In Video Games
The Metal Gear weapon has been consistently described since the original Metal Gear as an all-terrain, nuclear-equipped, walking battle tank capable of launching a nuclear warhead from anywhere on the planet. In the first Metal Gear, the Outer Heaven fortified military state secretly led by Big Boss attempts to achieve military dominance over the West and East through the use of Metal Gear. The model was built by Eastern scientist Dr. Pettrovich (changed to Dr. Madnar in subsequent sequels and re-releases) after being forced to build the weapon against his will. In Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, another hostile nation Zanzibar Land (once again led by Big Boss) use the improved model Metal Gear D to raid nuclear disposal sites. This model was also built by Dr. Madnar willingly this time after his radical ideas were rejected by the Western scientific community.
Metal Gear Solid shows the new model Metal Gear REX designed by Dr. Hal Emmerich after being misled into believing that Metal Gear would be used as an anti-nuclear device that would be capable of safely shooting down nuclear missiles. The railgun system that shoots nuclear warheads from Metal Gear was developed separately, without Emmerich's knowledge. The weapon was produced by the U.S. Army on Shadow Moses Island, Alaska. Due to the proliferation of Metal Gear-like weapons, the creation of the Marines' Metal Gear RAY occurs in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty.
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater fills in the origin of Metal Gear: the Metal Gear concept originates with Soviet weapons designer Aleksandr Leonovitch Granin comparing it to the theory of the missing link between apes and men, having two design drawings (Metal Gear REX and Metal Gear D), calling it the missing link between infantry and artillery. Infantry can go anywhere but are easily destroyed and carry limited firepower. Artillery can inflict and sustain far more damage, but are at the mercy of terrain. In short, for a tank to be perfect, it needs legs. The first built models (Metal Gear RAXA and the Intercontinental Ballistic Metal Gear) appear in Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops although the two are a quadrupedal design.
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Famous quotes containing the words video games, video and/or games:
“It is among the ranks of school-age children, those six- to twelve-year-olds who once avidly filled their free moments with childhood play, that the greatest change is evident. In the place of traditional, sometimes ancient childhood games that were still popular a generation ago, in the place of fantasy and make- believe play . . . today’s children have substituted television viewing and, most recently, video games.”
—Marie Winn (20th century)
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“Criticism occupies the lowest place in the literary hierarchy: as regards form, almost always; and as regards moral value, incontestably. It comes after rhyming games and acrostics, which at least require a certain inventiveness.”
—Gustave Flaubert (1821–1880)