Technical

Intro

Grand Theft Bicycle uses the revolutionary Borgcycle™ to allow you to enjoy the thrill of killing some fundamentalist diskheads.

The Borgcycle™ was invented by the Grand Theft Bicycle team. Steve Gibson came up with the concept for the bike, Justin Love created the sensor interface (with some help from our friends at Phidgets), and Jim Olson decked out the bike with our special Grand Theft Bicycle brands!

The Borgcycle™ and its sensors

Basically the wonder bike that puts you into the action is a regular Wal-Mart-bought bike (you too can enjoy the fruits of our need to buy from a cheapie outlet that thrives on the employ of small-handed Asians!).

The Borgcycle™ has been given these impressive enhancements:

1. With the help of David Cecchetto, the bike has a nice new coat of green paint so that it will fit in with the inappropriately-coloured fatigues of the Canadian army.

2. The bike is placed in a bike trainer so you don’t have to ride around the room to get the blood pumping (and flowing).

3. An off-on button is inserted in the left side of the handlebar, thus allowing you to use the front brake as a shooter.

4. A light sensor is placed in front of a light mounted on the front of the bike. As you ride faster the light is activated and off you go!

5. Finally a rotation sensor is embedded in the steering column. Before you can say cut and run you are turning this way and that just like John Kerry!

Getting the Borgcycle™ data into the game

All of the sensor information from the Borgcycle™ is transmitted to the awesome CREATE USB Interface (CUI), made by Dan Dan Overholt at U.C. Santa Barbara. Basically “the CUI provides the necessary electronics to capture sensor input or control actuator output.” In plain English, the sensor data comes into the board and goes out via USB, essentially turning the bike into a large joystick.

Once your sensor data from the Borgcycle™ is into the computer you then get to ride through our Mod of another famous shooter game. All characters have been pulled out, re-skinned and put back into our game, allowing you the pleasure of hunting down some real-life villains.

The Soundtrack

The soundtrack is also created by modding MIDI files of two tracks that are prominent in another popular shooter game: Cars by Gary Numan (for the invaders) and I Ran by A Flock of Seagulls (for the invaders).