Metal Gear (USA)
Metal Gear (メタルギア, Metaru Gia) is an overhead military action-adventure video game originally released in 1987 by Konami for the MSX2 computer standard in Japan and parts of Europe. Considered to be the progenitor of the stealth game genre, it was also the first video game designed by Hideo Kojima, who also directed many of the later Metal Gear sequels. A heavily altered port was produced for the Nintendo Entertainment System (without Kojima's involvement), along with a remade version based on the original MSX2 game that was released for the PlayStation 2 as a bonus game in Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence and, as a result, is also included in the Metal Gear Solid HD Collection. The game was novelized by Alexander Frost, as part of the Worlds of Power series published by Scholastic Books.
The game revolves around a special forces operative codenamed Solid Snake who goes into a solo infiltration mission into the fortified state of Outer Heaven to destroy Metal Gear, a bipedal walking tank capable of launching nuclear missiles from anywhere in the world.
The player must navigate the main character, a military operative codenamed Solid Snake, through various locations, while avoiding visual contact and direct confrontation with patrolling guards. If the player is seen, the game enters the "Alert Mode." In this situation, Snake must escape from enemy's sight in order to resume infiltration. The method of escaping varies depending on the circumstances behind discovery:
The enemy base consists of three different buildings, with multiple floors (including basement levels) within them. The player uses key cards and other items to unlock doors or explore new areas. Each door will only open to its corresponding key cards. Information can be obtained by rescuing hostages being held captive within the buildings. After rescuing five hostages, the player's rank will increase by one star (with the maximum rank being four stars), allowing for carrying capacity and maximum health. However, if a hostage is killed, the player is demoted to the previous rank.
A transceiver is available for the player to communicate with their commanding officer, Big Boss, or one of the resistance members operating covertly near Outer Heaven (Schneider, Diane, and Jennifer). Each of Snake's allies specializes in a specific subject (i.e.: Big Boss provides information on weapons and items, Schneider knows the layout of the fortress, and Diane knows the weaknesses of most of the bosses). The player must keep track of their allies' frequency numbers in order to contact them. All of the radio messages are dependent on the rooms where the player is located.
The game revolves around a special forces operative codenamed Solid Snake who goes into a solo infiltration mission into the fortified state of Outer Heaven to destroy Metal Gear, a bipedal walking tank capable of launching nuclear missiles from anywhere in the world.
The player must navigate the main character, a military operative codenamed Solid Snake, through various locations, while avoiding visual contact and direct confrontation with patrolling guards. If the player is seen, the game enters the "Alert Mode." In this situation, Snake must escape from enemy's sight in order to resume infiltration. The method of escaping varies depending on the circumstances behind discovery:
- If Snake is seen and only a single exclamation mark appears over an enemy's head, only the enemies in the player's present screen will attack and Snake can escape by simply moving to an adjacent screen.
- However, if two exclamation marks appear over the enemy (or the player triggers an alarm by being spotted by a camera, infrared sensor or by using an unsilenced weapon), reinforcements from outside the screen will appear as well. Snake can only escape by eliminating all incoming enemies, going outdoors, or by moving to a different floor.
The enemy base consists of three different buildings, with multiple floors (including basement levels) within them. The player uses key cards and other items to unlock doors or explore new areas. Each door will only open to its corresponding key cards. Information can be obtained by rescuing hostages being held captive within the buildings. After rescuing five hostages, the player's rank will increase by one star (with the maximum rank being four stars), allowing for carrying capacity and maximum health. However, if a hostage is killed, the player is demoted to the previous rank.
A transceiver is available for the player to communicate with their commanding officer, Big Boss, or one of the resistance members operating covertly near Outer Heaven (Schneider, Diane, and Jennifer). Each of Snake's allies specializes in a specific subject (i.e.: Big Boss provides information on weapons and items, Schneider knows the layout of the fortress, and Diane knows the weaknesses of most of the bosses). The player must keep track of their allies' frequency numbers in order to contact them. All of the radio messages are dependent on the rooms where the player is located.
