Metal Gear

Metal Gear (メタルギア) is a stealth action game designed by Hideo Kojima. Metal Gear was developed and first published by Konami in 1987 for the MSX2 home computer and was well-received critically and commercially.

The game's premise revolves around a special forces operative codenamed Solid Snake who carries out a one-man sneaking mission into the hostile nation of Outer Heaven to destroy Metal Gear, a bipedal walking tank capable of launching nuclear missiles from anywhere in the world. Most of the subsequent games in the series follow this same premise, often changing the characters, locations, and weapons.

Originally released for the MSX2 in Japan and Europe, the game was later ported to the Nintendo Entertainment System during the same year, although with many significant changes made to the game. This was followed with ports to various home computers, such as the PC MS-DOS and Commodore 64. It was also ported to mobile phones and Nintendo GameCube (as part of the Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes Premium Package) in 2004 and for the PlayStation 2 in 2005 as a component of Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence, with several enhancements and changes, such as typo corrections and some grammatical changes. Its success led to the creation of two separately-produced sequels; the first one, Snake's Revenge, was produced specifically for the Western market for the NES and the other, Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, was the canonical sequel developed by Kojima and released in Japan for the MSX2 in response to the former's creation. The latter was followed by a successful series of sequels and spin-offs.

The cover art of Metal Gear is based on a photo of Michael Biehn in character as Kyle Reese from The Terminator.

Plot
200 km north of the region of Galzburg, South Africa, lay the fortress of Outer Heaven, a fortified state that had been founded by a legendary mercenary in the late 1980s. In 1995, the Western world had received intelligence that warned of a weapon of mass destruction that was supposedly being constructed deep within the fortress. High-tech Special Forces unit FOXHOUND, commanded by the legendary soldier Big Boss, sent their best agent, Gray Fox to infiltrate the stronghold. However, days later, contact with Gray Fox was lost, his final transmission consisting only of two words: "METAL GEAR..."

With the goal of rescuing Gray Fox and uncovering the meaning of the cryptic message, rookie operative Solid Snake is sent into Outer Heaven alone.


 * For a full summary of Operation Intrude N313, see here.

FOXHOUND

 * Solid Snake
 * Big Boss
 * Gray Fox

Resistance

 * Kyle Schneider
 * Jennifer
 * Diane

Civilians

 * Dr. Drago Pettrovich Madnar
 * Ellen Madnar

Outer Heaven Mercenaries

 * Shotmaker
 * Machinegun Kid
 * Fire Trooper
 * Bloody Brad
 * Dirty Duck

Gameplay
The player must navigate the main character, Solid Snake, through various locations, while avoiding visual contact and direct confrontation with patrolling guards. If the player is seen, the game enters Alert Mode. In this situation, the player must hide in order to leave the mode. The method of escaping varies depending on the circumstances of the discovery:


 * If the player 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 an escape can be made by moving to the adjacent screen.




 * 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 off-screen will appear as well. The player can only escape by eliminating all incoming enemies or by simply moving to a different floor or building.

At first, the player starts the game unarmed, but eventually gains access to a variety of firearms (starting with the Beretta M92F) and explosives, working their way up to machine guns and guided rocket launchers. Ammo and supplies for each weapon are limited, but are easily replenished. Weapons can not only be used to kill enemies, but also to clear obstacles such as hollow walls or electrified floors. Snake can also use his fists to punch and defeat patrolling enemies and take any rations, ammo, or any other important items, such as keycards, that they leave behind.

The enemy base consists of three different buildings, with multiple floors, including basement levels, within them. The player uses keycards and other items to unlock doors or explore new areas. Doors will only open to their corresponding keycards. Bosses also appear throughout the game to interfere with the player's progress.

Information can be obtained by rescuing hostages being held captive within the buildings. After rescuing five hostages, the player is given a promotion, increasing their "Rank" (up to four stars max), allowing for greater ammo 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 within the fortress. Each of Snake's allies has extensive knowledge on specific subjects. The transceiver is completely room-oriented, as certain transmissions occur only in certain locations.

