msxnet > Konami MSX Games > SD-Snatcher
SD-Snatcher is a cyberpunk RPG (role playing game). It has elements of Bladerunner (that movie with that other Sean Young in it!) and Invasion of the Bodysnatchers. The game is remake of an other Konami game The Snatcher. The story is more elaborate and the graphics are better. Super Deform has nothing to do with the destructive nature of the snatchers or their ability to snatch, but with the style of the graphics. The characters in SD Snatcher have childlike proportions. So you could say that SD Snatcher is parody on The Snatcher. And, while The Snatcher is an adventure game, SD Snatcher is an RPG.
The original game is on three 2DD diskettes with a Sound Cartridge. You'll need a MSX2 with 64Kb RAM, 128Kb VRAM and a 2DD diskdrive to run the original, and a SCC and a 128Kb Memory Mapper for the crack. It works on fMSX 2.2 and newer versions of BrMSX (or so I've heard).
The game was never released outside Japan, although some copies were imported into Holland. The texts are in Japanese. It's perfectly playable, but the story is so brilliant that you'll miss out a lot. hat's why the game has been translated into English by a Dutch MSX group, Oasis. The English isn't very good (even by my standards) and they omitted parts of the original texts (they themselves said they only translated 40%), but in any case it's better than Japanese! (unless your Japanese is better than mine, of course. :) )
June 6, 1991 Moscow.
There has been a big accident in the Chernotron research centre. A secret bioweapon called 'Lucifer Alpha' escaped into the atmosphere. Eighty percent of the Eurasian population died.
Then, 50 years later...
December, 2042
In Neo Kobe city strange things began to happen. A plane crashed on its way from Tokyo and in the remains one of the victims a bioroid was discovered. A deadly bioroid! After this several more 'accidents' happened. No one knows where the snatcher came from or what it wants.
A new enemy weapon?
An invader from space?
Panic broke out. The people feared the snatchers.
Because these bioroids replace their victims place in society, they have been termed Snatchers.
A special police team has been set up to combat the snatchers. This fearless hi-tech team will never give up before peace returns.
Junker is an abreviation of Judgement Uninfected Naked Kind & Execute Ranger.
This is the main character of the game. In the game, you play this guy's role. He joined Junker in order to find out more about his past.
He was found in 2039 in Moscow. He was had been frozen for 50 years, which is too long. That's way he suffers from memory loss.
A navi unit. It gives battle reports, keeps contact between the runners and Junker HQ. Sometimes it also gives some other assistence. Its design is based on that of a walking tank (from the Konami game Metal Gear). This one is Gyrian's. It's a shouldertype navi.
She used to be married to Gyrian, but because they both suffer from memory loss they have decided to split up until they find out more about who they are. She workes at Junker as a medical assistant. She was found with Gyrian in 2039 in Moscow.
A mysterious bounty hunter. His only ambition is to wipe out all bioroids. He's really ace. He helps you quite a few times in the game.
This is the big boss of Junker. He's a bit of an old grump.
The mechanical engineer of Junker. He supplies the weapons and bullets. Everybody calles him Grandpa.
She is the receptionist of Junker.
The assistent of Grandpa. He takes care of your supplies.
The medical droid. It will restore vitality, and sells you drugs to heal yourself during combat.
Another runner of Junker. A really old fart.
It's prolly nothing, but anyway. During my psychology lessons, I noticed that the father of all learning research, Petrovich, has the same name as the one who lead the snatcher project in SD Snatcher. (Though the full names, Iwan Pavlov Petrovich and Madnar are not the same, though Madnar is just ment to be the reverse of Randam.) Also, there is another scientists who made some very important progress in the understanding of learning, called James J. Gibson.
Okay, it's probably nothing.
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One the best things of SD Snatcher is the battle scenes. The graphics and animations are just brilliant.
When you destroy a metal creature, you'll get some money and experience. The experience will increase your rank, defense, strength and speed. Press <SPACE> in the game and then select status to see your experience status.
When you fire at a metal creature only the parts that you hit will be damaged. That means that you can first destroy the enemies speed, and then choose the escape option to get the hell out of there.
The enemy strength displayed is always of the strongest weapon he has. If his strength reaches zero, he'll probably self-destruct. You won't get any experience then.
The damage the enemy can do to you is (his strength - your defence). So, you must make sure that your energy is more than (his strength + your defence). If your defence is greater or equal, you'll loose one energy thingee. Every time you get hit your defence lowers, but it is restored every time you start a new battle.
One very powerfull option is the C-Killer. It short-circuits the metal creature, so he can't move or attack you for some time.
The strength of your guns are determined by your strength, the strength of the weapon, the area it covers (there are up to nine-shots guns) and the defence of the enemy.
Astrid Wieser provided the following information on the skill: When you've just bought a gun you don't know how to handle it, so your skill for that gun is 0%. When you shoot it for the first time you learn a lot, and you get skill 12%. Each time you use the gun you get more skill %, until you reach 100%.
Skill points influence the strength of your bullets and your accuracy: Low skill points means "weak" bullets and there is a higher chance of missing. High skill points means "strong" bullets and you rarely miss.
You can see the skill of each gun in your inventory. Press <SPACE> in the game and choose inventory.
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One way of treating your ex-wife...
There is an unfinished stage on disk 3. If cannot be entered in the normal game, but you can by modifying the data disk. Don't expect to much of it though (it's nothing "special"! ^_^)
Maarten ter Huurne has sent me a program which makes the modified data disk. The texts are in Dutch though.
BiFi <bifi@msxnet.org>
