Metal Gear - MSX - 1987

This is the twelfth game for the MSX I have played from my shortlist (including Vampire Killer/Castlevania) yet the first to make it onto the blog.  It's not a great hit-rate by any standard but this game is a good 'un.

Metal Gear is the start of yet another long running series making it's début in 1987.  The original game was designed by Hideo Kojima and released for the MSX2-standard home computer.  The game was subsequently converted to the NES in 1988 without Hideo Kojima’s knowledge or involvement.  He has been quoted expressing his disappointment with the changes made to the console version including the removal of the titular Metal Gear.  Commodore 64 and PC versions followed in 1990.  Both of these used the NES version as a basis but had inferior graphics.

I will be playing the MSX2 Japanese release of the game translated courtesy of Nekura.  There was an official English language version released in Europe but nearly half original text was removed and the translation of what remained wasn't great.

The manual states there is a heavily defended fortress in South Africa called Outer Heaven where they have developed the ultimate weapon - Metal Gear.  The improbably named Grey Fox, a member of a covert special operations unit call Fox Hound, was sent to gather information about the weapon but contact with him was lost. As the equally improbably named Solid Snake, your task is to infiltrate Outer Heaven, investigate Grey Fox's disappearance and destroy the Metal Gear. 

Metal Gear is a top-down flick screen stealth 'em up.  You begin the game at the entrance to the enemy compound carrying only a walkie talkie and a packet of cigarettes.  Until you find a weapon your only form of attack are your fists - there's nothing like being prepared!  You immediately receive a message from the singularly unhelpful Big Boss who reminds you of your mission.  Big Boss regularly calls during the game with messages beginning with "I forgot to tell you..." or containing the "resistance leader Schneider will know...".  Of course, he forgets to tell you on which frequency to contact Schneider (I've since discovered this is a bug and Schneider should have called you first).

Now there's a surprise.

The initial enemy you encounter will be guards.  These use a line-of-sight mechanic so as long as they are not directly facing you they can be evaded.  The guards patrol in a fixed pattern and it only takes a few moments to work out a safe route through the screen. If a guard catches sight of you and a ! appears next to him, you can leave the screen and he will forget he ever saw you.  If a !! appears then other guards come piling onto the screen and start taking pot shots at you.  At this heightened state of alert it can take a while before you are able to return to 'sneak mode'.  Alarms are also raised if you are spotted by a security camera or trip an infra red sensor.

Making a run for it after being spotted.

There are many weapons and an array useful items you can collect to help you on your mission - items such as a gas mask, body armour, binoculars, a cardboard box and the essential numbered card keys.  A pistol can be found in one of the early screens and the ammo a little later, but using it before finding a silencer will attract the guards.  Ration packs can be collected to restore your health.  If you re-enter a screen after picking up an item, they will usually regenerate so you pick up as much ammo or rations as you can carry.

A few of the many weapons and items.

As you make your way through Outer Heaven you will come across prison cells.  When you release a prisoner he will give you some useful information.  Additionally your rank will increase for every five (I think) prisoners you release.  An increase in rank not only allows you to carry more ammo and rations, but it also increases your health bar.  If your health bar should reach zero you will die, but the game seems to offer unlimited continues taking you back to a previous checkpoint.  The MSX game also allows your progress to be saved.

Released captives can give helpful advise.

Overall Metal Gear is a very good game and deserves a place on my list.  The graphics are fine for the time as are the sound effects.  The music also adds a suitable atmosphere to the game.  Due to social commitments over the New Year period I have not been able to put as much time into Metal Gear as I would have liked.  I did put in a few hours and will continue to do so until I complete it.

Cunningly disguised as a cardboard box.

The Legend of Zelda - NES - 1987

I'm not sure what race Link is supposed to be.  An elf? A leprechaun?

Like Final Fantasy, The Legend of Zelda is a franchise that started on the NES in 1987 and is still going strong today.  Like Final Fantasy, The Legend of Zelda is in a series I had never played before.  My son has Majora's Mask and Ocarina of Time on his Nintendo 64 but I have never really had the inclination to play them.  That had to change because of this blog and the first game in the series earns a place here.