Metal Gear (USA)
Ajouter
Technique
CPU
- maincpu N2A03 (@ 1 Mhz)
Chipset
- N2A03 (@ 1 Mhz)
Affichage
- Orientation Yoko
- Résolution 255 x 240
- Fréquence 60.098 Hz
Contrôles
- Nombre de joueurs 4
- Nombre de boutons 2
- Type de contrôle
- triplejoy (8 ways)
- triplejoy (8 ways)
- triplejoy (8 ways)
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Screenshots de Metal Gear (USA)
Les clones de Metal Gear (USA)
Plot
Characters
See also: List of characters in the Metal Gear series
The player's character is Solid Snake, a rookie member of the fictional special forces group FOXHOUND sent on his first mission. He is assisted via radio by his commanding officer Big Boss, who offers information about mission objectives and items; as well as a local Resistance movement composed of Schneider, who provides the locations of important items; Diane, who provides information on how to defeat enemy bosses; and Jennifer, who assists Snake as an inside agent. Among the prisoners Snake rescues includes Grey Fox (Gray Fox in the later versions), a FOXHOUND agent who was captured during a previous mission; Dr. Pettrovich (Dr. Pettrovich Madnar in later releases), the scientist who designed the Metal Gear weapon; and his daughter Ellen, who was kidnapped along with him.The bosses includes Shoot Gunner (renamed Shotmaker in later versions), a former Spetsnaz agent specializing in the riot gun; Machine Gun Kid, a former SAS operative armed with a machine gun; Fire Trooper, a former GSG 9 operative who uses a flamethrower; Coward Duck (Dirty Duck in later releases), a boomerang throwing terrorist who shields himself with hostages; Arnold (Bloody Brad in later releases), an android designed by Dr. Pettrovich; and the legendary mercenary who founded Outer Heaven, whose true identity is unknown until the end.
Story
In 1995, the West discovers that a weapon of mass destruction is being constructed inside an Outer Heaven, a fortified state founded by a "legendary mercenary" 200 km north of Galzburg, South Africa. The US special forces unit FOXHOUND sends top agent Gray Fox to infiltrate the fortress, assess the situation and neutralize the threat. FOXHOUND loses contact with Gray Fox a few days later, with his last transmission being "METAL GEAR..." To discover what happened to Gray Fox, FOXHOUND commander Big Boss sends his newest recruit, Solid Snake, into the area in an operation codenamed Intrude N313.
Upon insertion into Outer Heaven, Snake makes contact with local resistance members Schneider, Diane, and Jennifer. Using all of his skills and the equipment he procures on site, he manages to rescue Fox. Fox explains that Metal Gear is the codename of a nuclear-equipped bipedal walking tank, which can engage in all forms of combat and launch nuclear weapons from any location. Outer Heaven plans to use Metal Gear to impose itself as the new world superpower.
To destroy Metal Gear and topple the Outer Heaven mercenaries, Snake rescues lead Metal Gear engineer Dr. Pettrovich Madnar and his daughter Ellen. The scientist explains how Metal Gear can be destroyed, and Snake takes on Outer Heaven's troops. However, he begins to notice that traps put in his way are too precise, and wonders how information on his activities are being tracked. Big Boss begins to act strangely and eventually tells Snake to abort the mission (breaking the fourth wall by telling the player to turn off the console). Moreover, Schneider is ambushed by hostiles and is presumed dead after losing contact with Snake.
Snake penetrates Outer Heaven's main base and takes out Metal Gear before it reaches completion. As he safely escapes the compound's basement, he is confronted by the mercenary leader of Outer Heaven, who turns out to be Big Boss. The corrupt leader reveals that he had been using his connections to steal military intelligence, establish his own mercenary force, and fund his activities. It was his aim to have Outer Heaven become the world's greatest superpower, able to bring even the West to its knees. He had the rookie Snake sent in, hoping to have him captured and feed misinformation to authorities, but had quite obviously underestimated Snake's capabilities.
Having lost Metal Gear and much of his force, Big Boss seemingly starts the self-destruct sequence for the compound, and promises he will not die alone; Snake will join him. Snake defeats Big Boss in a last battle and escapes the Outer Heaven compound as it crumbles in flames behind him. After the end credits, a message from Big Boss is displayed saying that he will meet Solid Snake again.
Development and release
Kojima was asked to take over a project from a senior associate. Metal Gear was intended to be an action game that featured modern military combat. However, the MSX2's hardware limited the number of on-screen bullets and enemies, which Kojima felt impeded the combat aspect. Inspired by The Great Escape, he reversed the focus of the gameplay from shooting down the enemy to avoiding the capture.
