fondacio: MGSPC wasn't *made* by Microsoft, it only was *released* by microsoft. Things ain't as bad as you might think... But on the other hand, I prefer the MGSPC approach to the MGS2:Substance for PC approach - in terms of code. Konami really did make an effort to get MGSPC working on relatively 'low-end' machines (however things were quite different in 1997 ) but it seems to me, that MGS2:Substance was a quick and dirty job.

First, MGS PC was released in 2000, and MGS PSX in 1998. Second, MGS PC looks like a smelly pile of crap, compared to smooth and mesmerizing visuals of PSX original.

dhau: are you sure you used a proper 3D card? I used the genuine 3DFX Voodoo3, which was quite popular at the time. But even with my fairly new Radeon 9550 the game still looks brill. The engine hasn't been coded too well though, I have to admit that. About MGSPC being released in 2000, I didn't have the slightest idea... Still have to find the original o_O

MGSPC was AFAIK ported and released by Microsoft, but the game itself is still by Konami of course (same game). Funny detail: MS initially released a screenshot (I think it still can be found) with modified graphics, but everything was left the same as in the PS port (the box adverted with improved gfx though - I guess they meant the ability to run it in a higher resolution). The port sadly misses the blur effect used in cutscenes, and said cutscenes don't run smooth. Also, some stuff obviously had to be "fixed", like psycho mantis not being able to read memorycards in the pc version and the second controller being the keyboard.
Advantages are added high resolution, added z-buffer (meaning no more ugly "bent" edges like on the playstation version) and a font that looks better on a pc.
When the game was originally released, many had to turn off the "stealth" effect because many pc's couldn't handle it at the time. A modern PC can run it flawlessly though, and the game should run smooth, except for the cutscenes (nothing to do with slow pc's, they're just not smooth in the pc port).
I had no PS at the time, and I did thoroughly enjoy this alternative.

MGS2 Substance was done by Konami themselves. The game has been left pretty much intact, but the port was far from smooth. It has these little issues, but with some tinkering it's possible to get it to run quite good.

A little more than a year ago, I finally got a PS2 though, and got MGS3 when it came out. Of course, playing an MGS game on the system it's actually intended for is much, much better than any pc port. I traded in MGS3 sometime after I finished it, when I heard the announcement of Subsistance. I'll get that version when it comes out.....eh, for PS2 of course (to my knowledge there aren't any ports this time).

Update on subsistence.
I just got it.
Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2 (solid snake) will show the MSX boot screen when started up. Intro screens now have menu's with some settings.
Haven't played the MG2 till the end so I don't know if the msx boot screen is there. But seeing the startup there is a good change that they are there.

yes, I also got it today.
The bootscreens really seem to be added as a little homage; the Konami intro logo was removed from the games (probably because of the logo change a few years ago), yet they specifically added this in.

I started playing the first Metal Gear, I'm just into building #2 now.

Already noticed tons of little changes and fixes to the games. (one example in a screenshot: the game now reports when you picked up a maximum number of items - in the original it would keep picking up but not adding the count anymore). They're not just dumb ports with a translation pasted on, they fixed up a lot of things too! Quite a few SFX in Metal Gear were also changed, funny is that one sound effect it uses is actually one that would normally be done with the SCC, in Metal Gear 2. Speaking of that, the music in MG2 seems really well reproduced; the SCC even makes a little bit of noise like it does on a real MSX (in most emulators it sounds much cleaner, but it's not supposed to be like that).

One thing that happened in the PAL conversion is that the games are running at NTSC speeds on PAL mode. I'd have preferred a PAL 60 option, but I didn't find it such a problem, since the games don't scroll anyway. Metal Gear 2 still appears smoother than the original, and is sped up a little.

And of course on the box and in the manual they took the US texts and translated them, as Metal Gear was apparantly never released in Europe and the MSX is a "Japanese console". (and in the Netherlands you are apparantly supposed to call a Deathmatch a "Doden strijd".. WTF indeed!)
Ah well

2 screens of MG1 (sorry, taken directly from tv so they're crap):

Wow, looks like "The Real Thang[tm]", save for the font in the first picture... I'm curious as to what the fixes are for Solid Snake... I was quite annoyed with all the speed changes during the game. Hated that, signs of 'bad programming'...

well, I want to play through MG1 first before MG2 ... I can tell a few fixes in that one:
-when you punch a weak wall, a "?" appears
-boss characters flash and make a hit sound when you hit them, like in MG2.
-mines don't dissapear when you go the the item or weapon screen
-the game now tells when you picked a maximum amount of items

btw, now that the PAL release is finally here... maybe a little newspost on MRC? Many people here are European... in my case I'd have imported it but then I wouldn't have been able to play Metal Gear Online, that's why I waited.

I don't really believe MGS2 is a PS2 emulator. It would not make any sense, as just porting the game would be soooo much easier (PS2 is known to be very, very hard to emulate), and emulating it would make it way too slow.

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I don't really believe MGS2 is a PS2 emulator. It would not make any sense, as just porting the game would be soooo much easier (PS2 is known to be very, very hard to emulate), and emulating it would make it way too slow.

Yet it seems it's really emulated. Another possibility of course is, that the game was written in some own (scripting) language, which was then compiled to PS2 and then to x86... Anyway, much of the content is the same, and that's what's probably inside those ISO files on the DVD.
Small sidenote: on MSX we had this too with Microcabin making games for MSX2 and PC-88/PC-98...

what if solid snake was in 3d

then it would have sucked.

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As maybe you all know, the upcoming "Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence" will include remakes of MSX2 games "Metal Gear" and "Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake". There already exist those remakes for Japanese cell phones, and probably Subsistence will include something similar. [...] But as you know, in the ending of MG2:SS you have to find an MSX cartridge, that afterwards shows "01K VRAM" while booting, etc. - what Konami is going to do with this part of story ? Will they leave it as is in Subsistence ? Is there anybody who played mobile phone version of MG2:SS around here ? How this part of story looks in this version of the game ?

Sorry, but there is written "VRAM 01K". As in the post in advance says, VRAM 01K reads backwards as KIO MARV, the inventor of OILIX 8).

I think that MG:SS is the game I have played most in my life. In japanese, english, spanish, in msx, in emulators, etc.

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what if solid snake was in 3d {snip mega image}

Then people wouldn't feel the need to insert ridiculously large images in this forum.

At least it's not a problem @ 1600x1200

On a more serious sidenote: people, please down-scale your images to 640x480 or 768x576 or something, in order to have it displayed properly everywhere.