Hideo Kojima's MG2 secret story

This is an English translation of the Hideo Kojima's articles from two of the BEEP! Mega Drive magazine issues published some time between 1990 and 1994. Translator's footnotes follow.

MSX secret story now revealed, 2
MSX of my youth
(Text Hideo Kojima)
[MSX's last title]
As the deep secret development story that I could not speak until now, I would like to select "Metal Gear 2 SOLID-SNAKE" that also became my last personal MSX software.
I have especially deep feeling with this Metal 2, and various secret stories (not the regret stories) were born. There are about five, so I'll release (not remorse) them over two months.
Part 1 Metal's half brother
Where did the Metal 2 project come from? Speaking about that... It was another strange turn of fate. At that time, "Metal Gear 2" (FC/NES version) was being developed by another department within the company (the FC version Metal Gear 1 became a million seller overseas and its sequel was projected). I received a hot love call from one of its development teams one day and its was this, Solid. It means if there was no approach from that de facto half brother, Solid would not have been born.
Part 2 Sales department's "wait!" incident
The reason was that the reviews for FC version Metal Gear 1 were not so good in the (domestic) market (many of the MSX salespersons at that time happened to be originally from the FC field).To persuade the sales department, the staffs took a business trip and persuaded them taking the whole day. Thus, our enthusiasm and project intent convinced them, and the trouble went away.
Part 3 There is no designer!
Although the team was established, the days without designer continued. It wouldn't be good this way... therefore we performed something called the internal metal gear design contest, and the good one out of it was decided to be the final "Metal Gear D" conceptual draft (the winner was actually paid!). However, as the result its designer became one of the staffs.
Continues to the next issue

MSX secret story now revealed, 3
MSX of my youth
(Text Hideo Kojima)
[Last MSX title]
Continuing from the previous time, let me talk about the secret story of "Metal Gear 2" that became the last MSX work.
Part 4 Developers became war otakus
Since we pursued reality when developing "Solid Snake", we continued to scour books, movies, model guns and other thinkable materials of applicable sort regardless day or night. Materials and model guns were piled up like mountains on the desks, and even people who fully covered themselves in the field uniforms field appeared. We also met a writer who was an ex Green Beret. We once secluded ourselves in the mountains to play battle games using infrared guns. The job became a hobby, and it became an otaku thing and our real life became a simulation of the game. All photos of equipment and such used in the package and manual were those of staffs' own. The crawling characters in the game were played by the staffs then were sketched.
Part 5 Development suspension!
Around halfway of the development, the progress of "SD-SNATCHER" became endangered and the "Metal-" team was decided to join as the backup. Seeing this situation, the voice "is the development going to be canceled?" was whispered, but after the "SD" was completed, it resumed safely and was released as if going after the SD. To think of it now it was a good cooling period to view the "Metal" calmly.
Finally, are you familiar that the "MSX boot screen" is used as the twist in the ending of this game? Our overwhelming feeling toward the MSX we had walked together so far is contained in that message. To both the users who supported us and we staffs... MSX will continue to be one page of my youth (sensational ending).

Translator's footnotes:
"MSX secret story now revealed, 1" that precedes 2 is nowhere.
"regret" and "remorse" puns are in the original as well.
The contributions to the "design contest" are shown in the final pages of the MG2 manual.
The "ex Green Beret" is probably the novelist Hisayoshi TSUGE.

Reply · Report Post