Metal Gear was originally released on the MSX2 home computer in Japan on July 12, 1987, with an official English version released for the European market on September 1987. Most of the radio messages were edited or removed in the English version, including Big Boss' comments on every item and weapon found by the player. According to a fan-translation project, only 56% of the original Japanese text was translated in the English version. The translation contains many examples of erroneous English, such as consistently misspelling "destroy" as "destoroy." The Japanese version's manual contains exclusive content not found in the English manual, such as character profiles with illustrations, brief descriptions of the enemy bosses, and the complete specifications of the Metal Gear tank.
The MSX2 version of Metal Gear was released for the Wii Virtual Console in Japan on December 8, 2009.
A reprogrammed version for the Famicom was released in Japan on December 22, 1987. While the MSX2 version of this game was never released in the U.S., the Nintendo Entertainment System version came to North America in June 1988 (published by Konami's Ultra Games division), followed by PAL version in Europe and Australia in the same year the North American version was released. According to Kojima's account, the NES port was developed by another Konami team at Tokyo without his involvement, who were given the source code from the MSX2 version without the consent of Kojima or anyone who had worked on the original MSX2 version. While the NES version was intended to be a port of the MSX2 game, many changes were also made to the game during the porting process. Hideo Kojima has been vocal about his disappointment at the changes made to the game in its NES port. Masahiro Ueno, who worked as a sub-programmer for the NES version, has stated that the staff who worked on the port were told to complete the game's development in three months. Some of the differences between the MSX2 and NES version, such as the jungle area at the beginning, were enforced by the company's management who wanted to differentiate the NES version from the already-released MSX2 game, while other changes, such as the removal of the Metal Gear boss, were done due to hardware limitations.
The biggest change to the game was in the overall level design. Instead of the underwater infiltration from the MSX2 game, the NES version features a different opening sequence showing Solid Snake and three other soldiers (who are never seen nor mentioned after the opening) parachuting into the middle of a jungle, where the player begins (instead of starting directly at the entrance of the first building). The player must reach a transport truck at the end of the first jungle area that takes Snake to the front entrance of Building 1. The player can also use other transport trucks that serve as shortcuts to the entrances of the other buildings, although the player cannot do much in those areas without the required equipment. The basement floor that connected Building 1 and 2 in the MSX2 version is turned into two separate (but still connected) buildings, Building 4 and 5 respectively, that are only reachable by going through two different jungle mazes located at the outdoor areas between Building 1 & 2 and Building 2 & 3 respectively. The Metal Gear robot before the final boss battle is missing; instead the player destroys an immobile Super Computer guarded by four soldiers. The Hind D boss on the roof of Building 1 was also replaced by two armed turret gunners called "Twin Shot". Other changes includes the lack of the second alert phase, different background music, the removal of the Flying Army's ability to hover and the removal of Big Boss' message after the end credits. Like the English localization of the MSX2 version, the English localization of the NES game contains numerous examples of grammatically-incorrect phrases, such as "Contact missing our Grey Fox", "The truck have started to move!", and "I feel asleep!!"
The English localization of the NES version's manual swayed from the game's actual storyline. The main villain (whose identity is not revealed until the end) is mentioned to be "Colonel Vermon CaTaffy", while Snake's commanding officer is renamed "Commander South". The former instance was speculated to have been the result of the localizing team wanting to avoid negative stigma regarding the leader of Outer Heaven being an American Special Forces agent. Additionally, Solid Snake's back-story is different, with the manual claiming that he participated in the Grenada invasion prior to joining FOXHOUND. These alterations to the plot only appear in the manual, but never in the game itself; moreover, the plot summary in the Japanese Famicom version's manual, along with Solid Snake's character profile, is identical to the MSX2 version's Japanese manual.
A bonus game disc featuring the Famicom version of Metal Gear was included in the Premium Package edition of Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes released only in Japan.
The NES version of Metal Gear was the basis of two computer ports that were released in 1990 for PC MS-DOS and the Commodore 64 in North America and Europe. The PC MS-DOS conversion was programmed by Charles Ernst, while the Commodore 64 conversion was handled by Unlimited Software Inc. The PC MS-DOS version contains many minor changes, such as a faster-depleting health bar. However, the Commodore 64 version is closer to the NES version, with only small musical and visual changes. A third computer conversion for the Amiga is listed on the rear packaging of both computer versions, but was never released.
