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The Unknown Guy, also known as the Unidentified Male and MALE01, is a strange pedestrian in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

Description[]

The Unknown Guy is one of the strangest and most commonly overlooked pedestrians in San Andreas. He is a medium-height African-American male dressed in slacks, sneakers, and a hooded denim jacket with a grooved haircut.

Unknown Guy is very rarely seen as a walking pedestrian on the streets, known only to appear on-foot when the carjacker pedestrian has hijacked him or when CJ himself hijacks his vehicle.

Unknown Guy is also the one and only train driver in all of San Andreas, appearing at all train stations across the state. When hijacked from a train, the Unknown Guy does not react to threats, similar to Mr. Trenchcoat. Even when fired upon, no action can elicit a response. He can also be found driving harvesters in the countryside.

Unknown Guy also has a strange model name in the game's files, MALE01.[1] Typically, a pedestrian's model name will include information detailing where they are supposed to spawn, for example, CWMYHB1 stands for Country-White-Male-Young-HillBilly-1. Strangely the Unknown Guy's model name gives no indication of where he is supposed to spawn.

A possible explanation for why he acts so strange and him being a placeholder in a lot of scenarios and him being named just "MALE01" is that he might be the first pedestrian model ever made for the game or at least added in very early development. However, it's worth noting that "MALE01" has technically been in gta3.img since GTA III, and has been a different character for the same purpose through the last two games. He could've at least gone through several iterations before they settled on his final design.

Ballas Gang Connection[]

In ulown00b's videos, the Unknown Guy can be seen dropping a large amount of money, 9mm pistols, and Uzi sub-machine guns upon his death. In the videos, he is also seen driving Tahoma model vehicles in Ballas gang territory. It is interesting to note that the Uzi and the Tahoma are both signature items in the Balla outfit and are widely used by the gang.

Another myth hunter later reported that he witnessed the Unknown Guy not only spawn with a 9mm pistol but quickly began shooting into the air while running along as if aiming behind him. The Unknown Guy entered into a shootout with responding police and was shortly killed. It is unknown exactly what caused this relatively isolated incident and it may be the result of a rare glitch.

Grove Street Gang Members can be seen attacking the Unknown Guy as they do to Ballas gang members, often tearing him from his vehicle and shooting him dead in the street. Recruited homies will sometimes attack the Unknown Guy when they spot him driving around. Interestingly, Grove Street Gang Members will only attack the Unknown Guy when he is driving the Tahoma.

In the second of the two videos, Grove Street gang members can be heard remarking "Ballas gettin' a take-down" when pulling the Unknown Guy out from his vehicle, cementing the fact that they recognize him as a Balla. Strangely, no Ballas territory existed anywhere in Los Santos when this remark was heard.

End of the Line Mission Involvement[]

During the final chase sequence of the mission End of the Line, the Unknown Guy can be seen throwing Molotov cocktails in both Willowfield and Ganton, just the same as the Vagos and Ballas, who were also participating in throwing Molotovs at previous roadblocks. He also can be seen in Big Smoke's Crack Palace's entrance with some prostitute.

Explanation[]

There is actually a simple explanation of Unknown Guy's strange behavior. If one is so inclined to use an advanced editor such as Notepad++ and opens up the game's PEDGRP.dat file, the file that assigns certain character models to specific groups, then Unknown Guy's true intentions will be seen.

...contains the list of ped groups for each group type. Each ped group should contain 32 ped type names. Please dont use 'male01' in any of the pedgroups

Unknown Guy simply acts the way he does because he is not bound to any specific group, and thus can be spawned in the game world as a member of any of them. Usually, this is not a noticeable effect, but he can spawn in the Ballas or Grove Street ped group, which would cause his aggressive behavior. MALE01 also serves as a placeholder model for the game, being used in generic applications, such as taxi driving or conducting a train, and is a failsafe in the instance that the game doesn't load another model properly. These factors are why the Unknown Guy can be seen in large groups, as there are multiple opportunities for him to spawn.

Gallery[]

Video Investigations[]

GTA_San_Andreas_Myths_._Unknown_Guy,_Biker_Gang_1_2_-_PARANORMAL_PROJECT_33

GTA San Andreas Myths . Unknown Guy, Biker Gang 1 2 - PARANORMAL PROJECT 33

GTA_San_Andreas_Myths_._Unknown_Guy_2_2_-_PARANORMAL_PROJECT_41

GTA San Andreas Myths . Unknown Guy 2 2 - PARANORMAL PROJECT 41


References[]

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