with a forum focused purely on stunting, and TGA providing a brand new hosting system that was better then any previous system by leaps and bounds.

Now, with immense improvement in maturity and experience these websites provided the tools needed to develop a well organized, collaborative, and well balanced Stunting Community that the previous godfathers could have never dreamed possible. This would lead to the second great boom in stunting, being exceptionally larger then the first.

TGA speculates that the second depression may be near. With the release of San Andreas just around the corner, one has to wonder whether the same evolutionary process that happened during the progress of Vice City stunting will repeat itself for San Andreas. It is true that the ground that the stunting community is standing on is much more firm, although with a new physics engine, higher graphical requirements, and the introduction of an enormous number of "fan-boy" stunters, will the community be able to survive the blow? The community once again may fall into a slumber for a short time, but once the fan-boy stunters loose interest, the true kings of stunting will once again be bumping, grinding, and high flying in the streets of San Andreas, and we will see stunts that we would never dream possible at this time.

Neo Anderson made the first known vid ("Locked and Loaded") for SA, appoximately 14 days after the game came out. That was followed by two more vids, "Wreckless" and "Case Closed", both which were very good for their time.

At around that time, Buzzsaw -a stunter that would later be regarded as the SA Godfather- got his start with "Playing in Traffic" which was highly criticized, but still proved a source of stunting inspiration to many. Buzzsaw went on to subsequently make "Gasoline" and the Adrenaline series.

About a month after Buzzsaw released his first vid, Psy released "San Andreas Stunting" which was highly praised because of its editing and stunting content.

Around January, two other stunters that helped in the evolution of SA stunting appeared. They were gotups and Juan (juan_salad). Gotups released three vids in about a month, showcasing his car skills. Around the same period, Juan also released his first vid.

Things kinda cooled off during Febuary. Only Buzzsaw's "Gasoline" stood out with Juan released another vid of his own, named "Cj's stunt collection".

By March things were picking up again: Buzzsaw released the last installment of his Adrenaline series and later that month Buzzsaw and gotups teamed up to make one of the best PS2 vids ever, "Synergy". Juan releases another vid named "Cj's stunt Compilation". Numdmind also releases his first vid, "In GTA We Trust".

April was the month that Deathcobra got his start. Juan released "Madd Stunterz: A Rare Breed" . Numbdmind released "In GTA We Trust". Deathcobra realesed "Burnout". The most notable thing to happen in April was that XSA started and released their first vid, "Domination".

In May other stunters emerged, such as Turtle Dick, Sweet, and JDHJJ (Elmo, Fate). Also Deathcobra and Numbmind released other solos. Deathcobra's solo got him into XSA.

In June XSA released "Here to Stay".

The first SA video on the PC was InsaNe's "Hellride" (June 12th), followed shortly after by a collab from stunters Kr3mlin, Barney and Theftman (June 16th). Even classic stunters Kaneda and Darkness jumped into SA for a quick video to finish their "Smackdown" series. "SA Smackdown" was an amazing accomplishment and may be the only example of vintage stunting in SA. By this time, crews began to test the limits of San Andreas and Theftman led another SA collab and again had success... but the biggest would come from a well known stunter, the video "Flight Gear" was released and had massive success all over the web; GTAGaming featured it on the front page and that was definitely a big promotion for the video. Kr3mlin and Pep were the kings of SA at that moment. One production that stuck into people's minds, however, was a rather unconventional one: the video "Wichita" by Ghostchild featured aerial acrobatics in the SA world. This opened even more methods of stunting to people. Now we come to more of the present, moving to the first crew to touch on all forms of the GTA series. .:vERt:. released "Gotti" and were the first crew to stunt in SA, VC and LC in one video. Moderately successful, but trend-setting in its form, the video is still a hit today. Now we move to today, TMS (Twisted Metal Stunters) have just released their latest crew video "Aftershock" and have become one of the most watched crews on GTAStunting.com, proving that SA has more to it then anyone could have ever expected...

A while after SA Smackdown was released, Cab stunting came to San Andreas, re-discovered by Marklund of GTAStunting.com. The best examples of what is possible with the cabs in SA would have been from Dannye_36's "Sky's The Limit" and XSA's "Timecrash" videos. Also, a cab stunt from Tackleberry in TMS' "Aftershock" also showed the potential of cab stunting in SA. Although you cannot get the same height and the awesome spins from Vice City, you still can get great results. About a month or so after it was re-discovered, Xtramus discovered the San Andreas alternative to the BSM, the Bike Bump Method (BBM). Turtle Dick made a great tutorial vid to show this, though a lot of stunters have deemed the stunt "unpredictable" and "awkward to perform". Despite this, the BBM is growing, and higher and higher roofs are being landed.

In early 2006, another new stunt method was discovered, adding onto the seperations between VC and SA-stunting, Grenade Boosting. It is inspired by Quake III Arena and Unreal Tournament and games alike, as the method is pretty much the same as in those games. The only thing that differs is the source of explosion, as it is a grenade in SA. Many stunters first seemed sceptic about the method, but as infested demonstrated the technique in "Demolition Man" people quickly turned. At first, people liked the method to kill time, but as the knowledge got spread about how big the boosts could get, most understood that it was a good way to stunt also. The quickest to snap onto the method was Tackleberry, who made huge leaps in his vid "Second Level", soon to be followed by a collab between Tackleberry, Fugitive and kr3mlin. The vid is called "Imagine", and got a lot of good comments. Very often are new boost methods still discovered, and you bet Grenade Boosting is to count with.

A new method that's had a significant impact on the stunting world was first mentioned by RAD in this post on January 8th 2006. This technique, dubbed "RAD's method" for obvious reasons, involves riding a wheelie leaning so far back that the bike scrapes the road, and pullling out of it right before the end of the run-up. The result is a massive speed boost allowing for new heights and stunts. Originally applied to San Andreas, it was later discovered to be equally effective in Vice City as well. Some arguments were raised regarding whether it consisted cheating to use RAD's method, but most people see it as a legitimate stunting tool, and not a cheat.