The morning Snatcher went on sale for the PC-8801, Hideo Kojima was still making this MSX2 version.
Konami released Snatcher for the PC-8801 computer on November 26, 1988. The MSX2 version came later, in December. Thirty-five years later, Hideo Kojima wrote on X (translated from Japanese):
"I hadn't yet developed for two machines at the same time, so the MSX2 version ran a little late. In the morning I went to a computer shop in Sannomiya to see how release day looked, then went back to the office and carried on developing the MSX2 version. Being a computer game, it had no commercials or street posters. It was a quiet release day."
In the July 1992 issue of the Japanese magazine PC Engine FAN, he looked back on making the PC-8801 original. He says (translated from Japanese):
"It was our first adventure game, so we were feeling our way through development and one problem after another came up. Honestly, it was extremely hard. On the other hand, it's also the most memorable work of all for me. Fighting in the middle of the night, staff falling ill… Snatcher truly was our youth."
About this game
Konami's cyberpunk adventure for the MSX2, written and designed by Hideo Kojima. It came on three floppy disks with a Konami Sound Cartridge.
Key Features
Neo Kobe City, an artificial island in eastern Asia. Machines called Snatchers are killing people and taking their places, and the government has assembled a unit called JUNKER to hunt them. You play Gillian Seed, a man who has lost his memory and joins JUNKER because the only thing he knows about his own past is that it has something to do with them. You never walk anywhere. The whole game is played through a menu — look, investigate, ask, move on — and a single picture in front of you carries the rest. Gillian is issued a small robot navigator to carry with him. Its name is Metal Gear Mk. II.
Hear it from the source
Gallery
The Story Behind
Kojima has said he was heavily influenced by Blade Runner (1982) and by cinema generally, and wanted to make a game with that feeling. What he was given to make it on was a home computer.
The credits repay careful reading, because Snatcher is usually described simply as "a Kojima game". The MSX2 version's own credit screen lists Hideo Kojima under Scenario, and Naoki Matsui as Supervisor; Wikipedia's entry lists Matsui as director, with Kojima as writer and designer. Kojima wrote it and he designed it. He did not sign it alone, and this page does not pretend otherwise.
One more disagreement in the sources, which we will leave standing rather than tidy away: the original Japanese release sets the story in 2042. The English version moved it to 2047.
Tricks & Tales
The MSX2 release is not a cartridge game. It is three 3.5-inch floppy disks plus a Konami Sound Cartridge, a cartridge carrying RAM and a version of Konami's own SCC sound chip that adds five sound channels to the MSX's standard sound. A second-hand copy missing that cartridge is missing the sound of the game.
JUNKER is an acronym, and it is a different acronym in each language. In Japanese it stands for "Judgement Uninfected Naked Kind and Execute Ranger"; in the English release it stands for "Japanese Undercover Neuro Kinetic Elimination Ranger".
Collector's Guide
What to Watch Out For
Before buying, these are the points worth knowing — from someone who handles original Japanese Snatcher copies regularly.
Is Snatcher on MSX2 a cartridge?
No, and this is the thing to get right before you buy. The MSX2 release is three 3.5-inch floppy disks plus a Konami Sound Cartridge — a cartridge holding RAM and a version of Konami's SCC sound chip. A listing offering only the disks, or only the cartridge, is not a complete copy, and a copy without the Sound Cartridge does not sound like Snatcher.
Does this version contain the whole story?
No. Both 1988 releases, PC-8801 and MSX2, end after Act 2. The ending first came out in SD Snatcher, a role-playing remake for the MSX2 (1990), and the adventure itself was finished in the PC Engine CD version (October 23, 1992). If you want the ending, this is not the version that has it. If you want the game as it was actually sold in 1988, this is it.
It is on floppy disks. Does that matter?
It is the part that ages. The disks themselves are perishable, and the MSX floppy drive that reads them is the machine's known weak point — the rubber belt inside perishes with time (see the MSX care guide on this site). Buy the software knowing you may be repairing the drive.
Is there an English version of this MSX2 release?
No. Snatcher's only official English release was the Sega CD version (sold in Europe and North America from late 1994 into early 1995), and that is a different, later, three-act version of the game. These disks are Japanese.
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Rooms this game lives in
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Memories from around the world
This is a young museum, and this page is still waiting for its first voices. The memories people send reach Taisei personally, and the ones that move him find a home here over time — always with the writer's blessing. Yours could be the very first for this game.
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Snatcher Msx2 — Max Explains
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Cite this page
Taisei Shimizu. "Snatcher." Enjoy Game Japan Museum. Updated July 31, 2026. https://museum.enjoygamejapan.online/en/games/snatcher-msx2/