A version of Metal Gear was released for mobile phones in Japan on August 18, 2004. It could be downloaded on the i-Mode, EZweb and Vodafone services. Although based on the MSX2 version, it includes several new features and changes. In 2008, Konami began offering the mobile phone version of Metal Gear to North American players via their Konami Mobile service. The re-released versions were programmed by Aspect Co., Ltd. under Konami's supervision. It is also available for Nokia N-gage gaming platform.
This same version was included as a component of Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence for the PlayStation 2. The North American version included a retranslated English script, as well as an optional Spanish script. New features include two difficulty settings ("Original" and "Easy"), an unlockable Boss Survival mode and an infinite bandana which provides the player with unlimited ammo when equipped (similar to the one featured in Metal Gear Solid). Some of the boss characters were renamed as well. In the Japanese version, the script was changed to include kanji and hiragana, in addition to katakana and romaji. The English version uses a completely new translation different from the early MSX2 and NES localizations.
This version of Metal Gear was included again in the Metal Gear Solid HD Collection for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PlayStation Vita.
MSX2
Metal Gear was originally released on the MSX2 home computer in Japan on July 12, 1987, with an official English version released for the European market on September 1987. Most of the radio messages were edited or removed in the English version, including Big Boss' comments on every item and weapon found by the player. According to a fan-translation project, only 56% of the original Japanese text was translated in the English version. The translation contains many examples of erroneous English, such as consistently misspelling "destroy" as "destoroy." The Japanese version's manual contains exclusive content not found in the English manual, such as character profiles with illustrations, brief descriptions of the enemy bosses, and the complete specifications of the Metal Gear tank.
The MSX2 version of Metal Gear was released for the Wii Virtual Console in Japan on December 8, 2009.
Nintendo Entertainment System
A reprogrammed version for the Famicom was released in Japan on December 22, 1987. While the MSX2 version of this game was never released in the U.S., the Nintendo Entertainment System version came to North America in June 1988 (published by Konami's Ultra Games division), followed by PAL version in Europe and Australia in the same year the North American version was released. According to Kojima's account, the NES port was developed by another Konami team at Tokyo without his involvement, who were given the source code from the MSX2 version without the consent of Kojima or anyone who had worked on the original MSX2 version. While the NES version was intended to be a port of the MSX2 game, many changes were also made to the game during the porting process. Hideo Kojima has been vocal about his disappointment at the changes made to the game in its NES port. Masahiro Ueno, who worked as a sub-programmer for the NES version, has stated that the staff who worked on the port were told to complete the game's development in three months. Some of the differences between the MSX2 and NES version, such as the jungle area at the beginning, were enforced by the company's management who wanted to differentiate the NES version from the already-released MSX2 game, while other changes, such as the removal of the Metal Gear boss, were done due to hardware limitations.
The biggest change to the game was in the overall level design. Instead of the underwater infiltration from the MSX2 game, the NES version features a different opening sequence showing Solid Snake and three other soldiers (who are never seen nor mentioned after the opening) parachuting into the middle of a jungle, where the player begins (instead of starting directly at the entrance of the first building). The player must reach a transport truck at the end of the first jungle area that takes Snake to the front entrance of Building 1. The player can also use other transport trucks that serve as shortcuts to the entrances of the other buildings, although the player cannot do much in those areas without the required equipment. The basement floor that connected Building 1 and 2 in the MSX2 version is turned into two separate (but still connected) buildings, Building 4 and 5 respectively, that are only reachable by going through two different jungle mazes located at the outdoor areas between Building 1 & 2 and Building 2 & 3 respectively. The Metal Gear robot before the final boss battle is missing; instead the player destroys an immobile Super Computer guarded by four soldiers. The Hind D boss on the roof of Building 1 was also replaced by two armed turret gunners called "Twin Shot". Other changes includes the lack of the second alert phase, different background music, the removal of the Flying Army's ability to hover and the removal of Big Boss' message after the end credits. Like the English localization of the MSX2 version, the English localization of the NES game contains numerous examples of grammatically-incorrect phrases, such as "Contact missing our Grey Fox", "The truck have started to move!", and "I feel asleep!!"
