Hideo Kojima directed his first game in July 1987. Five months later, a version of it existed that he had never touched.
In July 1987, Konami released Metal Gear for the MSX2. It was the first game Hideo Kojima ever directed. Five months later, Konami released a second game under the same title, for a different machine, built by a different team. Kojima's group never consented to it. The order from above was simple: make it different from the MSX2 version. The new team also lacked the mapper chip the original design needed, so the giant robot the whole title refers to never made it into the game. In its place stood a stationary supercomputer terminal. By 1988, an American kid with a Nintendo controller was fighting that terminal, with no way of knowing that anything was missing at all. Nothing had been taken from him. Kojima said it plainly, years later: "I really don't like saying this, but it really wasn't up to my standards." Only one person in the world could see what had gone missing. It was his game.
About this game
The MSX2 game where Hideo Kojima first worked as a director, and the source of a Famicom version made without him five months later.
Key Features
A top-down action game built around avoiding combat rather than winning it. The MSX2 could not put enough enemies on screen at once for a straight shooter, and the design Kojima arrived at instead was to sneak past the guards, avoid being seen, and escape.
Gallery
The Story Behind
Metal Gear is often called Kojima's debut game. It is not. A year earlier he had spent about a month as an uncredited assistant on Penguin Adventure, suggesting ideas including a shop slot machine and ways to beat the bosses; his name appears nowhere in that game's credits. Metal Gear, released in July 1987, is the first game on which he is credited as director. The Famicom version arrived in December 1987, built by a different team. Its sub-programmer, Masahiro Ueno, has said in an interview that his team was given about three months to port the game and did not have access to a better mapper chip, and that management wanted the Famicom version to differ from the MSX2 one. That is why the giant robot was replaced by a stationary supercomputer. The famous mistranslation, "Uh-oh! The truck have started to move!", belongs to that Famicom localisation, not to the MSX2 game Kojima made.
Tricks & Tales
The MSX2 original saves through a cassette tape data recorder, not an internal battery. A separate European (PAL) MSX2 cartridge exists, with differences in some of the radio messages. And the Famicom version, the one most of the world met first, does not contain a Metal Gear: the mapper chip needed for the giant robot was not available to the team that made it.
Collector's Guide
Region & Compatibility
There is a Japanese MSX2 cartridge and a separate European (PAL) MSX2 cartridge. They are not the same release. Check which one a listing is actually offering.
Maintenance Tips
The cartridge is the easy part. The MSX2 machine itself is the one that ages: electrolytic capacitors on the video and audio board can leak, and later models with a floppy drive suffer from perished rubber belts. Neither has anything to do with this cartridge, and both decide whether you see a picture at all.
What to Watch Out For
Before buying, these are the points worth knowing — from someone who handles original Japanese Metal Gear copies regularly.
How does this game save?
Through a cassette tape data recorder, not an internal battery. To play it the way it originally worked you need a working data recorder or a modern substitute, and not simply the cartridge.
Is the Famicom / NES version the same game?
No, and this is the single most important thing to know before you buy. The Famicom version was built by a different team without Kojima, and the giant robot the title refers to is not in it: a stationary supercomputer stands in its place. If you want the game Kojima directed, you need the MSX2 cartridge.
Which MSX2 cartridge am I looking at?
There are two: the Japanese release and a separate European (PAL) release, tracked separately by collectors, with differences in some of the radio messages. Check the listing rather than the title.
Is the "THE TRUCK HAVE STARTED TO MOVE" line in this version?
No. That line belongs to the Famicom localisation. The MSX2 game had its own English release with different text. It is a famous line, but it is not from the game Kojima made.
Unexpected Discoveries
Games you weren't looking for — but might be glad you found.
Rooms this game lives in
Wander deeper — explore the themed rooms where Metal Gear sits alongside its kin.
Memories from around the world
This is a young museum, and this page is still waiting for its first voices. The memories people send reach Taisei personally, and the ones that move him find a home here over time — always with the writer's blessing. Yours could be the very first for this game.
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