The peaceful land of Hyrule has been invaded by Ganon and his hordes.   Ganon also stole the Triforce of Power - a golden triangle possessing mystical powers.  Fearing his rule, Princess Zelda broke up the second Triforce - the Triforce of Wisdom - into eight pieces and hid them throughout the realm.  At the same time she ordered her nursemaid, Impa, to go out into the kingdom to find someone brave enough to confront Ganon.  Ganon uncovered the plot, imprisoned Zelda and ordered his men to capture Impa.  Eventually Ganon's men caught up with Impa, but she was saved by a boy called Link.  After hearing the story from Impa, Link resolves to save Princess Zelda.  Before he has a chance to defeat Ganon, he must retrieve the fragments of the Triforce of Wisdom.  Only after piecing together the Triforce will he be powerful enough to make his way to Death Mountain and face Ganon.

The Legend of Zelda is viewed from above with most of the game taking place on the large overworld play area.  The play area is split into screens and scrolls onto the next when you reach the edge of the previous one.  Each screen is usually patrolled by several enemies.  Dotted around the landscape are a number of caves and dungeons.  In the caves you can find people such as merchants and others who will give you clues (sometimes for a price).  For example, in the cave on the first screen is an old man who gives you a sword.  

In addition to picking up the sword early on, Link starts the game with a shield that help can protect him from certain enemy attacks.  Although the sword will be your main form of attack, some enemies are immune and you will have to find their individual weaknesses.  If you are hit by a monster your life force is depleted.  This is represented by a series of hearts in the status bar.  Initially you have three hearts and each hit takes away half a heart. When destroyed some monsters drop useful items such as small hearts (which restores one life heart), fairies (which restore all your life hearts), rubies (currency), keys, weapons and sundry other objects.  Large hearts can occasionally be found which adds another heart to your life counter.  A sub screen can be called up at any time which shows your inventory and allows you to change items or secondary weapons.

To retrieve fragments of the Triforce you need to enter the dungeons.  The dungeons comprise several rooms and are home to different and more numerous monsters than the overworld.  The dungeons contain puzzles, locked doors, secret rooms as well as a boss that guards a part of the Triforce.  Each boss has it's own weakness and some can only be destroyed in a particular way by a particular weapon.

The Level-1 boss went down easily.

The eight dungeons that hold the Triforce fragments can be tackled in any order although the higher the level the harder they are.  Also, some higher level dungeons can only be completed using items found in lower level dungeons.

One of the secret rooms where the view changes from top down to side on.

In my mind The Legend of Zelda treads a very fine line between being challenging and overly difficult.  It was only by sheer luck that I worked out how to kill the Level-2 boss after fruitlessly trying every weapon I had.  That was one of the easier dungeons so I can only imagine how frustrating the later ones will be - I can envision weeks of experimenting with the various items.  The actual game play reminded me of a cross between Atic Atac and Sabre Wulf which is no bad thing.  After Final Fantasy the graphics look a little bit simplistic; on the other hand, the sound effects and especially the music are very good.  In spite of the difficulty level, The Legend of Zelda just about makes it onto my list.

Gauntlet - Atari ST - 1987

Whether it was a marketing ploy or whether it was something else entirely, there were several Atari arcade conversions that made it to the Atari ST but not the Commodore Amiga.  Asteroids Deluxe was one game, Super Sprint another.  Probably the most well known, though, was Gauntlet. How me and my mates would have poured scorn on our Amiga owning buddies if we had had any.  Which we didn’t.

Gauntlet was a hugely popular top-down scrolling dungeon crawler.  The original 1985 arcade version supported up to 4 simultaneous players, had plenty of speech and superlative graphics.  Gauntlet was subsequently converted to most most home formats at the time with the Atari ST boasting the best version.

