The Totally Wireless Internet Cafe (TW@ pronounced twat) is an internet café that appears in both the 3D Universe and the HD Universe, being only interactive in Grand Theft Auto IV and its episodes.
Overview
The "TW", in "TW@", stands for "Totally Wireless", as can be seen outside some TW@ Internet Cafés. This phrase is a take on "Totally where it's at."
"TW@" is a reference to twat, which is a British slang term for "vagina", often also used in offensive manner to imply someone is an "idiot".
Description
In Grand Theft Auto III, the TW@ café (in Torrington/Newport) has no doors and is only accessible by breaking any of the windows. However, this rendition is filled with random pedestrians that will walk around aimlessly, bumping into the windows trying to get out due to the lack of doors. Two monitors inside the café show screenshots from Grand Theft Auto 1 and Grand Theft Auto 2. A stunt jump can be completed inside the café through the staircase.
In Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories, due to being set earlier than GTA III, the TW@ café is only just being built. It's posters read - "Come and see the grand opening of TW@", yet another obscene reference to the word twat.
In Grand Theft Auto IV, TW@ internet cafés are popular and at least one can be found on every major island. TW@ cafés can be used to browse the in-game websites and are accessible from completion of the mission Logging On, where the player has to set up an Eyefind e-mail account. It costs $1 to use the computer. The cafés can be robbed by simply opening the cash register and taking from $9 to $199. However, doing so will usually result in a one-star wanted level. This can be avoided, if the player crouches behind the counter of the Snack Shop, out of sight and then opens the cash register, no one will notice and will act completely oblivious. In the introductory cutscene to the Logging On mission, Roman actually speaks the name of the establishment, confirming that it is indeed pronounced "twat".
In The Ballad of Gay Tony, as well as The Lost and Damned in the standalone Episodes From Liberty City version, the computers have a new wallpaper: a dark background with a silhouette of the Liberty City skyline and the phrase "I ♥ LC". This may be a reference to the "I Love New York" logo, which the name of the mission "I Luv LC" also references.
In Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, a TW@ PDA theme is available to use. TW@ Internet Cafés are also present in North Holland, East Hook and a new one is located in Easton, but all of them are inaccessible.
In Grand Theft Auto V, there are no accessible TW@ cafés, as the internet can be accessed from a mobile phone or at one of the protagonist's safehouses, but does still appear as random establishments on the streets of Los Santos, primarily in Little Seoul. The limited appearance in GTA V reflects the decline of the internet café that came with the prevalence of mobile internet access by 2013.
Locations
Grand Theft Auto III
Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories
The same place as in GTA III. The store is under construction.
Grand Theft Auto IV
There is an internet café on each of the three main islands.
Grand Theft Auto V
Wan Ka Internet Cafe
One of the locations on Vespucci Boulevard was seen in a promotional screenshot with the name Wan Ka Internet Café (왕카인터넷) in Grand Theft Auto V. This name was replaced with Totally Wireless (Tw@) once the game was released.
The words Wan Ka is a reference to the British term 'wanker'; a person who enjoys constant masturbation, or is considered an idiot. Wan Ka does not exist in the Korean language, and is instead the Mandarin Chinese term for an internet café.
Quotes
- "Welcome, don't spill shit on the computers." - Grand Theft Auto IV
- "There's a tip jar, jackass." - Grand Theft Auto IV
- "Hope the internet was worth it." - Grand Theft Auto IV
Gallery
Trivia
General
- The TW@ logo in the HD Universe is similar to the logo of The CW, a television network in Burbank, California.
3D Universe
- TW@ internet cafés do not appear in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories or Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, reflecting the fact that Internet cafés did not exist in the 1980s/early 1990s time frames of those games. Although, in GTA San Andreas, a pedestrian can be heard saying; "This internet is crap, it'll never take off." He can be heard saying this when bumped into; "Go to TW@", pronouncing it like 'T.W.A.'. This may indicate also that TW@ Internet Cafe was founded in or around 1992.
Grand Theft Auto IV
- The radio station playing inside the internet cafés is The Journey, except in the Algonquin one it is Jazz Nation Radio 108.5; in its standalone episodes, this is changed to Self-Actualization FM.
- At all TW@ internet cafés, the photocopier behind the cashier's desk is a Kakagawa Power Ultra 3000 Pro. The screen of the photocopier also has an easter egg as the screen reads: ERROR Unleash ninja guru lol.
- TW@ computers and all of the other computers in the game, have the same cursor used in Microsoft Windows, from Windows 3.1 to Windows XP, which may indicate that the operating system used in the game is a resemblance to a Windows operating system.
- Originally, TW@ was able to sell food and had a larger selection of staff.