Hal Emmerich

Dr. Hal Emmerich, also known as Otacon, is a founding member of the group Philanthropy, along with Nastasha Romanenko. A master engineer and the eccentric designer of Metal Gear REX, Otacon becomes a close ally of Solid Snake once he learns of REX's nuclear strike capabilities.

A devoted fan of anime, Hal's chosen nickname is the short form of Otaku Convention.

Early Years
After the death of Hal's mother, his father married a British woman with a child of her own (Emma). Hal and Emma became very close, and developed a mutual infatuation. Shortly afterwards, his stepmother seduced him, and they held a brief affair.

When Hal's father learned of this, he committed suicide by drowning himself, dragging in Emma too. Emma expected her brother to save her, but he didn't know it was happening as he was with his stepmother at the time. Because of this, Emma has always claimed to have hated her brother.

Shortly afterwards, Hal ran away from home and didn't see any of his family members until several years later. Choosing not to continue with school, he instead began to educate himself via the Internet. He became a big fan of anime, and started calling himself Otacon, short for the Otaku Convention, which he never misses.

Eventually, Otacon was hired by Armstech, Inc. to be the lead engineer for the Metal Gear REX project. He jumped at the chance to make an actual mecha type robot, which appear frequently in the anime he enjoyed. He was led to believe that it was a mobile defense system, but in reality it was a nuclear doomsday weapon.

Shadow Moses Incident
During the Shadow Moses rebellion, Otacon encountered Solid Snake, who informed him of the true nature of his creation. Devastated, Otacon realized that he had written yet another chapter in his family's dark history: his grandfather had worked on the Manhattan Project, and his father was born on August 6, 1945, the day of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.

During this time, Otacon had developed a strong attraction to FOXHOUND member Sniper Wolf, possibly under the effects of Stockholm syndrome. Distraught that Snake would have to kill her, Otacon eventually came to terms with her, himself, and his position in life.

With Otacon's assistance, Snake was able to destroy Metal Gear REX and defeat the terrorist uprising. After the schematics to Metal Gear were placed on the black market by Revolver Ocelot. After the Shadow Moses Incident, Nastasha Romanenko and Otacon set up Philanthropy. Following this, Snake and Otacon begin a partnership and close friendship that would continue through the next decade, as they would continue to destroy Metal Gear Rex knockoffs that had been made after Revolver Ocelot released the blueprints on the black market.

Manhattan Incident
Otacon was forced to fake his death after being framed by The Patriots during the Tanker Incident, but came out of hiding after he learned that Emma, his sister, was working for them. He managed to get her to change her ways, but she died shortly afterwards. Despite falling into deep despair, Snake encouraged him to move on and rescue all the hostages held in the Big Shell. Apparently he's successful in this, and stays in contact to support Raiden until he defeated Solidus Snake.

When Snake met back with Otacon (supposedly at their hideout) he was given the disk to go over that contained the data of The Patriots names and whereabouts. After this Otacon told Solid Snake about The Patriots information on the disc. One of the names was the biggest contributor to Philanthropy's cause, but apparently the whole lot of them had been dead for more than 100 years.

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
It has been explicitely mentioned and shown that he'll be making another physical appearance in the upcoming fourth installment: Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns Of The Patriots.

Behind the Scenes
The name "Hal" is a direct reference to the computer HAL 9000 from the film 2001: A Space Odyssey, one of several references to that film present in Metal Gear Solid. The surname "Emmerich" comes from Roland Emmerich, who is one of Hideo Kojima's favorite film directors.