MTA was the first MP mod for GTA3. After a lot of hoaxes someone finally made one. After a bit of work IJsVogel created GTA3AM (now known as MTA0.1). It was a limited version with only 2 players and no walking support.
MTA 0.2 came fast after 0.1 with a better GUI and a lot of bug fixes but still with the same game play limitations.
The team grew and we started working on 0.3b. After a lot of technical changes we finally made it possible to walk, shoot, fly and do other stuff. MTA 0.3b had it all but there were also a lot of bugs and even worse : a lot of lag.
The team didn"t gave up because of this problems and started working on MTA:0.3.5 and also on MTA:VC, our mod for GTA:VC with a completely new code (C++ instead of VB) and a new net code with no lag at this moment.