Early "soda" vending machines in GTA San Andreas that the player can use to buy drinks. The textures of these vending machines can be traced back to vending machines found in Grand Theft Auto III.
Vending machines are one of the many ways that the player can restore their health. Although vending machines were first seen as early as Grand Theft Auto III and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, interactive vending machines are found in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Grand Theft Auto IV, Grand Theft Auto V and Grand Theft Auto Online.
Drinks and snacks from a vending machine cost $1 each, similar to a street vendor. Like vendors, vending machines are not marked on the map.
Description[]
Early depictions[]
With the advent of fully 3D environments in GTA III and GTA Vice City, vending machines were added as static, non-interactive props that decorate specific interiors in the game.
Vending machines in GTA III were originally designed with a red-and-white frontage and a "SODA" caption; while this clearly indicates it sells beverages, the vending machine also depicts a candy bar on the upper left corner that can be purchased for "50 cents", implying that it also offers snacks. The texture of these vending machines was eventually reused for functional vending machines in GTA San Andreas, with its mention of snacks still intact. GTA Vice City also features a redesigned vending machine bearing the Sprunk design, one of the first in the series to feature an in-universe brand name.
Non-interactive vending machines are further included in GTA Liberty City Stories and GTA Vice City Stories.
A third soda vending machine in GTA III can be found inside the south-eastern lobby of the housing projects located to the south of the payphones in Wichita Gardens.
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas[]
In GTA San Andreas, the player is able to walk up to any vending machine that sells snacks or drinks to replenish approximately 50% of the player's base health and counts as 0.25% toward the player's fat level. The player may use a vending machine after walking close to one, prompting the game to produce a message that informs if the player wants to buy a snack or drink for $1. Like street vendors, purchasing and consuming anything from a vending machine will fully satisfy the player character's hunger, allowing Carl to go without food or drinks for another three days. Vending machines in the game come in two forms: Snack vending machines and drink vending machines.
After purchasing a snack from a snack machine, the player may see the player character perform an eating animation (although the player cannot see what the player character is eating); for drink vending machines, the player character may be seen drinking from a Sprunk can, before discarding it onto the ground. Snacks and drinks sold in the vending machines are unlimited.
Locations[]
- Snacks
- Inside the Alhambra club in Idlewood, Los Santos.
- Carniceria El Pueblo, Las Colinas, Los Santos.
- Shopping mall in Jefferson, Los Santos.
- 6th Street Plaza, Willowfield, Los Santos.
- Northern terminal building of Los Santos International Airport.
- Las Venturas City Planning Department building.
- In the back halls of Caligula's Palace.
- Linden Station, Las Venturas.
- In front of the Las Payasadas Cafe, Las Payasadas.
- Next door from El Quebrados Barbers, El Quebrados.
- Inside all the 24/7 stores.
- Inside the Easter Basin Naval Station.
- Drinks
- Inside the Jefferson Motel in Jefferson, Los Santos.
- Going gas station in Idlewood, Los Santos.
- In front of the Ten Green Bottles bar in Ganton.
- Unity Station.
- Inside the Alhambra club in Idlewood, Los Santos (x2).
- Public plaza in Downtown Los Santos.
- Verona Mall, Market.
- Inside Big Smoke's Crack Palace, East Los Santos.
- In front of a liquor store in East Los Santos.
- In front of the Las Payasadas Cafe, Las Payasadas.
- Beside The Smokin' Beef Grill, Las Barrancas.
- In the train station in Doherty across from the Doherty Garage.
- Xoomer gas station in Juniper Hollow, San Fierro.
- In front of the Cranberry Station.
- Montgomery, round the road from the burnt building.
- Inside all the 24/7 stores.
- Outside the Blueberry Safehouse.
- Inside the Easter Basin Naval Station.
Grand Theft Auto IV[]
In GTA IV, the player can also restore portions of their health by paying $1 into any Sprunk or eCola vending machine. Drinks sold in the vending machines are unlimited. The player character will pick up the can, drink it, and then throw it on the ground. Buying drinks from vending machine while dating with Michelle will cause the whole game to hang.
Even though the machines have Sprunk or eCola livery, the cans dispensed will be Orang-O-Tang.
Players are still able to buy drinks a damaged vending machine.
Although snack vending machines appear in Grand Theft Auto IV, they are not interactive to the player. Similarly, coffee machines debut in the game, particularly appearing within the interiors of the Schottler Medical Center and Westdyke Memorial Hospital, but once again these are non-interactive and are merely for decorative purposes.
