---
title: "Rebuilding the original GTA engine in JavaScript"
publication: "JavaScript Weekly"
issue: 808
published_at: "2026-10-27"
canonical_url: "https://javascriptweekly.com/issues/808"
---

Plus TypeScript 7.1 beta, Bun's new built-in formatter, and a CoffeeScript update.        

#​808 — October 27, 2026 

[Read on the Web](https://javascriptweekly.com/issues/808)  

Together with [![Meticulous\](https://res.cloudinary.com/cpress/image/upload/c_fill,g_auto,w_2600,h_373/e_make_transparent/co_white,e_outline:30/s65exulzcd60xe2r5nyk.png)](https://www.meticulous.ai/?utm_source=javascript_weekly&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=26q3_1&utm_term=primary+content)   

JavaScript Weekly 

[![\](https://res.cloudinary.com/cpress/image/upload/w_1280,e_sharpen:60,q_auto/d78ifnbyoegacu1b82sf.jpg)](https://tanstack.com/blog/tanstack-ai-1-0)  

[TanStack AI 1.0: The Vendor-Neutral AI Toolkit Goes Stable](https://tanstack.com/blog/tanstack-ai-1-0) — TanStack's framework-agnostic AI toolkit reaches 1.0, with stable APIs for chat, tools and media, plus 23 provider adapters. [A new agent harness](https://tanstack.com/blog/tanstack-ai-1-0#one-more-thing-the-agent-harness) supports long-running sessions, but its APIs remain experimental. 

Tuzlak, Herrington, et al. (TanStack)   [![\](https://res.cloudinary.com/cpress/image/upload/c_limit,w_480,h_480,q_auto/copm/03592c49.png)](https://www.meticulous.ai/?utm_source=javascript_weekly&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=26q3_1&utm_term=primary+content) 

[Would You Let Your AI Agent Grade Its Own Homework?](https://www.meticulous.ai/?utm_source=javascript_weekly&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=26q3_1&utm_term=primary+content) — Agents write code faster than ever. They even review their own work. But who’s reviewing them? Dropbox, Notion & ElevenLabs don’t take the risk. With Meticulous, every change is exhaustively verified, with zero developer effort. 

Meticulous sponsor   

[Announcing TypeScript 7.1 Beta](https://devblogs.microsoft.com/typescript/announcing-typescript-7-1-beta/) — TypeScript 7 gets [a programmatic API](https://devblogs.microsoft.com/typescript/announcing-typescript-7-1-beta/#typescript-7.1-api), plus 'content mappers', a plugin point for checking code embedded in files such as Vue, Svelte, and Astro components. Also new are [source phase imports](https://devblogs.microsoft.com/typescript/announcing-typescript-7-1-beta/#source-phase-imports) and `--target es2026`. 

Daniel Rosenwasser (Microsoft)   

[GTA.js: 1997's _Grand Theft Auto_, But in JavaScript](https://www.bram.us/2026/10/22/gta-js/) — Bramus has been reimplementing the original top-down GTA's engine in JavaScript and WebGL, loading Liberty City from the game's original demo files. [Play it here](https://gtajs.wtf/). 

Bramus Van Damme  

💡 Fittingly, Pat Kerr, whose 1996 Atari ST prototype formed the basis of the original game's vehicle physics, recently [rebuilt it in JavaScript](https://patkerr.co.uk/2d-vehicles/).  

**IN BRIEF:** 

- Deno's Bartek Iwańczuk says the team is [working on getting Deno into a foundation](https://github.com/denoland/deno/issues/37030#issuecomment-6310897867). Meanwhile, a new fork, [Ende](https://ende.sh/), plans to drop Node compatibility and refocus on sandboxing.
- [Safari 27.1 previews the Device Posture and Viewport Segments APIs](https://webkit.org/blog/18486/webkit-features-for-safari-27-1/) behind feature flags on the iPhone Duo, letting JavaScript detect folds and inspect screen segments.
- [Chrome 156 has reached stable](https://chromestatus.com/release-notes/156) and no longer caches module fetch failures, so a dynamic `import()` that fails due to a network or HTTP error can be retried.   

