Unreleased Metal Gear games?
Posted: Sat Dec 31, 2005 10:05 am
Ok, I'm a big fan of the MG series, from old to new, and for my own personal interest I would like info on the unreleased games in the series. I know of 3 possible titles that are unreleased...
Let's look at the facts (games) gentlemen:
Game1
Name: Metal Gear (port of the NES version)
System: Amiga
Proof of existance:
The back of the IBM box shows a series of images, from the C64, IBM and Amiga MG games. If it does exist, then it would be the most graphically advanced of the original MG titles, due to the Amiga obviously being more advanced than either the MSX or NES. No Amiga news groups, or game sites list it, at all, and the same goes for sites that carry disk images. The only evidence are those precious few screens on this box.
Does it exist in any shape or form?
Game 2
Name: Metal Gear Solid
System: TIGER Game.com
Proof of existance:
Three images which I found on the Snake-Soup website (do not visit it, it is absolutely dire). I do not know where these images came from, someone once said that they were found on some Game.com boxes, as a kind of advert. Does anyone have a more reliable source for these screens? Otherwise the game was indeed listed on several G.com release lists, so it was officially planned at some point.
Does a prototype/beta exist? Are there more screens?
Game 3
Name: Snake's Revenge (Japanese Famicom version)
System: Japanese Famicom
Proof of existance:
None, apart from the fact that the English version was developed by a Japanese team at Konami, and a hunch that they must have a proto lying around. This is interesting for several reasons:
* The English lang versions of most Konami games were not actually translated from the Japanese originals. The Western version of SR included. Any proto copies of the booklet would be valuable in getting a more accurate plot analysis. If the game existed, do you think manuals would too?
* SR began development prior to MG2:SS on the MSX (confirmed by the fact that Kojima spoke with the guy behind it, before deciding to make his own sequel). Which came out in 1990 I believe. But, adverts for MG2:SS (and other MSX games) were being included with Famicom games as early as 1989. Implying that SR began development around early 1989 in Japan. All conjecture of course. But I'm wondering if it was maybe first created for the Famicom, never released, and then translated before getting a Western release?
Did Konami of Japan ever develop games purely for a Western release? Gut feeling tells me that somewhere a Japanese language proto exists.
Are there any other unreleased (or stupidly rare) MG games you know of?
I have heard rumours that it was being ported to the Sega Saturn, and apparently some maga even had screens of it (is this true? I'd love to see those screens). I know there was a rare Snake's Revenge LCD game. Were there any other LCD titles released? What about later iterations of the series? I had heard that the guy porting the PS1 version to PC wanted to totally redo the character models, but was ordered not to. Then of course there is the weird fan made stuff, like that VMU title (it's rubbish btw). Oh, and of course the botched listings which resulted in some mags wrongly printing the existance of a Metal Gear Solid 64 (fairly certain it was never even considered for development).
So yeah. Go nuts and post images, info, URLs to other resources, theories, proof etc.
Let's look at the facts (games) gentlemen:
Game1
Name: Metal Gear (port of the NES version)
System: Amiga
Proof of existance:
The back of the IBM box shows a series of images, from the C64, IBM and Amiga MG games. If it does exist, then it would be the most graphically advanced of the original MG titles, due to the Amiga obviously being more advanced than either the MSX or NES. No Amiga news groups, or game sites list it, at all, and the same goes for sites that carry disk images. The only evidence are those precious few screens on this box.
Does it exist in any shape or form?
Game 2
Name: Metal Gear Solid
System: TIGER Game.com
Proof of existance:
Three images which I found on the Snake-Soup website (do not visit it, it is absolutely dire). I do not know where these images came from, someone once said that they were found on some Game.com boxes, as a kind of advert. Does anyone have a more reliable source for these screens? Otherwise the game was indeed listed on several G.com release lists, so it was officially planned at some point.
Does a prototype/beta exist? Are there more screens?
Game 3
Name: Snake's Revenge (Japanese Famicom version)
System: Japanese Famicom
Proof of existance:
None, apart from the fact that the English version was developed by a Japanese team at Konami, and a hunch that they must have a proto lying around. This is interesting for several reasons:
* The English lang versions of most Konami games were not actually translated from the Japanese originals. The Western version of SR included. Any proto copies of the booklet would be valuable in getting a more accurate plot analysis. If the game existed, do you think manuals would too?
* SR began development prior to MG2:SS on the MSX (confirmed by the fact that Kojima spoke with the guy behind it, before deciding to make his own sequel). Which came out in 1990 I believe. But, adverts for MG2:SS (and other MSX games) were being included with Famicom games as early as 1989. Implying that SR began development around early 1989 in Japan. All conjecture of course. But I'm wondering if it was maybe first created for the Famicom, never released, and then translated before getting a Western release?
Did Konami of Japan ever develop games purely for a Western release? Gut feeling tells me that somewhere a Japanese language proto exists.
Are there any other unreleased (or stupidly rare) MG games you know of?
I have heard rumours that it was being ported to the Sega Saturn, and apparently some maga even had screens of it (is this true? I'd love to see those screens). I know there was a rare Snake's Revenge LCD game. Were there any other LCD titles released? What about later iterations of the series? I had heard that the guy porting the PS1 version to PC wanted to totally redo the character models, but was ordered not to. Then of course there is the weird fan made stuff, like that VMU title (it's rubbish btw). Oh, and of course the botched listings which resulted in some mags wrongly printing the existance of a Metal Gear Solid 64 (fairly certain it was never even considered for development).
So yeah. Go nuts and post images, info, URLs to other resources, theories, proof etc.