How Speedrunners Broke GTA Vice City To Beat It In 8 Minutes

Storyline (context)

• Grand Theft Auto: Vice City is presented as having a mission chain culminating in a final mission and cutscene.
• Speedrunners aim to reach the end almost immediately by using glitch-based warping.
• The focus is less on the mission narrative itself and more on how glitches let runners skip directly to the end.

Gameplay / speedrun highlights

Historical speedrun progress

• Any% times fell dramatically over the years:
  • ~2:14:23 (Aug 2005)
  • ~53 minutes (by fall 2016)
• Script Stack Underflow (SSU) discovery on Aug 1, 2016:
  • jump from ~53 minutes to ~32 minutes
  • then within a day to 17:23
• By 2026, completion can be under 10 minutes (the video claims ~8 minutes using the shown method).

Dominant competition era (mid-2010s)

• The scene was largely led by MHMD, who held both Any% and 100% records for about a year and a half.

Key breakthrough: SSU (Script Stack Underflow)

• A glitch called Script Stack Underflow (SSU) manipulates the game so the engine effectively “reads” code it shouldn’t.
• Conceptually, the game normally follows a list of instructions (a “script stack”).
• Runners manipulate conditions so the list becomes “empty,” causing unintended behavior that triggers the end-game warp.

Core method (setup → execution)

1) Route/run chosen

• The video highlights an ~8-minute Any% run by brock24 (described as a popular video with millions of views).

2) Early movement and item collection

• Move downtown quickly, using a wall breach to clip through the underside of a bridge (a hurricane-blocked area workaround).
• Grab helicopter from a building roof.
• Use the helicopter to hit rampages, including a marker sequence involving the Moist Palms Hotel area and other rampage activities.

3) Critical “waiting” and replay system abuse

• The run includes a key ~3-minute wait, then uses Vice City’s replay system:
  • The replay records the last ~30 seconds.
  • A “quirk” lets runners affect real-time by picking up certain items/markers during replay playback.

4) “On Mission Zero” glitch (mission/state desync)

• On-mission-zero is described as keeping the game’s “mission value” at 0 (free roam) while a mission is still considered active.
• Mechanic used:
  • Start Pizza Boy mission.
  • Activate replay at the right window to pick up a rampage/marker.
  • End the replay shortly afterward so the game believes the rampage ended while another mission continues incorrectly.
• Time manipulation via internal clock
  • Rampages require completion within 2 minutes of real time using an internal timer.
  • Restarting the game resets internal time to 0, while the replay is “from the future,” causing rampage logic to fail/resolve immediately.
  • The video describes this as “time travel” through replay timing.

5) Duplicating Pizza Boy to reach the correct script ID

• The run duplicates Pizza Boy missions 10 times using the on-mission-zero + replay technique.
• Purpose (technical):
  • Vice City has 128 script slots.
  • The active scripts influence whether SSU triggers at a specific target.
  • Leaving the system with the right number of scripts active aims to force the game to run script ID 67 (described as essential for warping).

6) Hardware Clerk timing setup (high-risk precision)

• The run goes to the Hardware Store and interacts with the Hardware Clerk NPC.
• The clerk’s state/spawn behavior depends on a radius check and an internal increasing value.
• Process described:
  1. Enter clerk radius once to activate a value (stays at 0 until you leave).
  2. Leave the radius (the value begins increasing).
  3. Rob the clerk ($1000) for a later purchase step.
  4. Wait until the internal value reaches a narrow window:
     • roughly 53.567s to 53.656s (real-time milliseconds scale)
  5. Only ~25% of values in that range work.
  6. The other ~75% cause an inevitable crash—success is only confirmed at the very end.

7) Final SSU trigger via another on-mission-zero variant

• Final step uses:
  • Vigilante mission (instead of rampage)
  • A property purchase icon (instead of Pizza Boy/rampage marker pickup)
• Execution described:
  • Get into a cop car and hold the side-mission key to start Vigilante.
  • Play the replay through.
  • During replay playback, use the $1000 to purchase the property from the property icon at the replay destination.
  • After “property purchased,” release/cancel Vigilante quickly to complete the state manipulation.
• With:
  • correct script ID (67),
  • correct hardware clerk timing value,
  • and properly duplicated mission/scripts,
• the game warps to the last mission.
• Result: complete the game in ~8 minutes.

Key strategies / tips emphasized

• Understand SSU trigger requirements
  • SSU depends on forcing a specific runtime state (script ID 67) and triggering the warp through internal variables.
• Replay timing is essential
  • Replay is used to “pre-position” events so that after restart, time-based checks behave incorrectly (e.g., immediate rampage completion/failure).
• Hardware Clerk step is the most dangerous
  • The value window is extremely tight and most attempts crash the game.
  • Success is only verified after the warp completes.
• Expect constant crash risk
  • The run can crash from many “obscure” conditions, especially during later setup.

“What it does” in one simple sentence (as stated)

• If the game is running on script ID 67 and you initiate a property buy script while on mission zero, the game uses the Hardware Clerk’s internal value to warp to the end of the game.

Gamers / sources mentioned

• Tim Tuton Semantic (earlier any% benchmark time mentioned: 14:23 under the 2-hour era)
• MHMD (dominant runner holding Any% and 100% records)
• Nick 007J
• Husho
• Patrick
• KZ Fru (first SSU record holder; ~38 minutes)
• brock24 (featured ~8-minute run)
• Possibly additional contributors mentioned generically as “possibly a few others,” but no names were given.