MSX Snatcher FAQ

I am no expert and most of the articles here sucks. Don't take them seriously. If you're a serious person look for somewhere else or use google.

Q. What is Snatcher?
A. 1991, a secretly developed bio weapon leaked into the environment and terminated 80% of the cyborg population then. 50 years later. The cyborgkind was facing a mysterious threat. The humans, who appeared from nowhere, began destroying cyborgs, wore artificial coating, and started living instead of original cyborgs! You, as a scrap cyborg with corrupted HDD, together with a bionic dwarf Flesh Gear mkII, must hunt down those almost inorganic yet totally organic weirdos!
...I'm lying, sorry.
Snatcher is a dialogue style adventure (choose a command, then you get response) game. Time is 2042 AD. Place is Neo Kobe, Japan, filled with foreigners. Evil skeleton-like machines are killing people, then they disguise as people they killed. You are Gilian Seed, a proud detective trying to kick their ass.

Q. Who is Gilian Seed?
A. A 100% pervert. First thing he does in front of a 14-years old girl he meets for first time is to drop his pants. He sniffs every object that has something to do with a woman. Plus, he has strong urge of theft.
But don't underestimate on him. He has legs of a cheetah, stomach of an ox and nose of a sleuthhound, in one word he's a superman.

Q. Can't anyone stop him?
A. Metal Gear mkII can. Metal Gear isn't that gigantic missile launcher Solid Snake always fights. Metal Gear boy in Snatcher is only 98 cm tall and has no weapon. He is in charge of stopping Gilian's sexual harassment and theft, but since his AI is synchronized with Gilian, sometimes he hooks women as well.

Q. Does he have any friend?
A. Hmm... actually he was recovered cold-slept in Siberia, and also he lost his memory, only person he knew is Jamie, who was identified as his wife, but he could not get along with her 'cos she lost her memory as well and he treated her in his way if you understand what I mean.

Beside her, Gilian joins JUNKER as a stranger. Since he is strange literally everybody (ha ha ha) quite often gets at him but eventually they begin to like him. Lucky dude.

Q. What's the requirement to run MSX Snatcher?
A. An MSX2 (any, I think), game disks, and a SCC+ cartridge. Since only one SCC+ cartridge comes with a game, theoretically you must always buy an official copy. But there are disks that runs with other Konami game cart with embedded SCC.
Speaking of emulator, you need to choose one with good SCC emulation and SCREEN7 (512 pixels wide) support.

Q. How is MSX Snatcher different from later versions like Sega CD's?
A. Quite a lot. In 1988 (actually 1989 actually), games were primitive, and MSX/PC88 Snatchers are said to have changed definition of a game, because of the rich reactions and well-crafted backgrounds, including Ivan Rodriguez's position in previous surfing competition and which of the previous Runners are alive. It's said Kojima the director/story writer already had whole story in his mind, but decided to snip the story at the Benson's termination.

The biggest difference is that MSX/PC88 versions lacks ACT 3. Many hate that, but I hate ACT 3.

In addition, there's no SNOW-9 harmful pollen mention, however the "Neo Kobe weathercast" warns of strange "snow cedar" hazard.

Q. Weathercast? What weathercast?
A. You can listen to the weathercast by phoning 078-177.

Q. Are there any other secret phone numbers? Isn't there Love Line?
A. You played too much SegaCD version. Don't play this game just to bath with a 14-years old babe, perv. Don't tell to anyone that I did.
The other hidden phone numbers are; Fire Department 078-119 Junker HQ Snatcher Emergency 256-128 (this one is written in the manual) Konami Corporation 64-5678 (this one is written as the contact for real Konami)

Q. I can't input "be" for katakana "benson" with my US keyboard. Which keys should I press?
A. = then [.

Q. What is JUNKER? Japanese Neuro-Kinetic ExecutioneR?
A. No, that's SegaCD version idea. Actually, it's Judgement Uninfected Naked Kind and Execute Ranger. Doesn't make sense? Find a description here.

Q. Where can I buy a proper MSX Snatcher package?
A. It's many years since the release, so MSX Snatcher is hard to find. Some copies are occasionally found in "retro games shops" in Akihabra, Tokyo, Japan. Also, MSX Snatcher packages are frequently auctioned online, for instance http://auction.yahoo.co.jp, but most such sites restrict bidders to Japanese residential. If all fails, you can ask me, but I'll not appreciate. ;)

Q. Isn't SegaCD version enough?
A. I don't have one. SegaCD Snatchers are, like MSX, rare items as well. There's SegaCD emulator (see here), so fetch it and don't bother me again. Stop harassing diehard MSX users.

Q. Are other Snatcher versions rare as well?
A. PSX and Sega Saturn versions are easy to find. PC Engine is rarer. PC Engine Pilot disk is almost a premium, and Artemio probably was wearing lucky-charm sombrero since he actually found one. He probably also had some other charm like a bull skull. He even found PC88 ver!

Q. Are you going to translate other Snatchers as well?
A. No. But since PSX/Sega Saturn vers do not have serious space problems and they are similar to SegaCD ver, just replacing won't be a hard work. You try.

Q. Why MSX/PC88 versions include huge manual and other versions don't?
A. Contents of such versions came to be included as GAUDI information in later versions, thanks to vast CD-ROM space.

Q. Is SegaCD version loyal to Japanese original, or was bastardized too far?
A. It was a huge surprise that Jeremy Blaustein, the SegaCD translator did really good job, except a few "localization". However, his texts were too long to fit in MSX disks, so I merely used them as reference.