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 |
