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Posted: Sun May 22, 2005 8:08 pm
by Artemio
Also, you have to add that it makes perfect sense when starting Kojima productions to have most Kojima productions games released, and not the american versions of them.
Of course, this is an idealistic view, but I believe that it was also taken into consideration at some point. And since it made sense in the 2 above posts to the marketing people.. it went gold.
Posted: Mon May 23, 2005 3:14 pm
by Jack
Also, you can't really do a perfect port on GBA. you have to fir the screen ration and therefore adjust some of the background graphics...
... I really think the gba wouldn't do them justice. Besides, Kojima might also think that every gba owner craving for some stealth action can get Ghost Babel...
Posted: Mon May 23, 2005 4:37 pm
by Johnny Undaunted
Jack wrote:Besides, Kojima might also think that every gba owner craving for some stealth action can get Ghost Babel...
Yeah, because everyone has the time to track down out-of-print GBC games that came out five years ago when they "crave for some stealth action." :razz:
Posted: Tue May 24, 2005 2:20 am
by 87th
Johnny Undaunted wrote:Jack wrote:Besides, Kojima might also think that every gba owner craving for some stealth action can get Ghost Babel...
Yeah, because everyone has the time to track down out-of-print GBC games that came out five years ago when they "crave for some stealth action." :razz:
...I did...

Posted: Thu May 26, 2005 6:41 pm
by ReasonWhyNot
randomwab wrote:For me, it seems clear why they release them with Subsistance. Lets see, we get a few extra Snake Vs Monkey levels, which although are fun, arnt worth buying Subsistance for, nor is the duel mode or demo theatre really worth paying the full price. The online play would be, but again, not many people or online with Sony, so that would also dampin sales. Now, this is were the MSX titles bring the fan boys and nostalga seekers out, and makes it worth paying the money, and again, there paying more than they would if they were getting the mobile versions or a GBA title.
People bought Substance, despite it being just a bunch of little additional missions that weren't related to the actual game. I think the obvious is, fans of Metal Gear will buy anything that has the Metal Gear name on it, despite what it actually delivers. Isn't that right, Snatcher?
Johnny Undaunted wrote:Because...
A) According to Kojima, the GBA is for the kiddies. (*cough*Foggers*cough*)
But that's only in America. They were still cigs in the Jpn. version I believe.
B) I don't think anybody really cares that much for Mobile Phone games, outside of the novelty that you can now download 10-year old games on a cell phone.
Playing MG1+2 on a PS2 on a TV screen with a proper controller > Playing them on a cell phone with a small keypad.
Regardless, that didn't stop Konami from releasing the games for mobile phones.
Snatcher wrote:Also, you have to add that it makes perfect sense when starting Kojima productions to have most Kojima productions games released, and not the american versions of them.
Of course, this is an idealistic view, but I believe that it was also taken into consideration at some point. And since it made sense in the 2 above posts to the marketing people.. it went gold.
So you think we'll ever see Policenauts in the states?
Posted: Thu May 26, 2005 6:50 pm
by Nekura_Hoka
Johnny Undaunted wrote:
Hopefully, they're not gonna be a bunch cheapstakes for the released version and provide their own official translation.
I kind of considered this a possibility, but only jokingly. It would be cost effective for them though to use fan translations rather than their own work though. Of course that might deprive some low-level programmer at Konami from justifying his/her employment. ;D
Posted: Thu May 26, 2005 7:22 pm
by Artemio
ReasonWhyNot wrote:People bought Substance, despite it being just a bunch of little additional missions that weren't related to the actual game. I think the obvious is, fans of Metal Gear will buy anything that has the Metal Gear name on it, despite what it actually delivers. Isn't that right, Snatcher?
I believe you meant collectors (and not even at that, there are some selective. Just check what kind of merchandise each guy buys and you'll figure it out... ). I won't buy anything with the brand on it, I specifically buy the games (JP and US versions), art books and soundtracks. Any other elements are only bought if I like them.
But in the case os Substance and even more in the case of Subsistence, many people were (are) waiting for those instead of buying the first release (I know several of those).
ReasonWhyNot wrote:So you think we'll ever see Policenauts in the states?
No I don't. I just pointed that MG and MG2 make sense in more than one way. Policenauts is unknown to the general public, and they couldn't care less about any release of it.
Posted: Thu May 26, 2005 8:34 pm
by Johnny Undaunted
ReasonWhyNot wrote:
But that's only in America. They were still cigs in the Jpn. version I believe.
No, they were called smoke emitters in the Japanese version. I believe I told you that once.
Posted: Fri May 27, 2005 4:00 am
by Snake Plissken
HOLY SHIT THIS TOPIC IS NAMED HOLY SHIT!!!!
