I’ve played a few minutes of Metal Gear and… it’s rough.
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Installing it right now. I have the GOG version, but neither on the PC Wiki Page nor on the GOG pages for the game are too many information to find, so I can just hope it will run.
https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Metal_Gear_(2020)
I guess this will probably be best played with a controller?
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Thanks to everyone for voting. Here are our official retro games for February 2023:
Metal Gear (Amiga, Commodore 64, GameCube, MSX, Nintendo Entertainment System, PC, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, Wii)
Hideo Kojima designed the original Metal Gear, which debuted in Japan and Europe in 1987 for the MSX2 computer platform. A separate team created a heavily modified Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) port of the game that was released in Japan on December 22, 1987, North America in June 1988, and Europe and Australia sometime in 1989. Konami produced an NES sequel, Snake’s Revenge , again without Kojima, released in North America and Europe in 1990. One of that game’s designers became acquainted with Kojima and asked him to create a “real Metal Gear sequel”.
Golden Eye 007 (N64, Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S)
GoldenEye 007 is a 1997 first-person shooter developed by Rare and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64. Based on the 1995 James Bond film GoldenEye, the player controls the secret agent James Bond to prevent a criminal syndicate from using a satellite weapon. They navigate a series of levels to complete objectives, such as recovering or destroying objects, while shooting enemies. In a multiplayer mode, up to four players compete in several deathmatch scenarios via split-screen.
As a heads up to all, because it was neck and neck for the second spot for a bit there, I think I will include Secret of the Stars as one of the two games for March. For now, enjoy Metal Gear and Golden Eye 007.
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Folks, you voted and I’m not one to override the democratic process but, Jesus wept, Golden Eye 007 just beyond redeemable at this point, lol. I was just playing the Xbox version and while the revamped controls help, the resolution bump doesn’t do this game any favours. And has anyone else noticed that plenty of the animations seem to run at half speed? Doors take forever to open. I’m going to boot up the Switch version shortly just to see if that also the case in the purely emulated version.
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Truly Grouvee is dividing along Rare games…
That being said I am ready for this to be bad.
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Naw, not divided in the way you’re implying in this case. I used to adore this game. But I’m not loving the simplistic HD upgrade of the Xbox version. I almost feel like I want it to be ugly in a retro way rather than super sharp and ugly, if you know what I mean. I really want to play the Switch version with the N64 controller and see if my nostalgia for it can carry me a bit more while playing that version than the Xbox version. And the half-speed animations seem odd to me, like a nip rod it if the HD conversion. I’m genuinely curious if doors behave that way in the original.
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It’s fine. I will participate this month. I’m gonna start with Metal Gear but I might be too busy for GE. 
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I’m beyond confused about which version is which.
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From what I can tell:
- MSX2 (a home computer, mostly popular in Japan) – original release
- Famicom/NES – reworked port (generally seen as quite inferior – Kojima and the rest of the MSX2 staff were apparently uninvolved)
- Gamecube (included in Metal Gear Solid: Twin Snakes) – Famicom version
- PS2, PS3, Xbox 360, Vita (included in certain releases of Metal Gear Solid 3) – MSX2 version
- PC (via GOG), Wii (via Virtual Console) – MSX2 version
It sounds like the original MSX2 version is greatly preferred. Here are the differences if you want the nitty-gritty.
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Well, look what just shows up on my Youtube feed!
A new Splash Wave video is always a cause for celebration, but what a nice coincidence that the topic is exactly the background we need for discussing the original Metal Gear this month.
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Oh, I was playing the NES version!
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Metal Gear really didn’t age well. It’s a time capsule of a time in which developers where just starting to discover how to make games while struggle with the severe limitations of contemporary hardware.
