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MSX Snatcher Miscellaneous Reflection

I add whatever comes up in my mind about MSX Snatcher on occasions.

---2004/01/18

Metal insists that he transmits the realtime investigation procedures to Junker HQ from"duty as the navigator", but Little John did not seem to be sending Jean's investigation status to Junker HQ. The considerable possibilities are; 1) Only Gilian, who is the special existence, is the monitoring target, or 2) Cunningham was really receiving the investigation status including that OLEEN meant QUEEN, but he pretended he didn't know.

While Joy Division is well known as the name of a real rock band, another band called Alphaville (name of the Neo Kobe central system in Snatcher) also exists, though this name is more likely was taken from a 1965 French movie rather than this band.

---2002/01/17

Computer that appears in another Konami MSX game "Salamander" is called Gaudi as well.

---2002/01/13

During cephalometric reconstruction, captions with arrows; ALTERNATIVE VALUE, FUCKING KONMI and CYBER PUNK ADV. are displayed. Isn't 2nd one little politically incorrect?

If improper disk is inserted after inputting any command, meaningless garble appears on the screen and the game hangs up. Probably the display routine retrieves certain data within the disk without question, and does not check by any means.

If disk 1 is not inserted in disk drive upon attempt to Load previous game, game hangs up. Probably such situation was beyond foreseeing.

Gilian reaches the conclusion that Snatcher employed cosplay hours of Outer Heaven, but witnesses in Outer Heaven have given testimonies that Freddy only appeared during non-cosplay hours.

---2002/01/12

The Snatcher visual world is blue-oriented. One can easily call up Metal's blue outer panel and bluish Omni Building. This is because 16 colors of MSX display contain a lot of blues, and MSX Snatcher uses such default colors from beginning to end. Reason is unknown.

It looks like MSX version was a downsized port of PC88 version. The notorious length disk loads are because the image data crunch/decrunch routine is hardly optimized. Also, the fact same texts are stored in more than one location in a disk, and disks contain messages which are not used in any of the scene that the particular disk is for, hints that there was no development time to tidy up.

MSX version does not include proper double vowel symbol for kanas, but use alphanumeral "-" instead. For example: (Snatcher) Sunaccha-

One of the numerous features of MSX/PC88 version texts such as colors and varying display speeds, is that "..." are used affluently, ranging from ".." to "......". This is the unique syntax unseen in later Snatcher versions.
In addition, MSX version Gilian has habit to terminate his message with "?" even when he is fully affirmative.

PC88 version messages, for instance "Insert disk in Drive 2" are still remaining among the texts. One of the remaining message data says the disk for the Gibson's PC is for "PC_88".

Though people you can search info of in GAUDI are limited to minimum in MSX version, in fact the development staff names, for instance "Kojima Hideo" are included as search keywords. Probably, in the initial intention, players were meant to be able to read sub stories by inputting one of the staff names, as in later Snatcher version. If you input one of the staff names in MSX version, "File Not Found" does not show up, but you get absolutely no information anyway.

I once read release of Snatcher 2 for PC88 was once announced.

In MSX/PC88 version, a "man" who invites you to "become a JUNKER" appears in Altamila. He is probably David Johnson, who is described to have been "put into a coma" earlier in the MSX/PC88 version manuals and also in the GAUDI search in later Snatchers, and is the only JUNKER personnel alive other than those who appear in the game. The reason why this "man" does not appear in the later Snatchers is maybe because his presence contradicts with Mika's notion that David is still being hospitalized.

In Sega CD USA version, names are changed; GAUDI -> JORDAN, Joy Division -> Plato's Cavern, Altamila->Alton Plaza, for no plausible reason. There is no scene where Gilian shows off his "gender ID" in front of Catherine, on the other hand his date-inviting speech became much dirtier.
In Outer Heaven you can hear for instance "two Senators from USA protested against Lethal Enforcer".

The biggest difference between Blade Runner the movie and Snatcher is that while replicants are not evil by nature, Snatchers are presumed evil enemies that should not leave space for questions.
If you look at other Kojima games, you notice almost all of them presume "unconditionally bad guy" who should be defeated.
Penguin Adventure ... Something like that final boss happens to be Penko does not occur.
Metal Gear...Destroy the evil weapon "Metal Gear". I never said I'm the real one scheming this.
Metal Gear 2...A lot has happened, but well I'm the boss again.
Policenauts...Looks almost all of my old friends are now evil. Get down, turncoats!
Irodori no Love Song ... Since it's not a war game there isn't definite enemy, but Misaki, whom you should unconditionally betray her love can be said as one.
Metal Gear Solid ... Liquid never happens to be "a good guy actually".
Metal Gear Solid 2 ... Hmm, I'm supposed to terminate the people called "terrorists". But do you who are telling me to do so, really exist?

In MSX/PC88 version, heated debate on parodies of US movies and Japanese SFX shows are heard in Outer Heaven, but in later Snatches it is replaced by talk on Konami game characters. In US version, "Japanese motorcycle gangs started to all wear their hair like" Goemon.

Noodle store "Two is enough!" and "have you found a snake scale or something?" are famous as plagiarism from Blade Runner, but they might be deleted in later Snatchers.

According to the game manual, Ivan was a finalist in last year's aero surfing championship, so he can be listed a VIP therefore is highly likely to be Snatch target than Freddy.

While Snatcher gives the impression that entire story began and finished within a day, but the day Gilian asks Lisa of Freddy's alibi in "last Thursday" (likely to be December 18 cannot be earlier than December 21 (nearest Sunday). Therefore, at least three days have lapsed within ACT 1.

MSX/PC88 Snatcher does not include a scene where Jamie dates the chief in Joy Division. Needless to say ACT 3 is not included either, therefore in these versions Gilian not a once meets Jamie except through the video phone.

"SD Snacther" is an only version where Gilian actually has chance to see Gibson.

"Tricycle" usually stands for that kid's vehicle. The Junker car is called so because of three wheels, but the name was changed to "turbocycle" because they might take it as a joke.

Gilian often calls himself a "detective" or "cop", and he is called so in Outer Heaven, but since Gibson is described to have "quitted detective and became a JUNKER, a JUNKER cannot be a detective or a cop.