The Animation & Acting of the Metal Gear Series

Metal Gear

Jul 7, 1987

Originally released for the MSX2
MSX2 Cartridge
The original Metal Gear contained no voice acting, though made use of the MSX2's highly advanced graphics, featuring:
Processor: Zilog Z80A running at 3.58 MHz
ROM: 48 KB
MSX BASIC V2.0 or V2.1 (16 KB)
RAM: 64 KB
Video Display Processor: Yamaha V9938
Video RAM: 128 KB (sometimes 64 or 192 KB)
Text mode: 80×24
Resolutions: 512×212 (16 colours out of 512) and 256×212 (256 colours)
sprites: 32, 16 colours, max 8 per horizontal line

Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake

Jul 20, 1990

Originally released for MSX2
MSX2 Cartridge
Like the previous Metal Gear, Solid Snake used the MSX2's advanced 2D sprites, but featured no voice acting.

Metal Gear Solid

Sep 3, 1998

Originally released for the Playstation
CD-ROM
MGS used the 32-bit Playstation's graphics for 3D models, with prerendered backgrounds. The first game in the Metal Gear series to incorporate voice acting, with the title character voiced by Akio Ohtsuka (JP) / David Hayter (US). Character models were created from polygons based on the clay models and pencil drawings by Yoji Shinkawa.
24-bit color depth
Resolutions up to 640 × 480
Unlimited color lookup tables
Emulation of simultaneous backgrounds

Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty

Nov 13, 2001

Originally released for the Playstation 2
DVD
The sequel to Metal Gear Solid, Guns of the Patriots, greatly improved in graphics over the first. Using the PS2's ability to render 3D characters, as well as backgrounds, MGS2 incorporated motion capture to model Solid Snake. The game again featured Akio Ōtsuka/David Hayter in the title role.
CPU: 64-bit"Emotion Engine" clocked at 294.912 MHz, 10.5 million transistors
System memory: 32 MB Direct Rambus or RDRAM

Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater

Nov 17, 2004

Originally released for the Playstation 2
DVD
The third Metal Gear Solid featured similar, although updated, models to those of MGS2. It again featured the voice-acting of Akio Ōtsuka/David Hayter.

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots

Jun 12, 2008

Originally released for the Playstation 3
Dual-Layer Blu Ray Disc
MGS4 featured greatly updated character designs for the PS3. The game contained about eight hours of cutscenes featuring again the voice acting of Akio Ōtsuka/David Hayter. The game featured totally new motion capture.