The English localization of the NES version's manual swayed from the game's actual storyline. The main villain (whose identity is not revealed until the end) is mentioned to be "Colonel Vermon CaTaffy", while Snake's commanding officer is renamed "Commander South". The former instance was speculated to have been the result of the localizing team wanting to avoid negative stigma regarding the leader of Outer Heaven being an American Special Forces agent. Additionally, Solid Snake's back-story is different, with the manual claiming that he participated in the Grenada invasion prior to joining FOXHOUND. These alterations to the plot only appear in the manual, but never in the game itself; moreover, the plot summary in the Japanese Famicom version's manual, along with Solid Snake's character profile, is identical to the MSX2 version's Japanese manual.
A bonus game disc featuring the Famicom version of Metal Gear was included in the Premium Package edition of Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes released only in Japan.
PC MS-DOS and Commodore 64
The NES version of Metal Gear was the basis of two computer ports that were released in 1990 for PC MS-DOS and the Commodore 64 in North America and Europe. The PC MS-DOS conversion was programmed by Charles Ernst, while the Commodore 64 conversion was handled by Unlimited Software Inc. The PC MS-DOS version contains many minor changes, such as a faster-depleting health bar. However, the Commodore 64 version is closer to the NES version, with only small musical and visual changes. A third computer conversion for the Amiga is listed on the rear packaging of both computer versions, but was never released.
Mobile phones and PlayStation 2
A version of Metal Gear was released for mobile phones in Japan on August 18, 2004. It could be downloaded on the i-Mode, EZweb and Vodafone services. Although based on the MSX2 version, it includes several new features and changes. In 2008, Konami began offering the mobile phone version of Metal Gear to North American players via their Konami Mobile service. The re-released versions were programmed by Aspect Co., Ltd. under Konami's supervision. It is also available for Nokia N-gage gaming platform.
This same version was included as a component of Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence for the PlayStation 2. The North American version included a retranslated English script, as well as an optional Spanish script. New features include two difficulty settings ("Original" and "Easy"), an unlockable Boss Survival mode and an infinite bandana which provides the player with unlimited ammo when equipped (similar to the one featured in Metal Gear Solid). Some of the boss characters were renamed as well. In the Japanese version, the script was changed to include kanji and hiragana, in addition to katakana and romaji. The English version uses a completely new translation different from the early MSX2 and NES localizations.
This version of Metal Gear was included again in the Metal Gear Solid HD Collection for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PlayStation Vita.
Reception
The NES version of Metal Gear was rated the 104th best game made on a Nintendo System in Nintendo Power's Top 200 Games list.
Its success led to the creation of two separately produced sequels; the first one, Snake's Revenge, was produced specifically for the NES in North America and Europe in 1990 and the other, Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, was the sequel developed by Hideo Kojima and released in Japan for the MSX2 during the same year as a response to the former's creation. The latter was followed by Metal Gear Solid for the PlayStation in 1998, which was in turn followed by numerous sequels and spinoffs (see Metal Gear series).
The intro theme ("Operation Intrude N313"), main theme ("Theme of Tara") and game over theme ("Just Another Dead Soldier") from the MSX2 version were reused for the VR Training theme in Metal Gear Solid, which in turn was reused in Metal Gear: Ghost Babel and Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance. "Theme of Tara" is one of the tunes that can be heard in the "Shadow Moses Island" stage in Super Smash Bros. Brawl for the Wii, the music for the beginning section of the Battleship Halberd Interior stage of the Adventure mode, where Snake officially enters the storyline, and can also be selected as music with an iPod item in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots.
Its success led to the creation of two separately produced sequels; the first one, Snake's Revenge, was produced specifically for the NES in North America and Europe in 1990 and the other, Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, was the sequel developed by Hideo Kojima and released in Japan for the MSX2 during the same year as a response to the former's creation. The latter was followed by Metal Gear Solid for the PlayStation in 1998, which was in turn followed by numerous sequels and spinoffs (see Metal Gear series).
The intro theme ("Operation Intrude N313"), main theme ("Theme of Tara") and game over theme ("Just Another Dead Soldier") from the MSX2 version were reused for the VR Training theme in Metal Gear Solid, which in turn was reused in Metal Gear: Ghost Babel and Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance. "Theme of Tara" is one of the tunes that can be heard in the "Shadow Moses Island" stage in Super Smash Bros. Brawl for the Wii, the music for the beginning section of the Battleship Halberd Interior stage of the Adventure mode, where Snake officially enters the storyline, and can also be selected as music with an iPod item in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots.