Snatcher wrote:
ReasonWhyNot wrote:So you think we'll ever see Policenauts in the states?
No I don't. I just pointed that MG and MG2 make sense in more than one way. Policenauts is unknown to the general public, and they couldn't care less about any release of it.
I second the thought too. As it is the strong reason I have been getting pull latley on the PC9821 translation project. There is no hope in this world for PN making a global debut commercially... And somehow deep down inside I like that. Because it feels like an acult gift to the people that know and understand how to play it, and
know it's true awesomeness. And I think some of you (esspecially James) can agree a bit. Cause otherwise if it is appealling to the general public, it will get overrated and there will be forums devoted to it, full of members in the category of "Birth Control Poster Children of The Year."
ReasonWhyNot wrote:
But that's only in America. They were still cigs in the Jpn. version I believe.
"Also looking for Metal Gear Ghost Babel" - Dec 10, 2004 8:34 pm
Johnny Undaunted wrote:ReasonWhyNot wrote:A Japanese copy. Not the American "Solid" versions. I just want my game to be Ghost Babel and my foggers as cigarettes. If anyone has a copy for sale, make me an offer. I don't care if you only have the game itself. I'm not primarily concerned with the box or instructions.
Sorry, I have to tell you this, but there aren't any cigarettes in the Japanese version either. They're called smoke emitters there.

Posted: Fri May 27, 2005 5:53 am
by Johnny Undaunted
Snake Plissken wrote:
I second the thought too. As it is the strong reason I have been getting pull latley on the PC9821 translation project. There is no hope in this world for PN making a global debut commercially... And somehow deep down inside I like that. Because it feels like an acult gift to the people that know and understand how to play it, and
know it's true awesomeness. And I think some of you (esspecially James) can agree a bit. Cause otherwise if it is appealling to the general public, it will get overrated and there will be forums devoted to it, full of members in the category of "Birth Control Poster Children of The Year."

Yeah, I know what you mean...
Not to mention Metal Gear 1+2 are much easier to translate, since they don't have any voiceovers. The only reason why the Saturn Policenauts was not released here was because of lip-synching problems between the American voices and the game itself. As lame as it sounds, that's the official reason according to Kojima.
Posted: Fri May 27, 2005 12:44 pm
by Bioroid
Anyone get the new PSM? 16 pages of Metal Gear related stuff and when mentioning the original Metal Gear, it says: "The game will be slightly enhanced over the original, featuring a new English translation to boot." It also mentions that MG2 will still have the updated character art from the mobile phone ports.
Posted: Fri May 27, 2005 4:55 pm
by Nekura_Hoka
Bioroid wrote:Anyone get the new PSM? 16 pages of Metal Gear related stuff and when mentioning the original Metal Gear, it says: "The game will be slightly enhanced over the original, featuring a new English translation to boot." It also mentions that MG2 will still have the updated character art from the mobile phone ports.
Maybe I missed confirmation on this, but my thinking is that they'll just run the mobile phone games through HLE emulation on the PS2, albeit with the new translations. Am I wrong? If that's the case, the nature of the games is a given. (Yoji's art etc)
Posted: Fri May 27, 2005 7:52 pm
by Bioroid
Kojima: "These games are based on the versions that were ported over to mobile phones last year. There were some graphic brush-ups, though the atmosphere of the games has not been changed from the originals. Last year's versions were created from mobile phones and some minor adjustments were made for that format. This time, it's for the Playstation 2, so additional adjustments will have to be made as well. There were no voiceovers before, and that won't change, but the text will certainly be in English."
Posted: Sat May 28, 2005 5:11 am
by Jack
Hmm, based on the cellphone versions? I don't have a cell phone (no, really), and they were released in japan only I guess. So, anyone can say how these phone ports fare compared to their MSX ancestors? Where could I see some pics on the net?
Posted: Sat May 28, 2005 8:31 am
by Bioroid
^
The cellphone ports are the same, except they've added an Easy difficulty, an infinite ammo bandana, and boss survival. For MG2, they've added a pair of infrared goggles, changed the character avatars to Shinkawa artwork, and made the three types of rations diffierent colors. Some character names were changed, and the type of cigarettes were changed to an unnamed brand. Other than that, I believe they are the same as the MSX2 editions.
