It just takes some time
Pointless trivia about Metal Gear Solid.
It may seem like old hat now, but back in its day, the fourth-wall breaking aspect of the original Metal Gear Solid had never really been done before, which is why it sticks in players' minds so much. Psycho Mantis is particularly popular for this reason, with his trick of reading the player's mind (i.e. their Memory Card) and commenting on certain games they've played, as well as the unorthodox method of plugging the controller into the second controller port in order to prevent him reading your controller inputs so you can defeat him. No other boss had ever used such an outside-the-box tactic as that before, so it definitely left an impression on the gamers who played Metal Gear Solid around the time it came out.
Speaking of which, it is actually possible, though incredibly difficult, to defeat Psycho Mantis without switching controller ports. If you do, he won't mention that you used the other port in the cutscene after the battle.
When Snake meets Otacon for the first time, an anime video is shown when Otacon talks about how much he likes anime. The clip is actually from the opening of Policenauts, another game made by Hideo Kojima, which was only released in Japan.
References to "Rivermore" in the first game were meant to be references to the real-life Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. "Rivermore" could have been either a mistranslation (due to the Japanese L/R confusion) or an intentional change to avoid legal trouble.
Snake and Otacon's real names, David and Hal respectively, are references to 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Another mistranslation comes when Snake first meets Emma, Otacon's sister. Her parrot repeats the phrase "Venus in Cancer", which sounds like a random horoscope or something. It was actually supposed to be "The Venusian crab!" (a reference to the giant alien crab from the B-movie It Conquered the World), and was meant to categorise Emma as a B-movie geek, in contrast to her brother's love of anime.
In Metal Gear Solid 4, the battle against Screaming Mantis has Psycho Mantis make an appearance, harking back to his original appearance in the first game. However, he's not familiar with the new technology of the PS3, can't find the Memory Card (since the PS3 saves files internally on the hard drive) and can't make the controller vibrate (the first models of PS3 did not have a controller vibration feature), which greatly frustrates him. However, if you're playing on the kind of PS3 that does have controller vibration and have it turned on, he will triumphantly exclaim that the vibration is back before disappearing.
In that same battle, if you try reassigning the controller to 2 (or something other than 1), mimicking the original solution of switching controller ports, Snake will call Otacon complaining that he can't move, and Otacon will mock him for thinking that the same trick would work twice.
Decoy Octopus and his successor Laughing Octopus are references to the mimic octopus, nature's number one at camouflage. The mimic octopus can blend into any surrounding, and can change its appearance to almost anything it's seen - it's even smart about what it turns into, for instance, when it's threatened by another animal, it will transform into that animal's primary predator. A fitting namesake for a master of disguise and camouflage.
The ear pulling contest that Vulcan Raven mentions in the first game (two people tie a rope around each other's ear and then attempt to pull them, like a tug-o-war except using your ears rather than your hands) is a real thing that some middle-Eastern countries do as a sport.
The AI for the enemies in the first game was very simplified - they wouldn't sound the alarm unless they actually saw Snake, even if they were attacked by him. This meant it was easy to kill a guard by shooting him in the back and then hiding - as long as he didn't actually see Snake, he wouldn't raise an alert, meaning Snake could remain undetected as long as he could get back into hiding fast enough. They also wouldn't raise the alarm if they saw the corpse of a dead guard. Their AI was vastly improved from MGS2 onwards.
In the first game, if Snake attacks Meryl, she'll slap him in response. If you do so and then quickly hide in a cardboard box, though, she'll miss. If you do this trick when there are wolfdogs around, she'll call one of the wolfdogs to pee on the box. From then on, as long as you wear that box, all the wolfdogs in the game (which are normally aggressive towards Snake) will ignore you.
In the first game, get on board a truck, equip a cardboard box from a different area and wait a few seconds and you'll be transported to the area the box came from. This makes getting around much easier.
The Metal Gear Solid games in general are crammed full of Easter eggs, so much so that it's almost impossible to see them all in one playthrough. There are a very large amount of optional Codec calls, dialogue lines that change based on the player's actions, and other little hidden gems and secrets that a dedicated player can find.
In the first game, before the torture sequence (where you have to press a button rapidly in order to withstand the torture), Revolver Ocelot warns the player "Don't even think about using auto-fire, or I'll know." He's not joking - trying to cheat with auto-fire causes you to fail the sequence instantly.
