Previous Operations
Hideo Kojima's first Metal Gear game was released in 1987 for the MSX home computer in Japan, and half a year later it was converted across to Nintendo's 8-bit NES. A sequel was inevitable, and so the MSX was graced with Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake. Western game playing audiences were lucky enough to play Metal Gear when it was released for the NES under the Ultra Games label, but were unfortunately never to get the true sequel. Snake's Revenge was instead released in America, but tragically never lived up to the Metal Gear legacy (Kojima had nothing to do with the project). It was a bland action game, rather than an espionage title, and was soon forgotten by MG fans. The two original plot lines are as follows:
METAL GEAR (MSX, NES)- 1987
Two hundred kilometers north of Salzburg, deep in South Africa, was a small country known as Outer Heaven. An armed fortress had been erected deep in Outer Heaven territory in the late 1990's by a mercenary both heroic and insane. Within the fortress, was a weapon that had the power to change the face of known warfare. Government orders were sent to the hi-tech Special Forces squad, Fox Hound, to infiltrate the fortress. Fox Hound operative Gray Fox was assigned to the mission known as "Intrude N313". Contact with Gray Fox was lost a few days later, but not before receipt of a brief transmission took place. The message simply read "...metal gear...". Government officials ordered another operative to investigate, and a combatant codenamed "Solid Snake" was sent into the fray. Snake successfully found Gray Fox, and also learned that the Metal Gear was a nuclear-mounted heavy walking tank. After rescuing Metal Gear's creator, Dr. Pettrovich Madnar, Snake learned of Metal Gear's weaknesses and finally how to destroy the machine. However, we learn that in the end of the game, the leader of Fox Hound (known as Big Boss), is also the leader of the Outer Heaven fortress and had been using Snake as a pawn for his own evil wrong doings. Ultimately, a huge underground battle ensued between Snake and Big Boss; Snake walking away injured after the incident, leaving a dying Big Boss behind.
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METAL GEAR 2: SOLID SNAKE (MSX2)- 1990
The year is now 1999 and time has passed since the first Metal Gear incident. Dr Kio Marv (a brilliant scientist) has created a substance called Oilix which is used for processing crude oil and creates phenomenal productivity, but has been captured. A new independent military state called Zanzibar (a self-governed minority state located off the coast of Madagascar and Mozambique) has obtained Oilix, and declared military and political supremacy against the world by for these actions. Fox Hound's commander, Roy Campbell, under orders from the Central Intelligience Agency, has called in an old ally in the shape of a retired Solid Snake, and asked him to infiltrate Zanzibar in order to rescue Dr Kio Marv. After successfull enemy line penetration into the heart of Zanzibar, Snake destroyed another Metal Gear machine (previously transferred from Outer Heaven). Upon trying to finish his mission, Solid Snake was forced into battle with his old team member, Gray Fox. Gray Fox had been working with mysterious forces ever since the fall of Outer Heaven four years earlier; who he worked for, noone knew. There was equal respect on both sides; both men were professionals doing what they did best, and it just happened they were on opposing sides. Fighting barefisted in a minefield, Solid Snake defeated Gray Fox, leaving him lying dead in his wake. After Gray Fox's demise, Big Boss resurfaced and reared his military might as the true mastermind of Zanzibar Land. He had survived the fall of Outer Heaven and created Zanzibar Land to satisfy his crazed military disposition. Snake again defeated him, and Big Boss was left to burn in the charred wreckage of the destroyed fortress. As Big Boss's life began to fail, he told Solid Snake of his true birth identity - his own son. Turning away from the death of his supposed father, Solid Snake cut all ties with the CIA, and dissapeared into the Alaskan wilderness. Rumor has it that certain assasinations and military operations worldwide during this period could be contributed to Solid Snake, as he was known to support himself through the vast underground network of mercenary operations.
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METAL GEAR SOLID (PSX, PC)- 1998
The dawn of the new millenium, the year 2005. A new threat faces the world in the form of it's savior from years gone by. The world-class secret affiliation known as Fox-Hound has gone renegade and taken control of a military base owned by the United States military. The name of the installation: Shadow Moses. The mission: infiltration & reconaissance. The agent: Solid Snake. Once again, Solid Snake is called back to duty to eliminate the threat of nuclear terrorism; this time in a remote outpost in the unforgiving cold of Alaska. A solo infiltration is accompanied by many past acquaintances and remembered faces to guide him to victory over the military prowess of Fox-Hound. Against the odds, Solid Snake successfully betters his opponents one by one, and in doing so, much is revealed. A friend and mentor from past missions is brought back into his life briefly through the miracle of cybernetics, and Solid Snake learns he was not the only son of his deceased father, Big Boss. A genetic brother, Liquid Snake, reveals himself as the megalomaniacal squad leader of Fox-Hound. Soon, Solid Snake learns through his reconaissance that Shadow Moses Island is not merely a military base where nuclear missiles are stored. The true purpose of the base is to house and build a nuclear equipped walking death-mobile: Metal Gear. The old hatreds arise in Solid Snake, and his mission turns from that of reconaissance to assault. He is the only thing standing between a free world and nuclear destruction. Stopping the Metal Gear is no easy task, though, and Snake suffers from a communication leak to enemy sources and is disillusioned with those he considered friends. Not knowing who to trust anymore, he pushes forward and does the only thing he knows to do; stop the nuclear launch. Revelations surround him as he fights his way through the Fox-Hound ranks. Destroying the Metal Gear, Snake is faced with a fight to the death with Liquid Snake and must use every bit of spirit he can muster in order to win. The demise of Liquid and the new Metal Gear protype bring forth change to those who solemnly discovered the truth behind the Metal Gear exercises: a huge conspiracy enacted by the government to monopolize nuclear weapons. Noone knows just how far the conspiracy goes, but hints go as far as the Presidency. Solid Snake once again recedes into the Alaskan wilderness with a new purpose to his otherwise empty life: to never again let the world be endangered by another Metal Gear. However, a wounded Fox-Hound operative known as Revolver Ocelot, the last of his unit, using his intriquite cunning managed to escape the island with vital Metal Gear exercise data. The tip of the iceberg would soon present itself...
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