Here's the website for the mobile phone versions:
http://www.konamionline.jp/konaminet/ap ... index.html
Posted: Sat May 28, 2005 8:35 am
by Johnny Undaunted
They're basically just ports of the MSX games, but with several minor improvements such as revised fonts (MG1 now uses hiragana and kanji) , difficulty settings (Easy & Normal), a new game mode (Boss Survival), a new item (the infinity bandanna), name changes (see my other thread) and (in Metal Gear 2) new character face shots drawn by Shinkawa (I suspect it's more of an attempt to avoid copyright infringement than something that was done to improve the game).
http://www.konamionline.jp/konaminet/ap ... index.html
http://www.konamionline.jp/konaminet/ap ... index.html
I'm personally hoping for more improvements in the PS2 versions, especially in the original Metal Gear. Maybe they can get Shinkawa to add character face shots (besides Snake's) to the Transceiver screen in the original. He already went through the trouble of making new ones for MG2.
Posted: Sat May 28, 2005 8:49 am
by Nekura_Hoka
Johnny Undaunted wrote:I'm personally hoping for more improvements in the PS2 versions, especially in the original Metal Gear. Maybe they can get Shinkawa to add character face shots (besides Snake's) to the Transceiver screen in the original. He already went through the trouble of making new ones for MG2.
I'd like to see that too, but that would require recoding the existing message system in the game with a new one. It's probably more work than they're willing to put into it I think.
Posted: Sat May 28, 2005 9:19 am
by Johnny Undaunted
Nekura_Hoka wrote:I'd like to see that too, but that would require recoding the existing message system in the game with a new one. It's probably more work than they're willing to put into it I think.
I thought of that too, but if they can go through the trouble of inserting a new camera system and online play modes in the Snake Eater game, I don't think something as simple as character face shots in MG1 would be that hard.
It seems that they also added the Infrared Goggles as an item in MG2 (cigs now drain your energy, btw).
Posted: Sat May 28, 2005 10:06 am
by Johnny Undaunted
List of differences according to Zakugiri:
http://www.zakugiri.com/MT/archives/200 ... .html#more
*In the Mobile Phone version, you'll get the Infinite Bandanna after clearing the game once (regardless of difficulty setting).
*In the Mobile Phone version, the characters' graphics were changed to resemble those from the Metal Gear Solid series. In the original MSX version, they resembled film actors.
*Some of the characters' names (such as Natasha and Yozev) were changed.
*In the MP version, the contents of rations can be displayed on the item window (I'm not sure exactly by what they meant by that).
*In the original MSX version, Campbell tells you to check the back of a game's packaging to learn his second frequency. In the MP version, he uses another number.
*The Tap Codes were changed.
*You can place 16 landmines on-screen in the MP version, ten more than the MSX version.
*When Snake's footsteps makes noise, a mark will appear over them.
*In the MP version, a question mark will appear over a hollow wall when you punch it.
*In the MP version, the item area will shine in white when damage from cigarettes occurs.
Posted: Sun May 29, 2005 2:20 am
by DarkTetsuya
Johnny Undaunted wrote:
*In the MP version, the contents of rations can be displayed on the item window (I'm not sure exactly by what they meant by that).
I think it has to do with the contents of one of the ration types (I read on a faq somewhere there's something you need to use one of the rations for later on in the game)
DT
Posted: Sun May 29, 2005 11:28 am
by Johnny Undaunted
DarkTetsuya wrote:I think it has to do with the contents of one of the ration types (I read on a faq somewhere there's something you need to use one of the rations for later on in the game)
I know that!
It's just that the original MSX version already gives you a list of contents for each of the rations within the game. Unless they show them graphically or something, I'm really not sure what's so different about the Mobile Phone version.
Each of the Rations had three different uses for different situations in addition to restoring health
Posted: Sun May 29, 2005 11:58 am
by Bioroid
What it means is that when you see rations lying around, the cans are different in color. B1 is now brown, B2 still green, and B3 yellow.
Posted: Sun May 29, 2005 1:06 pm
by Johnny Undaunted
Bioroid wrote:What it means is that when you see rations lying around, the cans are different in color. B1 is now brown, B2 still green, and B3 yellow.
Ah yes. Forgot about that.
Posted: Sun May 29, 2005 11:22 pm
by DarkTetsuya
Bioroid wrote:What it means is that when you see rations lying around, the cans are different in color. B1 is now brown, B2 still green, and B3 yellow.
Ah. I thought JU was referring to the option menu (where the contents are displayed) I thought maybe they displayed the contents on the main screen... but I guess on a cellphone that'd never work, huh... oops.
I may still debate picking it up, though I never got substance PS2.
DT
Posted: Mon May 30, 2005 2:19 am
by Jack
I bought Substance, but being european, the main interest I had was getting Document
But, yeah, I think I'll enjoy Subsistence... Only, I'd never thought I'd say this, but I liked the non-shinkawa portraits better in MG2. I'm with JU when he says it's probably a copyright matter.
I'm more concerned about name changes though. Shouldn't they be consistent with the "previous missions" file you can read in MGS and Twin Snakes?