Identities[]
While this is briefly touched upon in the article, I still feel like writing all I could find on this here to avoid confusion in the future.
Preface[]
The exact familial relation between Cash and the relatives saved in Strapped for Cash is never mentioned in-game. Of course, most players don't lose sleep over this. However, some, who take interest in the game's lore or are simply curious, are left to wonder and speculate. Some say that these are all Cash's siblings, others lean towards cousins, uncles or aunts, however, none of these conclusions have any evidence backing them.
What the game files tell us[]
Evidence for exact familial ties can be found in the game's text files, more specifically, in levels > zoo2 > pc_text > pc_zoo2.gxt. The gxt files don't have an up-to-date editing tool that I am aware of, however, there are plenty of outdated ones (among which I would recommend the GTA Texter) or one could even open them with Notepad.
In the aforementioned file we find unused lines from the director which would've been heard when Cash gets spotted and a relative gets executed (I have a hunch that these are actually sort of a guide for the final lines, which were adlibbed, but I have no proof and it doesn't matter anyways):
DBRO (or Death Brother): "Director : Say a prayer for your brother Cash."
DDAD (or Death Dad): "Director : Get with it Cash, Your running out of family members."
DMOM (or Death Mom): "Director : Another body bag, alright Cash the door is open now"
DSIS (or Death Sister): "Director : Be more careful Cash, try not to get spotted."
SNIPE: "Director : Ok Cash, there's still one of your sisters hostage in the monkey dome."
The string names for the first four lines confirm that the developers intended for the family members to be Cash's father, brother, mother and sister. However, there's also the fifth line, titled SNIPE, which refers to the final woman the player rescues as "one of [Cash's] sisters", which implies that there's more than one sister captive and thus that the other woman is also his sister, rather than mother. With these conflicting lines, we find ourselves in a strange place. We must thus look at what other evidence we have and try to reach a conclusion that way.
Physical appearance[]
Cash himself appears to be a middle aged man, somewhere in his late 20s, perhaps early 30s. Then his parents should be older (in their 50s-60s) and their appearance should reflect that. Comparing the women's appearance, do we see a considerable age difference?
The answer is, of course, yes.
The proposed mother (Hos_2A; left in the picture) looks significantly older than the proposed only sister (Hos_2B; right in the picture). Thus, it is a reasonable deduction that only one of the women is Cash's sister, not both. So there is only one question left to answer:
Who is the father?[]
Unused lines and an unseen objective (GOAL2: Find your sister to open the door in the previously mentioned text files) confirm the identity of the sister, in the process also confirming the identity of the mother. However, the identity of the father and brother are a tad more inconspicous.
Like with the women, we can make assumptions about the men's identities based on their appearance. Hos_1A (to the right of the image) is balding, has faint wrinkles on his forehead and a moustache, all facial features associated with older men. Hos_1B (to the left of the image) has a considerably younger appearance, thus it is logical to assume that he would be the brother.
Weaker evidence[]
There are other pieces of evidence that may be circumstancial or only half true, concerning mainly the identities of the brother and the father. I wouldn't cite them as reference when trying to prove the family members' identities but still feel like they deserve to be mentioned.
- If we consider Hos_1A the father and Hos_1B the brother; Hos_2A the mother and Hos_2B the sister, then we can see a pattern where character models labelled 'A' belong to a parent and 'B' belong to a sibling. (circumstancial)
- If we consider Hos_1A the father and Hos_1B the brother; Hos_2A the mother and Hos_2B the sister, then the unused text strings with familial role suffixes are arranged in a similar order the family members are found in Strapped for Cash with the brother first and sister last, but with
DDADandDMOMswitched. (only half true) - If we consider Hos_1A the father and Hos_1B the brother; Hos_2A the mother and Hos_2B the sister, then the family members are held close to each other in accordance to their relationships during "Strapped for Cash", with the brother's store room being near the sister's monkey dome and the father's small restaurant being near the clearing past the gorilla enclosure where the mother is held. (circumstancial)
Conclusions[]
Names for unused text strings confirm the family's identities as Cash's father, mother, brother and sister. The sister's identity is confirmed by other unused lines (Hos_2B), while we can deduce the identity of the remaining relatives by comparing their physical appearances (father - Hos_1A; brother - Hos_1B; mother - Hos_2A). There is also some weaker evidence that may be circumstancial or only half true and should therefore not be used when trying to reach an objective conclusion.
SlashM,C 20:31, 2 July 2021 (UTC)