Snatcher MSX Version Info

Randam Hajile, MSX2

The MSX 2 version was released one month after the PC-88 one, in December 1988. They are the first versions of Snatcher that were created. This is a difficult game to come across, but the packaging and the game itself are very high quality, it is difficult to believe that it was created in 1988. Music, graphics and the depth of the story are incredible. What is notorious though, is the degraded quality compared to the PC88 version, since this was a port. One interesting detail to note, is that the code to make the profiles of the developers be available in Gaudi is there, but there is no info to show.

As Takamichi commented in his FAQ, it is slower and some texts stored in the disks are never used. ĦAl this was mainly caused by a possible rush in releasing this port close to the original PC 88 release.Also, the sound and graphic compression algorithms lack speed optimizations. Nevertheless, this is consider the canonical version (at least by its popularity at the time).

About differences, I must say that it "lacks" a third act. I quoted that, because this is the original game. Later a "director's cut" was released, as usual with Kojima. I bet that not all ideas could be accomplished in time. The ending is a bit more dark, since it ends in ACT 2, giving a more Bladerunner feeling.

For the purist, I will comment on some slight differences. On these version, the text was colored to emphasize or mark some words, like items or actions. Another interesting detail is that Gillian is a bit more of a pervert than in later versions... having an option to look at Mika's cleavage is not in the Sega CD, as far as I know. Takamichi has pointed out some of these facts in his FAQ. You cannot use Mika's Raygun to practice at the Junker's EYE system, you have to wait until you have your Blaster. Also, the chief comments on Randam Hajile when you ask him about the Bounty Hunters, and makes a remark on his skill. Metal Gear's menus are available always, like the use light feature. This was the last version to include "Twilight of Neo Kobe City" during the introduction of the game while the credits pass, instead of the now well know "One Night in Neo Kobe City", also this has a different ending theme to "Tears Stained eyes".

MSX Staff:
Scenario:Hideo Kojima
Mechanical Design: Yoshihiko Ohta
Character Design: Tomiharu Kinoshita
Character Assistant: Yoshiki Minami
MSX Conversion: Kazunobu Uehara
Main Program: Hiroyuki Fukui
Sub Program: Toshiya Adachi
Sub Program: Masahiko Ozawa
Sub Program: Koji Toyohara
Sub Program: Yoshikazu Nakanishi
Sound Effect: Iku Mizutani
Sound Effect: Noriko Gushiken
Music Composition: Masahiko Ikariko
Superviser:Naoki Matsui

This version can be played on an emulator. I highly recommend BRMSX and NLMSX, since they work quite fine and emulate sound nicely. Of course it was only released in Japanese, but work was done and now you can play a translated version in English or Portuguese. Follow the links below for details.

Now, concerning that little "Release Note" specific to the MSX 2 version, Takamichi provided a translation:

1. Do not use PAUSE or SPEED CONTROL of MSX under any circumstance. Such act may disturb proper game operation.

2. Be understood that the MSX version Snatcher (RA004) does not support conversation tone mute by CAPS key.

3. Do not swap disk until a disk swap instruction appears in the screen. Act of swapping a disk when an instruction to do so is not displayed may destroy the disk and disturb proper game operation.

4. Be understood that this game is not supported by "Konami's geemu wo 10 bai tanoshimu kaatorijji" or "Konami no shin 10 bai kaatorijji".

The explanation for this is important if you happen to have this version, here is Takamichi's explanation of each point:

About 1... Several (not all) MSX has a pause (pauses the MSX software by hardware mean) and/or speed control (a hardware toggle that slows MSX operation speed). MSX Snathcher seems to rely on timing, and use of these function causes Snatcher to hang up. I tried.

About 2...Page 7 of the MSX/PC88 Snatcher manual says "You can mute the conversation tone by CAPS key". This function does not work with MSX, however.

About 3...A PC88mkII SR and later model has two disk drives, and mistaken swapping does not result fatal, since almost all saves are done to the System disk in the primary disk drive. But as I said sometimes earlier, MSX Snatcher sometimes don't testify whether the inserted disk is what should be there.

About 4...These are what are conventionally called GM and GM2 carts, that allow game save, screen shot taking and other operation with Konami MSX cartridge games. They are useless with Snatcher and SD Snatcher, however.

For some more info on this game I recommend reading Takamichi's FAQ and the Portuguese and English translations by Daniel Caetano. Also for the curious, a dump of the text is available at the text dump section.

Some technical data:

Metal Gear Introduction Receiving the Blaster
Little John discovery Jean Jack Gibson

MSX 2 Snatcher Scans
Snatcher Page

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Fan work by: Artemio Urbina 2001-2022