On the home versions you can only have 2 players participating at once and the Atari ST was no exception.  Each player takes their pick of one of the available characters who are Thor the Warrior, Thyra the Valkyrie, Merlin the Wizard and Questor the Elf.  Each of the characters has their own strengths and weaknesses. Thor is strong in hand to hand combat but has weak magic.  Thyra has the strongest armour and I would say is the most balanced character.  Merlin (my personal favourite) has the best magic but is useless in hand to hand combat and has weak armour.  Questor has the fastest movement and shots and is my least favoured of the four.

Like lambs to the slaughter.

You start the game as your chosen character with 2000 health points which gradually decrease over time.  The objective of the game is to reach the exit on each level of the dungeon and to get as high score as possible.  There are several types of monsters that are out to stop you.  The ghosts are suicidal and just run into you to deplete your health.  The grunts try to engage you in hand to hand combat.  The demon and sometime invisible sorcerers respectively dispense fireballs and magic spells at you.  Lobbers can throw projectiles at you from the other side of a wall.  All these monsters come in three strengths and can be spawned from generators which also come in three strengths.  Their strength determines how many shots it takes to kill them.  Death also puts in an appearance from time to time – he can only be destroyed by magic or when he has drained 200 of your health points. 

Lots of Deaths and lots of teleports

To help you get further into the game or score more points there various types of pick-ups that are scattered around the levels.  There are several kinds of potions that can be used.  Standard potions can be picked up and used to damage all enemies and generators on screen, or can be shot for less destructive power.  There are also several marked potions which provide specific power ups such as more potent shots or extra speed.  Food and drink can be used to replenish health; however the jugs of drink can be shot so be careful.  For navigation, keys can be picked up to open any locked doors and, although not pick-ups, teleporters appear in later levels.  Finally, treasure chests can be picked up to boost your score.  If you linger too long a level all the doors will open automatically and eventually all the walls will turn into exits.

Merlin the Wizard is about to pick up speed potion.

Although it was the most authentic conversion of Gauntlet outside the arcades at the time, the Atari version was far from perfect.  The biggest feature to suffer was the sound – The title tune and spot effects sound like they were sampled (badly) from the arcade machine and the speech is missing altogether.  As with the other home versions only two players are supported simultaneously.  The graphics look pretty authentic but lack the palette of the arcade game and the horizontal scrolling in particular is pretty bad.  Most of these issues were addressed in Gauntlet II apart from the floor graphics which lost some colour but it was still at good game for 1987.  Oh, and did I mention it wasn't available on the Amiga?

Addendum - 22nd April 2013

Back in January, commenter Red_Cardinal left the message “What I remember of Gauntlet on the Atari ST is that it ran soooooo slowly it was virtually unplayable”.  "Pah!" thought I, "Check out the video". I then thought no more of it.

More recently they sowed seeds of doubt in my mind as to the authenticity of my review - “As for the video, are you playing the game on an actual ST machine or are you emulating it? The two things not being the same of course :-)”.

Ok, you’ve got me there.  I hold my hands up and freely admit to playing the games on an emulator for the sake of convenience. It’s the only way I have to make half decent videos and screenshots.  But, what to do about Gauntlet? 

Da Daaaaaa!!

One genuine Atari 520 STe (upgraded to 1 meg) and one, ahem, not so genuine copy of Gauntlet.

After some rummaging around in the loft I found a “backup” copy of Gauntlet and an old Atari.  I switched it on at arms length half expecting a puff of smoke and the smell of frying capacitors.  To my amazement it started first time.  After more faffing about I managed to tune it in on the telly in my study.  I was a bit perturbed the disk drive light didn't go out and the top of the picture was flickering a lot but it will serve my purpose .  What was more surprising was that my copy of Gauntlet still worked….

Anyway, I can now state with no uncertainty that Gauntlet plays exactly the same on a real Atari ST as it does on an emulator and I therefore stand by my review.  I have posted a video below (the rattling/creaking sound is my 25+ year old joystick). 

 
And Red_Cardinal – please spare my sanity and don’t cast doubt on any of my Spectrum reviews ;-)