My first E3: Metal Gear Solid, Konami, and memories I still treasure

My first E3

Wanted to share my memories from my first E3. 🧵

I'll never forget attending my first E3 to go see Metal Gear Solid. I had absolutely no business being there as I was underage for a press pass, but I went anyway, risking whether I would even get in or not with my credentials.

A trip that meant everything

It was absolutely magical. Konami were such gracious hosts, it was like walking into video game Disney land. E3 was typically held in the LA Expo Center, but the first year I went, I think it was an off year, and they had it in Atlanta.

I had never traveled outside of my state, and my parents, who honestly couldn't afford to send me, did anyway because of my passion for video games and the industry itself. I ended up going with people from the original NeoGaf website and staff from the Videogamers website.

Metal Gear Solid, everywhere

We had shared hotel rooms to save on costs. The Metal Gear Solid booth was impressive but modest in size compared to the big boys. Konami had actors dressed up, and there was a photo booth area to take pictures. Metal Gear Solid was everywhere, with CRT's hanging from Kiosks.

Below, they had a sheet in a plastic holder that explained the controls, and the demo was similar in length to the pilot disks that were all over Japan pre-release. I remember playing the demo over and over and over. I got to know the booth staff very well.😅

The Konami press kit

I remember finally having my appointment with Konami. They had a press kit ready for me, and they were so happy to see that I had made it. They answered most of my questions and took down my personal information. The press kit had a fancy MGS1 pamphlet and a CD as pictured below.

I still have the contents of this cd still. It was this god awful flash presentation but at the time I remember being so excited to go through it and look at the screenshots they had of all of their games that were at E3 on it including pictures and videos of Metal Gear Solid.

A package from Japan

About a month after E3, I got a package in the mail from Konami HQ in Japan. It had the Tokyo Game Show pamphlet for MGS and a VHS tape with the original MGS trailer on it along with some dog tags they made for MGS. I could not believe they sent this to me.

To this day, it's one of my most prized possessions because of what it meant to me personally at the time & still does. You have to understand, as a young teenager, who simply ran a very poor fan page for MGS, I was on cloud nine with all of this stuff. Konami was so kind to me.

Read the next chapter: my first time meeting Hideo Kojima at E3 2000.

Sources

MGN original account — December 12, 2023 · MGN follow-up 1 · MGN follow-up 2 · MGN follow-up 3 · MGN follow-up 4 · MGN follow-up 5 · MGN follow-up 6 · MGN follow-up 7 · MGN follow-up 8