**RELEASES:** 

- [Node.js v26.12.1 (Current)](https://nodejs.org/en/blog/release/v26.12.1), [v24.22.1 (LTS)](https://nodejs.org/en/blog/release/v24.22.1) and [v22.23.4](https://nodejs.org/en/blog/release/v22.23.4) – Security releases fixing ten CVEs, including the ['Node2Shell' Brotli decoder flaw](https://ellio.tech/en/blog/node2shell-cve-2026-111497-rce-on-stock-nodejs-builds/), which can lead to remote code execution when an app decompresses malicious data. _(Also, Node 26 is due to become LTS tomorrow.)_
- [Bun 1.4.4](https://bun.com/blog/bun-v1.4.4) – Adds `bun fmt`, a Prettier-compatible formatter that uses your existing Prettier or oxfmt config. It's _very_fast.
- [Electron 45](https://www.electronjs.org/blog/electron-45-0) – Upgrades to Chromium 156, Node 24.22 and V8 15.6, and adds hooks for the [Prompt API](https://developer.chrome.com/docs/ai/prompt-api) so apps can plug in a local model.
- [pnpm 12.16](https://pnpm.io/blog/releases/12.16.0), [Remix 3.1](https://github.com/remix-run/remix/releases/tag/remix%403.1.0), [axios 1.21](https://github.com/axios/axios/releases/tag/v1.21.0), [Deno 2.9.8](https://github.com/denoland/deno/releases/tag/v2.9.8)  

📖 Articles and Videos  

[Parser Combinators in TypeScript, Built From Scratch](https://t3.at/blog/parser-combinators/) — Parser combinators sit between regexes and heavyweight tools like tree-sitter. This animated, step-by-step walkthrough shows the basic elements of building them, concluding in an example turning `ping` output into typed objects. 

Florian Schindler   

[Dead Code Shouldn't Exist: How Sentry Cut 28,000 Lines](https://tkdodo.eu/blog/dead-code-shouldnt-exist) — A talk Dominik has given at six conferences this year, now as swipeable slides with a full transcript. He covers how unused code can cost more than you might think, and how Sentry used [Knip](https://knip.dev/) to remove 28,000 lines. 

Dominik Dorfmeister (Sentry)   

[AI.js Day 2026: Frontend's Scariest AI Questions, Live on Channel 13, Nov 13](https://lp.jetbrains.com/ai-js-day-2026/?utm_source=newsletter_js_weekly&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=webstorm_javascript_day_2026_js_weekly) — No hype, just the AI questions frontend devs are afraid to ask. [Save your spot](https://lp.jetbrains.com/ai-js-day-2026/?utm_source=newsletter_js_weekly&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=webstorm_javascript_day_2026_js_weekly). 

JetBrains sponsor   

[Building an Isolated Preview for AI-Generated HTML](https://blog.master.dev/building-an-isolated-preview-for-ai-generated-html/) — Rendering model-written HTML in a `srcdoc` iframe runs it on your own origin. A security engineer breaks the naive approach, then rebuilds it using `sandbox` and a strict CSP, with demos showing what each one blocks. 

Keshav Malik   

[A First Look at TypeScript 7.1's Content Mappers](https://jovidecroock.com/blog/typescript-7-content-mappers/) — TypeScript 7 ignores tsserver plugins, but 7.1's content mappers can turn non-TS files into TypeScript. Here's how they work, applied to CSS modules and `.graphql` files. 

Jovi De Croock   

📄 [How Engines Turn Dynamic Objects Into Fast Field Access](https://bernsteinbear.com/blog/object-shapes/) – Shapes and inline caches, explained with runnable sketches. Max Bernstein 

📄 [Software is Slow Because of Bad Design, Not Slow Languages](https://seangoedecke.com/software-is-slow-because-of-bad-design-not-slow-languages/) Sean Goedecke (GitHub)  

🛠 Code & Tools 

[![\](https://res.cloudinary.com/cpress/image/upload/w_1280,e_sharpen:60,q_auto/lvhon6ibgjv0prddvf5z.jpg)](https://structs.arv.tools/)  

[Structs: TC39's Shared Structs Proposal, But Usable Today](https://structs.arv.tools/) — A former TC39 delegate's implementation of the Stage 2 [structs proposal](https://github.com/tc39/proposal-structs). The idea is you get shared memory between workers, so threads can work on the same objects instead of serializing copies back and forth. There's a [playground](https://structs.arv.tools/playground/)too. 

Erik Arvidsson   

[Introducing TanStack Redact: A Slimmer React Runtime](https://tanstack.com/blog/introducing-tanstack-redact) — A build plugin swaps React and React DOM for a smaller reimplementation in the browser with no code changes. It works with Vite, Start, Vinext and Next.js, and while TanStack reports 20-70% smaller client builds, rendering is _synchronous only_. 