It may seem like old hat now, but back in its day, the fourth-wall breaking aspect of the original Metal Gear Solid had never really been done before, which is why it sticks in players' minds so much. Psycho Mantis is particularly popular for this reason, with his trick of reading the player's mind (i.e. their Memory Card) and commenting on certain games they've played, as well as the unorthodox method of plugging the controller into the second controller port in order to prevent him reading your controller inputs so you can defeat him. No other boss had ever used such an outside-the-box tactic as that before, so it definitely left an impression on the gamers who played Metal Gear Solid around the time it came out.
Speaking of which, it is actually possible, though incredibly difficult, to defeat Psycho Mantis without switching controller ports. If you do, he won't mention that you used the other port in the cutscene after the battle.
When Snake meets Otacon for the first time, an anime video is shown when Otacon talks about how much he likes anime. The clip is actually from the opening of Policenauts, another game made by Hideo Kojima, which was only released in Japan.
References to "Rivermore" in the first game were meant to be references to the real-life Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. "Rivermore" could have been either a mistranslation (due to the Japanese L/R confusion) or an intentional change to avoid legal trouble.
Snake and Otacon's real names, David and Hal respectively, are references to 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Another mistranslation comes when Snake first meets Emma, Otacon's sister. Her parrot repeats the phrase "Venus in Cancer", which sounds like a random horoscope or something. It was actually supposed to be "The Venusian crab!" (a reference to the giant alien crab from the B-movie It Conquered the World), and was meant to categorise Emma as a B-movie geek, in contrast to her brother's love of anime.
In Metal Gear Solid 4, the battle against Screaming Mantis has Psycho Mantis make an appearance, harking back to his original appearance in the first game. However, he's not familiar with the new technology of the PS3, can't find the Memory Card (since the PS3 saves files internally on the hard drive) and can't make the controller vibrate (the first models of PS3 did not have a controller vibration feature), which greatly frustrates him. However, if you're playing on the kind of PS3 that does have controller vibration and have it turned on, he will triumphantly exclaim that the vibration is back before disappearing.
In that same battle, if you try reassigning the controller to 2 (or something other than 1), mimicking the original solution of switching controller ports, Snake will call Otacon complaining that he can't move, and Otacon will mock him for thinking that the same trick would work twice.
Decoy Octopus and his successor Laughing Octopus are references to the mimic octopus, nature's number one at camouflage. The mimic octopus can blend into any surrounding, and can change its appearance to almost anything it's seen - it's even smart about what it turns into, for instance, when it's threatened by another animal, it will transform into that animal's primary predator. A fitting namesake for a master of disguise and camouflage.
The ear pulling contest that Vulcan Raven mentions in the first game (two people tie a rope around each other's ear and then attempt to pull them, like a tug-o-war except using your ears rather than your hands) is a real thing that some middle-Eastern countries do as a sport.
The AI for the enemies in the first game was very simplified - they wouldn't sound the alarm unless they actually saw Snake, even if they were attacked by him. This meant it was easy to kill a guard by shooting him in the back and then hiding - as long as he didn't actually see Snake, he wouldn't raise an alert, meaning Snake could remain undetected as long as he could get back into hiding fast enough. They also wouldn't raise the alarm if they saw the corpse of a dead guard. Their AI was vastly improved from MGS2 onwards.
In the first game, if Snake attacks Meryl, she'll slap him in response. If you do so and then quickly hide in a cardboard box, though, she'll miss. If you do this trick when there are wolfdogs around, she'll call one of the wolfdogs to pee on the box. From then on, as long as you wear that box, all the wolfdogs in the game (which are normally aggressive towards Snake) will ignore you.
In the first game, get on board a truck, equip a cardboard box from a different area and wait a few seconds and you'll be transported to the area the box came from. This makes getting around much easier.
The Metal Gear Solid games in general are crammed full of Easter eggs, so much so that it's almost impossible to see them all in one playthrough. There are a very large amount of optional Codec calls, dialogue lines that change based on the player's actions, and other little hidden gems and secrets that a dedicated player can find.
In the first game, before the torture sequence (where you have to press a button rapidly in order to withstand the torture), Revolver Ocelot warns the player "Don't even think about using auto-fire, or I'll know." He's not joking - trying to cheat with auto-fire causes you to fail the sequence instantly.
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