GTA: Vice City speedrunner gets 'ultra-copped' 98 minutes in, and then a former Rockstar dev explains the 'panic code' that caused it
Streamer Joshimuz was 98 minutes into a Grand Theft Auto: Vice City any% speedrun when a cop briefly turned into The Flash to arrest him. In response to what Joshimuz calls "an old speedrunning legend" known as an 'ultra-cop', former Rockstar developer Obbe Vermeij explained how the bug even happens in the first place.
In a clip of the bug on X, Joshimuz only has a one-star wanted level—which shouldn't even scare a normal GTA player—while making deliveries in a Cherry Pop Ice Cream truck. Just as he's turning into an alleyway, one cop zooms in from off screen straight to his car door like he was wearing roller skates. Joshimuz is stunned when it happens, turning to look at his chat as his character is arrested and respawns at a nearby police station. "I have no words, wow. I've never been ultra-copped that bad in Vice City before."
The clip didn't attract much attention, but it did catch the eye of someone who could actually explain a GTA cop spontaneously discovering faster-than-light travel. "This is a bug with the 'getting into vehicles AI'," former Rockstar developer Obbe Vermeij wrote in a reply on X. The cop was on his way to the car door but a mess of other variables in Vice City's open world interfered with his path there, Vermeij said. "Then some panic code kicks in that just warps him to the door."
"The code to navigate to the door of vehicles is very complicated as it has to take into account other characters, the map, cars, open car doors. (I didn't write any of it)" Vermeij wrote.
In Joshimuz' clip, there actually isn't more than a construction worker casually walking down the middle of the road in between him and the cop. But it must've been enough to initiate a code red to send the cop zooming towards him.
I encountered an old speedrunning legend during Josh Done Quick Six's Vice City Any% (NMG) run... pic.twitter.com/3pHDyvSrKXSeptember 9, 2024
X user Chrislee_is said they saw this happen when a cop teleported to their helicopter on top of a crane. "The code treats helicopters just like cars so yeah… Any door-entering problem that happens with cars will also happen with helicopters," Vermeij said.
I used to ignore missions and spend hours driving around GTA: Vice City as a teen and I swear this happened to me once or twice. I certainly remember smashing the button to hijack a car and watching Tommy Vercetti slide towards it. I also remember every time he'd zip to the wrong car and I'd be stuck driving an 18 wheeler. If the 'getting into vehicles AI' was that wonky for the player, I'm not surprised it was just as broken for NPCs. At least Joshimuz can look back on this failed speedrun and know that it wasn't a skill issue, but a piece of 22-year-old code that turns cops superhuman.