Locations[]
- Drinks
- Ground level entrances of the Lancet-Hospital Center in Lancet.
- Schottler Medical Center, Schottler.
- Westdyke Memorial Hospital, Leftwood.
- The underground car park in Topaz Street, Lancaster.
- Pier 45 in Fishmarket South.
- Golden Pier, close to its Memory Lanes bowling alley.
- At both platforms of the Skycar.
- Several vending machines inside and around the Golden Pier Swingers Golf Club.
- Two inside the sprunk warehouse in Chase Point, Bohan.
- Ouside the Burger Shot on Sacramento Avenue, Westdyke.
- In multistorey car parks all around the city.
- Two inside the waiting spot at Windmill Street Station, Chase Point.
Grand Theft Auto V and Grand Theft Auto Online[]
Vending machines also feature in GTA V and GTA Online. The player is able to purchase drinks from eCola and Sprunk vending machines to replenish all the health, while Rainé, The Bean Machine, Candybox and generic snack vending machines are non-interactive. The Bean Machine and Candybox machines are manufactured by Blick. After consuming the drink, the protagonist will often comment on how good the drink is, or belch. Unlike previous games, the player cannot purchase drinks from damaged vending machines.
Locations[]
- Drinks
- Jetsam Terminal, Terminal.
- Del Perro Plaza, Del Perro.
- Pleasure Pier, Del Perro.
- BJ Smith Recreational Center, Chamberlain Hills.
- Mission Row Police Station, Mission Row.
- Kortz Center, Pacific Bluffs.
- Thomson Scrapyard, Grand Senora Desert.
- Convenience stores.
- Los Santos Transit stations.
- The two branches of Ammu-Nation with a shooting range.
- Some can appear in mission-only interiors. For an example, some vending machines appear during The Diamond Casino Heist
- They can often be found in player-purchased businesses and other similar properties, such as bunkers, facilities, Arena Workshop, arcade basements, and auto shops. However, players still have to pay to use them.
Trivia[]
- In all 3D Universe games, vending machines are indestructible and cannot be damaged in any way.
- In GTA San Andreas, due to a developer oversight, Carl actually drinks from the Sprunk can upside down.
- In the Definitive Edition, Carl not only drinks the can upside down, but also points it at his forehead. Again, this is a developer oversight.
- In GTA San Andreas, when Carl purchases a drink, finishes it, and throws away the can, it will instead be pulled back into the vending machine. The can will not disappear and will instead remain present inside the machine as long as Carl stays within the vicinity of it. When he purchases another can of soda, the machine will spawn another can and repeat the same process while the previous can still remains inside. Using the same vending machine too many times (around 400) will cause the game to crash due to it being unable to render all of the cans inside the machine.[1]
- In the Definitive Edition, this glitch will also corrupt the player's save file if autosave is enabled.
- Drinking several cans of drinks from a single machine without moving will also often cause the cans to stack beneath Carl's feet.
- In GTA San Andreas and GTA IV, the player character can be seen inserting money into the machine before selecting the drink. However, in GTA V and GTA Online, the player character simply selects the drink without inserting the money, though $1 will still be deducted from their bank account.
- In GTA IV, damaged vending machines can still be used. However, in GTA V and GTA Online, the ability to use damaged ones is unavailable.
- In GTA V, after purchasing a soft drink, the player character will tap the top of the can three times and then proceed to open it. This is a well-known way to prevent a drink "exploding" after opening it.
- In GTA V, after purchasing a soft drink, the player character may say things like "Damn. That hit the spot" or "That was just what I needed."
- In GTA V and GTA Online, after the "Independence Day Special" update, the vending machines have been reported to be unusable, possibly due to a bug caused accidentally while Rockstar produced this update. When any protagonist walks up to a Sprunk or E-Cola machine, the standard message instructing the player to press left on the D-Pad no longer appears, and even if the player does press the button, nothing happens.
- The San Andreas Flight School Update addresses this bug, and thus after downloading, all vending machines will function as intended.
- In GTA V, a player can only purchase a maximum of ten drinks from the same vending machine in succession, any further attempts to buy more will make a notification appear saying "Vending machine has run out of sodas." The counter will reset however, if the player moves a short distance away from the machine and returns to it again.
- On the Raine water vending machine, one can see "May contain acid and some dirt" - this is likely a joke referencing the name, considering rainwater is not clean and could be acid rain.