It is impossible to tell whether a door can be opened or not, or which card level opens it. I spent like 10 minutes stuck because I didn’t now that a silver sprite was a door and that I needed to equip the “Card 1” item to open it. Other doors, which I couldn’t open were black with a red dot so then I surmised that those doors were just flavour. Until I got stuck again immediately and had to guess that now the black door with red dot did open with Card 1. Then I got Card 2 and, of course, there is no way other than trial and error to know if a door can be opened with any of those. Failure will often lead to being spotted and having to reload the game.
Similarly, it is impossible to tell whether an enemy will call for backup if he spots you or not. So, again, only trial and error will tell if you can safely mess up a stealth kill or not.
I’m also constantly getting stuck with the “geometry”; me foot getting caught in one pixel of a crate when I need to run away from an enemy (which, again, forces reloading the save). This is made worse by the small spaces which leave almost no room for error.
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I gave up on Metal Gear after 6 hours and watched the IGN playthrough.
I have not played a game like this ever (that old and in that genre), so I have nothing I could compare it to.
The music got on my nerves very quickly and I had to mute it. There is one track for combat, one that plays while exploring and sneaking, and maybe a few tunes/sounds otherwise, but a lot of repetition. I guess that was the limitation of the time?
The game throws you in without much information, just the basics. GOG gave a little more background on the shop page, probably the blurb on the box?
There are unique ideas, like the box, funny moments, like when your boss tells you you need a gas mask at a moment when you wouldn’t have survived without it for some time, and you wonder if this was an oversight on the part of the game’s developer - no, it wasn’t.
The mini-bosses have surprisingly a lot of character, despite them being just a one-liner and a name.
The game has a nice twist and it was even hinted on multiple times.
There was too much backtracking, the doors opening to random keycards, not being able to save within a level, most guards respawning immediately…
The game made me use my controller, that thing was very very dusty, but it still works. I should use it more often.
Too much for me to want to play more of it in the end, but I am still glad that I tried and watched the rest of it through to the end. I will definitely check out the next one and make my way to the newer ones, maybe play a bit of the ones I own and then watch the rest if I can’t stomach them fully like this one. I will definitely play the last two though.
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Given March is creeping up on us pretty quickly, it’s time to pick two new games. As I mentioned at the beginning of February I’m going to designate Secret of the Stars as one of the two games for March. That means we just need one more game. One option is either *Dune II: The Building Of A Dynasty (A.K.A. Dune II: The Battle For Arrakis) or Gothic II since they were runner’s up after Secret of the Stars. But I’m also open to any other suggestions people have.
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All those GBA and Gameboy games became available through NSO. I have already played a few of them through. I still haven’t done Wario Land 4 (remember loving it as a kid) since it came on NSO. That’s my nomination.
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I forgot about that. That’s definitely a good idea.
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Will just note it’s Wario Land 3 (the Game Boy Color game) that’s on NSO right now. I imagine Wario Land 4 (the Game Boy Advance game) will be added eventually as well, though it might be a bit of a wait given how fast (or rather, how slow) Nintendo adds to these catalogues.
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“Sea of Stars” (isn’t that coming out on PC this year in August or so? A Remake?) or " Secret of the Stars (1993) | Grouvee"?
If it is the latter then it is an SNES game right? I can’t find any other version. I have never owned Nintendo hardware or played knowingly anything Nintendo before Metal Gear and also never emulated a game, so this would be a new experience for me, but I own an android tablet who should be able to run a decent emulator. I probably would need some help to understand the emulation business though. Is it ok to talk about emulating such an old game on this website? Is it complicated or easy to do?
For Dune I would need DOSBOX, right? I am not sure if I have ever used that. I guess it might have come with older GOG games without me noticing because it was part of the installer but for abandonware one needs to install it separately?
I will still look into Goldeneye, since it is on Game Pass and my subscription is running for another month.
I will also jump into Gothic II afterwards no matter what. I would very much apprechiate if others would have fun to join me with that. I am still full of hope for the remake of the first one coming “soon”, they better don’t mess that up!
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You can play it on your browser: Play Dune II: The Building of a Dynasty Online - My Abandonware
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