Development
In 1986, Hideo Kojima joined Konami as a planner. However, he had trouble fitting in with the company. Kojima was then giving a game plan which he worked on for six months. However, his game, Lost Warld, was cancelled by Konami. Because of this, Kojima was the only one in the company at the time who did not have one of their games released. This led other developers within the company to tell him, "at least complete one game before you die." He was given another game plan, this time, a game about war. Due to the hardware limitations of the MSX2, Kojima decided to develop a game where the main objective was to avoid the enemy rather than fight them directly (similar to the film The Great Escape). This decision was questioned by his bosses. This, along with the cancellation of his previous game, nearly led Kojima to leave Konami. However, one of his bosses encouraged him to stay and convinced him to continue the development of the game. Kojima did, and the game, which became Metal Gear, was released in Japan for the MSX2 on July 7, 1987.

Regional differences
Two versions were released for the MSX2: a Japanese version and an English (European) version. For the English version, Konami edited a number of the game's radio messages and removed others entirely. Some of the removed messages include each of Big Boss's comments regarding an item and weapon, and some of Schneider's messages (and practically all of Steve's calls). Reportedly, only 86 of the game's 116 messages were kept. In addition, some dialogue was also altered to accompany more European-based terms. For example, when boarding a movable truck, the messge that reveals this is "I goofed! The lorry started to move!" ("Lorry" being the British and/or English Commonwealth dialect for "truck").

The Japanese MSX2 manual contains exclusive content not found in the English MSX2 manual (nor in the Famicom/NES manuals), such as character profiles with illustrations, brief descriptions of the game's bosses, and the complete specifications of the TX-55 Metal Gear.

Nintendo Entertainment System
The NES version of Metal Gear was developed shortly after the completion of the original MSX2 version, although it developed by a separate team without the consent or involvement of Hideo Kojima or any of the original MSX2 staff. Many substantial changes were made to the game during the conversion process, resulting in a drastically different game. Up until the inclusion of the MSX2 version in Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence, the NES version was the only version of the game that was officially available in North America.

For full details, see Metal Gear (Nintendo Entertainment System).

Mobile phones
A mobile phone version of Metal Gear was released only in Japan on August 18, 2004. The game is based on the original MSX2 version, but includes several additional features and changes.


 * New Easy mode - The player can choose to play with the original MSX2 version's difficulty or with an easier difficulty setting.


 * Boss Survival mode - After clearing the game once (regardless of the difficulty setting), a new game mode is unlocked, in which the player can fight against all of the main game's bosses. The player will be awarded with a title based on their clear time (this is also the case in the main game).


 * Infinite Bandana - A hidden item that becomes available to the player after clearing the game once on either difficulty setting. Like the bandana featured in Metal Gear Solid and Metal Gear Solid 2, this will conserve the player's ammunition to the present amount while firing.


 * Rewritten script - The Japanese script has been rewritten to include hiragana and kanji, in addition to romaji and katakana.


 * Name changes - Several of the game's characters had their names changed in the mobile phone version:
 * Dr. Petrovich was changed to Dr. Drago Pettrovich Madnar.
 * Elen Petrovich was changed to Ellen Madnar.
 * Shoot Gunner was changed to Shotmaker.
 * Arnold, the TX-11 series of cyberoids, was changed to Bloody Brad.
 * Coward Duck was changed to Dirty Duck.

PlayStation 2
A PlayStation 2 version is included as a component of Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence. The game includes all the changes made in the mobile phone version, as well as further enhancements. The English version contains a rewritten script as well, with a more complete translation than the earlier European MSX2 version. The North American version also has an optional Spanish script. It also includes some sound effects that were originally present in the MSX2 version of Metal Gear 2, including the high pitched squeak that's uttered when a boss is hit, as well as the higher pitched version when their health is dangerously low upon being hit.

References in later games
Metal Gear itself made a brief audio-only appearance in Act 3 of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, where the "Theme of Tara" was briefly and faintly heard in one of the houses in Midtown. According to the Integral Podcast, the addition of the theme, besides as an Easter Egg, was also meant to imply that the occupant of the house was playing Metal Gear.