Tanner Linsley (TanStack)   

[AI Tests That Catch Real Bugs](https://wallabyjs.com/ai/?utm_source=cooperpress&utm_medium=javascriptweekly&utm_content=javascriptweekly) — AI can write low-value tests that pass without checking much. Wallaby helps your agent refine assertions and catch bugs. 

Wallaby Team sponsor   

[Verdaccio 7.0: The Self-Hosted npm Registry Adds Staged Publishing and 2FA](https://github.com/verdaccio/verdaccio/releases/tag/v7.0.0) — A mature, lightweight way to self-host your own npm registry and proxy. v7 adds experimental staged publishing (where new versions need approval before going live) and 2FA, plus stricter ownership checks. 

Verdaccio Team   

[Biome 2.6 Adds Markdown, YAML and SCSS Support](https://biomejs.dev/blog/biome-v2-6/) — The Rust-powered alternative to Prettier and ESLint adds formatting support for Markdown, YAML and SCSS, along with initial linting support. JavaScript plugins for custom lint rules are available as a developer preview. 

Biome Core Team   

- ☕ [CoffeeScript 2.7.1](https://github.com/jashkenas/coffeescript/releases/tag/2.7.1) – The first release in four and a half years brings Node 22+ fixes and `with { type: 'json' }` import attributes.  

💡 If you never used [CoffeeScript](https://coffeescript.org/), it is/was a Ruby- and Python-flavored language that compiled to JavaScript. [Brendan Eich held up its arrow functions and lightweight classes](https://brendaneich.com/2011/05/my-jsconf-us-presentation/) as models for what went into ES6 (ES2015).  

- [oxlint 1.89](https://github.com/oxc-project/oxc/releases/tag/oxlint_v1.89.0) – The Rust-based linter now counts the upstream recommended rules of its React, Vue, Next.js, Jest/Vitest, and other plugins as 'recommended' so expect more reports if you upgrade.
- [Mutative 2.0](https://mutative.js.org/blog/releases/2.0/) – Immer-style efficient immutable updates library. The author reports a 3.6x speedup over Immer across a benchmark suite.
- [SonicJS 3.0](https://github.com/SonicJs-Org/sonicjs/releases/tag/v3.0.0) – Headless CMS for Cloudflare Workers, built on Hono. v3 rebuilds the data layer, auth and plugin system.[Homepage](https://sonicjs.com/).
- [query-string 10.0](https://github.com/sindresorhus/query-string) – Parse and stringify URL query strings. [Now throws for values it can't represent](https://github.com/sindresorhus/query-string/releases/tag/v10.0.0).
- [ShareDB 7.0](https://github.com/share/sharedb) – Realtime database backend based on operational transformation.      

📰 Classifieds   

📱 [Expo is mobile AI infrastructure](https://try.expo.dev/3VoRZKA). Your agent writes the code, and Expo gets your iOS and Android app built and into the stores. [Try it](https://try.expo.dev/3VoRZKA). 

--- 

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📢 Elsewhere in the ecosystem  

- 🔒 **Node2Shell:** [ELLIO now reports exploit traffic in the wild](https://ellio.tech/en/blog/node2shell-cve-2026-111497-rce-on-stock-nodejs-builds/) for the Brotli RCE fixed in the Node releases (as mentioned earlier). The flaw is in Google's Brotli library, so [bundled copies elsewhere need patching too](https://socket.dev/blog/emudhra-brotli-security-fix).
- Sentry has [given $1m to open source maintainers this year](https://blog.sentry.io/another-year-another-1-000-000-to-open-source-maintainers/). JavaScript recipients include pnpm, TanStack, MSW, Knip and three Three.js maintainers, plus the OpenJS Foundation.
- 🎉 [CSS-Tricks, the popular web dev resource, is independent again](https://css-tricks.com/css-tricks-has-a-new-owner/), now owned by longtime editor Geoff Graham.
- Arc, the design-led Chromium browser popular with developers, [is being sunset](https://arc.net/) with The Browser Company steering everyone to[Dia](https://www.diabrowser.com/).
- 📄 Google Docs [can now open, edit and collaborate on Markdown files natively](https://developers.googleblog.com/preview-edit-and-collaborate-on-markdown-md-files-natively-in-google-docs-and-drive/) and Drive renders previews of them too.         

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