39 years of Metal Gear: celebrating the MSX2 original

Thirty-nine years ago, on July 13, 1987, Metal Gear launched in Japan for the MSX2. Today, we celebrate the game that introduced Solid Snake and established the foundations of the series we love.

Its central idea was simple: infiltrate an enemy base without being spotted. Instead of making every encounter a firefight, Metal Gear made avoiding guards a key part of the action. Choosing when to move, when to wait and when to fight gave the mission its tension.

Konami’s retrospective explains how the MSX2’s hardware limitations helped shape that approach. With restrictions on how many soldiers and bullets could appear on screen, Hideo Kojima developed the idea of escaping enemies rather than overwhelming them. Those constraints helped create the series’ distinctive focus on infiltration.

The story sends rookie FOXHOUND operative Solid Snake into Outer Heaven under Big Boss’s command. After Gray Fox disappears with a cryptic message about “Metal Gear,” Snake must investigate the fortress and its secret weapon, finding equipment and gathering information along the way.

For us, revisiting the original is a reminder of how much of Metal Gear was already there from the beginning: a lone operative, radio guidance, an enemy stronghold and the uncertainty of what lies ahead. Its presentation would grow enormously across later games, but that sense of entering hostile territory remains central to the experience.

Happy 39th anniversary, Metal Gear!

Source: https://x.com/MGSMGN/status/2076547535322431550

Source: https://www.konami.com/mg/archive/mg25th/truth/mg.html