Crane

Controlling a Crane in GTA Chinatown Wars (iPhone version)

Cranes are heavy machinery used for heavy lifting or construction work. In the Grand Theft Auto series, it has appeared in almost every Grand Theft Auto game in the form of static props in construction sites, industrial areas and seaports. However, interactive cranes have also appear in varying forms throughout the series.

Interactive cranes

GTA 1 and GTA 2

In the original Grand Theft Auto, cranes are integral to the export dock, appearing as twin-girder gantry cranes that automatically lift any delivered vehicle from the dock to the ship in exchange for money.

Cranes function similarly in Grand Theft Auto 2, but are redesigned as tower cranes and are primarily used to lift vehicles into crushers in exchange for money and pickups.

GTA III and GTA Liberty City Stories

In Grand Theft Auto III, interactive cranes, as in GTA 1 and GTA 2, serve as automated instruments that pick up a vehicle using its magnets and carry them to a specific destination. The cranes are only prominently used in the emergency vehicle section of the Import/Export side-mission in Portland Docks, and the crusher at the Harwood Autocrusher and Junkyard.

In Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories, only the crane at the Harwood Autocrusher and Junkyard is functional.

GTA San Andreas

In Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, the player may use certain cranes around the state of San Andreas. The game features three forms of controllable cranes:

• A magnet-equipped gantry crane found only at the Easter Basin dock in San Fierro, San Andreas, which can move forwards and backwards along a pair of railways, move its jib up or down and left or right, and move the lifting element up or down. Capable of lifting shipping containers as well as vehicles, the crane is integral to the exports and imports side mission.
• Hammerhead tower cranes, which are found in construction or demolition sites, feature jibs that can rotate 360 degrees using left-right controls and move the lifting element forward, backwards, up or down. The lifting element is connected to either a magnet, or wrecking balls which are capable of being flung to destroy environmental objects or vehicles and kill pedestrians.
• A magnet-equipped derrick crane held up by tension wires at the Hunter Quarry in Bone County. The crane is integral to a Quarry mission.

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  The controllable DUDE gantry crane in Easter Basin, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

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  A tower crane in the Doherty site, GTA San Andreas.

GTA Chinatown Wars

In Grand Theft Auto Chinatown Wars during the mission Counterfeit Gangster, the player is required to use a crane to dump cars in the water.